So I've been reading and listening to material by Brian Tracy, someone whom I used to pay a lot of attention to years ago when right out of college. Mainly a book titled, Get Smart, How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest-Paid People in Every Field. I plan to share some things from the book over the course of the next several weeks.
One of the chapters I have been thinking about quite a bit is titled, Goal Oriented Thinking vs Reaction Oriented Thinking. This is a good time in your life to think about setting goals. I am recalibrating some things as well in my life.
Some of the key take-aways:
Turning Points - "Throughout your life, you will have a series of turning points. These are moments, insights, or experiences that can take a few seconds or a few months. But after one of these turning points, your life will never be the same. Sometimes you recognize these turning points when it takes place. In most cases, you only recognize that it was a turning point in retrospect." What turning points have you already had Lucy? Isn't it interesting to think about what lies ahead and how your professors, your mentors, and your friends will impact your life in the months and years ahead as an Aggie?
The key to financial success - "Did you know that the top 3 percent of income earners, earn and acquire, on average, ten times as much as the bottom 97 percent? And did you know that only about 3 percent of people have clear, specific, written goals and plans that they work on each day. The other 97 percent have hopes, dreams, wishes, and fantasies, but not goals. And the great tragedy is that they don't know the difference." I know in my life, I always accomplish more when I have clear, concise, time-bound, written goals.
Don't lose time - Financially successful people have a simple mantra, which is 'don't lose money'. But they also practice another key habit, which could be phrased 'don't lose time'. "The fact is that when you have clear, specific, written goals and clear plans to achieve those goals and you work on them every day, you save an enormous amount of time. You will accomplish more in a few months or a year than most people will accomplish in a lifetime!"
Here's a great quote from Thomas Carlyle:
"The person without goals makes no progress on even the smoothest road. The person with clear goals makes rapid progress on even the roughest road."We all know the saying, 'If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." This is a great time in your life to think about and pray about where you are going and then start to define, in crystal clear written goals, how you are going to get there. You don't have to whip these out all at once, but I believe you should be thinking about, journaling about, and praying about your goals.
More on Goal Oriented Thinking coming soon.
