Now there’s a whole lot of sub-goals, or outcomes, involved in getting to this point, but as a goal, it’s pretty good. So, what’s your SMART goal for your golf?

Some SMART examples:
I want to win the Augusta Masters in ten years time.
I want to break 80 this year.
I want to play 40 times this year.
I want to drive over 240 yards by October.

Whatever your goal, I’d like to ask you this: “For what purpose?”

Your answer is important. Keep asking yourself that same question for each response. This can take some time, but it’s so worth while – at the end you find the real driver (no pun intended) to help you achieve it. Here’s an example from one of our coaching sessions:
“I want to break 80 this year”
For what purpose?
“To improve my game”
For what purpose?
“So that I’ll know I’ve improved”
For what purpose?
“So that I can beat my friend”
For what purpose?
“‘cos I want to win”
For what purpose?
“Because I like to win”
For what purpose
“To prove I’m the better player
For what purpose? This went on for a while in a loop from winning to better player and round.
For what purpose winning and being the better player?
“To be happy”
For what purpose?
“To be at peace with myself”
“and satisfied”
“and joyful”

Once the loop is broken through, the real drivers often come flooding out.
For this individual – the ‘real’ reason to break 80 is to be satisfied, at peace and joyful – the winning and being the better player is just a confirmatory result.

The best and easiest way to do this is to work with someone else. They coach you through the ‘for what purpose?’ and not let go until you say something ‘valuable’. Again, you’ll know when this happens – you’ll in fact observe a big change in physiology – a ‘warm glow’ is how it is frequently described.

Why is this important? Well, you like to know why you’re doing something don’t you? Just imagine if everything you did, every day, had a known purpose for you. How great would that be?

A trusted leader, has a thick bankroll of crisp bills. Every time you act inconsistently with your professed values, or break a promise, you must spend some of those crisp bills – when the bankroll is gone, so is the trust that others have in you. At this point, your personal appeals or persuasive arguments cannot buy back that trust. Once lost, trust, and the personal credibility it took to gain it, may take years to regain.

Trust & Credibility

Trust is much more than credibility. Credibility is a necessary precursor to trust – before someone will place their trust in you, they have to believe in you. Trust is when a person places something of value to them into your care an stewardship because they believe that you will take good care and, usually, return to them something of greater value.

As a leader, the ’something’ may be as obviously important as life – a military leader for example. It may be time or skills or an idea for a business leader. Whatever the situation, we place our trust in the leader. In turn, the leader trust you to deliver on your promise. The relationship is established beforehand, the leader’s credibility has been established and the result of this ‘transaction’ may reinforce or destroy trust.

In networking, the same rules apply. You might offer to introduce someone to a business opportunity. As the initiator, you must trust the person to be capable or risk your personal credibility and the trust your opportunity has in you. The individual you are introducing will also trust that you will genuinely do as you say and that it is a legitimate opportunity. Trust is a two-way street.

Establishing Trust
1. Be honest and open
The top leadership attribute of most admired leaders in Kouzes and Posner’s comprehensive survey is honesty. This isn’t just about telling the truth, it is also ‘doing what you say you will do’. And, it’s worth noting that honesty does not always imply that the truth is to your own liking nor the action something with which you agree.

Some networkers though fall into the ‘marketing trap’ – embellishing aspects of their business or person to such a degree that their honesty could quickly become suspect. It’s all very well having a fabulous 30 second ‘elevator pitch’ designed to intrigue and excite others though if it is too far removed from honesty, you may soon be dealing out some of those crisp bills from your bankroll.

Trusted leaders are open and transparent – particularly ion this post-Enron world. The suspicion surrounding UK politicians currently has a lot less to do with their actual expense claims and a lot more to do with questions about why such claims should be so secretive. Openness also means being open to question. Your elevator pitch should (according to those far more expert in this) invite questions – your answers to those being a robust defense citing evidence that supports your pitch. Can you defend your elevator pitch?

2. Don’t hide bad news
Northern Rock, Lehman, Fannie and Freddie, HBOS and an increasing number of others have suffered a major fallout, in part because the leaders hid the bad news (or the potential for bad news), possibly even from themselves. As the bad news leaked out, savers who had entrusted their money queued to withdraw it immediately. To regain some trust, the UK Government had to spend rather more than a few crisp bills from its bankroll.

Advertising of financial or pharmaceutical products now carry a warning of the potential downside or side effects (albeit in tiny print or spoken at a rate few amphetamine addicts would understand). Should our elevator pitch contain such caveats? It would be honest.

3. Don’t over promise
Making promises you cannot keep? Why do politicians rate as the most untrustworthy of people? They promise the world and seldom deliver. What about ‘Relationship Bankers’ – the ones who were heavy on profit and quiet about real risk in selling Lehman min-bonds – still to be trusted?

It’s a trap that many parents fall into. Talking to their kids about the exciting places they’re going to go and the fun they are going to have. From pimples – “you’ll grow out of it” to exhortions to study – “you’ll be able to do whatever you like when you graduate with honours”.

Leaders are prone to over promise – it’s considered perhaps an embellishment, a slight exaggeration or, the catch-all, marketing.

4. Walking the talk
Doing what you say you will do is probably the most critical component of trust. If any of the three points above are in doubt, there is little chance that you will be able to walk the talk.

How many times have you been to a networking event that ends in warm handshakes and empty commitments? When you say that you will introduce a friend to a contact, do it. If you say that you’ll pass on their contact information, do that. If you say that you’ll turn their business around and they will make 2 grand a month with just 4 hours work a week… Diligent follow-through sets you apart from the crowd and communicates trust.

Your trust bankroll is being spent every-time you:

How to rebuild trust

Even the greatest leaders can suffer a loss of trust. This may be the result of error in judgment or a mistake. Or circumstances may conspire against the leader (a favourite of politicians and ex-Northern Rock senior management).

Networkers are also prone to losing trust – perhaps the result of adverse market conditions or the failure of a supplier or partner. A respected and trusted networker can lose years of building trusted relationships through introducing a connection who failed to deliver on their promise. So how do we rebuild damaged trust?

Acknowledge the mistakes
When decisions turn out unexpectedly, the leader owes his followers an explanation. Inflated egos can make a leader quick to assign blame or make excuses, but a mistake unacknowledged is compounded.

A straightforward acknowledgment of the mistake should be the front end and made voluntarily. One forced (because I got caught) does nothing to re-establish trust. “I forgot to call” may not be something a networker likes to admit, but it’s more honest than making up a convoluted story of deceit that tries to shift responsibility elsewhere.

Apologise
Admitting that you are fallible, that what you did was wrong, that you made a mistake is an important step to accepting responsibility. Knowing that you made an error is one thing, admitting it to others, though painful, allows you (and often them helping you) to put the incident behind you and take action to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Make amends
Find a way to make amends with people you have wronged. If you have harmed, make restitution. People often forget that undelivered promises frequently have cost the other party. If, for example, you agree to meet someone at 2pm, and turn up at 2.30 – you’ve just cost someone 30 minutes. Next time who will turn up and when?

You may not be required to do so, and it may be that circumstances conspired against you, and it may be that it really truly wasn’t your fault – but accepting ownership and taking responsibility goes a long way to thickening that bankroll of trust.

Trust is the bedrock of the bond between leader and follower, the bond that makes a network work. As a leader and as a networker, trust will make or break your success in any industry or circumstance.

Pop into any bookstore and int he self-help section you’ll find books and more books on the secret to achieving your own goals… but what if you haven’t taken the time out to actually set some?

Ridiculous, of course I have set my goals!

Sure?

Realistically, when you have a goal, these are generally longer term – “I want to reduce my handicap to 4 by the end of the year” is a SMART goal. Obviously, you know that such a goal is unlikely to be immediate, there are steps along the way, milestones if you prefer, we call these steps ‘Outcomes’.

After years of coaching, training and teaching, I have come to the profound conclusion that most people can only work on one thing at a time. Especially men! My research has shown that when we identify a very specific outcome and run a plan of actions to achieve it, if it fits within a greater plan, then we are more likely to see ultimate success. Any project leader knows this, and establishes a series of specific outcomes from tasks – down to the minute detail – and the greater the overall goal, the more detailed the planning, the tasks, the outcomes from each task, the resources required and so on.

To know, by and large, we;ve talked about generalities, ideas and concepts. This is the part where you do the actual work. This is how you change yourself. So, firstly, I’d like to introduce a process to ensure that you:

• Know your outcome

• Act to achieve your outcome

This template process is a truly effective outcome setting process. It works at the unconscious level and provides an action plan – or at least the first steps of an action plan for longer term goals, and links your own personal desire to achieve the goal. This is important, because most goals (if not all) require that you do something to achieve them. i.e. you have to do some work – even when such work is considered ‘play’ it will still require some degree of effort on your part.

The goal setting process is SWING - should be easy to remember right?

S – Specific goal stated in the positive and measurable – a goal to move towards not something to move away from
W – What do I Win? What are the pay-offs? What do I lose? What will I see when I have it? What will I hear when I have it? What will I feel when I have it? What will I smell/taste when I have it?
I – I control everything that I need to control to achieve this. Is anyone else involved? Where and when will you do it?
N – As if Now – Step into the future and see, hear. feel and act as if you have achieved your goal now.
G – Guarantee
What will happen if I get my goal?
What won’t happen if I get my goal?
What will happen if I don’t get my goal?
What won’t happen if I don’t get my goal?
Specific Win I Now Guarantee

Let me start with the end – Guarantee. This may look strange, it may be strange for many of you. And when you are asked these four questions (about anything), it is very likely that you will struggle to answer some of these questions. The point here is to think quickly about the answer and whatever answer comes up – that is the answer. Often the responses make little or no conscious sense. We discussed earlier how the unconscious mind cannot process negatives – and these questions are designed carefully for the unconscious mind – not for the conscious mind. It’s actually Cartesian logic and is at the heart of quantum linguistics and helps us establish the ‘non-mirror image reverse’ and creates a whole range of possible options and our action plan to achieve what we want to achieve.

Meantime, because we have gone through the whole SWING process, we have created personal motivation. Powerful stuff huh? Be patient with yourself, allow your thoughts to come to consciousness and note the responses. Again, don’t worry if no obvious thoughts come out – your unconscious mind is doing the work for you. It is easiest that you work through this with a coach – someone else (your spouse, best friend) – to ask you the questions. If you don’t want to, or you have no friends and don’t want to spend money on a coach, you can do this yourself so long as you are prepared to push yourself hard for the answers. Write down your own responses, whatever words you use (don’t justify yourself … yet). The specific words that you use are very important.

Now, let me take you though an example. I had a goal to break 72 this year. So this is how it looks going through the SWING process (I’ll put the SWING steps in brackets):
(S)I want to shoot 71 and better this year.(W) I will win two more competitions than last year and see the trophies in my cabinet, feeling great satisfaction from hearing the crowd and my peers cheer as I collect the trophies and taste the beer that I bought for my fellow competitors with the cash winnings. I control my practice and can visualise my goal and align myself to breaking 72 consistently and accurately card my scores. (I) I control my technique and can simulate the different environments in which I will potentially find myself during competition. (N) Now, as I see myself collecting the trophies I feel great satisfaction and confirms the commitment I made to practice and know that I can extend my own achievements and break personal barriers to achieve anything i want to.
(G) If I do break 72 consistently I will be satisfied
If I do break 72 consistently I won’t feel an idiot
I will continue to work on my weaknesses if I don’t get my goal
I’ll give up.

You may find it helpful, as I do, to tape or MP3 record yourself responding to the questions – it’s interesting what the unconscious says. When you type it, or write it down, you will censor yourself, and consciously interrupt your thoughts flow. Record it – or better still, get someone to help you and coach you through it. In our sessions we provide everyone with access to our downloadable MP3s with the coaching on audio to continue supporting you.

The goal is specific - I can measure it in achievement and time. It is positive.
I know what I will win and how this will look, feel, what I will hear and taste. It is sensory.
I am sure that I control everything that needs to be controlled to achieve it.
I visualise myself having achieved my goal and know how good I will feel
I have guaranteed the achievement to myself by knowing that achieving it will make me feel satisfied (personal satisfaction, by the way, is very important for me – you’ll have your own values), that if I don’t achieve it I won’t give up (last question) and I will continue to work on it. In other words, I know that I am motivated to do it.

The action plan (in my example) is within the control section and, you’ll notice, in the third guarantee question – work on my weaknesses. No, it’s not explicit in here, but I know my weak areas in the game, just as you know yours. Now all we need is an actual plan of what, where, when. Again, for me, I use a computer scheduling system – well I’ve got to fit my practice and game around writing, training, being trained, selling, marketing, speaking and so on. So, like you, I schedule my practice and write a note for myself on what I’m going to work on that day.

Now, take some time and do this for yourself. Take one outcome and go through the SWING process. More than one outcome? Of course you have, you’ll have many in golf and many many more in life. Just do the SWING again.
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that SWING

Goal-setting is one of those things that people, it seems, are near unanimous on its importance to life, career, success, achievement. And there are a great many speakers who advocate goal-setting. The latest ‘fad’ in this is The Secret – Rhonda Byrne’s now famous TV/Film Documentary which, in a nutshell, purports that people who envision what they want will attract its actualisation into their life. Now, I’m not going to detract from this appealing idea because there is something in it – but it isn’t new by any means, it’s been written in the Bible for several hundred years. There are others including Zig Ziglar and Anthony Robbins – both of whom quote an oft-used story about the effectiveness of goal-setting: This is the Yale Study of 1953 – some say it is Harvard, and some challenge the year – it matters not, since the study is an urban myth. Let me remind you of the story, you may have heard variations and the precise percentages vary:
Yale researchers surveyed the graduating class of 1953 to determine how many of them has specific, written goals for their future. 3% of them had. Twenty years later, the researchers followed up with the surviving members of the class and discovered that the 3% with written goals had accumulated more personal wealth than the remaining 97% combined!

I repeat – this ‘study’ is an urban myth – whilst it is quoted by some ‘authorities’ and famous gurus on management and self-leadership, there is NO record of the study and NO paper on it. Yet it’s allure is understandable – it feeds beautifully into the concept that in order for you to accumulate wealth (aka be successful) not only must you have specific goals, but you must write them down. For someone selling a process on written goal setting (see Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins) it ‘proves’ the process.
So is goal-setting really important, or is it just a load of twaddle? To answer this question, rather than rely on stories of spurious origin, it’s important to have some robust research to find out if there’s anything in it.

What is a goal?

Hold on just a moment though, what do we mean by a ‘goal’? Everyone at some point in their life has heard that it is important for us to have goals. Goals provide you a map to your future, whether in business, life, career or indeed sport. It seems obvious, but a football team playing without a goal to aim for is just kicking a ball around. But, other than the more obvious physical goals as the target of a particular game, what exactly is a goal? And how do you know when you have achieved it? Is it even very important to have goals? A sporting goal is a useful analogy though, here we are more interested in the non-sporting variety.
The OED definition of a goal is “an aim or a desired result”. That’s useful, but I prefer the Wikipedia version which defines a goal as “a specific, intended result of strategy.” They amount, ultimately to the same thing: the intended achievement of a desired result. The dictionary definition, however, suggests that the goal exists with or without you. Why is this important? I hear some question already. Let me share an example:
On the horizon is a mountain, its peak visible on this glorious day. It is your goal. You are aiming to reach the peak of this mountain.

According to the dictionary the goal is the mountain peak. According to the encyclopaedia, the intended result is that you reach the mountain peak as a result of the journey (intended strategy) you are making.
What’s important, the existence of the goal or the journey to its attainment?

Let me refer briefly back to soccer… Is the existence of the goal at the end of the pitch the thing that makes the game, or is it the strategy (and tactics) employed by players to score (reach) the goal?
The reason for being pedantic at this stage is to stress that we refer (in English) to goal as both an entity and as the intended result of our actions. For the purposes of this article, I refer to goal as both – an entity that we are able to describe in one or more of the five senses we enjoy and as a specific, intended result. I believe that it is critical that a goal can be described in one or more of our senses – otherwise we will never know what it is.

“A man without a goal, you are like a ship without a rudder.” Thomas Carlyle

You know people, perhaps yourself, who would be lost without a “To Do” list. Daily, weekly, monthly tasks that result in specific intended results. Many people will consider this as their goals. Indeed, you can call them ‘goals’ if you wish. But I want to distinguish this concept further. I call these daily, weekly, monthly tasks “Outcomes” – they are important steps on the way to achieving goals but they are a small part of the overall intended result.

I’ll borrow from my own To Do list for today. It includes, strangely enough, writing the first three sections of this article. Now, is my goal to write three sections of an article? Is it to write an article? I can answer yes to both yet it doesn’t tell us the full story – my Goal is to develop my business and as a part of that, I want to reach a wider audience for the purpose of building my brand, building my reputation and establishing myself as a trusted expert that you will now consider to design and run a training programme or undertake coaching in your organisation. This article is just one part of that strategy, and this section, just one part of this article. The primary and secondary research I’ve undertaken to be in a position to write, I trust, knowledgeably about goal-setting has been another part… and so on.

It is the goal that helps us determine the appropriate outcomes necessary to reach the goal, the specific outcomes help determine the actions we undertake to achieve them. The whole series together, makes a strategy.

For ease and clarity, I consider a “Goal” to be longer-term and the intended result of a strategy. “Outcomes” are the result of the steps, milestones or activities that we achieve en-route to achieving the goal.
When I was a child, schoolteachers and relatives would often ask “And what do you want to be when you grow up?” I honestly didn’t have a clue. My friends seemed to have got the hand of this and I discovered that the expected answers seemed to be focusing around jobs or careers “I want to be a Fireman/Doctor/Train Driver”, or perhaps something bolder like “Rock Star/Famous Actor” – or around money… “I want to be a millionaire”. Apparently it didn’t matter what you wanted to be – it still required that you studied hard, preferably got all A Grades – oh and it was critically important that you “eat all your greens”. Quite how Brussels Sprouts are a necessity for success has never been answered fully to my satisfaction. By the time I was a teenager, I was at the “I dunno” stage. And by the time I was choosing my A level subjects it seemed that my options were becoming limited. Artist was ruled out on the recommendation of my delightful art teacher who claimed that my lovingly crafted painting “hurt her eyes” and Author was ruled out because I had little taste for over-analysing Jane Austin’s Northanger Abbey.

To my knowledge, none of my friends answered “I wish to be a wage slave pushing paper from one side of a building to another, politically manoeuvring myself into a position of power and authority, attending useless meetings each day and commute for 4 hours” so what went wrong?
Well, perhaps it is the goal-setting process.

What is goal setting?

Inadvertently, or deliberately, people asking us when young “what do you want to be…” have set us on a process of goal-setting. They are asking us to peer in our mind’s eye into the distant future and describe our goal. With little worldly experience, we most likely think of people we admire that through their job demonstrate what is valuable to our young minds.

What would you like to achieve in X years that having achieved it will satisfy your personal values? Would you ask a ten year old that question? No? It’s unlikely that they would understand – but with the massive leaps in education and increasing pressure on children to know a whole lot more than the current generation of mature adults, they may well be asking you that question and be surprised if you can’t answer it. I digress, but we are effectively asking that when we say “what would you like to be…”

Goal-setting is a process by which we choose our intended result, decide what we want to achieve in the longer-term AND determine HOW we are going to attain the goal (i.e., the strategy). Therein lies the problem for many people in regard to goal-setting… the process necessarily includes the strategy to achieve the goal. When relatives with kind intentions ask “what do you want to be…” the strategy they advise to achieve whatever you said, invariably refers back to the need to study hard, be a good child, don’t answer back and above all… “eat your greens!” As you get older, the advice may become more specific and even, more useful. You begin to discover which areas of knowledge and skill you most enjoy and are better equipped to clarify your personal goal as you become increasingly aware of what is important to you.

Goal-setting for your career, life and business is strongly advocated and endorsed in hundreds of books and papers and articles. Most emphasise the importance of writing your goals down as part of the goal-setting process.

Is goal-setting important?

Ask almost anyone about the importance of goal-setting and they will affirm that it is incredibly important. Here is a small selection of verbatim responses to the question “How important is goal-setting?”
“The difference between successful people [and people struggling] is the setting of tangible and measurable goals.”
“I believe goal setting does work and needs to be written down. “
“If there are no set goals, things either happen, or they don’t.”
“With measurable goals you are in action to fulfill them”
“… there’s no excuse for failing to progress if you don’t take ownership of your own goals”
“Setting yourself some goals is always going to be effective”
“I have been setting goals for myself for over 10 years. I believe that the goals enable me to achieve the things that I want”
“People who are successful tend to be the same sort that write down goals”

So there seems to be consensus that goal-setting is important, yet there is some evidence to support it, yet, as we shall see, from research undertaken for this study, having written the goal down is perhaps not the most important concern. What we will see is that the process of goal-setting is perhaps more important than the goal itself! There is some strong support for the concept of SMART goals. Goals that are Specific and Stretching, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. There’s a great deal of common sense reasoning that supports the idea of SMART goals – and there’s some excellent robust research.

Why set goals?

Edwin Lock and Gary Latham have undertaken a great deal of leading research about goals and goal-setting and neatly suggest that setting goals implies dissatisfaction with the current condition and a desire to attain an outcome Locke and Latham, 2006.

Why Specific and Stretching?

In Locke and Latham’s 2006 study and previous articles, there is an emphasis on the positive relationship between goal difficulty and performance. Locke and Latham, 1990; Locke and Latham, 2002. That is, the more difficult the goal is to achieve, the higher the level of performance is manifest – allbeit moderated by commitment to the goal. Earlier studies had already identified that specific and difficult goals led to greater performance than easy and/or vague goals Latham and Lee, 1986

Commitment to achieving a goal – Attainable and Realistic

Hollenbeck and Klein, 1987 suggest that an individual’s commitment to a goal (building on Locke’s research and many others) is dependent on a combination of the expectancy that the individual has of achieving success, and the difficulty of achieving the goal. In the commonly used nemonic, SMART goals, this is usually considered as the ‘AR’ of SMART – Attainable and Realistic. Though Hollenbeck and Klein help point out that when we set a goal, it may well seem that the goal is attainable – I can do everything that I need to do to achieve this and am prepared for the cost in time, effort, etc. – and it may well seem to be realistic – Given the resources that I have and the current environment, this goal can be practically achieved.

Measurable and Time-bound?

I don’t think it would be possible to undertake research on something that had no measure nor a time restriction – how would you know that you had achieved success if there was no measure, and if there is no time limit, when would you stop measuring or even not measuring. So these remain ‘common sense’ though a post-modernist might disagree.

So there is support for the concept of SMART goals – now why is it so important that we ‘write’ them down?
There are some who suggest that writing something down increases commitment to the goal but the evidence is anecdotal. For some individuals, the act of writing something down assists clarity through a conscious process because they consider something written to be a personal commitment. Does that mean it is true for everyone? To help answer this, we undertook primary research to mirror the mythical Yale Study. Through a simple questionnaire, respondents were asked if they had set goals for themself on leaving school, college or university, when this was and if they had written it down. They were then asked to estimate their total personal wealth now. The results are quite shocking.

Results from our survey

215 individuals completed the online questionnaire over a seven week period. Respondents were mostly UK-based (80%), with further respondents from Asia (11%) and the USA (9%). This researcher invited respondents through social networks, Ecademy and LinkedIn and direct contact with companies across the UK, Asia and US. 70% of respondents are in full-time employment, and the remainder either self-employed or business owners.

Only results shown to be significant at 0.05 are discussed.

• At the end of their formal education, 69.8% had a personal goal of whom only 11.2% had written their goal down.

Goals and personal wealth

• Of those that had written their goal, their average personal wealth is GBP115000, whereas those who had not written their goal down, their average personal wealth was GBP295000. That’s more than two and a half times as much! Completely contrary to the supposed Yale Study.

We asked respondents when they left formal education and analysed this against their estimated personal wealth.

• Those leaving formal education in the 1970’s have a average wealth of GBP475000, 80’s GBP195000 and 90’s… GBP325000!

It seems reasonable that those who have been in the workforce longer would have greater personal wealth and so it is… almost. The anomaly appears to be those who left formal education during the 80’s.

• Those leaving in the 70’s have generated on average 13,500 each year since leaving. 80’s grads a miserly 7,800 and those bright young things from the 90’s, a whopping 21,600!

So what’s going on?

It may have something to do with SMART goals.

SMART goals and personal wealth

• Those who set Specific Measurable only goals average a low 25,000

• Add Time-bound to specific and measurable and this goes up to 50,000

• Just Attainable and Realistic goals – now this is averaging 150,000

• Specific, Measurable, realistic and time-bound and we rise rapidly to 475,000

• Go the whole hog, Specific, measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound – and we reach 605,000

We seem to be finding some useful answers here. Don’t worry so much about writing your goals down, just so long as they’re SMART.

So is that it?

No. There’s a couple of very interesting additional significant statistics in our survey. They deal with the type of goal.

Goal focus and personal wealth

Respondents were asked if they were willing to share their own personal goal, 60% did so and these break down into four main focuses: Career, Lifestyle,Money or Ability. We also asked how satisfied respondents were with their achievement.

• For those with a Lifestyle goal focus, average wealth is 95,000 and ‘satisfied’ with their achievement.
• A Career focus, average wealth is just over 100,000 and ‘somewhat satisfied’
• A Money focus, average wealth is 162,500 and ‘satisfied’ and lastly,
• An ‘Ability’ focus, average wealth is 780,000 and ‘very satisfied’!

Go on, have a guess on the statistical conclusion… yep, those who left formal education in the 90’s focus more on ‘Ability’, 80’s focus on career and lifestyle, whilst the 70’s predominantly Money. Surely a reflection of the environment of the time.

The great thing about focusing on what you are ‘able’ to do will help the goal-setting process be more effective. Following Locke and Latham’s findings that ability to achieve the goal moderates performance – too difficult and uncommitted individuals do not perform, whereas, stretching yet within my potential ability aids commitment to goal attainment.

Respondents were asked if they were willing to share their own personal goal, 60% did so and these break down into four main focuses: Career, Lifestyle, Money or Ability. We also asked how satisfied respondents were with their achievement. The first three are ‘Outcome’ goals – that is, they specify a particular tangible outcome. Ability focus is a ‘Performance’ goal – such goals focus on an ability or capability of the individual.

• For those with a Lifestyle goal focus, average wealth is 95,000 and ‘satisfied’ with their achievement.
• A Career focus, average wealth is just over 100,000 and ‘somewhat satisfied’
• A Money focus, average wealth is 162,500 and ‘satisfied’ and lastly,
• An ‘Ability’ focus, average wealth is 780,000 and ‘very satisfied’!

Go on, have a guess on the statistical conclusion… yep, those who left formal education in the 90’s focus more on ‘Ability’, 80’s focus on career and lifestyle, whilst the 70’s predominantly Money. Surely a reflection of the environment of the time.

The great thing about focusing on what you are ‘able’ to do will help the goal-setting process be more effective. Following Locke and Latham’s findings that ability to achieve the goal moderates performance – too difficult and uncommitted individuals do not perform, whereas, stretching yet within my potential ability aids commitment to goal attainment.

Outcome goals – some issues

The problem facing many people with regard to ‘Outcome’ goals is that there is an element that is outside the power of the individual.
An example of the potential issues with an ‘outcome’ goal comes from a rather sad testimony from one particular research participant:

“My goal was to have $3 million in the bank for my retirement by age 55. I achieved my goal with great satisfaction early at age 43. Unfortunately my bank was at the centre of a fraud and went under. 16 years later, I am still working and slowly rebuilding my goal. So, goals are important and we need to know what we want to achieve in life – just choose a goal only including yourself and don’t leave all of it in one place.”

Outcome goals are most often subject to others and to the environment. The greater the attainability of a goal through yourself only – I.e. Your own performance – the more you are in control of goal achievement. Goals that have a high dependence on others and/or external circumstances are considerably more difficult to influence.

As an extreme example, one survey participant has goal to win the lottery! Now there are certain things that you can do to increase the likelihood of this becoming reality, buying tickets is a useful component, but how many? Interestingly, another participant who had a ‘money’ goal did indeed achieve their goal – through winning the lottery! Though that wasn’t the original plan and they rated themselves ‘somewhat satisfied’ in having completely achieved their goal.

Whilst touching on monetary goals, another participant reminds us that being specific about your goal is important:

“My goal was to be a millionaire by 35… I achieved it the moment I stepped away from the foreign exchange counter at Jakarta airport!”

Following up with our survey participants revealed commonality in the way they went about setting goals and their subsequent actions to achieve their goals. We’ve already seen how those with the greatest success in terms of personal wealth had SMART goals. This isn’t to say that success can only be measured by means of personal wealth at all – the original intention was simply to test the mythical Yale Study results. An, of course, someone could have set themselves a perfectly good SMART goal – but due to their own environment, had not accumulated as much personal wealth in terms of a standard currency – indeed, a person could have less in terms of monetary wealth yet be considerably better off in terms of the value they can obtain from less money.

Performance goals

An interesting aspect that began to show itself through the results was personal satisfaction in goal achievement. People who set ‘Ability’ type goals, or ‘Performance’ goals reported to be ‘very satisfied’ with their achievements – whether completely achieved goals or not yet complete. In part, this suggests the importance of personal values and suggests a question about the process by which they set goals.
Through a random selection of fifty respondents we found that there is some commonality in the manner in which goals are set:

When we compare the groups of ‘Very Satisfied’ with their achievement and ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Somewhat Satisfied’ with their achievement. The first group were more likely to have SMART goals. The goal is described in sensory terms – what will be seen, heard and felt, and for a small number, smelt and tasted. Respondents were clear about what achieving the goal will do positively for them and the cost to themselves (and others) of achieving their goal. Their goal, they considered personally stretching yet ‘knew’ that they were capable of achieving it themselves. More than 60% stated their goal in the present tense – ‘I am’ rather than ‘I will be’.

This provides a template for a useful goal-setting process that we’ve turned into an easy-to-remember acronym: SWING.

Goal setting process

1. A SMART and Sensory performance goal
2. What will I positively Win and lose
3. Am I In control of achieving this goal?
4. Stated as Now
5. Guarantee – this is an added psychological process to ensure personal motivation towards achieving the goal.

Final thoughts

From our survey, those individuals who set performance goals using slight variations of this process represent a small, though statistically significant fraction of the sample that have a net higher annualised personal wealth accumulation (2.15 times) and are more satisfied than individuals who use only one or two aspects of this process.

It is not the writing down of the goal that makes the difference, it seems to be the emphasis on performance or ability and the process of thinking through the goal. And for those of you, like me, who just didn’t get round to setting goals way back and worry that you might have missed out – well you can’t go back and revise history, but you can create a new one now.

Bibliography

Hollenbeck, John R. and Howard Klein, J. (1987), ‘Goal Commitment and the Goal-Setting Process: Problems, Prospects,
and Proposals for Future Research’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 72 (2), 212-20.
Loche, Edwin P. (ed.) (1986), Goal setting, Generalizating from Laboratory to Field Settings, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books) 101-17.
Locke, Edwin A. and Gary P. Latham (1990), A theory of goal setting and task performance, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).
Locke, Edwin A. and GaryP. Latham (2006), ‘New directions in goal-setting theory’, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15 (5), 265-68.
Locke, Edwin A. and G.P. Latham (2002), ‘Building a practically useful theory of goal-setting and task motivation’, Amrican Psychologist, 57 (9), 705-17.

If you would like to know more about the GAINMORE Leadership and how we can help you transform your leaders – whether your business issues are Strategy, Business Planning, Teamwork, Change, Marketing, Operations, Finance – we will work with you to design a solution that will address your ongoing needs. Call us on +44 (0)207 1935218 or visit the website at www.gainmoreleadership.co.uk
We look forward to hearing from you soon.

For full references, please contact the author
john at gainmoregolf.com

Technical aptitude alone is insufficient

Jimmy Connors, winner of 109 professional singles tennis titles says “There’s a thin line between being #1 or #100 and mostly it’s mental.”

In his well-researched book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman shows that it’s our attitude more than our aptitude that determines our altitude. Whilst our society lauds intellectual giants and power, Goleman’s research concludes, “At best, IQ contributes about 20 percent to the factors that determine life success, which leaves 80 percent to other forces.” Other EQ researchers, Robert Cooper and Ayman Sawaf consider this too conservative. In their book, Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Organizations, they write, “- IQ may be related to as little as 4 percent of real-world success – over 90 percent may be related to other forms of intelligence – it is emotional intelligence, not IQ or raw brain power alone, that underpins many of the best decisions, the most dynamic and profitable organizations, and the most satisfying and successful lives. Malcolm Higgs and Vic Dulewicz set out to disprove this “faddish idea” relenting after their own research that actually, Emotional Intelligence is of far greater importance than IQ and something they term “management quotient”.

There’s a growing consensus in the academic and popular literature that our attitude and our mindset are more important than our technical capability that make a difference to our success. As Zig Ziglar puts it, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

Difference makers have a better attitude

Consider all the things that Tiger could use as an excuse at the 2008 US Open:

• Hadn’t played in a competition for 2 months
• Recent knee operation – reduced fitness
• Further damaged knee on swing during the tournament
• Highly skilled and determined competitors
• Poor first round
• Pressure of historical wins
• Expectations very high on his performance
• Does not need the money

After blowing a three shot lead with 8 holes to play, Woods rallied and came to the 18th hole and stood over a birdie put to avoid an infamous defeat. He came through. Sudden death on the 7th saw an end to his fierce competition and Woods again took the trophy.

How many of us would find that sort of resilience within us?

Three steps to achieving your success

It’s all very well understanding and believing that our attitude is more important than our aptitude, but exactly what can we do about it? What makes the difference that you can develop?

There appears to be three major differences between those that achieve great success in their field, and those who remain in the obscurity of mediocrity.

• Successful people know what they want to achieve. They have a clearly defined goal.
• They are constantly seeking ways to learn and improve.
• They consistently present a positive attitude.

This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive and comprehensive list of must haves, but to highlight key difference makers that anyone is able to adopt.

Clear goal you are pulled toward

There’s plenty of discussion on setting goals for yourself and how important it is to have a clear vision, a picture of your future.

Rather than go through all of that now, I’d refer you back to a couple of other articles I’ve written on the subject. Here though, I’d like to explore three different modes of how you get to your goal:

Push mode, Pull mode and Drift mode:

Push Mode

If you have to drive others towards an objective, even drive yourself towards it, I call this being in push mode.

Push mode is typified by focusing your attention on problems that need to be resolved, or things that need fixing. Many people use a ‘todo’ list or a GTD (getting things done) system. Are you one of them? Take a look at yours now and see if it is a list of problems.

The fun, creative or enjoyable things rarely make it onto a ‘todo’ list – rather there is a tendency to say that once the list is done and I have time, then I’ll do the fun stuff.

What’s more, you will already know that the things we pay attention to are the things that grow and the things we don’t pay attention to tend to fade away. So if we focus on problems (call them challenges or issues if you must but they are still the same thing), we will find that the problems grow. So here’s a radical thought, if we focus our attention on interesting, exciting, fun things, they will grow. And our problems, won’t they fade away?

“But you don’t understand. I have to get this report done, I have a ton of emails to clear, I have to attend this meeting, I have calls to make to angry customers, and if I don’t I’ll get fired. I simply don’t have time to talk to people, take it easy, smell the flowers…”

And when your stress levels have made you so sick that you can’t work, let alone afford the hospital bills you’ll feel what exactly? Accomplished? Valued? Important?

Nothing more satisfying than lying in bed recovering from a heart attack knowing how much your contribution is missed.

I’m not saying that these things (some of them anyway) don’t need to be done but that by not focusing on them, they will (and do) fade away. Oftentimes, they just get done. Without stress, without worry.

In Push Mode, we are continuously pushing ourselves (and others) towards our goals relying on our own effort to keep us on our straight and planned track. Obstacles that we face in our way are enemies to progress which may force us to re- plan our route. Our motivation stems form outside forces, the concrete and measurable goal is frequently thought to be motivation enough and any resistance to achieving the goal, self-inflicted or external resistance, is just another obstacle.

In Push Mode, when progress is slow, we re-plan and consider time management a priority. Only, unless you have discovered the secret to warping the space-time continuum, you cannot actually manage time.

Pull Mode

Pull Mode,  on the other hand, is about leadership and paying attention to growth and improvement.

Rather than focusing attention on problems to be solved or fixed or overcome, in Pull Mode we take time to clearly envision our future and allow the goal to pull us towards it. The results of Push Mode and Pull Mode may appear to be the same (that is the achievement of the goal) but Pull Mode takes less effort and allows our unconscious activity to take precedence over conscious linear processing.

The idea of Pull Mode is that you create a vision of the future that is so compelling for you (and perhaps for others) that you cannot help but be drawn towards it. The things that you need to do on the way become minor irritants that simply get done and anything that really is not important is not done and fades into insignificance.

“Hold on, what if something that is important is not recognised as being important?” Excellent question. Things that appear to need to be done, whether important or not, on your journey are your friends – they are obstacles to your progress but think of them in terms of friends, or learning opportunities.

Let me take a personal example if I may. Two things about running a business that I personally do not enjoy: 1, Filing, 2. Doing the accounts. I appreciate that some people just adore filing and doing the accounts but I don’t. In Push Mode, I resist doing them until I absolutely have to or, usually, risk a penalty. It is the penalty that drives me to do it. I still hate doing it but I dislike paying a penalty more. In Pull Mode, these things still come across my path but now I see them as friends – the chance to look again at scraps of notes, letters or offers. I have learned to change my mindset from doing the filing to my enjoyment of a clear desk and in-tray and just do it. It’s no longer something I resist. Do I enjoy doing it? No, I don’t if I think about it consciously, I just let it happen.

“But what if it should be done and its not that critical or important?” The chances are, for me, that it won’t get done. Importantly, if I find myself resisting doing something, I stop, tune into my thought processing and ask myself why I am resisting it?

For example, keen observers may have noted that I didn’t talk about doing my accounts in Pull Mode above. You’d be right. It is something that I continued to resist – I can’t really explain what it is about doing the accounts that I just don’t want to do, and I found this quite strange considering that I do enjoy building spreadsheets of budgets and am quite au fait with P&L and Balance Sheet – and then it occurred to me that I like thinking through future scenarios, but what’s done is done. I honestly can’t be bothered about it. Now, of course, there’s legal compliance… and I realised further, I really don’t like to be told that I have to do something. So what did I learn from this resistance? I learned that I am quite happy considering the future and do not wish to have to create organisation of the past. Decision? Outsource to someone capable and trusted.

In Pull Mode, you only do the things that you want to do that move you towards your goal such that the work you are doing is effortless. Obstacles that need to be overcome that meet with your own resistance are a warning flag to you that something else is going on – stop and allow yourself to consider what the resistance is trying to tell you.

“Isn’t it possible then that you’ll go into Pull Mode, and miss the important things that need to be done?”

Sure it’s possible, but unlikely to be important in the achievement of the goal. Things that are a requirement in your society but have no direct relationship to the achievement of your goal. Yet there’s a third mode of being that is neither Push nor Pull, and that’s Drift Mode.

Drift Mode

The stresses of Push Mode, always making things happen and forever coming up against obstacles and ‘time-wasters’, causes many people to fall into Drift Mode rather than Pull Mode.

Drift Mode is quite different to Pull Mode, somewhat ‘New-Agey’ in influence where one just ‘lets things happen’. call it karma, fate, life forces, whatever – it generally involves emptying your mind of worries and anxieties and just letting life happen to you. Whatever way the wind blows, you drift along with it.

You might end up on an agreeable shore when you allow yourself to drift over the seas of life, or you might end up somewhere unpleasant, or. most probably, you’ll just continue drifting along.

Pull Mode is different because there is a clear and articulated vision of your compelling goal that is pulling you towards it. The aimlessness of Drift Mode may be refreshing for a while, but the anxieties of life will soon catch up and cause as much stress as Push Mode already does for the vast majority of people.

PushMePullYou

This mythical creature in Dr Doolittle provides a metaphor for how many leaders feel about leadership. They are in Push Mode for themselves, driving the agenda and encountering resistance of their ‘followers’ who have to be pulled, some suggest dragged kicking and screaming, in the chosen direction.

No wonder many leaders are exhausted. Many drive themselves to an early grave or opt-out entirely and fall into Drift Mode.

“How do I know which mode I’m in?”

Do you take pride in hard work? Do you brag about working more than 50 hours a week? Do you use ToDo lists? Do you think that in order for things to happen, that you have to make them happen?

If you answer yes to most or all, you’re in Push Mode.

Do you have a compelling vision of your future self? Find your work effortless? Know that everything that needs to be done will be done?

Sounds like Pull Mode.

Have a sort of idea what I want in the future? Take it easy whenever possible and avoid unpleasant tasks? If things happen they happen, if they don’t ‘they don’t?

Drift Mode.

“Surely it’s better for your health to be in Drift mode than Push Mode?” Sure, if you have a lot of savings or a rich family to fall back on. But if you have no goal in life, just what are you doing here?

What can I learn?

People who achieve great success are always learning. They seek ways to improve and are prepared to work through the difficulties of change required to become better.

Peter Senge in his book, The Learning Organization, expands in great detail about his idea for organizations to constantly seek improvement in everything. But what about learning at a personal level? What if you are currently at the top of your game? Surely you’ve already learned.

Our learning journey can go through a series of steps and the height of our performance is determined by our technical ability and our mindset, our aptitude and our attitude.

The journey is not always easy or straightforward. Let’s return to Tiger Woods…

Prepared to change

You’re at the top of your game, you’re doing better than anyone has ever done in your field. Technically, you are the best in your business. You earn more than anyone else in the same line of business. You have a serious competitive advantage. Why would you decide to change something fundamental about the way you do what you do?

After seven years and 142 tournaments in a row, Tiger Woods finally joined the ranks of mortal golfers when he missed the cut at the Byron Nelson Championship May 13, 2005. Golf pundits argue that changing his swing is to blame.

There was another reason, his knee. A physical problem that seems to not want to go away. But what makes Tiger stand out so much from the rest is not just his aptitude for the game, his superior technical skill… it’s his mindset. In spite of being in a great deal of pain… he overcame it with a determination, the will and resilience that allowed his technical brilliance to shine.

A Positive attitude

We all have days (sometimes weeks and months) where everything seems to be going wrong. Whatever you try to do, however clear your goal – there just doesn’t seem to be any progress.

Sports psychologists refer to the period when everything is going well and peak performance is apparent as being ‘in the zone’. Golfers who find their rhythm and the ball lands just so. The athlete who has trained and is at their physical and mental peak runs the race of their life. The business person who’s found themselves in the right place at the right time with the right product or service.

Yet most of the time, we just ain’t there. We yank the club and the ball lands in the bunker. Our business would be just great if we just land this additional sale.

Some days, it’s hard to wake up and find the energy to put on a brave face and go out there knowing that today probably isn’t that day, hoping that it is but not really believing it. We known we have to learn and improve but just when is my breakthrough going to come.

It may not come today, but one thing I can assure you of – something about today is better than yesterday.

What’s better today?

Being prepared to learn and change and put in the required effort is a critical step in constantly improving. But this carries the suggestion that we should focus on what is wrong, or what needs improving.

If we’re going to consider being in “pull-mode” towards our goals and ambitions, a much better question to ask is “what’s better today?”

When you meet someone, or write a message it is ‘normal’ to ask “how are you?” or “How do you do?” Now in doing so, do you really, truthfully want to know the answer?

“Well, I’ve had this terrible problem with my stomach and I didn’t sleep too well last night for all the stress I’m under and…”

How would you respond if instead I asked you “what’s better today?”

Would you reflect on improvements made? Would it cause you to think about some things have indeed moved forward?

Try it, I dare you! It makes it a whole heap easier to keep on going towards that goal.

Your Choice

People who have achieved great success know what they want to achieve and have a clear vision of their future.

They recognise that their technical ability, their aptitude is one (small) part that contributes to their achievement and constantly strive to improve.

Most importantly, they keep on keeping on, keep turning up and are prepared to learn and change whilst maintaining a positive attitude.

Even Tiger has a bad round of golf – nothing like as bad as most of us but bad for him. Do you see him quitting?

You were created to be an soar at altitude like an eagle not peck the dirt like a chicken.

Beliefs are similar to values in that they are part of our personal guidance system. Beliefs often inform values, and values in turn re-inforce our standing in regard to our beliefs.

Beliefs are a critical part of what makes us who we are, but there is a distinction that I find helpful. A belief is something that we have no tangible, undeniable evidence to support. It is impossible to measure beliefs. We simply believe this to be so. Values, on the other hand, are measurable and quantifiable in some form – this does not make them all tangible, but the very fact that we place the word ‘value’ on something means that we can measure it in relation to other values. It is true that you can value your beliefs, and you can believe in your values (if you didn’t you wouldn’t hold them!)

I don’t want to lose anyone here, so bear with me as we delve briefly into the world of quantum physics. Have you ever heard someone, perhaps yourself, say ,”I’ll believe it when I see it”. Whatever this is about, from the belief in God to the belief that someone will do as they have said they will do, matters not. According to quantum physics, we have to believe it before we see it.

Let me take a short detour here. You believe that you exist right? You believe that what you see in front of you right now exists, right? Can you prove it? I hear of chorus of “of course I can!”, go on then, prove it!

…

You see, I can prove that you are in fact made up of more space than of matter (or rather there are many very clever scientific people who can prove it), so do ‘you’ exist, or are you merely a collection of atoms that appear to have a tangible presence. So when you ‘miss’ the ball on a swing, you can rightfully state that you chose to move a few lighter atoms but you have in fact struck the air above the ball with great accuracy and that air is now exactly where you wanted it.

Now, you dream, right? You’ve had dreams that are very real to you. How do you know that they were the dreams and this is reality? You believe it!

Why am I saying this? Because you cannot see something that you don’t believe in!

You cannot prove something if you don’t believe first! I am constantly asked for ‘proof’ that this or that works, that this is THE way to improve your golf, or that this is THE right way to develop your leadership. The problem is that, until you believe it works, you won’t see that it does work.

Those in the know about this already know that we work from victory not for victory.

Let’s take another small example? you watch television I assume, and you’ve grown up knowing that television works – that radio waves containing a signal are transmitted from a TV station, are picked up by your television through the air, or through cables. Have you ever actually seen a radio wave? No? You believe they exist though.

‘Yes, but the evidence is seen on the TV’.

OK, little voice of disbelief, turn the TV off. Do radio waves still exist?

It’s a little like the question ‘If a tree falls down in the woods and nobody is there to see it, does it make a noise?’. When you were a child, you climbed into the fridge to see if the light stayed on when the door was shut? No, that’s just me, you are wiser than I – by the way, it goes off.

Why is this important? Well, your belief in yourself and using these tools and techniques is critical to their success. Your belief informs your unconscious mind about any particular shot – and this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You step up to the tee on your least favourite hole on the course. You prepare for the shot, you utter to yourself “I will make this drive, this time it will be different, this time, I will strike the ball square on, the ball will soar through the air, and following a graceful arc it will land right smack in the middle of the fairway exactly where I’m aligned”. Your unconscious mind is informed by this belief and promptly provides you with a swing that will support your belief.

How do you train yourself to do this? You spend several practice sessions building a new belief about your ‘nemesis’ hole (any hole for that matter). You visualise making the stroke, sending the ball to exactly where you want it. You do this in your mind’s eye, calmly, cool-ly. Not only have you seen what you will see with your own eyes, you’ve heard what you will hear with your own ears, you’ve felt how you will feel having made the shot, you’ll taste victory and smell success, exactly as if you had achieved it. I’ll repeat that, exactly as if you had achieved it. Let this be true, and it will be so.

By doing this, you are stepping into the future and acting as if you had conquered the hole and provided your unconscious with new images and new neural pathways to access now and in the future.

This is altering your belief. With practice, you will indeed step up to that tee and your unconscious self belief is of someone who has conquered that hole and will do so now.

In order for us to improve ourselves, in any field of life, we must reach beyond our senses – those of our conscious mind – to what we can be and do with the vast, often untapped, capabilities of our mind. I’m sure that you have seen or read the metaphor of the mind being like an iceberg. What we see above the surface, the readily experienced part of our mind is a tiny fraction of what lies beneath normal awareness. If you consider that our conscious mind makes up only about 5% of our total awareness, we all give a disproportionate power over our lives to our conscious mind – and it our conscious mind that prevents us from reaching our full potential.

This is why, in visualisation, we go beyond simply ’seeing’ a picture of our success to the full range of senses – building a rich, realistic, high fidelity experience as if it were real. This is stepping into the future. And you all know that it is much easier to look back into the past and see what happened to get here than it is to see the future. Hindsight is 20/20 – and stepping into the future provides you with just that. Now that you believe in the tangible, real, success of winning that competition, striking that perfect drive, chipping that perfect lie onto the green and sinking that 50ft put – you can look back and see how you got there – that’s your training plan!

To make this goal tangible, we need to describe it in our five senses: see, hear, touch, smell and taste. For those few people who say “I’ll just know it when it happens” – yes you probably will, but that doesn’t help you achieve it. For the committed Christian, that’s not a problem, because it won’t be you doing it, so think of this as preparing for precision praying.
What is your goal?
What will you see when you have achieved it?
What will you hear when you achieve it?
What will you feel when you achieve it?
Where is that feeling? Can you touch that feeling now?
What will you taste when you achieve it?
What will you smell when you achieve it?

Don’t over-worry if you don’t get answers to the last two – but maybe it’s the taste of champagne or the smell of rose petals cascading down from the ceiling at the celebratory dinner (you get it now?)

Now, there is an important distinction to make here. Your goal MUST be a positive goal. Let’s go though this because it’s at the heart of transforming your game and it is the essence of what every mental game coach, sports psychologist and peak performance consultant is trying to help you do.

So please, pay some attention now. Where where you? The TV just got switched on, or you can smell dinner cooking. Wherever you may have been, I hope you are coming back to me.
Now, whatever you do, “don’t think of a blue tree!”

What just happened? You thought of a blue tree didn’t you! I know you did, because that’s how your mind works.
Your unconscious mind cannot process negatives – it only receives commands. Your unconscious mind does not screen thoughts – that’s the job of your conscious mind. Your unconscious can not, not do something!

Basically, and this is not meant to be a scientific explanation of the way the brain operates, rather a much simplified understanding, when you read “Don’t think of a blue tree”, in order for you to consciously not think about it, your unconscious had to provide an image of a blue tree to your conscious mind to not think about! What this means is that your actions and behaviours will be the opposite of your desire if your present it with a negative.

As you settle in for your tee shot, you wiggle, you waggle and look up the fairway and think “I must not send the ball into those trees on the right”, guess what. Your ball goes straight for those trees. Why, because you just told yourself (not) to do it. “Whatever I do, I must not put the ball in the water”…. splash! “I must remember not to bend my arm at the elbow during the swing”… hook, topped, sliced – all depending on just when you did bend your elbow.

This inability to process negatives is why, for example, smokers trying to quit, fail. “don’t have a cigarette, don’t have a cigarette, DON”T HAVE A CIGARETTE!” as they slide one out of the pack, light up and inhale deeply (and with great satisfaction mixed with self-loathing and revulsion). I know, I’ve been there.

Dieters, have the same problem. “Don’t eat fatty foods, don’t open the fridge, don’t eat chocolate”.

Most people also add a qualifying statement – such as “it depends on who I’m playing with”, or “it depends on the course” and so on. After a few moments discussing the many and various goals that people have in regard to their golf – it quickly becomes apparent that the goals are not so obvious after all.

Achieving our goals is a very fulfilling and satisfying achievement. Once achieved, a goal provides us with a sense of accomplishment and our confidence in ourselves grows.

It’s not just in golf either. Having clearly defined goals for yourself places you in the top 5% of the population in terms of having the highest probability of getting what you want from life.

A study in a US College several years ago aimed at finding out how many students had written goals and if this had had any direct influence on what they accomplished in their lives. The researchers asked students of a graduating class about their written goals and then followed up later in life to find out what had happened.

The study showed that a mere 3% of the graduating class had clearly defined and written goals. This is quite surprising but when the researchers followed up later in life they discovered something really quite astounding: Those who had written clearly defined goals were worth, in financial terms, as much as the remaining 97% combined! Let me just paraphrase that to make sure you understand. Those individuals who, at college graduation, had written their own clearly defined goals were 33 times financially better off than their peers who had not written their goals!

If this doesn’t fire you up I don’t know what will.

There are many other studies that causally link goal setting with successful achievement – from goal setting in the classroom to success in academic grades, from goal setting in career aspirations to successful achievement, from goal setting in business to success in business.

So what do you want in your golf? What do you want to achieve in your career? life?

If you have never established clearly defined goals for yourself, and written them down, you are not alone. What we will be doing in this session, is helping you translate your desires, your wants and wishes into written form and design an action plan to achieve them. Best of all – your goals are going to be fulfilled!

So why don’t most people achieve their goals. Well, not setting any to start with is a pretty sure fire route to not achieving them. Yet many people once set goals for themselves – many were encouraged at school, and thankfully, many more continue to do so now than before.

Essentially, like everything else we will be discussing here, it’s all in the mind. Frequently, when I ask participants on our programmes why they stopped setting goals, they reply that they ‘tried it’ but they didn’t succeed. And when hey continued with the activity and continued not to achieve the goals, after a while they ‘just sort of gave up’. You’ll realise of course, that if you do something repeatedly, and repeatedly get no success – your desire to continue with the activity diminishes rapidly. So, your mind does you a favour by not setting any more goals. That way, you won’t be disappointed and you can avoid the discomfort of not achieving them.

“I don’t like to get my hopes dashed.” “I can’t have my dreams shattered.” “I don’t want to be seen as a goal seeker.” “It’s too painful to not achieve them.” These are just some examples of ‘reasons’ we hear. So the safest, kindest thing to do to ourselves is stop setting goals. So we do. No goals=no pain.

“Goals don’t achieve anything!” Several participants have told me. And they are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! Goals and the setting of goals does NOTHING!
ACTING ON THEM does!

Why oh why don’t we act on our goals? Don’t fret, you are not alone if you haven’t acted on achieving your goals. So, what we need is a goal setting process that includes the action plan – this we will discuss in detail in the session on Outcome-based coaching. Before that, in the session on Motivation, we’ll add that essential ingredient to achievement as well.