Steve's recent article, and my own continuing Evolution of How I Do Things, prompted me to do a bit of research today into setting goals.

As I normally do, I used The Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal) for my research, collecting URLs and excerpts as I searched the Web. What follows is what I dug up this afternoon.

The information is displayed as I found it and copied it, with occassional excerpts and comments.

If, like me, you're looking for more information about how to set useful goals, maybe you will find this useful.

Goal Setting Research
http://www.topachievement.com/goalsetting.html

Goal Areas
Family and Home
Financial and Career
Spiritual and Ethical
Physical and Health
Social and Cultural
Mental and Educational

http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html


To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some or all of the following categories:

Artistic:
Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?

Attitude:
Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set goals to improve or cure the problem.

Career:
What level do you want to reach in your career?

Education:
Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?

Family:
Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?

Financial:
How much do you want to earn by what stage?

Physical:
Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?

Pleasure:
How do you want to enjoy yourself? - you should ensure that some of your life is for you!

Public Service:
Do you want to make the world a better place by your existence? If so, how?


"By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals." (from the mindtools page above) That corresponds to what I was telling a friend the other night. That while lucky is good, it's hard to take credit for it.

"Goals are set on a number of different levels: firstly you decide what you want to do with your life and what large-scale goals you want to achieve. Then you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals." (also from the mindtools article) That's something I've done (possibly) incorrectly, as well. Trying to build my goals from the bottom up.

http://www.mindtools.com/pggoalef.html
http://www.about-goal-setting.com/


1. Develop a DESIRE to achieve the goal. The desire must be intense. How do you intensify desire? Sit down and write out all the benefits and advantages of achieving your goal. Once the list goes between 50 and 100 your goal becomes unstoppable.


2. WRITE your goal down. Once it goes into writing it becomes substantial and starts etching itself into your subconscious.

3. DEADLINE your goal. Analyze where you are now in relation to the goal and then measure how long you will reasonably need to complete the goal. Then set the latest outside date.

4. IDENTIFY 1) the obstacles you will need to overcome, 2) the help you will need to acquire, e.g. knowledge, people, organizations. In each case write them out in a clear list and analyze them.

5. Take all the details of steps 3 and 4 and make a PLAN. List all the activities and prioritize them. Rewrite the list, optimize it, perfect it.

6. Get a clear MENTAL PICTURE of the goal already accomplished. Make the mental image crystal clear, vivid in the mind's eye. Play that picture over and over in your mind.

7. Back your plan with PERSISTENCE and resolve. Never, never, never give up even when you hit setbacks.


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Thanks David, I read some of the linked material, I'll have to return for more later. I think my biggest problem is that i'm afraid to set goals because I might actually follow through on them ;)

People were joking about the firewalk earlier, but I found "Personal Power" by Tony Robbins to be very good at not only identifying and setting goals, but rewiring your brain to help you achieve those goals.

A very good book in general, up until the part he turns into a vegetarian. Then it becomes a little silly. Just skip that chapter.

>A very good book in general, up until the part he turns into a >vegetarian. Then it becomes a little silly. Just skip that chapter.


Why did the book become silly when he became a vegetarian?

Vegetarianism is one of those hot topics that really divides people. Vegetarians feel it's their duty to "educate" and ultimately convert meat eaters and meat eaters defend their diet with a Charleton Heston-like fury.

Suffice to say there is no harm in becoming a vegetarian so it's basically a matter of personal choice. Since the writing of Personal Power many, many years ago Tony has dropped some of his earlier advice (mainly eating only fruit for the first half of your day). Of course now he's into the whole "alkalinity" thing which is even further into left-field ;)

What I thought was silly was Tony's approach to explaining vegetarianism. It was mostly anecdotal and silly analogies, presented as facts. Antelopes live longer than lions do, so obviously being a herbivore is better. Meat contains uric acid, so eating meat is the same thing as drinking urine. That kind of thing.

Book recommendations are good. Also, if you have any Web links that seem useful, please post those, as well.

New Years is almost upon us. Time to be considering the year ahead. :)

Happy Holidays!

-David

Right now I'm reading "Secrets of Self-Employment" by Sarah and Paul Edwards (the self-proclaimed "Self-employment Experts). Despite the schlocky-sounding title, I'm finding it pretty inspirational. It basically is along the lines of Steve's latest article, discussing the self-employment mindset, etc. I'd recommend this book to anyone trying to figure out where to start in their journey to becoming a successful indie.

FYI, being a vegetarian means you have to get your vitamin B12 (which is extremely important) through supplements or foods that have it added. Naturally it only occurs in meat, fish, milk, and eggs. Of course there are various levels of vegeterianism but if you eat absolutely no animal products you better make sure you get your B12 from another source. I personally have the condition where my body can't absorb B12 from food so I get monthly shots of it.

Some quotes from here (http://www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/supplements/vitb12.html)

Diets of most adult Americans provide recommended intakes of vitamin B12, but deficiency may still occur as a result of an inability to absorb B12 from food. It can also occur in individuals with dietary patterns that exclude animal or fortified foods....

Vegetarians who do not eat meats, fish, eggs, milk or milk products, or B12 fortified foods consume no vitamin B12 and are at high risk of developing a deficiency of vitamin B12....

Characteristic signs of B12 deficiency include fatigue, weakness, nausea, constipation, flatulence (gas), loss of appetite, and weight loss. Deficiency also can lead to neurological changes such as numbness and tingling in the hands and feet. Additional symptoms of B12 deficiency are difficulty in maintaining balance, depression, confusion, poor memory, and soreness of the mouth or tongue

Originally posted by kerchen
Right now I'm reading "Secrets of Self-Employment" by Sarah and Paul Edwards (the self-proclaimed "Self-employment Experts). Despite the schlocky-sounding title, I'm finding it pretty inspirational. It basically is along the lines of Steve's latest article, discussing the self-employment mindset, etc. I'd recommend this book to anyone trying to figure out where to start in their journey to becoming a successful indie.

Another book I highly recommend in this area is The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. He's also written many sequels. This book dives into the difference between being self-employed (working in the business) and being an entrepreneur (working on the business). It's one of those mind-expanding books that permanently changes your perspective about how to build a business.

Regarding vegetarianism/health, my approach to this area has been the same as any other -- experiment for myself and then judge by results. There is so much misinformation about health out there that it's very difficult to know whom to believe. Everyone has an agenda. The meat and dairy industries constantly fund studies to obfuscate the facts, as do the alcohol and tobacco industries. So for every study you'll find saying that meat is bad, you'll find another saying that meat is healthy. On the vegetarian side, the soy industry is also huge, and they fund many studies emphasizing the benefits of soy, at the same time the dairy industry does the opposite. So you have a lot of slanted half-truths on all sides.

About 10 years ago I began embarking on a quest to find out what diet produced the best results for me personally. My goal was to find a way to eat that gave me consistently high energy levels, concentration, and freedom from illness. So I began experimenting, trying various diets for at least 30 days at a time and measuring the results, both objective and subjective. Over the past 10 years I tried high protein diets, macrobiotics, eastern diets, mediterranean diets, vegetarianism, veganism, etc.

One thing that helped is I also looked into the diets of people who were already getting the results I wanted. I looked into Tony's diet and tried that for a while too. That produced excellent results, although I didn't find the "fruit until noon" part as beneficial as claimed. Tony's early diet was based on the Fit for Life diet by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond (who later got divorced). At least for me, this diet definitely produced good results in terms of consistent energy. I was taking Tae Kwon Do at the time, and I noticed an incredible boost in my sparring endurance and energy while on this diet.

Tony's latest diet is based on Dr. Robert O. Young's program, which can be found in Young's book, Sick and Tired, which I read earlier this year. This is a pure vegan diet based around keeping the blood alkaline. To me Young's research seems amoung the most credible because it's based on measuring and viewing what effects various foods have on the blood. The book is very technical, but if you can handle the science, it really provides great insight into the causes of disease and the specific effects of food on the blood. Seeing the pictures of red blood cells sticking together after a high fat meal is an eye-opener.

Recently I experimented with Dr. Young's diet, not perfectly, because it's a fairly labor-intensive diet, and I've definitely noticed major improvements the more closely I follow this diet.

Many years ago I adopted a lacto-ovo vegetarian, then later a pure vegan diet. I've been a pure vegan for about six years now. I stuck to this diet not because of reading studies but because of the specific benefits I was able to see in myself vs. when I ate animal products. Many of the benefits were no surprise... increased endurance, better alertness/concentration, greater strength, lower resting pulse, etc. But what really surprised me is that there was an increase in awareness, creativity, and intuition (sixth sense)... as if I was better able to tap into previously unused parts of my brain. My wife made similar dietary changes (she's also been vegan for six years), and she noticed similar changes. As we continue to refine our diet, we've been finding that we're becoming more and more "conscious." It's hard to describe, but some of the benefits are things like being able to read people's emotions and surface thoughts. We can do quite a bit of telepathy with each other, reading the types of thoughts that would be impossible to guess. Although we can't be certain, we both think this has to do with the dietary changes.

One of the more interesting discussions I had a couple years ago was with an ex-Navy Seal. He ate an almost exclusively vegan diet and said that the Seals were encouraged to eat mostly vegan because of the physical and mental benefits they gained.

As far as the B12 issue is concerned, there are vegan sources of B12, such as nutritional yeast or sea vegetables (I particularly enjoy many sea vegetables like toasted nori, arame, or wakami). The dietary requirements for B12 are miniscule.

Today my wife runs one of the biggest vegan web sites on the net, www.vegfamily.com. This isn't a site designed to convert anyone to such a diet -- it's geared towards supporting people who've already made the switch. She has various experts who produce content for the site, and things like the B12 issue have been covered in depth. But mostly the site is dedicated to family and social issues of interest to vegans.

I don't think it's possible to really understand various diets w/o experiencing them personally. For any evidence you can produce for a particular diet, I can produce a volume of evidence against it. And most of the "evidence" on both sides would be slanted to obscure the real facts. I choose to remain vegan because for me, the benefits are too obvious to ignore. I simply thrive better on this diet than when I ate animal products. And for my wife the change was even more dramatic -- several chronic health problems she had since childhood permanently vanished within a matter of days when she switched to this diet.

The mind-body connection is also an interesting area to explore. I've had some interesting results here, and I'm looking to explore it further.

So I say that if you're curious about other diets, try them for 30 days and see what happens for you and keep on experimenting and refining. I think it's entirely possible that there is no single ideal diet for everyone on the planet.

A big thanks to everyone for posting those excellent book tips. I would really like to see longer lists of what you all have been reading, my appetite for reading never seems to lessen. (I am currently reading about NLP through "NLP at work")

Regarding diet:
I have to chime in a few words about the choice of diet. I was on a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet for about four years, including my conscript service as officer for the Finnish Air Force. Even if my main task is in operations, we have high physical demands during the training. I found absolutely no problems with the vegetarian diet, much in line with what Steve said about his SEAL friend. I wanted to switch back to meat about six months ago and have been eating it since then. When I now unconsciously choose between all kinds of nutritional sources I still find myself tasting mostly vegetables, they seem to keep the energy levels more balanced.

I have gained the most from the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. It's about organization and workflow.

Sorry about bringing up the vegan thing and ruining an otherwise great thread. :(

I know it's cliche (now that he has an infomercial) but I really enjoyed Robert Kiyosaki's book "Rich Dad Poor Dad". It completely changed how I look at money, work and financial security.

I also read Getting Things Done (probably a couple years ago), and it's excellent... one of my favorite productivity books. Another outstanding book on getting organized (in terms of organizing your physical space) is Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern. She also wrote Time Management From the Inside Out, which is decent but not as good as the organizing book IMHO.

I got interested in NLP a little over ten years ago, and after going through many NLP books and tapes over the years, it's become ingrained as a natural part of my thinking. It does take a lot of practice though, and the tricky part is that you have to be at a fairly high level of awareness to remember to apply it. So in some cases, you may find yourself in a bit of a catch 22. I.e. when you don't feel like doing something, you often don't feel like mentally programming yourself to want to do it either.

Perhaps the greatest long-term benefit I've found from NLP is the emotional stability it provides. Once you master the techniques, negative emotions like fear, anger, worry, stress, etc. no longer get in your way.

Proponents of NLP can sometimes be a bit overzealous in proclaiming NLP as a cure-all. NLP techniques are indeed very useful, but they are just one bag of tricks among many. Sometimes I've found that when overused, NLP usage can delay the resolution of deeper, more important issues that are trying to surface. For instance, if you constantly feel anxious, using NLP can make the anxiety go away, but it may be better in the long run to find and understand the source of that anxiety rather than just trying to overwrite its programming. It's sort of like trying to fix a bug in a computer program by adding extra code to correct the symptoms rather than understanding and eliminating the source of the bug. In these situations, the application of NLP will often result in temporary changes that never seem to stick.

I have also found NLP quite rewarding so far. They seem to use the quite accepted notion of "You get what you wish for" combined with a sharpening of attention towards what you are really wishing for. At this point I would love to recomend one of my favourite attention boosters: "Everyday Zen" by Charlotte Joko Beck. It doesn't solve all the mysteries on earth, but it is enjoyable reading anyhow.

Personally, I think you're all crazy ;-)

"NLP usage can delay the resolution of deeper, more important issues that are trying to surface"

For more information on the misuse and bastardization of NLP see that Ross "How to pick up chicks" Jeffries guy.

Well...this thread took a direction I didn't anticipate... ;)

For the record: I'm not a vegetarian. But, over the past year or so, I've become much more conscious about what I eat. Part of that came from taking over the cooking in the house while my wife was pregnant, and then keeping it after the baby was born. Cooking has become sort of a hobby, though not one I'm pushing to extremes just yet. Still learning. I enjoy cooking, and enjoy trying new dishes, new ingredients, new techniques.

My current cooking goals for the New Year are:
* Create my own spaghetti sauce recipe. I'm on my way with this one, but I'm still building on various pre-prepared items.
* Create my own beef stropanoff recipe. Not quite as far along on this one, still experimenting.
* Expand my use of fresh produce.
* Cook full meals for most major holidays. Did Xmas this year, and while it wasn't exactly as planned, it was still really good. :)

Not very specific goals in all cases, but I haven't laid out a full plan yet.

Have fun!

-David

So nobody is going to comment on my "I think you're all crazy" comment?

So nobody is going to comment on my "I think you're all crazy" comment?


Sorry, I thought it was one of those rhetorical, stating-the-obvious kind of comments. Of course we're all crazy.