Accomplishing Life Goals

Accomplishing Life Goals

What is a Life Goal?
How do I accomplish it?
How do I maintain it after I reach it?

GLY was created to help you accomplish your Life Goals

So what are Life Goals?

 

Let’s start out by saying Life Goals are much more than only a personal change for the better.
There are 7 important and very doable steps needed to accomplish any Life Goal.
It’s all based on the equation below.

(What, an equation? Bare with me …
I’m an Engineer, I can’t help myself!)

🙄

The Life Goal Equation

Life Goal =
(Love for Yourself
+ Love for Other People + Love for God)
X
(A Dream + The Plan
+ Determine the Resources + Schedule + Decide Take Action)

So a Life Goal put simply is “Love x Effort”

This tells us without Love or without Effort no enduring Life
Goal can be accomplished.

In Math terms:
(No Love) X Effort = Love X (No Effort) = 0 (Nothing)

Love for Yourself AND for Other People AND for God is the Infinite Source of Power
required to successfully accomplish and maintain any Life Goal.

And Effort is a straightforward series of choices and actions that we must choose to make.

 

Did you notice two more things about the Life Goal Equation?

1) Your Love and Effort together Amplify, Magnify, Build-up, and Strengthen each other, helping you create your Life Goal.

Your Love amplifies
the power of your Effort.

And Your Effort amplifies
the power of your Love.

Working together Love and Effort form a Power to accomplish your Life Goals that is many times greater than either alone.

2) The Life Goal is about you and about Other People and about God. The Life Goal is not for you alone.

This simple equation ‘says’ a LOT.

Here are the
7 Steps to Creating, Achieving and Maintaining Life Goals

  • First Step: Love for yourself coupled with Love for other people plus Love for God
    • Love is the infinite power required to accomplish any Life Goal. Love amplifies everything you’ll do and multiplies the power of all the resources you’ll need to accomplish your goals. Choose to believe this. You’ll be so glad you did.
    • Love provides the energy to accomplish and maintain your Life Goals. What good is a goal if you reach it only to let it slip away?
    • Loving yourself and others is not complex or hard. It’s simpler than all of us often make it out to be. It’s simply realizing “Life is what it is.” We’ll get into how to do this without letting your feelings trip you up. Future posts will cover this.
      • Loving yourself and others is accepting
        • Where you and everyone else has been in the Past
        • The Past is gone.
        • Today is today, now, this moment.
        • Tomorrow isn’t even here yet.
        • Where you and everyone you Love are right now in your Lives.
    • Without this acceptance of reality you will find yourself constantly fighting in your own mind: yourself, others, the no-longer existing Past, and Present situations you have no control over. Huge wastes of your time and effort that can be best directed toward accomplishing your Life Goal.
    • This Love-fueled effort of acceptance makes it possible for you to move forward more powerfully toward your Life Goal.

       

  • Second Step: A Dream about what specifically can be a Positive in your Life and in the Lives of those you Love. Or Dream about specific ways you can help others. Or Dream about specific ways you can serve others, i.e. serve God.
    • Being specific helps you focus on what you really need more than what you want.
    • Take time to Pray about your Dream. Ask God to give you the Grace to see His Dream for you in this specific area and the Grace to help you accept His Dream for you as your own Dream.
    • Love then encourages you to take your Dream and move to the next Step.

       

  • Third Step: The Plan
    • Before you can accomplish ANY goal, you will want to take your Dream and write or draw a brief outline Plan of what your Life Goal is.
      • Put your outline either in words or drawn as a picture, whichever is easiest, more fun for you
      • The time you spend in this step “pays” for itself many times over.
      • I’ve seen companies that will not put in the extra efforts to properly plan their projects, to think them through in detail, consider alternative plans and options. The result is confusion, frustration, cost overruns, schedule delays, unhappy Employees and unhappy Customers, plus poorly documented end products that are often not as reliable as they could have been. And when the products fail or have a low manufacturing yield, it’s a fire drill of finger pointing to blame the “other guy.”
    • Focus on one specific Life Goal. After you write it down or draw it out, narrow it down even further. Refine the image you’re creating of your Life Goal.
      • An excessively large, non-specific, ‘multiple goals’ Life Goal, i.e. a “shotgun Life Goal” that cannot be accomplished is often a way of intentionally defeating yourself.
      • It’s you giving yourself an excuse, permission, making it “Ok” to tell yourself, to even prove to yourself you (1) could never accomplish your Life Goal(s), (2) you don’t deserve to reach that Life Goal, (3) “Your life sucks!”
      • Bottom line – by setting yourself up for defeat you are proving to yourself no one actually Loves you. Why? Because you are not Lovable. Why? Because you are a failure. IT’S NOT TRUE! You are ONLY a Failure when you refuse to Learn from the times you don’t Win.
    • In Life you can only be one of 3 types of people: a Winner, or a Learner, or a Failure. That’s it. I learned this years ago and had it repeated to me by a teenager I study Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and Brazilian Jujitsu (BJJ) with.
      • When he wins an MMA or BJJ match he’s excited. 
      • When he loses a match he chooses to learn valuable lessons (plural) from the match. He learns even from the matches he wins.

      • He applies all these valuable lessons, win or learn, to future matches. As a result he wins a LOT of matches. He still loses a few. One very mature, very hard working young man.

      • Refusing to Learn from a Loss is true Failure. Refusing to Fail from the Loss results in true Learning.

    • Ask yourself what Efforts it will take to accomplish your Life Goal. Write or draw a list. Refine it. Get your list down to the specific Need, not just an “out there somewhere” Want.
    • What Efforts it will take to maintain your Life Goal after you have accomplished it. This is just as important as achieving your Life Goal. What good is accomplishing a Life Goal only to let it disappear? Again write or draw a list. Refine it.
    • Taking a comparatively small amount of time at the very beginning to write or draw the Plan for your Life Goal is a critical step.
      • Compared to wandering aimlessly, wasting your valuable time, efforts, and maybe even money without having created this road map at the start.
    • Leaving a Plan floating around in stray brain cells can lead to
      • Continuous changes piled on top of changes, confusion, frustration
      • Miss-directions resulting from forgetting details or being swayed by a mood or situation
      • Just dropping the Life Goal altogether because the Life Goal never stops changing and growing out of control.
    • It’s far better to accomplish part of a Life Goal than hide behind constantly improving the Plan and never taking the next steps.

  • Fourth Step: Determine the Resources needed to make your written Plan a reality. Resources like
    • Attending a weekend event or classes offered by a reliable person or group with a real track record
      • Strengthening and building an even happier Marriage
      • Healing a hurting and damaged Marriage
      • Building positive, self-reliant children
      • Financial stability, … the list goes on
    • Literature and videos on the topic of this specific Life Goal
      • Books
      • DVD’s
      • CD’s
      • Radio Station Hosts who specialize in helping people accomplish your specific Dream
      • On-line tutorials – YouTube, company websites. We’ll pass  along a number of amazing resources.
    • Professional help – Please note: I DO NOT OFFER PROFESSIONAL HELP IN ANY FORM
      • Medical – are physical illness or other physical issues, physical pain interfering in your Life
      • Psychiatric – are mental issues in the way, for example Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Depression, Anxiety, Stress, … .

          

  • Fifth Step: Schedule – put together a realistic timeline to accomplish your Life Goal
    • Pick a Start Date. Get a calendar and mark that date.
    • Establish several major milestones along the path to help you see progress toward your Life Goal
      • Milestones help you keep up the schedule’s pace and encourage you by showing you your successes
      • Mark the milestones on your calendar. Check them off as you make that milestone.
    • Based on the resources, dates of classes, how long a book will take to read, figure out a Finished Date
      • Mark your Finish Date on your calendar
      • Be realistic, neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic.

         

  • Sixth Step: Decide to follow your Schedule consistently.
    • Do something … anything … each and every day
    • This Decision is your commitment to yourself and to those you Love, including God
    • Don’t take too much time making your Decision by continuously refining your Dream down to the minutia
    • Quotes from General George Patton, a famous US Army General in WWII, made many excellent quotes on leadership, planning, God, decision making and much more:
      • “…an imperfect plan implemented immediately … will always succeed better than a perfect plan.”
      • “There are three ways that men get what they want; by planning, by working, and by praying. Any great military operation takes careful planning, or thinking. Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out: that’s working. But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God. God has His part, or margin in everything, That’s where prayer comes in.”
      • “Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.”
      • “Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy.”
      • “Often I have encountered in life that great disappointments have proved to be the road to future successes.”
      • “Plans must be simple and flexible….They must be made by the people who execute them.”
      • “Don’t fall victim to what I call the ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome. You must be willing to fire.”
      • “When a decision has to be made, make it. There is no totally right time for anything.”
      • “The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That’s the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!”
      • “Successful generals make plans to fit circumstances, but do not try to create circumstances to fit plans.”
    • Decisions are powerful, not to be made or taken lightly. Your Decisions are the exercise of your Free Will.

  • Seventh Step: Take Action
    • Even the worst Plan has some success when it’s put into play.
    • Just think what your well thought out, well prepared Plan will do!
    • Your actions are making a Positive Life Change you choose to make in your own Life. But not just for yourself, also for those you Love.

Recap

A Life Goal is first loving yourself as seen by your acceptance of Life as it is. This acceptance makes it possible for you to Dream of a Life Goal, and couple that with a Plan. The Plan is used to base your decisions on Resources and Schedule.

Those decisions may include taking a new or different action, or taking no action at all. Or it’s a decision to change your way of seeing and thinking about something that does not or will not change. Deciding to change your response to something you don’t control. All meant to Improve and Enhance not just your Life but also the Lives of those you Love.

At GLY we present you with people, methods, and tools that Kris and I found still help us today to improve our Lives, our Finances, and our Family & Marriage.

We’ll combine that with what we’ve learned plus provide you with many tips and tricks we’ve picked up along the way. All which we believe will help you just like they help us and others we Love.

You won’t want to just reach the Life Goal, you will refuse to let ‘things go back to the way they were.’ Why? Because your Life Goal is not only about you. It’s also about those you Love.

This is True Love.

You might ask “Why do I need a Plan?”

Let’s say you’re the world’s best House Builder – You Build Amazing Houses

See that plot of bare land over there? Build a house right there.

One problem. You don’t have a house plan. How big is the house, what shape, where is it positioned on the land? How many rooms, where are they placed, closets, stairs, doorways, hallways, … . Don’t forget lights. Water goes in there somewhere, too.

Probably need a shower or bathtub otherwise the neighbors will complain. Oops, forgot the garage for 1 or 2 cars, maybe 3. Attached? Oh and put in some windows. A front door would be nice.

Now get people to do the work. Schedule when they each show-up to do their work. Kicking off the project.

This is not a house I’d buy. You?

Without a Plan and following the steps outlined above you’re left only with a Dream, never reaching a Life Goal.


Intentionally taking the necessary extra time up-front to plan your Life Goal will accomplish several things for you:

  • More clearly show you what you’re building – your Life, a Marriage, a Family. Putting critically important pictures of your goal in your mind. Establish targets that aren’t moving and changing all the time. But which can be adapted as necessary.
  • Help you realize and look for the resources you’ll need to reach your goal. Answer questions like – Will you need to give up something? Consistently spend scheduled time every day on your goal? Find resources: books, CD’s, DVD’s, presentations, conferences, … ? Search out additional help – family, friends, maybe even professional help which I do not offer or provide!
  • Help you establish a timeline for your Life Goal so you establish an urgency to attaining it. You won’t let things drag forever. In other words, you’ll reach your Life Goal.
  • The Life Goal you’ll reach will be very close to what you envisioned at the beginning.
  • Possibly save you Money, Time, Confusion and antacid tablets.

Will you reach your Life Goals?
It depends on you. We’re here to help.

Will you be closer to attaining what you truly need in your Life Goal after you first plan the Goal? I’m sure of it.

Let’s get started!

Helping Damaged or Failing Marriages

Helping Damaged or Failing Marriages

Kris and I work with

a wonderful and very dedicated group of people to help save marriages that are hurting terribly or in serious trouble, even failing. This same group helped us when we desperately needed it. So now we work with them to help save other marriages. This international group is called Retrouvaille, pronounced re-trō-vī, French for “rediscovery.”

Retrouvaille is a World-wide Christian Peer Ministry made up of Couples who have been where you are or worse. We Healed and Renewed our Marriages with work using the communications tools and insights we learned in Retrouvaille, and without question with God’s Help.

Although Retrouvaille is Catholic in origin and orientation it is open to all married couples regardless of religious, or lack of religious background.

 

Retrouvaille had its Beginnings in the Province of Quebec, Canada in 1977

The first Weekend program was presented to French-speaking couples. Later it was translated into English by the Retrouvaille community of Toronto who also strengthened the contents and developed the Post-Weekend phase.

In 1982, the Toronto community began sharing the program with other communities throughout Canada and the United States. From there it spread.

Retrouvaille communities now actively serve world-wide: most of the United States, many provinces of Canada, Central and South America, Africa, Europe, Mexico, the Western Pacific region (Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the Philippines), and the Caribbean region (Cuba and Trinidad).

As of 2016 Retrouvaille is officially recognized by the Vatican as a ministry within the Roman Catholic Church.

There is no attempt to convert anyone to or from any religious beliefs. The sole purpose of Retrouvaille is to save marriages. Yes, we believe God is the Power within our Marriages and Families, keeping them alive, healthy and growing stronger.

Our Seattle Retrouvaille Group as well as All Retrouvaille Groups World-wide

are made up of unpaid Volunteer Couples who have already been through Retrouvaille themselves to save, rebuild and strengthen their own marriages. We’ve been very highly trained to make our presentations consistent and in-line with Retrouvaille International‘s guidelines.

Retrouvaille of Seattle is affiliated with Retrouvaille International. The information and ideas expressed on our Seattle website are not reviewed or endorsed by Retrouvaille International.

 

So why do we do this?

We are grateful for our renewed marriages, our new and better communications skills, and new insights that help us see things in much better, clearer ways. We also want to associate with other couples working to continuously build-up and strengthen their marriages. People we consider Family. And we want to share the Gifts we received from God through Retrovaille with others who are where we were.

 

Welcoming you to the Growing Less Young “GLY Life Blog”

Welcoming you to the Growing Less Young “GLY Life Blog”

This is the First Growing Less Young (GLY)
GLY Life Blog Post
(GLY is pronounced ‘GLEE’)

A Very Brief, High-Level Overview of What GLY is About

My Lovely Wife, Kris, and www.GrowingLessYoung.com growing less young with me.
Mike and Kris Andrews – The Creators of GLY

 

“Life is what it is.”
I’m not being harsh here, just honest

We all have many Life Choices we make every single day.

Growing Older is a Life Choice
Growing Less Young is a Life Choice

What Life do you Choose now, this today, this minute – for the rest of your Life?

My wife Kris and I will share what we’ve learned and continue to learn about Life, Love, God, Family and Country.
Including resources, insights, techniques, plus what worked and what didn’t work for us on a number of important aspects of Life we all face.
We’ll also share from others whom we highly respect. People who have also successfully navigated sometimes serious ups-and-downs in their Lives.

GLY’s topics include but are not limited to (meaning this is the tip of the iceberg):

  • Growing through and surviving “Life stages”
    • The dreaded Teen Years – The “What was that?” years
      • Understanding the world around you while trying to understand yourself

      • Trying to understand your parent

      • Peer pressures, drugs, school, fitting-in, … and much more

    • Young Adult Years – The “What’s going on and what’s coming next?” years
      • School, College or Trade School or Job
      • Future jobs (plural)
      • Dealing with people in the workplace
      • Enjoying Life while trying to keep your head above water
    • Adult Years – Life Decisions and more
      • Engagement – what to consider, questions to ask your loved one and yourself, answers to thoughtfully come up with
      • Marriage – much more to consider, more questions to ask and answer. This is one reason Engagement is such an important step.
      • Children – PROOF that God has a sense of humor
      • Deciding to not get married and have children
    • Empty-nest – Exciting at first but can get pretty quiet. Grandchildren?
  • As you age – Health, finances, changes you can’t control, …

     

  • Speaking of Finances – Finances are more than just money!
    • Planning your finances, plus sharing some of our own financial ups and downs, some successful, some not so much
    • Simple, creative ways to $ave money – kind of fun!
    • Making money from home – exciting work
    • Preparing for retirement, a long term effort. Hint: don’t wait until you retire.
  • Dealing with parents – No matter their age or yours
    • Dealing with parents while you’re young
    • Dealing with parents as they age
    • Dealing with the loss of a parent
  • Plus topics you would like to added

When we don’t know something we’ll tell you.
We’ll also try to find those answers for both of us.

Visit GLY’s website today and get started on your Best Life Now.

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :-)

Pinterest
Pinterest
fb-share-icon

Pin It on Pinterest