Did you know that a study by Yale University on goal setting was carried out in the 1950’s. The researchers surveyed those who graduated in 1953 to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future, only 3% of them had. Twenty years later, the researchers surveyed the surviving members of the original group and found that the 3% who’d set goals had accumulated more personal financial wealth than the other 97% of the class combined! Whilst goal setting and happiness are not all about money, this anecdote shows how powerful we can be when we set our mind to something.
However many of us do not focus on positive outcomes, we prefer to obsess about what we don’t want, or centre on what is missing in their life. For such people, it’s easy to forget what’s great, what’s working in their lives and what resources they have to create even more happiness and success. Because we tend to get what we focus on, when we focus on what’s not working or spend time wondering why bad things always seem to happen, then we merely get more of what we don’t want. What’s the point of that?
It’s also important to remember that few of us have a 100% hit rate so there may be times when you set a goal and make a mistake or find that your goal doesn’t work. This is not the end of the world! At this point you have a choice: you can get all flustered, beat yourself up and go back to wandering about without direction – or you can learn from the experience and move on.
When setting your goals is to clarify why you want this outcome. If your goals are about things that you need in your life and will benefit you and others, you’ll feel happy when you achieve. But if you set goals just because you think you should, or to please other people, you may not feel that special even when you do achieve what you set out to do. It’s important to ask yourself ‘What’s in it for me?’
I’m back after a trip of a lifetime.
I originally went out to Croatia on business and was supposed to return on Saturday, but with the natural disaster in Iceland I’ve only just got home, after travelling through eight European countries - Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Great Britain.
The whole experience has really taught me some very valuable lessons and maybe nature has a funny way of giving us some important messages. For me, the message was “slow down, you’re moving too fast.” It was also fascinating to observe the 150 delegates that I was working with who were from all over the world, and seeing how different people coped with the situation. To me, the winners were definitely the Spanish. They seemed to deal with it in a way that it just became one long siesta for them.
It was also really lovely to see how people came together and supported each other. It was definitely a moving experience and something I will never ever forget. I’ve made another film of our road trip that I’d like to share with you.
Hope you enjoy the film and thanks for all your lovely messages of support.
