Goal Stetting: My Story

My Story
I was first introduced to goal setting in March 2004. At the time I was working in a sales job, barely scraping together enough commission to earn £15k a year. I was living in a one room bed-sit, hundreds of miles away from my wife. Our house, which I only got back to some weekends, was small - barely big enough for the two of us let alone for a family that we had been trying for years to start. And I had a beaten up car that was repeatedly broken into because the bed-sit was in such a poor part of town.

Worse still I thought I was doing OK.

A friend of mine recommended I try a tape set, part of which included a section on goal setting. I listened to what was said and with a good deal of scepticism humoured my friend (and the speaker on the tapes) and sat down to write out a series of goals.

Bearing in mind my situation I wrote down the following goals to accomplish in 2004: -

• I want to earn £30k
• I want a BMW z4
• I want to be able to live with my wife on a daily basis again
• I want to start a family
• I want to buy a new house with enough space to be comfortable

Some of you will be looking at those goals and be thinking, “outrageous how can you go from your current situation to achieve these goals in just one year!” Well all the advice I had received about goal setting was think big goals. But what I find interesting looking back on things a year later is what I have actually accomplished over that year: -

• My current salaried income is over £50k
• I didn’t get a BMW z4 – I decided to get a more practical 5 series sport (about £5k more than the z4)
• I now live back with my wife in a house that is about twice as big as the old one in a better area
• We had our first child in September 2005

For every goal I set, I met or exceed the benchmark. Not only that but, with the exception of our first child they were all achieved in about half the time I had set myself.

Far fetched? It may seem so for those not familiar with the power of goal setting, but to those who know and use its power these kind of results are commonplace.

Close friends and relatives have been astounded by the changes in me over the last year. They like to put it down to luck – being in the right place at the right time.