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Ellesse at the Goal Setting College supplies the planning material, you supply the action!
Do You Dare to Dream?
A review of a goal-setting tutorial by Ellesse.

It starts with a story, a tale of a successful young man. Our hero was possessed of “that kind of bountiful energy to keep trying and trying because they have strong desire attached to the goals that they want to achieve.” Where does this “bountiful energy” come from? This is a burning question for many of us, as we look at the amazing people who look just like we do, but somehow seem to have achieved remarkable successes. These achievements seem to be as far beyond our own reach as the moon. After all, we’re doing the best we can, right?

If ‘doing the best we can’ isn’t good enough, what can we do to achieve these same remarkable successes? How can we do and be better?

What is the difference between those who succeed and those who do not?

The difference is that those who succeed have something to succeed at, something to accomplish, a clear vision of what needs to be done – they have a goal, and a plan that they follow in order to succeed. This is what most people do not have. Nor do they know how to set a goal or create a plan for achieving it.

Ellesse has laid out, in an easy to read fashion, a step-by-step method for:

• deciphering your personal goals,
• prioritizing them,
• creating an action plan for transforming these goals into accomplishments.

I recently downloaded this tutorial and used it to analyze my @Someday/Maybe list, my @3-5Year Goals, and my @1-2 Year Goals. I discovered that I had not put very much thought into these areas when I first organized these lists as part of my GTD practice. These “open loops” were causing me to get off track, working furiously on the short-term Next Actions and Projects, while not doing anything to get closer to marking the long-term items “done”.

I managed to grab hold of Ellesse to say a few words about her tutorial, her passion and enthusiasm are plain to see:

“Stephen, the tutorial is a methodology that I’ve personally used and I’m glad you’ve find it useful. One thing I wish to emphasize though is that all of us may have untapped dreams and this tutorial may be able to help you draft the action plan to achieve it, eventually, it’s action that drives the plan and persistence that sustains the movement. And trust me, the sweet taste of triumph after that hard work is the best reward anyone can ever imagine!”

How the tutorial works:
Each step is laid out in detail, beginning with a review of your life and career, looking at where you were five years ago, analyzing where you are now, and projecting where you would like to be five years from now. This life assessment is quite detailed, featuring 10 important dimensions including your impressions of your Health, Relationships, Lifestyle, Career, etc. This exercise is designed to display how your life has changed over the past few years, uncovering patterns of behavior. Some of the information that this exercise uncovers may surprise you, or you may be dismayed at your lack of progress. Do not get discouraged! This is how we grow.

The second set of exercises is designed to help you uncover your aspirations in four core areas: Personal Development, Career, Adventure, and Contribution. There are a handful of “trigger” questions for you to answer as you imagine the “outrageous success” that may be possible if you were to accomplish your wildest dreams.

Now that you have identified your goals, the final step is to build a Goal Action Plan with concrete steps to be followed in order to achieve your goal. Writing down your goals, identifying sub-tasks and possible barriers are the steps to be taken in creating this action plan, followed by a methodology for tracking your progress.

These steps are not difficult, but they are somewhat time-consuming, as worthwhile endeavors tend to be. Be prepared to set aside a few hours, especially for the brainstorming part, as you will be pleasantly surprised at where your mind runs off to. You are likely to discover some open loops that you didn’t even know were there, as well as unexpected barriers to success that have been holding you back from even considering some of your longer-term goals.

Al-in-all, a very worthwhile exercise, and a very useful tool! Visit Ellesse’s site Goal Setting College Resources and subscribe to the email updates for your links to download this excellent tutorial.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/59248e. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen