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Since 1996, I have led groups and individuals through a powerful goal-setting process with astonishing results: marriages, career changes, doubled incomes, published books, and more.
The two downloads linked from this post include all you need. Use the Specific Measurable Results (SMR) Kit workbook and podcast to follow the same planning method my executive coaching clients have long employed. Like them, you can create a more rewarding and satisfying life. Download the kit here: http://tiny.cc/smrs.
Fundamental to this process is creating from nothing. Most people, when they set goals or make resolutions, only pretend to be working on their future. They focus instead on their pasts: disappointments, judgments, and worries. Plans are all about what should change: weight, net worth, bad habits, society, etc. People drag their past into the future as though it were a burden that cannot be cast off. This is not creating a new life, it is just rearranging your junk.
Creating from nothing is not the usual way we think but it is possible and it is effective. Just use my SMR Kit workbook and listen to the 14 minute podcast (right-click to download to your hard drive). These free tools will help you create a future where your past is a memory, not mandatory.
Click here to listen or download to your iPod, iPad, or iPhone. If you use an Android or other non-Apple device for podcasts click this link.
For a summary of academic research on goal setting see this blog post.
This is the text of the podcast, mostly for the search engines.
This podcast and accompanying materials are copyright Tony Mayo, 2008, www.tonymayo.com (www.t-o-n-y-m-a-y-o.com).
Hello, my name is Tony Mayo, I’m an executive coach. Welcome to this podcast on goal setting, creating specific measurable results that you can use to manage your activities towards a more satisfying and successful life, not just your career, your entire life.
My name again is Tony Mayo, I work as an executive coach primarily to chief executives. I work with them and their teams on complex issues of strategic importance. I coach executives, businesspeople and elite sales people one-to-one. I also design and conduct strategy and alignment retreats or off sites and I train other executive coaches. I also create and lead small groups of chief executives and enduring peer consulting teams and I coach the members individually for performance and fulfillment.
Today we’ll be working on SMRs. If you’ve not had a chance yet to download the PDF of my SMR, goal-setting kit and guidelines, you can still participate in this podcast but you will need a few things. You’ll need a pencil and paper or a pen, something to write on; a quiet place where you can work without interruption for at least half an hour. Although this podcast lasts just a few minutes, there is some work you’ll want to do afterwards, recording your thoughts.
If you do have the SMR kit, take a look at the cover. You’ll notice it says Genuine Selling, the Learning Salesperson, that’s the name of my webinar for salespeople; but this particular process in this kit is not specific at all to sales. You can use it whatever you do with your work. Also on that first page it says property of … and there’s a space there where you can put your name.
The quote on the first page is, “Organizing is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.” Do you recognize the name of that author? I can almost guarantee you’re familiar with his work. Let me give you a clue. His son’s name is Christopher Robin and Christopher Robin’s favorite toy was a stuffed animal called Winnie the Pooh. That’s right A. A. Milne was the author of the Winnie the Pooh books.
Turn now to the next page where it says Dream Notes. That’s where you’ll be writing down your thoughts after you complete this dreaming exercise. For now put the pen and paper away, have nothing in your hands please, find a comfortable seated position, perhaps with your hands on your lap. Take a moment to relax. I suggest doing this by bringing your attention to your breath, just breath gently and deeply in through the nose. Let your chest expand, relax the abdomen and really let all of the air in; and then just let the weight of your shoulders push the air out through your mouth, perhaps with a sigh. Let’s take a few deep, cleansing breaths like that; in through the nose, expanding the chest, relaxing the abdomen, and then out with a sigh. Two more, in through the nose, expand the chest, relax the abdomen and then collapse back in with the breath coming out your mouth. Last time, in through the nose, expand, relax, exhale.
As you continue to breathe at your own pace, bring your attention to your nose, feel the air as it moves in your nostrils, visualizing it moving through your head, down the windpipe, into your expanding lungs, and out again through your mouth. Bring your attention now to your feet. Feel your feet inside your shoes, against the floor. Notice the sensation on the bottoms of your feet. Nothing to do, nothing to fix, just being aware of the feeling in your feet. Continuing to breathe comfortably in a relaxed manner.
Let’s do a scan from the bottom of our feet to the ankles, to the calves; and as we go, just looking for any muscle that doesn’t need to be working. Are you bracing your feet against the floor? Relax, let the floor hold you up. Are your legs tense? Let them go. Allow the chair to support your thighs, your hips, your back, your shoulders. Just let the weight of your arms pull your shoulders down. Unlock your jaw. Move the tongue away from the top of your mouth. Relax your forehead, your eyebrows. Just let everything relax. There’s no work to be done, just breathe and notice.
Notice the sensation on the back of your hand, the air against your skin. Be aware of yourself sitting in a chair, in a room, sort of pull back as though you’re operating a camera, watching yourself in the chair in the room in the home or office. Just pull back like you’re on Google Earth. See the building on the street, in the city, country; pulling back seeing the continents and finally the whole earth spinning, suspended in space. Pull way back to the solar system. The earth is spinning, revolving around the sun. Watch that earth on which you are riding relaxed as it goes around the sun. Each time around, one more year. Ten times around.
What is the date after the earth has gone around the sun ten times? The same date as today ten years out. Imagine yourself ten years from today? What would the date be? And on that date, imagine yourself happy, satisfied, content. Looking back over those ten years, thinking wow, it really worked out, things went my way. I’m where I wanted to be on that date ten years in the future experiencing safety, satisfaction, fulfillment. Take a moment. How old will you be on that date in ten years? What are the ages of the people closest to you?
Zoom back in from the solar system to the house you live in and inside that house to the room where you sleep and you are just waking up. It’s the first thing in the morning on today’s date ten years from now. You wake up happy, fulfilled, satisfied. Think, what is the house like ten years from now with the happy, satisfied you? Who else lives in this house? Look in the mirror, feeling good about how you’ve taken care of yourself. What are you doing on that day after ten years of success, fulfillment and satisfaction? What are your options, what are your plans? Where are you going to go? Where would you be working? Would you be working? Would you be planning trips, vacations, financial opportunities, family activities? What would the contented, happy, fulfilled you be doing ten years from now?
Suppose you were meeting with your doctor. What would you find out at that visit that would make you feel good about your health and well-being? Imagine reviewing your financial records, perhaps meeting with a financial planner or a CFO. What numbers would you be hearing that leave you feeling successful, satisfied, eager?
Scan around your world, the world of the ideal you ten years from now. Friends, family, work associates. Are there books you’ve written? Degrees you’ve received? Money you’ve accumulated? A business you’ve built? A family that’s grown? A cause that’s been successful? Just visit with your future world, the world that has you being happy, satisfied, content.
Just continue to breathe, let your body relax. Nothing to do, no place to go, nothing needs to be fixed. It’s perfect. You’re imagining your life as you would have it be. What are the details? You feel relaxed and happy and clear in your mind that how things are for you, it has you be satisfied, happy, content on today’s date ten years from now.
Take one more comfortable breath, open your eyes, pick up your pen and take some detailed notes describing how it is. In these notes remember, it is still ten years out. Describe it as it is, not how you hope it’s going to be, it’s present tense, not I’ve lost ten pounds; I weigh X pounds. Not I have more of something, it’s I have something. Describe it as though you were there reporting on it. I’ve just dropped by and I have asked you to write out how your life is that it is so satisfying and happy. You’re there, write it out.
Take your time, this is the end of the podcast. You can pick up the rest of the SMR kit on page 3.
This podcast and accompanying materials are copyright Tony Mayo, 2008, www.tonymayo.com (www.t-o-n-y-m-a-y-o.com).
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