I hope you followed through and did yesterday’s mindstorming exercise on 20 specific ways that you could move closer to your major 2009 goal.   If you didn’t I hope you’ll look at days 1 through 3 and get up to speed with us on defining goals for 2009, including your major #1 2009 goal.

Now for today’s exercise.  Tony Robbins is fond of saying that if you find a strong enough why – you will figure out how to accomplish pretty much anything.  In other words, unless you are completely committed to a goal — you are not likely to achieve it.  The goal has to be an absolute MUST for you…and that means having very strong reasons that you MUST make it happen. 

 If you read my buddy, Tony (yup, we’re on a first name basis now ;-), Brain Tracy, John Assaraf (or many others) they all say variations of the same thing.  Specifically, that in order to completely commit you need to have leverage on yourself…you need to get emotion behind your goal and be clear on what it will “cost” you emotionally, intellectually, spiritually — whatever — if you don’t achieve it.

Thought For The Day:

What makes the difference between wishing and realizing our wishes? …it is far more likely to happen when you care about a wish so much that you’ll do all you can do to make it happen —

Fred Rogers (aka “Mr. Rogers”)

Today’s Action Challenge (adapted from Tony Robbins Get The Edge):

• Write down all the things not having your major 2009 goal is currently costing you…emotionally, financially, socially…whatever areas of your life it effects.
• Write down in detail what it will cost you long term if you don’t achieve this — feel all the potential loss.  Put as much emotion behind this as you can, make it painful (the proverbial ”stick”is more motivating that the “carrot”).  For example, my friend and mentor Coach Mike Boyle tells the story of motivating his friend Hank (who was about 300 lbs) to lose weight by telling him point blank that if he kept on this way he was going to die before his kids grew up.  That he was going to miss all the milestones in their lives.  That got leverage on Hank…that focused him on an ugly very possible reality that lay before him if he didn’t take action.
• Write down in detail all the amazing things that would come from achieving this goal… for Mike’s friend that might be things like seeing your kid graduate, get married, have children of his/her own….be sure to use as much emotion behind “the carrot” aspect of your goal as possible.
• Detail why you are 100% committed to making this happen not “sometime” – this year.  As Tony says “goals are nothing but dreams with a deadline”
• Visualize these two potential realities (like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol) whenever the going gets rough and you find it hard to follow through on the things you need to do to move forward.  Remind yourself what’s at stake.