When you want to accomplish anything in life it is important to set goals for that ambition to come true. Goal Setting allows you to more easily move from the theoretical of, “Gee it would be nice if that happened” to the realm of “Wow, that was an awesome thing I just did.” I have heard of many ways to organize your thoughts when you are goal setting, and I wanted to share one of the most successful for myself with you. If you are truly looking to accomplish something in life follow the S.M.A.R.T. technique and you will see it happen before your very eyes. Well almost.
The S.M.A.R.T. Technique of goal setting is simple to follow but write it out and it will work best.
S.- The S stands for Specific– When you write down your goal you need to be specific about what you want to achieve. If you want to make more money, then write in your goal specifically how much, if you want a new relationship, then write down specifically what you are looking for in a significant other. Whatever the thing is write it down specifically so that there can be no misinterpretation about it. You will set your mind on the path to achievement by being specific in your goal setting.
M.- The M is for Measurable- When goal setting, you have to quantify the goal in some way, so you can measure it. How else will you be able to assess you progress toward your goal if you don’t measure it or can’t measure it? Do not be vague in any way, just like you were specific in the first step, make it so that you can measure your goal in some substantial way. In finances or in action.
A.-is for As If Now- When you write your goal down, write it in the present tense, as if it is happening right now! This type of statement will help you set your mindset in the right direction. If you approach something as if it is happening right now in your life, it will be easier to bring about. This is because your subconscious can’t really decipher between real thoughts and thoughts from your imagination. So write your goals in the present tense: “I am improving my sales by 10 today because I was more attentive.” Or, “I am nicer to people because I value their unique perspectives.” This is an important part of goal setting.
R. is for Realistic- Although you should reach for a target that stretches your current position, you have to make your goal setting realistic and possible to achieve. This simply means that your goals can’t be physically impossible in any way. Your goals can be a stretch just not an impossibility. An example of a possible goal, I am making 15 more sales a week or I am meeting 1 new person this week. Don’t limit yourself in the scope of your dreams, look to become the bet that you can be. Just make sure your goals are within the laws of physics.
T. – Time Sensitive- Goal setting really becomes relevant and powerful when there is a time frame involved. It will force you to take action and attempt to reach your goal. If your goal is to be achieved by next Friday, then you have to start taking action today. Taking action is the only method to achieve goals.
There you have it, a simple S.M.A.R.T. plan for goal setting that can help you start moving toward your dreams. A wise friend recently told me that a person without a plan will go nowhere but around in circles and I agree with him. Setting goals will allow you to start to build the future that you dream of.
On this page you will find some quotes that I like, I like to think of them as Words of Wisdom, for myself and any who read them. I am continually adding to them as I come across new ones that I feel are significant to my own experience, and gladly share them with you. Hopefully I will provide you with some new quotes to like. There are so many windows into the lives of those that have gone before us, they have experienced what we are experiencing now, know what we need to know and many of them have saved their quotes for us to enjoy and learn from. I wanted to share some of the words which I have found helpful over time. These Inspirational Quotes, I hope will inspire you to follow your dreams to whatever destiny is in front of you.
“Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time. It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core, that you can’t get it out of your mind. If you do not get chills when you set a goal, you’re not setting big enough goals.”-Bob Proctor
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”-Albert Schweitzer
More Words of Wisdom
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” –Melody Beattie
“The way to know life is to love many things.” –Vincent Van Gogh
“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon….must inevitably come to pass.”Paul J. Meyer
“If we are growing, we are constantly going to be out of our comfort zone.” John Maxwell
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” Norman Vincent Peale
“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” Henry David Thoreau
“When life gives you lemons, please, just don’t squirt them into other people’s eyes.” J. Andrew Helt
“I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly and acutely miserable, but through it all I still know that just to be alive is a grand thing.”Agatha Christie
Words of Wisdom
“It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” Abraham Lincoln
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” John Wooden
“Between you and every goal that you wish to achieve, there is a series of obstacles, and the bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacles. Your decision to be, have and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties and challenges that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.” -Brian Tracy
“People are just as happy as they make their minds up to be.”Abraham Lincoln
“Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it’s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.” -Anthony Robbins
“Whatever you are, be a good one.” Abraham Lincoln
“Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture…. Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.” -Norman Vincent Peale
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.” Abraham Lincoln
“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him your friend.” Abraham Lincoln
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. Benjamin Franklin
Even more words of Wisdom
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
Helen Keller
Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.
Jawaharal Nehru
Life is like the dice that, falling, still show a different face. So life, though it remains the same, is always presenting different aspects. Alexis
Our life’s a stage, a comedy: either learn to play and take it lightly, or bear its troubles patiently.
Palladas
The geat blessing of mankind are within us and within our reach; but we shut our eyes, and like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for, without finding it.
Seneca
(7 B.C. – 65 A.D.)
Govern thy life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one, and read the other. Thomas Fuller
Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life, in all ranks and situations, is an outward occupation, an actual and active work. W. Humboldt
Unrest of spirit is a mark of life; one problem after another presents itself and in the solving of them we can find our greatest pleasure.
Kal Menninger
Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult. Hypocrites
After the game,
the king and the pawn go into the same box.
Italian Proverb
The acts of this life are the destiny of the next. Eastern Proverb
Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.
La Bruyere
Life is like a library owned by the author.
In it are a few books which he wrote himself,
but most of them were written for him. Harry Emerson Fosdick
We make our fortunes, and we call them fate.
Earl of Beaconsfield
The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.
Elbert Hubbard
Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound. Herman Melville
The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it.
Plutarch
Life is variable. Plautus
Life is a rich strain of music, suggesting a realm too fair to be.
George William Curtis
I made my life my monument.
Ben Johnson
The boundaries which divide life from death
are at best shadowy and vague.
Who shall say where one ends,
and the other begins? Edgar Alan Poe
One way to get the most out of life is
to look upon it as an adventure.
William Feather
Life without endeavor is like entering a jewel mine and coming out with empty hands. Japanese Proverb
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are no classes in life for beginners: right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult. Rainer Maria Rilke
To live is like to love–all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.
Samuel Butler
One life – a little gleam of time between two eternities. Thomas Carlyle
Life is a pure flame,
and we live by an invisible sun within us.
Sir Thomas Brown
As I grow to understand life less and less,
I learn to love it more and more.
Jules Renard
Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the character that Mark Harmon portrays on NCIS. Of all of the NCIS characters, I have been told that my perspective on life is very similar to his and I take that as a compliment. It was from this character that I got the idea for writing down my “rules for life”, because if you don’t have rules to live by you can easily lose your way. There have been several different versions of the rules that have come out over the course of the show, but they are all pretty good rules to follow if you are an NCIS Agent or just a person in the world.
Gibbs Rules On NCIS-
Rule #1 –Never let suspects stay together.
Rule #1: Never screw over your partner.
Rule #2:Always wear gloves at a crime scene.
Rule #3:Don’t believe what you’re told. Double check.
Rule #3: Never be unreachable.
Rule #4: The best way to keep a secret? Keep it to yourself.
Second best? Tell one other person – if you must.
There is no third best.
Rule #5 is ‘You Don’t Waste Good’ …You’re Good
Rule #6: Never apologize — Its a sign of weakness.
Rule #7: Always be specific when you lie.
Rule #8: Never take anything for granted
Rule #9: Never go anywhere without a knife.
Rule #10: Never get personally involved on a case
Rule #11: When the job is done, walk away.
Rule #12: Never date a coworker.
Rule #13: Never, ever involve a lawyer.
Rule #15: Always work as a team.
Rule #18: It’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission.
Rule #22: Never, ever bother Gibbs in interrogation.
Rule #23: Never mess with a Marine’s coffee if you want to live.
Rule #27: Two ways to follow: — First way they never notice you, — second way they only notice you.
Rule #35 — “Always Watch The Watchers
Rule #38: Your case, your lead.
Rule #39: There is no such thing as coincidence.
Rule #40: If it seems someone is out to get you, they are.
Rule #44: First things first. Hide the women and children.
Rule #51:Sometimes — You’re Wrong!
And remember. . .
“A slap to the face
is an insult — to the
back of the head
is a wake-up call.”
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.”
Norman Vincent Peale
What is Confidence?
In everyone’s life, no matter who you are or what you do, the feeling of confidence you have about yourself and your abilities will directly lead to the amount of success you enjoy throughout your life. Confidence alone is not enough to lead you to the top but it can supply the power to get you there.
It is strange to think that such a force exists, that can be controlled simply by how one feels about themselves and their own abilities. If you look at who you are and what you can do from a positive point of view. If you are focusing on what you can do, you will feel confident and therefore experience more success. If on the other hand, you focus on what you can’t do or don’t have, your confidence can be shaken and you will find it hard to achieve success, much less enjoy your accomplishments in life. That is the unique characteristic of your confidence, that it is 100% created in your own mind.
How Do You Build Confidence
Why then do so many people lack confidence in themselves. It may be because they don’t have enough experience in what they are doing, that a lack of confidence will creep in to you thought process. It may be a failure in the past that was painful creeps into their mind and they think “I failed before, it might happen again.” It is also true that the actions of others, which are totally out of our control can work to erode and diminish someone’s confidence. You can’t control what other people think about you, or what they say about you, or how they treat you for the most part. These interactions with others can have an effect on your self-esteem and your confidence.
To be happy you have to develop a confidence in your abilities and in yourself. You can’t let learning experiences in the past ruin your abilities for the future. You also have to develop the ability to constructively absorb the actions of other people without allowing them to diminish your self-esteem or make you question your own abilities and talents. If you don’t believe in yourself, who will? If you don’t think you are a good person deserving of good things, who will? There is nothing so dependent on one’s own ability to look at themselves positively than the feeling of confidence. Often times I consider my actions in the past and recognize that there were literally thousands of opportunities to help build someone’s self-esteem and confidence that I did not take advantage of. Including opportunities to build my own. Fortunately, life provides a never ending cycle of opportunity to right these kinds of wrongs. Your decisions today can be the one’s that can help build the self esteem and confidence in yourself in others, if you decide that is what you want to do. Nobody controls how you feel about yourself, but yourself.
What is confidence:
1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliabilityof a person or thing: We have every confidence in their ability to succeed.
2. belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance: His lack of confidence defeated him.
3. certitude; assurance: He described the situation with such confidence that the audience believed him completely.
The phrase, “thank you”, is one that we often times either forget to use enough or even more often forget how much it can mean to someone else. Often times I think that we don’t properly thank someone when what they did was seemingly so insignificant to them that thanking them might make them uncomfortable. Recently I met someone, who had never met me, and had no pre-conceived notions about me whatsoever. We proceeded to have a quick ten-fifteen minute conversation in which I learned more about her and she more about me than I would have thought possible. I mention this because that person, I am sure never realized what kind of impact they had on me. I have never met anyone who had such a unique ability to make everyone around her feel better about themselves. So I say “Thank you” to her, we may never meet again, but the impact on me has made me want to be more positively impactful on the people I meet. I have made it a mission that when I meet people to try to make them feel like I felt that day. I am so grateful for this encounter.
So if you have someone in your life, that makes you feel special, and you really appreciate them, let them know! Tell them “thank you” and be grateful for all that they add to your life. They may not be there forever. Feel free to leave your “thank you comments” at the bottom.
Please enjoy these words of thanks by Joanna Fuchs.
Thank You for Being You
Thank you for your kindness.
Thank you for being the person you are:
kind and thoughtful,
sensitive and considerate,
a generous and thoughtful giver.
You are unselfish always,
putting others before yourself,
making me feel special and important.
It is a privilege and a pleasure to know you.
I have often found inspiration in these simple words. Originally I was introduced to them by my grandfather, and whenever I feel like quitting or feeling sorry for myself, I can read these words and somehow find the inspiration to keep on moving forward. It seems sometimes that life is an overwhelming experience, with many pitfalls and unpleasant experiences, but there is so much good out there and so many really great things to experience. Never let the world get you down. Don’t you EVER quit!
Here is the original poem in it’s entirety:
The Don’t Quit Poem
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
– Author unknown
Here is an INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO to go along with The Don’t Quit Poem, I thought your might like. Peace be with you.
“Strict punctuality is perhaps the cheapest virtue which can give force to an otherwise utterly insignificant character.”~ John F. Boyes
Be On Time
In my experience throughout life, the first rule of anything that you do is to always be on time. I know it seems like common sense but I am constantly surprised by how many people fail to follow this simple practice.
“You may delay, but time will not.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
It doesn’t take any special talent or skill and really anyone can do it. It portrays your interest and responsibility to other people about anything that you are trying to do.
“I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time, and it has made a man of me.” ~ Lord Nelson.
The fact is if something is really important to you, you will make sure that you get wherever you need to be on time. Personally, I am the kind of person that if you are not 15 minutes early, you are late.
“I give it as my deliberate and solemn conviction that the individual who is habitually tardy in meeting an appointment, will never be respected or successful in life.” ~ Rev. W. Fisk
Effective Time Management
During my coaching career, I always made this rule number one in any introductory meeting. It helped set the tone that what we were doing was an important activity and anything worth doing is worth doing right. I hope that anyone who ever participated on any of those teams were able to take this life lesson and apply it to all aspects of their lives.
“Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person’s money as his time.”~ Horace Mann
I hope you enjoyed this post and found the time management quotes inspirational.
A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which make it necessary for him to make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose warriors outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded soldiers and equipment then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them . Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, “you see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice we win or we perish! They won.
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a Burning Desire To Win, essential to success.
I don’t think it has to be quite this drastic, but the idea that you have to step out of your comfort zone and take a few risks to meet success head on, is clear. Nobody climbed a mountain sitting on their duff at home. Nobody every accomplished much by doing nothing. You need a plan for what you want to accomplish, a goal to set out for and the desire to get it no matter what the cost and you are in business. Dream big and achieve your goals, my friend.
“Leadership, like coaching, is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you.” — Eddie Robinson
Coaching has been one of the more rewarding activities I have ever participated in. The ability to teach valuable life lessons in the relatively controlled environment of an athletic season is a powerful experience.
My basic philosophy of coaching is simple. Learn as much as you can, then provide the skills and information necessary to allow an individual to experience success. As a leader, it is your responsibility to demonstrate the values that you feel are important. If you say being on time is important, then you had better never be late. If hard work is important, than you had better demonstrate that in the way that you approach your task.
As a young coach, I always put so much into developing practice plans, building skills, and forming game plans that I always took the failure of a player or a team too personally. It is a mistake that is easy to make. Instead of keeping my focus on the big picture, the team, I dwelt too much on the mistakes that were a natural part of the process. In life, mistakes are opportunities for growth and that is no different in the realm of athletics. As a more experienced coach I found that unfortunately mistakes will happen, and the best you can do is to make them teachable moments and learn from them. What I found was that individuals, given the ability to experience this became more proficient at whatever they were trying to accomplish.
Coaching also taught me to be more patient with people. Nobody is trying to fail or make a mistake. Giving them the proper feedback and tools to do something right without belittling them or destroying their self-esteem is the job of any coach. I watch some coaches who just berate a player almost mercilessly for an error made on the field or court. I listen to them yell and scream. I wonder how well they would perform at their job if they were treated in such a manner.
Coaching also taught me that it is important to realize that you are working with the team and they are not working for you. You are all committed to an activity to reach a common goal, winning. It isn’t about you and what you are recognized for, it is about the accomplishments of the group. Which in the end are far more satisfying than individual accomplishments. The experience of being part of a cohesive group that can achieve it’s goals is one of the most rewarding things I have experienced.
Some of the life lessons I have learned from being involved in coaching are:
Bad calls are part of life, often times things happen that do not seem fair or just. The ability to overcome these obstacles and still experience success is possible in almost every circumstance. It is easy to look at a bad call at the end of a game which seemingly costs a team a victory. However if you look at the whole contest you can always find many things that you had control of and didn’t do which allowed the game to come to that situation. A recent example happened in the NCAA tournament when Butler faced Pitt. Pittsburgh was called for a foul with virtually no time left to lose the game. The focus should have been on the free throw they missed prior to that that would have virtually iced the game for them. If you focus on what you can do throughout the game and in life you will find, bad calls or tough breaks will more often than not go your way.
How you practice, so you play
The way that you approach every practice, every day will directly relate to your performance and the quality of the finished product. If you are lazy and take short cuts when the opportunity presents itself, you will often lack the work ethic and determination required when things get difficult. In life you have to strive to do your best in anything that you do. It may seem extreme, but if you put your best into everything, always, success will come when the chips are down, and the pressure is on. Putting all of your effort into a practice to make yourself and your team better, will allow you the ability to put all of your effort into your job, everyday and make yourself and your company more successful.
Failure to plan is planning to fail
If you don’t have a plan and prepare your team for the circumstances they might face, you can’t very well be upset when those situations do occur and the team doesn’t handle them.
For me as a coach, practices were always split into three parts, physical, technical, and tactical. The physical in being capable of performing whatever task or challenge you are facing. This includes fitness and conditioning. The technical involves teaching the skills necessary to be a success. Skill development should never stop as all individuals have the propensity for growth, always. Then there is tactical, that is where you prepare your team for whatever situations they might face. This could be generic clock management in any basketball game, 30 seconds left, down two your ball, what do you do? Or it could be relaying a scouting report, what you know about an opponent, plays they run, defenses they play, how to best find success against them. I have found this approach helpful in life. Developing the physical skills needed to effectively do your job is vital to success. If you don’t take care of yourself physically, you will miss time from work and be unproductive. Strive to be proficient in how to do your job. Take time to develop your skills and continue to develop your skills to continually improve. This will allow you to achieve success and to feel a fresh approach about your job and not feel “burned out”. Thirdly, master the tactical aspects of your job. Know the situations and duties you have to perform and understand them in the context of what you are trying to accomplish. If you are prepared for what might happen you will succeed when it does happen.
Your either getting better or worse
In athletics and in life every person, every day is either getting better and improving or you are getting worse or diminishing. There are not many instances where you stay the same. The positive thing about this I learned is that you have almost total control over what type of person you are. In athletics, a player who doesn’t continually practice properly will more often than not regress as a season progresses, while an athlete that continually strives for improvement, will almost always get better. It seems simple, but if you implement that into your daily performance, how would you stack up? Are you continually trying to improve your game? Or are you satisfied with your place in life? You are either getting better or worse, you decide which.
S.- The S stands for Specific– When you write down your goal you need to be specific about what you want to achieve. If you want to make more money, then write in your goal specifically how much, if you want a new relationship, then write down specifically what you are looking for in a significant other. Whatever the thing is write it down specifically so that there can be no misinterpretation about it. You will set your mind on the path to achievement by being specific in your goal setting.
Even 4-star generals vulnerable to email snoops
