Most of us have dreams, missions, and goals, but few follow through. Why? Because we’re too busy getting distracted by the trivial and mundane.
The good news is you can control your mind; you have the power to focus your attention on what’s essential in your life. And when you do that, you’ll be able to accomplish more than you ever thought possible.
Whether personal or business-related, there are critical elements to goal setting that should always be noticed, especially if you want to turn your dreams into reality. To help make it easier for you, we have picked five must-read books for goal setting that will help you feel inspired and motivated to start making those goals happen this year.
Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide – Caroline Adams Miller and Michael B. Frisch
One of the most popular exercises in self-discovery is creating a life list: a brainstorming session where you list everything you want, from material items to skills to experiences. It’s a way to get a clear picture of what will make your life feel complete.
In her book, “Creating Your Best Life,” best-selling author Caroline Adams Miller presents an expanded version of this exercise. In this guide, she and co-author Michael Frisch show their versions of the classic list, advising on how to create a life list (including overcoming internal resistance), the importance of making it realistic, the power of facing fears, knowing when you’re ready to start living it, and more.
Life lists can help you prioritize by focusing on what’s important to you—the things that bring you the most happiness and fulfillment. You can use your life list to visualize your ideal life over many years. It can also give you something to aim for when life hands you unexpected obstacles: instead of feeling stuck and helpless; you continue moving forward, motivated by the dreams on your list.
The format of a life list is flexible. Still, it should include everything that is meaningful and important to you—everything from goals and dreams to aspirations and simple pleasures. Some people prefer to write out their lists on paper; others like to record them with photographs or videos. Others keep their lists online via blogs or other websites designed to track dreams and goals.
Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals—Michael Hyatt
We’re not fans of annual New Year’s resolutions. They are too big, too vague, and don’t consider the essential things in life that can’t be forced or planned for. We are a big believer in having weekly and quarterly goals to keep you focused on what’s most important in your life. But if you set one goal for the year, make it a specific plan that will take you where you want to go and leave a legacy for your kids and grandkids.
In his new book Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals, Michael Hyatt, who was named one of the Top 20 Most Influential Leaders in Social Media by Forbes magazine, shares his plan for helping people identify their top priorities and create a plan to achieve them. The five steps include
1. Discover your “why.”
2. Set specific goals
3. Develop an accountability system
4. Create a plan of action
5. Hold yourself accountable with milestones and rewards
This book is a fantastic resource for those who want to focus on their personal goals, whether in their career, relationships, finances, or any other area of life. The author provides straightforward tips that help you determine your goals and how to achieve them. He also explains how to set up your environment and mindset so that you can accomplish the goals that you set for yourself. Overall, this is a worthwhile read for anyone seeking concrete advice on setting goals and achieving success in all areas of life.
Big Potential: Five Secrets of Reaching Higher by Powering Those Around You—Shawn Achor
As a leader, you’re constantly faced with challenges. You have to be driven and determined to make things happen. You must be willing to take risks and push yourself beyond your limits. But what if there was another way? What if you could improve your performance—and that of those around you—by simply focusing on making the people around you better?
Shawn Achor is a big believer in this idea, which he calls “the ripple effect.” In essence, it means that making one person happier, more positive, and more productive will ultimately make everyone around them happier, more positive, and more productive. It also works in reverse: Making one person less happy and less effective will negatively affect everyone around them.
When you think about it, it makes sense. We all live in a social environment where we are affected by each other’s words and actions. Whether we like it or not, we can’t help but absorb the energy of the people we spend time with.
Achor has written a book called The Happiness Advantage, which explores these ideas in detail. He offers readers a series of actionable strategies for increasing happiness at home and work so that they can unlock the potential within themselves and their organizations.
Hard Goals: The Secret to Getting From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be—Mark Murphy
There are two kinds of goals, says Mark Murphy: Hard goals and soft goals. Hard goals are measurable, attainable, and have specific steps to accomplish your goal. Soft goals are vague ideas that you hope will come true.
The difference between the two is that; hard goals can be a reality because of the specific steps to achieve them. However, soft goals are not measurable or attainable because they need more specifics.
For example, if you want to lose weight, your hard goal would be to lose 15 pounds in 6 months by eating well and exercising at least three times a week. Your soft goal would be “to look great.” While your soft goal is admirable and probably what most people would want, it’s vague and, therefore, not measurable or attainable. You could say, “I want to look great by working out three times a week,” but that’s still too vague. You need to be more specific about how much you’ll work out or what kind of exercises you’ll do for your goal to be something that you can achieve. This specificity is the crucial element for any hard goal you have set.
The good news is that once you set a hard goal, you will automatically start working on it. Even better news: once you start working on your hard plan, you will begin attracting the right people and circumstances into your life to help you achieve your goal. This is Murphy’s Law of Effect – whatever you focus on tends to expand in your life.
The Power of Positive Thinking—Norman Vincent Peale
Author Norman Vincent Peale was a positive-thinking preacher who wrote multiple books about how thinking positively can improve your life. He’s most well-known for his 1952 book, The Power of Positive Thinking, a bestseller for decades.
In the book, Peale explains that everyone should have an optimistic outlook on the future and look at themselves in the mirror each morning and repeat, “today is going to be a wonderful day,” to help counteract their natural tendency toward negativity. He also stresses that it’s important to mean what you say when you tell yourself something will happen; you must do it intensely and with conviction. For example, if you’re trying to lose weight and tell yourself, “I’m going to lose 20 pounds by this time next month,” then you should believe that you will be able to do so by that time.
Peale believed that there were two types of people: positive thinkers and negative thinkers. The latter would always complain about things, while the former would see problems as challenges they could deal with. In other words, he believed that negative thinking would cause people to give up on things too quickly and become unhappy with their lives.
Uncover more secrets
Rather than reading a book describing how to set goals, these books take you through from the beginning to their execution. They’re easy to read, easy to digest, and incredibly effective. With the help of these five must-reads, you’ll be well on your way toward accomplishing what you want out of life. Visit us to learn more!
