It is inevitable that there will be ongoing outside forces that will affect our progress to succeed in anything we do in this life.  That is why goals assessment (and reassessment) in our personal life and business activities is an ongoing priority for success.  This priority dictates an unspoken mandate that says, “While every lasting success is built upon the solid foundation of tried and tested principles and rules of success, a personal or business plan is subject to factors outside of its control that can adversely affect the outcome.  As such, continual evaluation, assessment, and reassessment of goals must be continually reviewed through the crucible of objective critical thinking for both the short term and long term success of any notable undertaking.”

There is a hidden force that is in operation behind everything productive that we do towards our ultimate goals. I learned this as a young boy.  I am the sort of individual that as a child enjoyed winding a toy up and turning it lose to see what it would do on its own without my help, and let others take care of the details of things like, what furniture or breakable objects (or individuals) that wind up toy would ultimately zero in on.  I was totally irresponsible in looking at the big picture, the affects of my immediate goals (the thrill of success in my immediate adventure-seeking exploits) on my long-term goals (to stay alive and my butt remaining unscathed by my dad’s belt).

The worst sort of short-term goals I had that were related to wind-up toys (or best depending upon your perspective) were the wind-up FLYING toys.  I mean it was easy to hide the nick and scratches on furniture legs and floor objects.  I mean, what adult looks down at the floor all the time or at the legs of furniture and bottom of floor vases? Right?  But those flying toys!  Now, that was a different thing.  If my mom had ever found out just how many breakable things my aviation test flights crash landed into that were at or near an adult’s eye level, I fear that I may not have made it out of childhood, if at all, without severe physical consequences. This is leading to my point, I promise.

Unfortunately for most individuals we counsel, and especially small businesses, there is a pervasive mentality to just ‘wind it up and turn it lose’ to see what will happens in life and in business.  I think this is probably because of most people’s uncertainty about proper planning and execution strategies to accomplish what they most hope to accomplish.  In a nutshell, the vast majority of people just simply fail to plan properly or to lay out their strategy in detail which takes into account the possibility for the variables that INVARIABLY take place in life and in business.

Because I have always been the ‘tip back in the chair’ sort of individual (at least that is what people tell me), I guess that is part of why I thrive as an entrepreneur.  I just love the thrill of the adventure that comes with the exploration, creation, and execution of enterprise and industry.  I DOOOO LOVE to ‘wind it up and turn it lose’, but fortunately I grew out of that “just wind it up and turn it lose” mentality in many respects.  Now I take the time and effort to explore all the options related to my decision to move forward.  Believe me, I have made some very costly errors – personally and financially – in my life, so I can speak from VAST experience in respect to the affects of a lack of scrutiny over plans that can affect people and business.

This valuable LEARNED personality trait comes out especially in my passion as a business coach and in my career as a consultant.  I am known for being almost anal when it comes to detail in helping clients fully recognize where they are, what got them there, the damage it is doing to their lives and/or business, and in detailing how to most effectively change their circumstances in positive and purpose-filled ways that will ultimately lead to their success in every area of their life.

In my own defense (truth be told), there are far too few coaches now-a-days – especially online – that really take the time to dig below the surface in a client’s life – choosing rather to make the most bucks in the least amount of time with their clients and giving them a canned pitch and boilerplate plan to get them out of the situation that they feel stuck in – even when the plan is not ideally suited for a client’s particular situation.

Before you think me over-critical of my fellow coaching professionals, let me say in all of our defense that there are specific guidelines and processes for various coaching or consulting situations that can be applied to almost every situation that address probably 75% of the problems that typically cause adverse circumstances or situations in any given situation.  My purpose for goals assessment (and periodic reassessment) in our coaching processes is the result of an over-compensation that has been a part of our coaching guidelines.

Our guidelines have historically used micromanagement with clients – probably more than is typically necessary – especially for business turn-around consulting services.  In some instances, clients have said that it feels as if we have put them on restriction.  Our ‘putting them on restriction’ is most always only until they learn to recognize and successfully address those situations in their personal and business life that are wreaking havoc on their potential for success.  WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE LONG AWAITED POINT OF THIS ARTICLE – the priority of goals assessment if you want to be successful in the long term.

Last month, while having a round table meeting with our organization’s coaches, some Success Alliance Team captains,  and some tech support staff, one of the subjects of the day was how we could streamline our coaching and consulting services so that we could provide our clients with a more ‘turnkey approach’ to resolving troublesome areas in the  lives and/or business pursuits of our clients.  The general consensus was that we did not want to micro-manage/coach their progress as much as we have historically done.  It is not that I do not want us to provide the personalized coaching and consulting services that we have been providing throughout these years in coaching and consulting.  It is quite the opposite; however, by using the principle of goals assessment (and in our case, goals reassessment), we realized a lot of things about how we were going about our work that were overkill, and that there were ample fail safes in place to protect our clients.

In the next installment of this article “Goals Assessment in Business is an Ongoing Priority” I will share how we worked through an unforeseen problem that was hindering S. D. Ward & Associates from growing and reaching our fullest potential.

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I really enjoy learning new things and subscribing to email newsletters is one of the ways that I learn. I must subscribe to 10 of them or so. Each one that I subscribe to is for a specific reason to address a specific goal that I have in my life with the hope of bringing specific results – no, BIG specific results. I do this because having specific goals bring big specific results if you remain focused on your goals. Seldom, if ever, does someone succeed in accomplishing their goals if they do not know why they are doing it.

If you want to be able to be goal oriented in life and not wonder aimlessly in your pursuit of success, you must know why you are doing what you do on a day to day basis, and know that the reason is a notable enough reason to make you persist in doing what you are required to do until you accomplish it. When we choose not to have specific goals where we are looking for specific results from for a specific purpose in our lives that we have or want, our potential to achieve anything substantially are far less than if we have specific goals.

One email newsletter that I get and read almost daily is by a well-known author Rick Warren. Rick Warren is a pastor of a large Church (really large) and has a huge online presence. Whether you are Christian or not, one has got to give Kudos where they are due. When it comes to Rick Warren’s online marketing presence, he is a great success story. Check him out sometime.

OK, back on topic. In a recent email newsletter he sent out, he posed four questions that just shouted at the indecision and aimlessness of anyone who was (is) not purpose driven in life. The questions:

What do you want to be?….What do I want to do?….What do I want to have?….and, Why do I want it?

Believe it or not, most people you will meet in life will not have the answers to these questions clearly outlined in their thinking, let alone on paper. But the biggie here is the last question – why do I want it? This is huge. Why? Because without understanding your motive behind the goals you will or have set for yourself, you will lack both incentive and a refined purpose in achieving it. In short, you will have NO lasting desire to follow through and accomplish it in a timely manner.

If you are reading this post and you are either an up and coming or a seasoned online marketer, Rick Warren’s online marketing presence and how he goes about it is a great text book example of how to do it right, but I digress. Back to the last question from above – why do I want it? In order to have a successful career in anything you want to do – you must have a vision for where you are going, but most importantly, a reason you are doing it that is significant enough to LAUNCH you out of bed in the morning and direct your enthusiasm in doing what you do. Where there is no vision (revelation of what you want to do and why) your life and your goals in going about your day to day activities will be unrestrained (unfocused and tending towards aimlessness).

When you know what you want to be in your day (driven by your ambition to become something or someone that you want to be), you will tend to have a greater focus that will help you to focus on what you need to be doing. When you know what you want to be, it’s easier to know what you want to do in order to achieve your personal ambition (which can also be your professional ambition). As with most things in life, there is always the underlying motivation of what you want to HAVE, so having a specific goal in front of you that is motivation enough to act on your action plan to achieve something will perpetuate you on a day to day basis. Easy enough, right?

What are the rewards of your endeavors and will they be sufficient enough in your mind’s eye to keep you motivated? The answer to this question is found in your ability to see what you want for your future clearly enough to be able to find your bearings and get back on course and give you a sort of proverbial carrot to dangle out in front of you. There is nothing like a little good old fashioned fleshly motivation. “Honey, if you clean up your plate, you can have desert!” OH, do I remember the carrots that my mom used to bribe me with (or was that carrot cake).

All this said, there is one, and only one real question that you must answer of these four that will become the primary motivating factor and that is WHY DO I WANT IT? The WHY in life is essential if you want to have the deep, abiding, and ongoing inner strength to remain determined in the pursuit of a successful life. This is something that you need to dig deep on. Why do you want to do it? What are the motives? To find out the why of your life, you must do some soul searching.

I found someone recently that had a WHY that I really admired and just got totally excited about coaching her. When I asked her why she was doing what she was endeavoring to do online in building her business, she said, “So that I can build a future for my family and allow my husband to be able to stop working as an auto mechanic. It’s really very hard on him.” WOW! NOW THAT IS COOL!!!! That is a WHY that is notable enough and fueled by the right stuff. Her love, admiration, and respect for her husband. Can I get an AMEN!????

So let’s wrap this up here. Take some time to answer the four questions that Rick Warren posed in his recent newsletter that I have shared above, and then sit down and write out some SPECIFIC GOALS that you have that will allow you to chart a successful course towards accomplishing them. The more specific your goals are (whether a series of small goals – which I recommend) or several large goals that are the benchmarks of your success that you want in front of you, WRITE THEM DOWN and FULLY ARTICULATE (that is a big word for fully describing and clearly outlining) how you will go about accomplishing your goals. MOST IMPORTANT to your success is establishing a time line for yourself, so that if you are not making progress that you can seek out help to get things back on track (that is what coaches are for – hint, hint).

Getting started on the path to your success might seem a daunting task, but if you break down any goal you have into small enough steps you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. OH! One last nugget of really important truth here – IF your goal is just to make money so you can have ‘things’ you will be sorely disappointed and quickly robbed of your motivation to continue your pursuit of it. MONEY CANNOT BUY HAPPINESS OR CONTENTMENT. It may ease some of the bumps along the road of life, but it cannot fulfill or fully satisfy. If it did, there would not be so many drunk or drug addicted rich people, or so many suicides on Wall Street or among the top income earners in the world.

Thought for the day: Having a purpose-filled vision for something notably meaningful that is for the good of others results in a lasting determination to accomplish the specific goals that are necessary to bring about its success. ~SDW

Let me know your thoughts on this. Leave me a comment and your feedback. If you found this educational or motivational enough for you, take a moment and hit the FaceBook LIKE button below if you are on FaceBook and repost this to your favorite social media network. Who knows? Someone you know might really need to hear this. If you are involved in a network marketing business, sharing anything motivational that perpetuates your organization’s success is huge, right? :-)