To be truly successful, you first need to decide what it is you want to achieve. That is to say you can't very well get what you want in life until you have actually decided what precisely it is that you do want. In our case, and the reason for this book, the immediate "want" is to lose weight as part of a larger goal to achieve a healthy lifestyle. After the holidays, losing weight is a common goal of many that make it their New Year's resolution. But like most resolutions of the new year, after about three months it is business as usual and back to the old ways. Have you ever thought about why that is? In many cases your goal was not realistic or achievable. Or you did achieve your goal, but in the end it was not what you thought you really wanted. That may sound confusing right now but it will become crystal clear in my book. For an example, let's use a goal of "Losing 30 pounds in the next two months." Is it realistic and achievable? If you break it down, it comes out to 3.75 pounds per week. While you might be able to lose that much each week for the first few weeks, it is not sustainable therefore not achievable nor realistic. And was that what you "really" wanted? Let's look at how to write goals that set you up for success instead of failure. This is where goal setting comes in. In order to have a shot at living your life to the very fullest and achieving your full potential (a healthy lifestyle), you need to have a defined goal and you need to know what precisely it is that you want to accomplish. Easy enough right? Wrong! Actually, there is an art to writing goals. There is a very definitive 'right way' and 'wrong way' to write a goal. And if you go about your goal setting in the wrong way, which is the way most people do it, then you can actually reduce your chances of accomplishing those goals. That's right: a bad goal will actively hinder your chances at success, just as our 30 pounds in two months example. Conversely, if you write your goal in the correct way, then it can completely transform the likelihood of your being successful and can help you carry out all of the necessary steps to execute your plan. How do you go about getting a goal right? This comes down not only to the methodology and phrasing but also the content. Because there's another scenario that can happen if you write your goals in the wrong manner: you can end up achieving those goals and then not actually be happy with what you've accomplished. In this book, we'll take a look at how you can go about writing the right goals and then seeing them through... - How to know your life's purpose - How to write your 'mission statement' - How having a the correct goal and purpose changes everything and makes you more driven and more passionate - How to phrase goals to give yourself the best possible chance of completing them - How to maintain motivation and stick at your goals even when the going gets tough (and it will) - How to create an action plan that fits with your lifestyle and routine - The power of visualization and how it helps you accomplish what you want - How to maximize your chances of achieving what you really want - What to do once you have successfully established your goals By the end of this book, you'll have a tool set that will enable you to easily look at your life, reflect on what you might want to change and then carry out the necessary steps to make that happen. You'll be able to become exactly who you want to be and create precisely the lifestyle you want to lead. And when you've done all that, life will suddenly start to make a lot more sense.
About the Author: I grew up in Central Minnesota, where my parents owned and operated a fishing resort. Once out of high school I tried a couple of semesters of college, only to quit halfway through the Spring term; I decided at that time that college wasn't for me. Then I decided to follow my father's previous occupation as an auto mechanic. I graduated from a two-year of vocational training course and worked as a mechanic for five years. While in vocational training, I decided to join the National Guard where I eventually ended up working full-time for 32 years. So how does all of this relate to writing? In one of my leadership schools, the instructor, who was an English teacher at a juvenile detention center, presented writing to me in a whole new way - a way that started to develop my interest in working with words. I eventually went back to college on the GI Bill while I was working and earned my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. Taking a class or two per semester at night and on weekends took me seven years to complete my degree. Fast forward about 40 years and I now have published over 100 books on Amazon for Kindle, CreateSpace and other publishing platforms. Besides my own writing, I also ghostwrite ebooks, books, reports, articles, blogs and do Kindle conversions for clients on a variety of topics. Today my wife and I are retired from our careers and live in Gold Canyon, AZ. I now write as a retirement business where you'll find me happily sitting in my office typing away on my laptop as I work on my next book or ghostwriting project . . . that is if we are not traveling on a cruise ship - our new-found mode of travel.