Personal Greatness (How to Set and Achieve Your Goals)

1. Personal Greatness(How to Set and Achieve Your Goals) Steven A. Gedeon, PhD, MBA, PEng

2. Personal Greatness Some ideas based on the works of: • Denis Waitley “Seeds of Greatness” • Hyrum Smith “The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management” • Stephen Covey “7 Habits of Highly Effective People • Anthony Robbins “Awaken the Giant Within”

3. The Big Questions • What do I Want out of Life? • What are my Values and Goals? • How do I Achieve Happiness and Inner Peace? • How do I ensure my daily activities are in harmony with my values and achieving my goals? • How do I get Better Grades? • How do I manage my daily activities

4. The Problem • People feel Out of Control, Unhappy • People have Conflicting Priorities, Values and Goals • Time Management may let us do more, but will not bring us Inner Peace or Happiness • People have Regrets about what they didn’t do

5. Personal Greatness • Business Success is all about Surrounding yourself with Great People (and motivating them with Great Goals) • Personal Success is all about being a Great Person (and motivating yourself with Great Goals)

6. What is Greatness? • A Journey – Not a Destination • Be the best at being you • Figure out who you want to be • Have Strengths! • Things you are Great at • Average Goals and Effort will Produce an Average Life

7. “Seeds of Greatness” • You Always Get Out what you Put In • Plant Apple Seeds and you get Apple Trees • Plant Weeds and you get Weeds • Plant “Seeds of Greatness” and you get Great Individuals • Greatness is the Progressive Realization of Worthy Goals

8. Set Goals

9. Set Goals • The Cheshire Cat • The Reason so many Fail to Achieve their Goals is that they Never Set them in the First Place • By Failing to Plan – They Plan to Fail! • The Mind is like the Homing System of a Torpedo • It will achieve your good or bad expectations • If no target set, it will wander aimlessly and self-destruct

10. The Well Balanced Life Long-Term Goals Yearly Goals Monthly Goals Weekly Goals Mental Educational Family Physical Social Career Financial Community

11. To Reach any Significant Goal, you Must Leave your Comfort Zone • A Goal is a Planned Conflict with the Status Quo • SMART Goals: • Specific • Measurable • Action-Oriented • Realistic • Timely • An Unwritten Goal is Merely a Wish!

12. DAILY TASKS EFFICACY SKILLS GOALS VALUES and BELIEFS REALITY When Daily Activities Reflect Your Values, you have Inner Peace

13. Wisdom • Ensuring Non-Contradictions • Live “Without Wax” • To Thine Own Self be True • Integrity – Your Actions Conform to your Words • Honesty – Your Words Conform to Reality • Learn your Aptitudes (do what you are good at – ensure your Goals Conform to Reality) • The Importance of Principles • Don’t have to Stress over Decisions and Principles you have Already Established

14. Prioritizing • What Matters Most in Life Should Never be at the Mercy of Less Important Things! • Inner Peace = Serenity, Balance and Harmony in our Lives Through the Appropriate Control of Events • Being Busy vs Being Productive • Being “Efficient” vs. being “Effective”

15. Efficacy Skills (Achieving Goals) • Reality-Based Self-Esteem • Creative Visualization • Positive Self-Talk • Time Management • Responsibility • Self-Control • Adaptability • Persistence • Benevolence • Perspective

16. 1: Reality Based Self-Esteem • We must feel Worthy of achieving our Goals • We must feel Self-Esteem inside ourselves before we can give it to others or receive it from others • Unconditional Love and Causeless Value vs Rational Basis of Lasting Self-Esteem

17. Productivity and Self-Esteem Self-Esteem Event Control Productivity

18. Self-Esteem • To Hang onto Your Dreams: Your Own Self-Worth Must be Stronger than the Fear of Rejection, Failure, Criticism… • Fear of Rejection • Fear of Change • Fear of Success

19. Your Self-Esteem Must Ultimately Come from Within • Seeking others’ approval often pressures us into behaving contrary to our deepest values • When we seek external validation, we lose control over our lives • Don’t behave according to someone else’s values rather than your own • Whenever we accept someone else’s prejudice against us, we give them a degree of control over our lives • You can be happy and successful regardless of other people’s opinions

20. 2: Creative Visualization

21. 2: Creative Visualization • You are what you think, say, and believe about yourself (your self image) • The Mind’s Guardian (Reticular Activating System) • Your info filter – be careful what you give importance to • Most negative feelings and beliefs are stored, through habitual repetition in our right-brains

22. Core Beliefs • Deeply held, typically non-verbal, core beliefs have a powerful effect on your self-esteem and behaviors. For example: • “People are Basically Good” • “Technology is Dangerous” • “Humanity is Bad for the Planet” • “My Life is Important” • “I Need a Safety Net” • “What Other People Think of Me is Very Important” • “I Deserve to be Happy” • “Life is Unfair” • “I’m Stupid, Lazy, Ugly…” • “It’s a Dog-Eat-Dog World”

23. Core Beliefs • What are Your Core Beliefs? • Do You Agree with ALL of Them? • How did they get there? • Because we Believe them to be True, we will Act as if they are True • Stated Beliefs vs. Actual Beliefs • We say we believe things, but don’t actually do anything about them

24. Core Beliefs

25. Align Beliefs with Reality • If our Beliefs do not conform to Reality, then they are Wrong • Growth Means Change • Personal Growth means accepting that some of your Core Beliefs may be Wrong • Changing your Core Beliefs • Identify the behavior that’s not producing the desired results • Identify possible beliefs driving the behavior • Identify alternative beliefs that may produce better results • Predict future behavior based on the new beliefs • Use Creative Visualization and Self-Talk to reinforce better Beliefs

26. Creative Visualization • The Power of Visualization, Affirmations and Self-Talk • Who you see in your imagination will always rule your world

27. 3: Self-Talk • Your Self-Image Cannot Distinguish between Reality and Something Vividly Imagined • Self-Talk Statements Concerning Each Major Goal or Core Belief • Use Personal Pronouns (“I”, “mine”,”me”) • Present Tense • Short and Concise • Positive Goal Seeking, not Avoiding Negatives • Non-competitive, don’t Compare to Others • Strive for Improvement, not Perfection

28. 4: Time Management • You Cannot Control Everything – Sometimes you Must Adapt, Roll with It • Think “Event Control”, not “Time Management” No Control Total Control Sunrise, Death, Boss Earthquakes, Tides Other people… What I Eat, What I Wear My Reaction to Events…

29. Taking Control • There are Events we can’t Control, but we Believe we can • We Cannot Control what Other People Do! • There are Events we Can Control, but Believe we can’t • Interruptions, Time Robbers, Procrastination… • The Fallacy of thinking we’re going to have more time at some unspecified future date • The Fallacy of thinking you can save time

30. Productivity and Self-Esteem Self-Esteem Event Control Productivity

31. The 4 Quadrants of Time Mgt I II Important Not Important III IV Urgent Not Urgent

32. Planning Properly • Find a place that is free of distractions • Review the long-range goals – Put Big Rocks in First! • Make sure the number of tasks and time is achievable • Set specific daily goals for tasks • Anticipate obstacles • Prioritize your tasks • List all your tasks – especially non-urgent ones! • Give a Value to Each Item on the List (A important, B, C trivial) • Give a numerical Value to Prioritize (A2, B3…) • Character is doing what you say you will do • Character is the ability to carry out a worthy decision after the emotion of making that decision has passed

33. Daily Planning Leverages Time through Increased Focus • Take 15 Minutes each Day to Plan • Excuses • I don’t have time to plan • I already know what I have to do. Why take time to plan? • I have too many interruptions to plan • I feel “tied down” if I have a long list of things to do • I don’t know how to plan properly

34. 5: Responsibility • We become what we do • Character cannot be counterfeited or put on and cast off like a garment • Our rewards in life depend on the quality and amount of work we put into it • Delay immediate gratification for long-term goals • Happy people are Self-Reliant • They feel they have control over their lives vs. those who believe in fate, astrology, or victims of the system

35. 6: Self Control

36. The 7 C’s of Self-Control • We Control the Clock • We Control our Concepts • We Control our Contacts • We Control our Communication • We Control our Commitments • We Control our Causes • We Control our Concerns • What Concerns us Most is the Joy of Living!

37. 7: Adaptability • These are “The Good Old Days” • Problems are Normal in any Era • Successful people develop Mental Toughness, Strength of Character and Adaptability • Stress is a Normal Part of Life • Many Types of Stress – It’s how you Take it that Counts

38. Handling Stress

39. Rules for Handling Stress • Find your own purpose in life, that fits your own personal stress level • Racehorse vs. Turtle • Control your emotional level by recognizing situations as being either life-threatening or non-life-threatening. Respond rather than react • The Stress Savings Account • Collect the Goodwill and Appreciation of others • Humor yourself into Health and Happiness

40. 8: Perseverance

41. 8: Perseverance • Perseverance is the ability to keep working when things go wrong or the odds stack up against you • Winners Work at doing things the Majority of the Population are Not Willing to Do • Losers by Default rather than Defeat • Thinking you can is only the First Step. It takes years of perseverance to achieve success • Do the Tough things first and look downstream for gratification and rewards

42. Ray Kroc on Persistence • Press On: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. “Grinding it Out” by Ray Kroc 1978

43. 9: Benevolence • The World is your Oyster (What Pearl can you find today?) • The Explorer’s Premise • The Trader Principle • The Abundance Mentality • Think Win-Win • Share Power and Authority • Shares and Options • Be Nice to People! • Take Time for Empathetic Listening

44. 10: Perspective

45. DAILY TASKS EFFICACY SKILLS GOALS VALUES and BELIEFS REALITY Greatness is Being Proactive Self-Esteem Creative Visualization Positive Self-Talk Time Management Responsibility Self-Control Adaptability Persistence Benevolence Perspective WISDOM

46. 10: Perspective • Greatness is Ultimately about being Proactive • Integrated Values, Beliefs, Goals and Actions • Balanced Living • Being Great in All Aspects of Your Life • Living on “Someday I’ll” • Greatness is a Journey, not a Destination • You always get Out what you put In • Sow Seeds of Greatness!