Take It To The Limit

I watched a documentary on the Eagles the other night and it was an excellent history of one of my favorite musical groups.

They talked about the meaning of some of their songs. “Take It to The Limit”, was one song that was actually written as a message to those who are of an older age. The intention is to not settle for retirement or the “norm” of going home and sitting, but to take life to the limit of your capability and not lose the later years in a rocking chair. The last part of the title is “one more time”, indicating taking action.

The later years of life are very perplexing. Most are disillusioned by retirement and waste themselves away, getting in a routine of some kind that does not move them to new heights or desires. They have all these talents and abilities, but like muscles that are not used, they atrophy.

Ask yourself where you are in this arena. Begin to prepare for the future. Take away the fence that is around you and explore the future. Create something to look forward to. Make lists. You actually probably have time to start a new career. If not, you have time to accomplish a “one-shot” goal.

The term “Take It to The Limit” indicates a risk; doing something you would not naturally do. You could make a “Bucket List” and begin to go through it. Completing items brings a great feeling of accomplishment. You will find that the limit is easier reached than you think.

The Eagles had another song that relates to the “limit”. It was titled “Life in The Fast Lane”. Capturing that concept says don’t lollygag around making something happen. It means that you need to ramp up your efforts. You can still take a nap.

So “Do It Now”.   Don’t wait until there is no more time.

Consistency And Discipline

Many people desire success, whatever that may mean to themselves. Everyone has a different definition. But there are two behaviors that are necessary to be able to get to the goals that have been set. These are consistency and discipline.

We need to know where we are headed. We should have some goals of some kind and if we are anywhere close to being serious about them, they should be written down. We should have a list of actions that need to be accomplished to reach these goals. This is where consistency comes into play. If we do not make an effort to do something about these actions, we will not reach our goals. Those who have goals and who are consistent, accomplish much more than others. They are labeled as being lucky because they are getting results.

The ability to be consistent requires discipline. We must be able to eliminate the outliers that distract us from getting what we want. When we get serious about our actions and goals, we quit doing things that get in the way. For a college student, it could be studying for a test or doing homework. You can put something off for so long or the consequence catches up with you. Another example is looking for a job. There are jobs everywhere for those who want them. But you have to get out of your chair and seek them out and then you have to be responsive to the process each organization uses. I have seen job seekers sit around for months when there were jobs available from day one.

Your greatest power is the power of choice. If the results are not what you want, then change something. Situations produce unintended consequences because no action was taken.

There is a term called “Singleness of Purpose” that relates to discipline. When we get a laser focus on a goal, we are able to accomplish much more. So defining what we want is a major component of our goal setting. Like focusing a camera, everything comes into clear view and we have the basis for success. When we take action, something happens.

When you are in the ditch and look backwards, it is easy to see why you are there. Identify your mistakes and replace them with positive actions. Work on changing what needs to be changed.

We develop patterns of habit through the process of doing something repetitively. Make sure you have good habits and create some good ones to replace others that are not getting you where you want to go.

Proverbs 23:7 says “You are what you think about”. Evaluate what goes into your mind and then fertilize the things that you need to focus on. Ideas lead to thinking which leads to action which leads to results.

Consistency and discipline are continuously observable in high performance people and provide a physical snapshot of their true values.  The culture of their life is defined as what they do when others are not present.

GOALS AND HOW TO GET THEM ACCOMPLISHED

We hear about goals and goal setting all the time but why are we not successful in reaching them?

Most people do not set goals, they just dream about what they want. They set New Year’s resolutions but at the end of the year they generally have not accomplished much. This blog is going to dissect the goal process and provide tools to overcome the problems. Other blogs exist that expand many of these items even further.

Dreaming is not a bad thing. It provides a starting place. So to start goal setting, start writing down all the things you would like to achieve or accomplish. Just write them down, in no particular order on a sheet of paper, in a Word document, or even better, put each on a 3X5 card. You can do this over several days so it does not get boring.

Next arrange them into eight categories: Physical, Mental, Social, Family, Financial, Spiritual, Hobby, and Work or Career. Once in this form, prioritize each of the eight categories. Which area do you feel is most important or necessary for you to do?  This exercise gives you a springboard for your goal setting. You can always add to the items or you can take away from them. 

Now prioritize the eight areas. Which ones are more important to you than others? This gets a little sticky because we may feel that one particular area always needs to be at the top, but if that area is one you are doing well in, then it can be lower in the list. As an example, Spiritual goals might be considered as one that always has to be on the top, but if you are doing well in this area, you can put others above it. It may be that your financial situation needs lots of attention and you need to work on it.

So at this time you have your eight areas and items under each of the eight areas to consider. Now take your top three areas and prioritize the items that are in each. This ends up with possible goals to consider. You pick the top 4 or 5 to now really focus on, so put an indicator by each of these to guide you for the planning of these goals. You might ask if you could choose others and the answer is that we can generally only focus on three things. During the year, you will make progress on many of the other items just because, so do not worry about planning for everything. That is too much work and ends up being a discouragement.

Now we get to the heavy planning. If this is worth doing, and you really want to succeed, then you need to do some heavy planning for the top 4-5 items you have.

At the end of this blog is a link to a two page Plan of Action form or (Click Here)that will assist in this process. 

When you start on a serious goal, you need an accountability system, people who will help and encourage you. Select a few to hold your feet to the fire so you can make progress. As an example, let’s say you are trying to lose weight and you are serious about it. You can select a coach at a gym, have someone to go with you, or enlist others to communicate regularly. You could even give a few regular progress reports to your group or other person. There is a place on the Plan of Action form for you to write their name.

You should identify the obstacles you will encounter and build into your plan steps to overcome them. Doing this in advance is really smart to do and helps you build your confidence in overcoming them.

Every goal needs a deadline or time to complete different steps. Write these on the Plan of Action form and remember that if you miss a goal time frame, you simply revise it. Do not get discouraged about it.

The Plan of Action form is very self-explanatory but there are a few items that can make a very big difference.

1. Affirmations. Telling yourself quotes or phrases that will reinforce your thinking. If you are needing some help, see the www.lftf.org webpage and click on the box “Need Some Inspiration?”

2. Visualization. Get some poster board or use a bulletin board or in some way, get pictures that represent your goals. It could even be a piece of cardboard. Put this “Visualization Board” in a place you look at every day. This is so powerful. The power of the mind is so awesome.

3. Graphs. Making a graph for your most important goal creates a feedback loop for your progress. You will have a tendency to want to make the graph look better, so your progress will improve. Do not question this technique. I have seen unbelievable things happen because of this.

So you spend lots of time on all of this and you have still not accomplished what you want. If so, it is time for an evaluation. Did you pick the right goal? Is the goal realistic? Have you created what is necessary to accomplish it? Do you have too broad of a goal? Can you break it down into smaller goals? Talk to your accountability partner or a trusted advisor and get their input.

Last, pray daily about your goals. Are all of them in alignment? Do they fit your value system?

Good luck as you start your journey and have fun and celebrate each success as it happens.

There are two short videos that relate to goal setting.

The first is one about Kyle Carpenter and how he had to overcome insurmountable obstacles. See it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqaZoeWJ0gk 

The second is at www.lftf.org. Click on blog and scroll down to the graphic titled “Survival Run.” This three minute video is an example of the results of planning for goal setting.

Click on the button below to save and/or download the Plan of Action worksheet.

Goals Completed

A number of years ago I was able to work with ten high school students, five each from two local schools, helping them learn about leadership. As a part of the class, we took the students to interview an exceptional leader. A couple of past leaders that were interviewed were Tom Landry and Roger Staubach.

Another leader was Jim Sirbasku, President of Success Motivation, Inc. (SMI) located in Waco, Texas. In Jim’s younger life, he worked as a butcher in a meat packing plant in Minneapolis. The compensation for workers was very low.

Jim and his wife found that they could not have children so they decided to adopt a child. The adoption agency told them that they qualified for everything except income. They simply did not have enough income to support three people. Jim and his wife were devastated. What to do?

Jim knew a fellow who was marketing Goal Setting programs and Jim wanted one really bad. The fellow told him that if Jim would give him the names of some prospects and if they bought, he would give Jim 10% of the selling price. If the fellow sold ten programs to people from Jim’s referrals, Jim would get a program free. The fellow found that when he talked to the prospect that Jim provided, that they were already sold. He did not have to do any selling at all. So the fellow talked to Jim and convinced him to begin to sell as well and quit the meat packing plan.

Jim took that advice and to make a long story short, he quickly rose in the ranks and became the President of SMI.

I took the ten students to Waco to interview Jim and it was a great interview. The students had developed a set of questions that had been previously been sent to Jim. At one point in the interview, Jim got away from the questions and went over to a closet with bi-fold doors and opened them. Behind the doors was a large bookcase full of three ring notebooks. Jim told the students that all the notebooks were full of pages of goals accomplished. Jim said that he set goals in all areas of life and the six shelves were for the six areas of life. He related that anytime he is concerned about something, he looks at all the notebooks and reflects on all the goals accomplished. His thoughts are that if he has done all of this, what could he NOT do.

So the challenge for each of us is to think about our goals accomplished and do our own reflection. Begin to write each goal on a separate page and begin to collect those you complete. You might surprise yourself.

Jim died a multi-millionaire in 2010 at the age of 71. He and his wife Judy had two children, a boy and a girl. Their family had the largest Egyptian-Arabian horse farm in the world.

The six areas of life have now been expanded to eight: 

Physical, Mental, Social, Family, Financial, Spiritual, Hobby, and Career.