So let’s look at goals for a second.  What goals should you set?  Who says?  Are your goals dependent on your environment? Your social circles?  Or are your goals decided by your higher self who seeks to enrich your life and give it purpose and substance.  The most important question that has to be addressed when setting your goals is NOT “How can I achieve my goal?” but rather, “Why should I achieve this?”  Or “What would achieving this do for me?”

This question is the kernel of your untapped motivation, for it will reveal the driving force behind your chosen path.  Answering the “How” part of what you need to do, and deciding on the strategies of action are the easy part.

Here are a few points to consider when setting goals:

1)      Know who you truly are and make sure what you set out to do complements the real you.  Many of my clients change their goals after our initial session because they realise that they were trying to be someone other that their true self.  That path is always doomed.  Just be yourself and set goals that are congruent with your values and moral compass.

2)      It’s much better to aim for a “good enough” result, rather than a “perfect” one. The “good enough” result usually ends up being better than the perfect one, particularly if our quest for perfection has stopped us from producing any result at all.

3)      Create a running movie in your mind, and see your goal happening.  For something to happen in your real world it must first happen in your imaginary world.

4)      Approach failure as life’s feedback on what not to do.  If you become more mindful of this, you will also become more flexible towards your options and try every possible way until you achieve what you set out to do.  If your strategy and approach is failing, you’re NOT.  Simply change your strategy until it starts happening for you.

5)      Break down your goals into easy to do daily tasks that can add up.  Remember, little changes yield big results.  “A jug fills drop by drop” The Buddha.

Until Next Time……….Live, Don’t Just Exist!

Call now to book an appointment and set the right goals for YOU.

Tel:  +44 (0)207 602 5477  taymour@guiding-light.net

The answer is rather simple actually and it lies in good time management.  Companies around the world are hiring executive coaches and time management experts to enhance the performance of their staff and improve efficiency, thus minimising stress and improving overall productivity.  Hummm, I wonder, do such gurus possess a magic pill that they hand out in their seminars that suddenly creates extra time?  Or ancient alchemical formulas they reveal to the selected few?  Perhaps a magic key to other dimensions of time?  No, nothing as dramatic as that.

The cornerstone of good time management is actually about being honest with yourself to identify your time thieves.  Time thieves can shroud themselves as pointless texts, emails, meetings, small talk around the coffee machine, catching up on childish gossip, surfing the net and even rifling through your desk.  In fact, some experts claim that on average we actually work less than three hours a day, and the rest of the time we waste on the above mentioned thieves.    Secondly, dedicating the first few valuable minutes of our morning to identifying our high priority tasks and low priority tasks can be invaluable as it will help organise our time thus increase our efficiency.

I have worked with some very high powered executives who have wasted precious time on small/low value tasks and later realised that these tasks can be like rabbits that multiply and derail your focus.  It is paramount that you identify what is worth your time, and focus on tasks of higher priority to cover more ground during your working day.  Even needless perfectionism can be the biggest time waster.

Since time management can be a broad subject to distil into this newsletter, let me leave four important points that Brian Tracy talks about in his personal success program.

The 4 Rules Of Time:

1- Time is perishable.  It can’t be saved, only spent.  So it’s vital that you decide what is of low value and what is of high at the start of your day in order to use your time wisely.

2- Time is indispensable.  There is a 10/ 90 rule that makes a lot of sense.  If you spend 10% of your day intelligently planning how to achieve your goals for the day, you end up saving 90% of the time you would have wasted otherwise.

3- Time is irreplaceable.  Time is all that matters in relationships, and how we express our love to our loved ones is by spending time with them.

Q: How do children spell love?

A: T I M E

4- Time is essential to achieving your goals.  By identifying your goals at the start of your day, or week, you’ll have a clearer picture of how to use your time to get things done and have enough time to play.  Working efficiently and productively is not always about manpower, but mind-power.  In other words, working smart, and not just working hard.

Let me finish off with a final point that is food for thought.  I recently had a client who wanted to finish his MBA without seeing a drop in the quality of his performance at work.  Within a 90 minute session, we identified his time wasters, eliminated them and suddenly created ample enough study time that was spent on completing his MBA.  His time wasters were, frequent after work drinking, excessive socialising and freezing in front of the TV whenever there was a football match or anything else that piqued his interest and distracted him from getting on with the task in hand.

There is plenty of time to do so much more, it’s simply about identifying what will serve you in the short and long term and what will harm you.

Until Next Time……Live Don’t Just Exist.

Call now for an intro session to manage your time more efficiently.

Tel:  +44 (0)207 602 5477

taymour@guiding-light.net