Introduction
Money is always a hot topic. The question is…have you ever looked at money closely? Paper money and coins have a bit of history imprinted on the front and back. Take the $100 U.S. bill for example. It has a picture of Benjamin Franklin on it. Franklin was known as a universal man – he studied many different subjects and worked in different fields such as writing, invention and politics.
What many people may not know, is that Benjamin Franklin was a very early pioneer of self improvement. He set very elaborate goals and carried a small chart with him, so that he could track his progress. With so many interests, Franklin knew that he had to keep track, analyze his progress, and shift course when necessary.
When Benjamin Franklin had difficulty in making a decision, he put the matter to rest by employing the method of two lists. He would take a piece of paper and draw a line making two large columns. On the left side, he would put the reasons why he should do something and on the right side the reasons why he should not. You can use this method for simple decision making, however if it is a tough decision, you may need to strike
out answers that are similar on both sides and end up with the best answer on both sides. From there it is hard crunching time to get the best possible answer.
Give it a try for whether or not you should even make goals. On a piece of paper, on one side, write down 10 reasons why you should make goals. On the other side, write down 10 reasons why you shouldn’t make goals. It is highly unlikely that you will come up with 10 solid reasons why you should not make goals.
Now it is very probable that making and setting goals is something you
have decided to do. Why not put 100% into it and start creating your 90-day plan to crush your goals. The 90-day plan is perfect for anyone in business, whether you work outside the house or you run a freelance business from your laptop. The 90-day program is great for personal use too.
Clarity – What do you want to achieve?
Many people are unclear of what they actually want to achieve. They make blanket statements like these examples:
“I want things to get better.” “I wish I had more money.” “I want a better boyfriend.”
“I want a job that doesn’t suck.”
The statements above, are hopes thrown into the wind and scattered right away because they have zero weight. Take the first example, that the person states they want things to get better. This statement is heard all the time and if you think back, you may have said it one time or you may have heard someone else say it. The issue with the statement, is that it is not clear and concise. There is no way to tell exactly what the person wants to get better. Is it a relationship, a job, or their health that they are talking about?
In order for clarity to happen, a person needs to define exactly what they want. It is not good to say what they don’t want because of the way the brain operates. The brain will only give more of what you ask for and if it hears the word “don’t,” it believes you don’t want to fix the issue. Instead say the words, “I want and demand that my health is excellent.” This is clarity on what you really want, and your brain will search out ways to make it happen.
You can strength your clarity muscle by listening to motivational tapes, reading positive self-help books, and surrounding yourself with people who know and understand exactly what they want in life.
When you are not achieving everything that you want in life, you may feel discouraged. Don’t be. Clarity comes and goes. The good thing is that you can make it stay in your life on a much higher abundance. The way to do this, is to take stock of when you have lost clarity in your life previously. Make a list of the things that made your thinking muddled. What is on your list? Did you drink too much, eat the wrong foods, allow negative people to be the circle of friends you associated with most?
Once you have your list, look for ways to eliminate those clarity reducing factors in your life. Loss of clarity might be what you are putting in your mouth. At first that sounds funny but think about it. Are you smoking, drinking, taking drugs, eating junk food, or downing soft drinks all day long? Truly what you put in your mouth can save you or perhaps even kill you. Imagine what it does to clarity.
The power of the 90-day plan and why it is better than a one-year plan
Have you ever tried to work 8 hours straight, with no breaks and no lunch time? Can you even imagine it? Stop and think for a moment, how successful would your day be, if you tried that? In all probability by the 6th hour, you would throw your hands in the air and give up. It would be too much. You would be overwhelmed and tired.
While writing out a year long plan for your goals and actions may sound great, in reality, the clear majority of people would lose focus or become discouraged before making it halfway. We all know someone who at the end of the year, made a list of New Year resolutions, only to fall short of their goals and sometimes rather quickly.
Our brains have this bizarre habit of sabotaging us right in the middle of our greatest plans. The reason our brain does that is because as we start to implement our resolution or goal…we automatically hesitate. We begin to think that it will be a lot of work mentally or if we are doing weight loss, that
it will be painful to exercise. When our brain senses hesitation, it believes there is a big problem and it needs to protect us. The brain then starts to look for ways to shut down what we start.
When we set out a year long plan and then sit back and review it, the first thing that comes to mind is hesitation. We start to question whether or not we can reach these goals and we look at a year as being a very long time, when in fact it is not. We start to hesitate, and hesitation is a warning bell to our brain.
By breaking the year up into 90-day chunks, we automatically start to feel like our goals are achievable. We view 90-days as a short period of time,
that we can move forward with power and conviction. Our brain does not sense hesitation and stays out of our way. When we set 90-day action plans, we also need to put in triggers, that will propel us forward and not allow our brains to feel that sabotage is something it needs to do in order to protect us.
Chunking your action plan into 90 days will give you a clear and concise path for your goals. At the end of the 90-days, you can do a total review, make adjustments, and write out a newly revised plan.
Why 90-day goals are key to your success
In order to be successful, it is helpful if you can develop the habit of thinking strategically. Having a strategy helps you complete tasks with less effort. Think back to a time where perhaps you loved to complete puzzles. Your parents bought a super hard one and you dumped all the pieces out onto the table top and began fumbling around, trying to fit it together.
Strategic thinkers instinctively know the best way to do a puzzle, is to find all the outer parts first. The outer parts are easy to identify, because one side is totally straight. By building the outer wall first, it is much easier to complete the puzzle by working in towards the center.
When you plan your goals out for 90 days, as opposed to one year, five years or ten years, it is much easier to be totally clear on where you want to go and how to get there.
Remember being in job interviews and being asked, “where do you see yourself in five years or ten years?” If you are like most people, you were only able to give a vague answer because the timeline was too far out. You might have answered that you hoped to be a supervisor. What if the question had been, “where do you see yourself in 90 days?” You probably would have said that you could see yourself passing probation, being well on your way to having a grasp of what your daily tasks were and how to complete them… and so much more.
When you follow a 90-day system, it is not hard to envision what you can accomplish in a day, in one week or in one month. Your excitement level
will be much higher as you can see the beginning, middle, and end quite clearly. This is much more difficult in a year long process.
Your brain will feel the excitement and get on board, helping you to plan out the 90 days and then going to work each night while you sleep, to work on solving any little issues that crop up.
Having 90 Day Goals Will Change Your Life
As you have read this far, you are really beginning to understand just how important 90-day goals are and how your brain plays a huge part in your success. To further this point, ask yourself a question. Have your ever procrastinated? The answer of course is yes. Everyone at some point in time, puts off a task that they know they should do.
The big problem is, procrastination can be crippling. It can actually stall your life so that you cannot move forward with anything. You live life like a hamster on a wheel. You may have even heard a friend or a loved one say, “I’m the King or Queen of procrastination.” These are folks who have a serious problem but are trying to make light of it.
The reason some people write out their goals for a whole year, is that internally they are telling themselves, that they will have no problem reaching their goals because, “I have a whole year to get it done.” They have already set themselves up for failure because their mind in working in the background, telling them not to work on a goal today because they always have tomorrow. For those who actually do go back and read the goals they wrote often, its been found they typically start working on the goals about 90-days or so before the year ends. Procrastination wins
again.
Writing out your 90-day goals should feel fun and rewarding. After you complete them, set them aside just for one day. Coming back and looking
at something you have written one day later with fresh eyes, is a term used by writers. Now if you are not a writer, then think of it like this. Have your ever read a book or watched a movie twice? Gasp! Did you know that
many people re-read a book or watch a movie multiple times? It’s called using fresh eyes because we miss so much the first time around. When
you re-read a book the second time, you will always pause and say to yourself, that you didn’t remember that particular action sequence.
The same thing applies to your goals. When you come back with fresh eyes, you will find important goals that you missed or that you really need to elaborate on. Reading your goals over again, it’s time to really think about what they mean to you. Do your goals align your values and will you feel proud to have accomplished them?
When you read a goal that you have written the day before and it doesn’t spark any emotion, you need to really think about whether that goal should be there. Every goal you have, should speak to you, and have you ready to spring into massive action.
When your goals have a life and a voice of their own, then it will be life changing for you.
Real examples should motivate and inspire you, so let’s look at some. Network marketers are almost always people who want freedom. Freedom
from jobs that do not inspire them. One group of network marketers do this.
When a team member has finally reached the ability to quit their job and become a full-time network marketer, they all gather at that person’s workplace and wait outside with a hired limo. When the person walks out of the door for the last time, they are whisked away in a victory parade.
In these hectic days many people are turning to freelancing and some are even on a 90-day plan. When you have a skill that everyone wants, you can set up a 90-day escape plan. You set 90-day goals for identifying, contacting, and finally booking the number of anchor clients that you need to work from home. An example is, you need 3 clients willing to pay you
$2,000 per month to do the things that they either cannot do or do not have the time to do.
Now that we are fully aware of how life changing 90-day goals are, whether they are personal, financial or health related, it is time to get started on this journey.
How to start
The key to starting a 90-day plan, is to outline what you want and how you are going to achieve it. For best results, you should use pen and paper to start. Using pen and paper gives you the opportunity to be very creative and get your mental juices flowing.
In school, one of the ways teachers would get students interested in English class, would be to get them free flowing on paper. Students were told, write whatever comes to your mind, be it a short story, poetry or just thoughts that flow through your brain. Doing this on a computer is harder because your fingers are poised over the keys and your brain automatically kicks into, “this needs to be concise and perfect. Using a pen or pencil allows your brain to relax and let loose with ideas.
As you write out your plan, you scratch items out, free flow ideas and finally come up with solid plan.
After that, you can open a word document and type out your final 90-day plan. But don’t throw out your notebook that has all your free flow ideas, you may want to come back to them later for ideas.
To start, you need to make a decision.
What do you want to achieve in the next 90 days?
Do you want to lose a large amount of weight? You know that you need a safe way to do it and one that will also increase your physical fitness.
Do you want to write a novella and sell it on Amazon? You need an action plan of how to create the novella, how much you will write each day to finish in 90 days and how you will get traffic to your finished product.
Now that you have made your decision, you need to decide what the most important elements are going to be for you to work on. Remember it will be for the next 90 days, so these elements need to be top priority.
For significant weight loss, will you focus on what to eat, when to eat, what exercise to do? Having a main focus, will kickstart your action plan because you can see a straight path. Having too many focus points will make your path crooked and easy to wander off in the wrong direction.
For weight loss, you need to decide the top elements of what you personally need to do. Everyone is different, so really think about how you gain and how you lose weight. What have been the issues in the past? Start a list of what needs to occur, and it should be something like this.
1. Get rid of all the unhealthy food in the house.
2. Replace it with a supply of good food and healthy snacks.
3. Write out a meal plan for breakfast, lunch, and supper.
4. Talk to your family and make sure they are going to support you, not hinder you.
5. What will you take to work for lunch, instead of hitting the fast food places.
6. Decide what exercise you are going to do.
7. Pick a time for exercise and how many days a week.
8. Get rid of the scales in the house or have someone hide them. Use the mirror to see your progress.
9. Figure out how much water you need per day, depending on your body size.
For writing a novella or a short report (for non-fiction),write out your list of steps to take.
1. Come up with your topic and list out the chapters.
2. Decide what hours per day you can devote to writing.
3. How many words per day would you like to do?
4. Will you edit as you go or just get it all down and go back and do a full edit?
5. Who will format your book and upload it? Can you do it yourself?
6. Getting a great cover done? Decide how much you can afford to pay.
7. How will you spread the word? You need your own burst of traffic before Amazon kicks in and sends some your way.
8. Make a blog to talk about your book.
9. Decide if your book is going to be big enough to do a print version.
Now that you have a list of items that you can follow, you need to prioritize which is most important.
Go back to your list and put them in “must do first,” order. This must do first order should also include the elements that are going to highly motivate you. For example, if you are doing a novella and the idea of printing out your book, taking a highlighter and editing it…. causes you to hesitate-then put it towards the very last thing to do. If you have it in your top five, then it is very likely you will never finish the novella.
There is nothing wrong with doing a first draft, then a cover and coming back later with fresh eyes, to do a full edit. In fact, many people would start the number task as getting a cover done. They view this as a high motivation tool, since they can look at the cover and then visualize the completed work.
Creating Your 90 Day Vision Board
Vision boards have come a long way. Many years ago, life insurance salesmen would use single elements to help them visualize what they wanted to achieve. One idea they used was deciding how many sales they had to make that month, then writing the number down and placing it on the inside of their shoes. As they put their shoes on in the morning, in preparation for pounding the sidewalks and cold calling… the number they needed would be implanted in their minds.
Modern day vision boards are an extremely useful tool. When creating your
90-day vision board, think about where you can place in your house, for maximum viewing. You need to get your family onboard, so they understand what you are trying to accomplish, and they do not move the board.
Using a 90-day vision board stimulates your creativity and allows you to visualize what you want in life. When your brain is activated in this matter, it
puts out a call to the universe and suddenly you will find yourself attracting opportunities and new friendships that can help you achieve your goals.
There are many ways to make a vision board. You can do it in a binder, on large marker board or one of the big poster boards that the kids use in school. The preferred method for 90-day plans, is using a poster board. Here is an example of how you could make a specific 90-day board.
Your board would show a set of steps going from the bottom left hand corner, up to the top right-hand corner. Divide the steps in a group of three, for 30, 60 and 90 days. Highlight those numbers in red.
Use the outer spaces to place the photographs or images that you have found, relating to the goals you are going to achieve.
Images alone are not enough. Gather up motivational quotes or powerful intentional affirmations and place these around the images you have picked.
It is best to pick the images and quotes that you are positive will move you forward. You want the board to have all motivational tools you need but not so much that the entire board is cluttered, and you lose focus of what you are trying to achieve.
Now to make it really fun, buy some gold stars or something similar that can be pasted along the steps.
As you progress along in attaining your goals, mark off a step using a gold star. This works really well and even more so if you have a family. They can encourage you as they see the progress you make and the whole vision board idea will bring a smile to everyone’s face as it gets built.
Now it is true that not everyone is going to love doing a poster board. There are other methods that may appeal to you. Here are two:
1. Buy a good sturdy binder. It should have solid cardboard inserts with plastic sleeves. Create your board using an insert at a time and make sure everything is glued into place. This type of vision board is preferred by people who commute or have activities with kids, that has them sitting around for long periods of time. Using a sturdy board like this, you will be able to take it anywhere you please.
2. There are some folks that just adore putting everything online and the idea of pen/pencil or physically putting together a board, does not appeal them. An alternative is to create a 90-day vision board on Pinterest. You can do it all in one category or create different boards for different areas, like health, work, relationships or even finance.
Find images that really appeal to your senses. Pinterest is perfect for creative people.
Setting 3 main goals in each area of your life:
personal, professional, health
One of the biggest issues in the lives of people today, is that many have no idea why they get out of bed. In fact, many people hit the snooze button over and over, due to the fact that they have impotent goals or no goals at all. Getting out of bed, just to go earn a pay check and pay bills, is not inspiring. Yet the clear majority of people live their lives that like. If that sounds like you, then it is time for you decide WHY you are on this planet.
Humans are target seeking and when the ability to find a target and aim for it, starts to erode, then stagnation sets in. Children without knowing it, have targets, learning to walk, run, read, and have many fun friends are some of their targets.
In setting your top three personal goals, start asking yourself a series of questions.
1. Who do I want in my life and why?
2. Do I want to contribute to the world, so that people will remember when I am gone?
3. Do I want to grow as a human being?
As you start asking yourself these types of questions, you start to form a mission statement for your life.
An example of this would be:
“I want to love fully and be loved. When I give of myself personally, I get back what I put out into the universe. I want to help children become loving, contributing individuals that only desire to help others. I want to learn new things everyday and in this, I will grow into a better person.”
When writing out in paragraph form, the goals that you have for your personal life, you are telling your subconscious mind what your target is, and it will assist you in hitting the target dead center.
Professional goals tell you what you need to do in order to thrive in the business world. No matter what your career is, there are steps you must take in order to advance. Write out what you need to do in order to further your career. Examples would be:
1. I need to learn to communicate better with co-workers.
2. I need to learn how to put forth my ideas to management in a level- headed way and learn how to negotiate better, so that my ideas come true.
3. I need to take courses that propel my career and show management that I am serious about advancing my career with the company.
Without good health, your personal and business goals will not mean much. When you are unhealthy it impacts the ones that you love as well. Working while unhealthy, is difficult especially if you are in pain frequently. Health goals are why goals. Ask yourself why you need to change something about your health. Let’s look at chronic pain and see why you need to try and find a solution:
1. I am in chronic pain and I snap at those I love and those I work with.
It makes the atmosphere around us quite toxic.
2. When I am in chronic pain, I cannot do the fun things in life, with my significant other and my children. This leads to resentment on both sides.
3. When I hurt, I cannot perform the functions of my job and this impacts me and my co-workers.
Everyone should have goals for their health no matter what condition they are in. People who are in decent shape, can always improve their and with that, the performance in their personal and business live. Write out your top three health goals and how you are going to achieve them in the next 90 days.
Setting your priorities: Drilling down to the most important 3 goals
When you set your goals, not all of them will be priorities in your life. There are things that must be done in your life that are urgent and cannot wait. You must decide on what is an urgent matter and what is a goal. An example of this, is you have had serious stomach pains for a few days. It is urgent that you see your doctor right away. While this is urgent, it is not a
goal. A goal in health would be (eliminating) garbage food from your life and losing 5 pounds in 10 days.
It is a good idea to prioritize your goals. You must decide what is most important to you, before you begin to write out and start achieving your goals. A good way to do this, is make lists. Try making a list of goals in
each area of your life, from health, financial, spiritual, and personal. List out as many goals as you can but just describe it in two or three words.
Once you have your lists, go through each one. Start with the health goals and look down through the list and use the 1-5 most important weight. If losing 10 pounds in a month is not that important to you, then you would write the number 1 or 2 beside it. However, if you have tried over and over to lose weight and you can never get past losing a pound or two before gaining it all back, then you may want to put a 4 or a 5 beside that.
As you go through your list after assigning a value, pick all the ones that are a 4 or a 5 and cross out the rest. Now if you are left with only three goals all with a value of 4 or 5, then you only need to rearrange them into the order of the top three. But if you had a huge list written and now you
have 8 goals left with a value of 4-5, you are really going to do some heavy thinking here. Analyze those 8 and visualize what each one truly means to you. Then begin again, assigning a value and keep doing it this way until you have finally drilled down to your top three.
Once you have the health goals drilled down, make sure you have them highlighted so you don’t get confused and then move onto your financial goals. Work your way through everything, this is important so don’t skip any steps.
How to set SMART goals (into a 90-day timeframe)
SMART jumps out at you because it is in caps and everyone says that
when you type in caps, you are shouting which is rude. In this case, it is not rude. We type the word SMART in caps for two reasons. First of all,
SMART goals are extremely important, so getting your attention is paramount. Secondly the word smart typed in caps, lets you know that each letter stands for something very important. Now it is time to break down each letter and how it applies to you.
S=Specific. You are 100% clear on what your goal is. M=Measurable. You can measure your goal and track progress. A=Achievable. Your goal can be reached with your belief in yourself. R=Relevant. Your goal fits your beliefs and your desires. T=Timebound. You have a specific timeline to achieve this goal.
Now that we are 100% clear on what SMART goals are, we need to discuss how to use them in a 90-day frame.
The first order of business is to decide what your core 3 goals are. Let’s say that you run your own homebased business and you currently have 3 virtual assistants based in Asia. In order to reach your goals, you would do the following:
1. Explain your 3 goals and find out if your team is capable of following the directions to complete these goals. Then discuss the 90-day time frame and find if they have any roadblocks to completing the tasks in
90 days.
2. Ask your team to break the tasks down into daily, weekly, and finally month by month steps. Have them give you the actions they will take. Look at the answers they provide and then decide if you need them to work together on the 3 goals or would it be better to assign one goal per team member.
3. Once you have decided how the goals are to be designed, decide
how to reward your team for staying on track and then have them leap into action.
You want the best people and the best results. Sometimes it pays to have a little guide or what is sometimes referred to as a cheat sheet. This guide
will keep the most important tasks and goals at the front of your mind and allow you to mark off your successes.
Let’s look at an example of a niche marketer who already has one or two niche sites up but wants to expand and avoid going in circles. This guide can be adapted for personal, business or health matters.
Monitoring progress and avoiding pitfalls
Keeping on track is a habit you need to form. When you have completed setting up your 90 plan, you have to implement it each and everyday to be successful.
That means monthly, weekly, and daily reviews PLUS corrections and tweaks… This is very important to stay on track.
A quick review of your top goals before bedtime, will set your subconscious mind to work in the background. While you sleep, it will review all items and notice what is working and what is not.
When you awaken fresh in the morning, before you start your workday, pull out your plan and do a review of the day before. You should be able to quickly spot where you went off track. Make notes and then review your goals for the present day, so that you can tweak the area where you did not have success the day before.
At the end of the work week, it is time to sit down and review how you have progressed. This is where you make any necessary changes and decide if you should reward yourself for the weeks accomplishments.
Ask yourself the right questions. “What did I excel on this week?”
“Where did I go off track and what course correction do I need to do?”
When you do your first monthly review, you can ask yourself those same questions, however this is the time where you want to be very reflective on your progress.
Take note of how you are feeling in your regards to your goals. Is your self- esteem and your self-confidence on the rise? The answer should be yes. By using a 90-day action plan, you are dropping the idea of doing things by sheer will power alone. Will power only goes so far. Plus, if your self
esteem is low, then it is likely that your will power is almost out of gas.
The discipline of writing a 90 plan and reviewing it with the intention of course correction and reward, is directly tied to your self-esteem. Imagine how you will feel as you work your way through the plan and you are totally centered on becoming the best you.
At the end of the 90 days, you will realize that your stress levels have dropped. The reason for this is planning and following 90-day system keeps you on your toes and alert to where you are headed. It’s like going on a road trip. If you went on a road trip to a destination you had never been to before, would you consult a map or just go? Obviously if you tried
to just head out on the highway, you would get lost. Planning on a map, not only shows you the way to your destination but the items along the way that will make your trip an awesome event.
Since your 90 days came to a close, you have learned a lot. You can now look at your plan closely and see the areas that gave you problems. This
will assist you in planning out your next 90 days and avoiding some of the issues you had.
The mindset: making it your 90-day challenge
Your mindset is so important. We already talked about how this is going to impact your self-esteem and self-confidence. While getting the support of family, friends, and co-workers is important…this is really your 90-day challenge. Let’s dig deeper into how your mindset affects your ability to set and meet goals.
When a person develops a growth mindset, they are able to accomplish things they thought were once impossible. Having belief in your abilities is key to a growth mindset.
Scientists have shown that in brain plasticity, that pathways between neurons become stronger and indeed grow new pathways to outlying neurons, when new habits like goal setting are put in place and followed everyday.
Visualizing your brains growth and seeing these pathways as actually cables filled with powerful energy, will increase your brain power. Practise and asking yourself powerful questions about your daily goals and how to achieve them…powers up your brain and assists in growth.
As you start working on your mindset, ask yourself if you have any limiting beliefs about your ability to set and meet your 90 goals? If you find that you have some issues there, write them down on a piece of paper. Make a list
of limiting beliefs and then under each one, write out how you came to believe that. Was it something from your childhood, school or did something happen in your workplace?
For instance, if you have zero dollars in your saving account, you may have a limited belief in your ability to save money. Ask yourself how did that
come about? In many cases like that, people grow up in a family that struggled financially and there was always a lack of month at the end of the month.
When the person grows up and they find a good job, they may find it hard to save money, even though there could be excess. The brain kicks in and tells them, “there’s no sense in trying to save money, it will never happen. Go spend some money on entertainment and enjoy yourself while you can.”
When a person makes a concise effort to discover their limiting beliefs, it doesn’t take long to find out what internal dialogue is holding them back. It is then simply a case of writing out why those limiting beliefs are wrong and then implementing new habits which when repeated, become truth beliefs.
How to keep the motivation high
You may wonder why you have to work on keeping yourself motivated. The truth is, making goals is the easy part. Working on them constantly and reaching them can be a daunting task for some. Just ask anyone who makes New Years resolutions, each and every year and by the end of January, the goals they set for themselves are long forgotten. Everything worthwhile, takes work.
When you write out your goals, make sure they are yours and yours alone. If you are writing goals that have some bearing on what others want and expect in your life, it is going to be difficult to motivate yourself. You should be able to look at your goals and right away feel a sense of energy and excitement in your body, because the goals have true meaning to you.
While you want the goals to be a piece of you and not have external influences like your best friend, it is perfectly okay to feed off the energy of others. At work, surround yourself with positive people. Or perhaps think of joining a meet-up or something like Toastmasters public speaking groups. Groups like that are high energy. Our bodies are like batteries with energy coursing through them. A highly positive group of people with interesting ideas and passion, will ignite a fire inside you. At first you may feel a bit skeptical about this. But remember back to a time when you were in a room with a group of people who were unhappy. Perhaps it was a staff meeting and you were all waiting for the boss to come and give you a gloom and doom talk. Remember how tired you felt, how you slumped in your chair?
This is how your energy gets drained quickly. You definitely want the complete opposite, your 90-day goal plan is an awesome event in your life.
To stay motivated, don’t worry about what you cannot control. You have your goals. External things like news reports on crime in your area, are things that you need to let slide off your shoulders. Acknowledge what is happening and just let it go. Focus on what you can control.
While not allowing external issues to affect you, look for ways to fill your brain with positive images and stories. In your downtime, if you really must hang out on Facebook, make sure you are in positive groups where there is no complaining and people are trying hard to help others. There are many Facebook pages, that are 100% positive stories, motivational quotes, and tips to improve your life. If you “need” to Like a page so that it flows through your news feed, then by all means hit the Like button on those pages. An example would be “Power of Positivity.” This Facebook page is perfect for releasing those happy hormones in your brain.
You won’t always be on top of your game. This is the time to get down on yourself. Instead, to keep your motivation high, be compassionate with yourself. You do this with others, like your spouse and your children, so
why not treat yourself with compassion. When you feel like you messed up, stop, and place your hand over your heart. Feel the steady beat and breath in and out evenly. Quietly tell yourself and your inner child, that is okay to make mistakes and that you forgive yourself. Offer up that you will do better the next time and then move on. Forgiving yourself has a powerful affect on your nervous system. You must love and be compassionate with yourself,
in order to really pass that along to others that you love.
When we talk about being compassionate with ourselves, it ties in with the next item we need to discuss. Managing our energies, helps to motivate us and keep us moving forward on an even pace. Our emotional energy needs to be kept positive and this is the compassionate part, along with happy thoughts and staying out of anger. Our physical energy helps with our emotional energy as we keep our body tuned up and it is well known that physical exercise is one of the best ways to beat the blues. As those two energies hum along, our mental energy is kept at peak condition. We can think with very positive outlook to stay on track and feel motivated. Finally, our spiritual energy, gives meaning to the purpose of our goals. We look to
improve the lives of ourselves and others, perhaps even large groups of people like children with cancer who are in the hospital. When we give of ourselves, we give to ourselves.
In personal development, new ideas come along frequently. Motivation is talked about all the time and how to get motivated is a very common search term on Google. Yet many people still find it hard to get motivated even when they have read the articles or watched motivational videos. Here is a theory on why this happens, and you may find it helpful in your quest to achieve your 90-day goals.
In some camps it is thought that we have difficulty motivating ourselves because when we want to do something, we hesitate. When we hesitate, our voice in the brain begins to question if there is a problem? We will do anything to avoid pain, so if we are hesitating, does our internal alert system believe that our starting this goal mean pain? The only way to get around this issue is to come up with a way to spring into immediate action and not give our brain a chance to talk us out of it.
Do not give your brain anytime to put the brakes on. When you pick up your goal sheet, do not start thinking about how, when and why…. just start immediately and then tweak it as you move along on that goal. You can use an anchor to start. Anchoring comes from sending a signal to your brain to start into action. Here is how it works.
Imagine that running for 15 minutes, followed by brisk walking for 5 and then running again for 15 minutes is your exercise goal because the interval training is great for you. Get that picture in your head. See yourself
engaging in that action and at the moment when you feel the most pleasure from that image in your head…clap your hands loudly. Repeat this action over and over. You can then test to see if this anchor action is set. Start
your goal and if you are not totally motivated, clap your hands. This should send an emotional response and adrenaline running through your body and you spring into action. If not, go back and work on building that anchor. Setting anchors works for everything in your life, from getting out
depression to springing into action. Just telling yourself that it is time to be motivated and work on achieving your 90-day goals, will most likely be the pathway to procrastination.
Reward yourself for small wins:
monthly, weekly and daily
When you do well in a sport, you are often rewarded, and this motivates to you do better and be rewarded again. Examples of this would be placement in track and field, where you get bronze, silver, or gold medals. In the
martial arts, many systems award a stripe around the belt, to keep you motivated. After attaining three stripes, you are allowed to test and hopefully earn the next belt level.
Rewarding yourself for taking action on and achieving your goals, takes a
bit of thought. Your reward would be great if it was directly aligned with your goals but that isn’t always possible. When you plan your rewards but
cannot think of something related to your goals, then move onto pleasure.
It is well known that we do anything we can to obtain pleasure and avoid pain. With that in mind, when you struggle with a reward, think about what gives you the most pleasure. If your goals are daily exercise but a reward eludes you, decide what is next in line…is it music, books, or movies? Pick the best one for your circumstances. Is it music? Well if you reach a daily goal, you can reward with one song from your favorite artist. If you meet a weekly goal, you can download a new album. When you hit your 30-day goals, perhaps you could reward yourself by watching an entire Bruno Mars concert online. The point is to find the reward with the biggest pleasure and enjoy the benefits.
An example would be that you set of goal for a certain number of sales this week. You make your sales quota and you reward yourself with a box of chocolate donuts. This would not be motivating and would actually harm your ability to focus and stay on track.
We will take a look at some different goals and what would be good rewards. Everyone is differently, and these are merely examples that you can adapt to your own wants and needs.
We will start with writers who set their 90 goals. Almost every writer, is also a reader and perhaps even a book collector. A writer could purchase a hard cover novel of their favorite authors newest book.
When the writer hits their goals for the day, they allow themselves to read
½ of a chapter, no more than that.
Hitting the 30-day goal, the writer could buy a boxset of new fiction on
Kindle by an author they have not tried yet.
When they reach their 60-day goal, they could search out and find a book that they have wanted for their collection. They could purchase one book out of the complete works of John D. McDonald’s Travis McGee series.
Finally hitting the 90 goal and having succeeded, the reward should be big. It could buying Dragon Speaking Naturally software to enhance the speed of their writing.
The importance of journaling your progress
Journaling is very popular at this point and you can choose to journal in just a notebook or purchase one that has visual cues.
Journaling opens up your mind and your creativity. It is one of the best ways of confirming your goals… your desire to have and to meet those goals. Journaling works best when you have a quiet place away from distractions. Sit in a comfortable chair and if possible have some relaxing music playing in the background. Some people find a fish tank very relaxing and soothing as well. The mind reacts well to anything that soothes it. In
this case, you may be someone who benefits greatly from ten minutes of meditation. Or perhaps you need to connect with your Creator and offer your appreciation for what has occurred in your life. Daily mediation or prayer is wonderful for you and adding daily journaling to your life will give you clarity and gratitude.
As you begin your journal, it is always great to start out with a positive statement of what you want and expect to happen during your writing time. Here is an example:
“I’m free to release the positive thoughts and intentions of my inner self. I give permission to my subconscious to join the journey and allow all my positive attributes to flow onto the paper.”
Now before you begin, put your conscious mind into neutral. Begin to listen to the bass in the background of the music you are listening to or watch
one particular fish glide for a moment. Then begin to write down what
comes to your mind. Journaling is not formal writing. It is the flow of thought in regards to what you desire in your life and your goals. You should have clarity and focus at this point.
We spoke about gratitude earlier. Starting your daily journal talking about who you are grateful for and the reasons why, is a definite starting point. Write down what you appreciate in your life and why these things make your life blessed.
When you are done with this, it is time to confirm to yourself, where you have failed in achieving your goals and dreams. This is not a butt kicking session though and you don’t need to add a lot of color to it. Basically, point out to yourself where you have not prospered, why it happened and how you are going to fix it. As previously mentioned, you need to be compassionate with yourself and it should go without saying, that writing down, “I was so stupid today, I failed in this regard,” is not what you want. Simply state that you failed….”to eat a proper breakfast and drink the right amount of water and that will not happen tomorrow.”
Write about your 30-60-90 day goals and how you are doing. Make notes about what is going right and what you need to improve on. If new ideas crop up that are not already in your written goals, write them down and circle them. You can go back later and pull these golden nuggets out to use in your planning.
As you write in your journal, make very brief notes of what your big goals are. By repeating this process every day, it highlights your desires for what you want to achieve. It will deepen your sense of belief in yourself and your overall abilities.
Getting an accountability partner and other
external support (family, friends, etc.)
Having an accountability partner is a great idea. A word of caution though. You must be prepared to share your goals and get feedback. Some people thrive on this, while others find it difficult to have someone tell them where they are not fulfilling their end of the deal.
Before you get a partner, ask yourself if having a friend texting you and asking why you did not do the steps you said you would to reach a goal…is going to upset you. If you feel this might be an issue, work on that first. You must understand constructive criticism and be able to take it and thrive on what you are being told.
When you decide and agree to a partnership with someone, your next step is to sign a contract. This contract is actually with yourself, so when you make it up, post it where you can see it. Write out in formal language that you are going to commitment to your end of the agreement. Add in when you are going to email, text or meet in person.
Wondering why this important? You have to commit, and nothing makes a person commit more than a contract. Imagine popping out of bed and then thinking to yourself that you need to head over to the coffee shop to meet your partner. You look out the window and there is a light dusting of snow, so you start thinking of excuses not to go. Then your eyes focus on that contract, which might happen to be posted to the mirror you use in the morning. There it is in big black letters. It’s your contract that you signed, and you always honor your commitments, so it’s time to get cleaned up and off you go to meet your accountability partner.
With that said, the idea of emailing an accountability partner at the beginning and the end of the week, can be a huge boost in attaining your goals.
In your first email, you can talk about and reinforce what goals you are working on during the week, the steps you are taking to reach those goals.
At the end of the week, talk about your successes, what went right. Then if there were issues, talk about how you got derailed and what you are going to do to fix it.
Remember your partner will be doing the same with you and it is important to stay level headed but do hold each other accountable. Both you and your partner will be more motivated to work hard on goals because someone is going to ask you questions. It’s like being in school and knowing the teacher is going to ask exactly what you did in terms of homework. You would be motivated to get things done because you would have a whole classroom with eyes on you.
Accountability partners are like cheerleaders.
When you have success, a good partner is going to cheer you on and congratulate you on a job well done. This boost is something all humans look for in their lives. It’s ingrained in our brains from childhood. We all love hearing about a job well done, rather than being told we didn’t measure up.
Having an accountability partner outside of your family circle can be very beneficial. When discussing your goals and where you are headed- frequently the idea of networking will pop up in conversation. Your group of contacts should be different than your partners. In this regard, if during your goals, you find that you need assistance with learning a new computer skill, your partner may be able to connect you with someone in their group.
Sometimes in trying to reach your goals, you may have tunnel vision and not be able to see outside the box. Having a good accountability partner, means you may get feedback that you weren’t expecting. Suddenly you see new angles in how to reach your goals.
Still not convinced an accountability partner is a great idea? Studies have shown that if you have an accountability partner and you schedule/keep your weekly appointments, your chances of successful reaching your goals is upwards of 95%. Have you done your goals before and failed miserably? Don’t despair, it happens. Just dust yourself off and put the percentages in your favor by getting a great partner.
Having an accountability partner is ideal. Now we need to bump it up a notch. We all need support in whatever we do. Emotional support is essential to success. Being a lone wolf and trying to do it all yourself is a recipe for disaster.
Having the support from your family and friends is great but sometimes the items on your goals list may be private. They may be something that you don’t feel comfortable sharing with a friend or even your brother… depending on your relationship with him.
It is a great idea to get support from other areas and people who may be going through some of the things you are, in their weight loss goals or relationship goals as an example.
To help with this, search out blogs and Facebook groups for people who have the same types of goals as you do. Blogs provide a great source of articles you can read, and they share personal examples. Many blogs have free downloadable reports or tip sheets which may give you a boost on
your goals. You can even reach out and contact the blog owner for help. Most blog owners are excited to hear from readers as it validates all the hard work they put into their blogs. Even if they do not have the answer you seek, chances are they may be able to point you to resources that will
assist you.
Facebook groups can be very valuable. However, you do want to be careful what you share in the posts you make as well as the comments. Not everyone in a Facebook group has great social skills and you may get feedback that upsets you. If you do use Facebook groups, do it with
caution. One way you can keep things more private, is carefully scan all the comments and posts. If you have a burning question that you really need some help with, look at the people who always have something positive to say.
When you have had a difficulty with weight all your life, chances are that you have suffered from some form of verbal abuse and cruel comments. But you have finally decided, that today is the day. You are going to lose that 150 plus pounds that has been dragging you down forever. You set your goals, your timeframe and all the reasons why you want to lose the first 25 pounds in 90 days. We say 25 pounds as an example because you
certainly don’t want to set an unrealistic or unhealthy amount of weight to lose in 90 days.
As you look at your goals, you begin to feel uncertain, maybe even unable to blast off and get it done.
Looking at the comments and posts in a weight group on Facebook, you see someone who has the results you desire, and they are very positive on commenting back.
You can friend this person and strike up a private conversation. It is very likely this person is going to respond in a positive and kind way. They have been where you are now and know the struggles, unlike your friend who although they love you, can’t really understand why it so difficult for you to lose weight. After all…they have never been overweight, eating right and exercise is so easy. They just don’t understand all the issues you face.
However, your new Facebook friend has been there, and they respond back and start giving you the support you need, to get into action, lose the weight and keep it off.
Don’t delay, get right to it and your 90-day goal plan will be your partner in finally achieving the goals and success you have desired for so long.
Final words
Having a 90-day planner to keep you on track, hour by hour, day by day is essential if you want to make sure that you will reach your goals. This way you will alway know what you should focus on and what really matters. It will also help you keep your mind ‘set on autopilot’, all geared toward implementing the necessary tasks to achieve your goals
All the elements you need to create and achieve your goals in 90-days have been discussed. The ability to take action and create your goals and dreams is completely up to you. The power is within you and perhaps it has been dominant for quite awhile. Everything you have read, should awaken the dreams you’ve held for years, yet have not taken massive action on. Ready, set, 1, 2, 3, GO!
