I was sent this article from a friend and thought it was on point and helps those making goals for the new year make and set the right goal. I reflected back on decisions and goals I made in the past years  and looking back at goals I have achieved and the ones that passed me by. The biggest difference in the goals I set and completed are the ones I wrote down and set correctly. Read this article and I hope it will help you like its helping me set goals correctly.

Written by George Chingarande

Thursday, 27 September 2007

In the battle for achievement and success, there is a message that all serious aspirants can not afford to ignore and there is an invitation that none can risk spurning. This is so because this message is to achievement what breathing is to life-the core without which the centre cannot hold. And the invitation is an invitation to greatness. It is this message and this invitation that I bring you. Ignore it at your peril. Statistics reveal that: 3 % of the people in the earth govern and rule the other 97% 3% of the people earn as much as the other 97% put together 3% own as much real estate as the other 97%. 3% of the people in the world have goals that are written down, the other 97% does not. Which group would you rather belong to? If democracy has trained us to believe that power belongs to the majority, these statistics tell us that wealth and real success are being enjoyed by an infinitesimally small fraction. Many aspire to win but in reality few are winning. Why is this so? Perhaps the most revealing exposition on the importance of goals comes form a Harvard study. A synopsis of the study that was conducted at Harvard Business School between 1979 and 1989 is presented below. In 1979 the graduates of the MBA program at Harvard were asked a simple question: “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” The results were very interesting. 84% had no specific goals at all, 13% had goals but they were not committed to paper, and only 3% had clear goals and plans that were written down. In 1989, a good ten years after the first phase of the study, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates of that class. Their results were even more startling. The 13% that had goals but not written down were earning twice as much as the 84% that did not have any goals. An even more interesting statistic is that the 3% who had written down plans and goals were earning on average ten times more than the other 97%. Further more the mere act of writing a goal down on paper increased its chances of being accomplished by a staggering 90%. However, there is still another shocking and some what contradictory message from statistics. Most people who have New Year’s resolutions and who try to attain their goals fail dismally. This is particularly true of behaviorally anchored goals such as losing weight, quitting smoking, and procrastination cessation. It has been established that the majority of people who seriously embark on a weight loss program actually lose weight for a time, but after a year or so they balloon back to or even beyond their original weight. The same is true for those that try to quit smoking, the employee who sets the goal not to be late for work, the tight rope walker who determines not to fail, the subordinates who are told to reduce defects and mistakes. Those that try not to fall into wrong relationships, more often than not fall into wrong relationships. The same is true also for those that try not to be nervous or clumsy. We are goal seeking and pleasure seeking organisms. If you take a homing pigeon and blind-fold it and drive it or fly it in circles to any where in the world and then release it, it will fly straight home. It has an inborn home-seeking mechanism. Humans have an inborn goal seeking mechanism. The human mind works in pictures and not words. Once a goal statement is fed into it, the mind instantly converts it to a picture and then relentlessly seeks information and creates circumstances that will result in its fulfillment. Once you determine that you hate or like red cars, isn’t it strange that you start seeing them all over the place? The mind does not create a picture of the verb in the goal statement, in this case “like or hate” but of the object and its adverb (red car). What You Resist will Persist There are two types of goal setting approaches. These are negative and positive, or problem reductionism and benefit increamentalism, or away from and towards. When a goal such as, “to lose weight or quit smoking” is fed into the mind it creates the picture of the object who happens to be overweight or a smoker and seeks to make this a reality. If your goal is not to fail or to come out of debt, it creates the picture of a failure or a debtor. The rule is, “What you resist will persist. What you desire and picture in your mind will become your reality.” Most weight reduction programs are sound and actually work but they need to be augmented by the right psychology. If the physic and the psyche are at loggerheads, the psyche always triumphs. It is easier to substitute an undesired habit with another than to break it. Fulfilling a goal couched in negative terms is a monumental assignment only rarely achieved both by individuals and organizations. For this reason most self improvement programs and organizational performance management systems rarely achieve the intended results. The intentions are perfect but the psychology is flawed. Negative goal setting stems from an excessive preoccupation with risk to the exclusion of benefits. On an organizational level many deals stall because of losers focusing on what could go wrong instead of the benefits should things go well? In setting goals losers focus on risks, but winners on benefits. The magic of achievement lies in positive goal setting. Below are examples: 1a) To lose weight (negative and wrong) b) To fit into a size 30 skate by 31 December 2008 (positive and correct) 2a) To reduce the number of late deliveries by 10% (negative) b) To deliver 90% of the orders on time This week I invite you to make positive goal setting a weapon in your armory. Ask not what if things go wrong; rather ask what if they go well. Ignore it at your peril.

In July 2008, I had the opportunity to share my skills and knowledge with small businesses and internet marketers in Austin, Texas for the SEM for SMB event, hosted by SparkSight. Both Reza Sarmadi boarded a plan and flew from LA, not knowing what to expect, but of course we had no expectations, rather extreme optimism coupled with a strong manifestation for success.

My speech was title “Online Marketing Reporting and Analytics“. After this first speech I gave I felt my speech could of been better polished and refined. I asked the universe to grant me one more opportunity after this speech to try it again and give me one more shot even though my speech was booked for day 1 only.

I manifested that thought for about 4 hours. Sure enough, after I let it go I got a text from Chris Justice, the promoter of the event. The text went something like this. “Your speech was awesome, everyone loved it and it is in high demand. Can you do it again tomorrow”. I looked at ReZ with the biggest smile and said, the universe listens.

That night I spent hours practicing the speech, determined to do my part of the manifestation and “do what I said I would do”, which was prepare, practice and refine it. That next day, I gave the speech with the utmost confidence and I was praised my the many people who attend the speech that what my speech gave some great ideas and insight to reporting and analytics that really helped people better understand how to make the most out of stats.

The truth of the matter is and lesson learned is: never give up what you want and when you want something. You know what you need to do to achieve it. So you better do what you know you need to do, otherwise you will fall short of your manifest.

It took a while to get it online, but without further wait, here is the seminar.  If you would like to download the slides to the event, click this link.

Disneyland must love me, or someone there did because they put my name all over the place. Check it out.

This past Wednesday I drove to Las Vegas from LA to attend pubcon 2008 and to celebrate my birthday. Driving to Las Vegas, I had some time to decompose, do some deep thinking and watch the moon rise in front of me and the sun setting in my rear view mirror.

ReZ was asking what “IT” means. We both came to the conclusion after much analysis that IT = Information Technology. Now most of us think of ITT Tech logo when we think about IT, so most people never put it together. That Information Technology “IT”… is what it is. I think if you take a step back, you can call IT… it.

Well IT is it and if you would like to read on, I will tell you why.

Everything that is us is information and the technology that manages that information will is it.

You’ve read the mission “to organize all the world’s information”. That is today’s mission. What about tomorrow? Compare today’s technology capabilities versus 10 years ago. What happens when all the information leaves our computers? Leaves 8GB mini flash cards, 160GB iPods and all of sudden you have unlimited space in the “cloud”, available to you anywhere, everywhere without limitations?

We all crave the newest and the coolest technology. People wait in lines, sleep in the rain and endure embarrassment to be the first with the newest technology that does what? Technology that stores information.

Now let’s fast forward and take a snapshot of the evolutionary timeframe and really think about information technology and see how “IT is what it is”, because what IT is right now, is only relative to what IT will be in the future.

In the near future, we will begin to collect all of our individual information in one place. The massive collective computing power of the world “the cloud” will unite through uniform definitions and precise data locations of the information (i.e. Semantic Web). No more will we hop 13 servers and send our request around the world to get to the real location of the information.

Furthermore, information will be stored where it is accessed. Instead of information being cached and duplicated on many servers, the information will be readily accessible through the cloud and thus be available to everyone within 1 hop from your location. Instant access without wait from any device. Wow!

Information you see in your inbox and in the senders sent box will be one location. Media, files and documents will have one central location in which it is readily accessed by anyone with the correct credentials.

We will all be omni-connected utilizing and accessing the worlds computing power and storage capabilities to access media, education and people instantly with the power of a keyword search.

Let’s dive deeper down the rabbit hole shall we?

What happens when we are all connected, our GPS is enabled at all times and satellites can pinpoint and watch our every move, and every information technology session transaction using any device (i.e. credit card transaction, text message, internet access, gps signal, ipod play) is stored in one location online?

We will begin the creation of a breadcrumb “footprint” of all based on information in which one can replay your life with a power of a click.

Do you remember 10 years ago? 1% of the world knew how to click a mouse. Now everyone is connected to information al la cell phones. Now imagine within our lifetime, you can replay your life with a power of a click?

Now I personally know a few neurologists and mad scientists out there that are staying up late nights, drinking redbull’s, and devising ways to connect the brain to the computer and send and receive data transparently? Don’t believe me, watch this video before proceeding.

What if this “information technology “IT” was able to record the inputs from your eyes, ears and mouth? Obviously that information will be instantly saved to the cloud and readily accessible at a moment’s request.

But what alarms me is who is going to store this information. It can’t be one government, state, country. The world is too segregated by inefficiencies and the fear of the loss of power to any physical country.

But what if there was a new country, not bound to physicality, but its presence was in the air stored with no country boundaries. It will be corporate, an entity with a name synonymous with “one world” a.k.a Google <- Click the link for confirmation. This company will control and store all the world’s information per its mission statement.

As we evolve, as information evolves, storage limitations will cease to exist because the need to duplicate content coupled with the extreme compression of information multiplied by the ability to store pepabtyes of data in a device as small as a cell phone. (1 pepabyte = 1,000 Terabytes, or 1 pepabyte = 1,000,000 GB).

Zoom out, let’s come full circle here. Information is what we are, it’s the driving force of our current evolutionary track and soon someday we will be timeless not bound to any physical storage device or embodiment. We as a human race will be available through the cloud with all of our past (“conversations, thoughts, sensory memories and data”) readily accessible at a keyword search combined with your brains AI and emotional settings and triggers ready to compute new data it receives. Furthermore, we will be connected to others combining all of our information powering the central computer with new data to make available to others and thus your thoughts will be connected to your friends thoughts and understood correctly though the human operating system.

It makes you think that Information technology is what it is for us as a human race. Thus validating “it is what it is”. Most importantly, defining what “it” is. It = Information Technology.

Accept it, live it, want it because it is what it is, and nothing will change that.

I was recently given this beautiful painting with a strong symbolic meaning for my upcoming birthday from my business partner ReZ Sarmadi. This painting is a depiction of a wizard walking through a wall. As i have progressed in my life, one of my personal goals has been to align my intentions with my actions.  I believe by doing this one can break the mental barriers in which we all setup in our own heads and walk through walls and achieve what is on the other side waiting for us, which is usually the goal or dream that you attach to the journey.

I am true believer in the laws of the universe and the law of abundance.

I subconsciously ask for (manifest) things from the world as I have learned to better focus my energy to build my personal inner strength. Lately, I feel I am being rewarded for the path I have taken personally and the things I manifest to come to fruition a lot faster. These inner, emotional, physical and soulful improvements include ridding and optimizing core habits. Habits that otherwise led to inconsistencies and weakness in my core that would then lend to bad behavior and bad decisions.

I believe that in order to reach this higher state of being you must first find the truth within your self.  Some call it the pursuit of happiness. The Buddhist have a word for it, they call it “om”. It’s finding the peace within yourself and understanding and being aware of the negative voices that are in your head and focusing on the positive reinforcement from your loved ones.

While I am on this path, I was asked these five questions that I have been searching for answers for in the past few days. I will share these questions with you.

Being honest with yourself and taking the time to really think what you need in and around you is first. Then  by admitting your weaknesses to yourself, you will begin to see the truth and only then will you start the journey on the path to enlightenment and my friend… you too will start to walk through walls.

Here are the five questions:

1. What do you need to take care of your physical health?

2. What do you need to take care of your mental health?

3. What do you need to take care of your emotional health?

4. What do you need to take care of your financial health?

5. What do you need to take care of your soul?

I appreciate your comments and feedback.