Dr. Maxwell Maltz who wrote “Psycho-Cybernetics,” one of the classic “must read”
books for those who are serious about success and happiness said, “We.
Goal Setting Is Essential To Your Success I have studied goal setting and goal achieving for over twenty years, and I must tell you, it is easy, fun, and unbelievably rewarding. You can create the actual map to your secret treasure. Dr. Maxwell Maltz who wrote “Psycho-Cybernetics,” one of the classic “must read” books for those who are serious about success and happiness said, “We find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve. People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile.” Paul Meyer, founder of the Success Motivation Institute, has stated, “Goal setting is the strongest human force for self-motivation.” He also said, “goal-setting is essential to success.” All success philosophers have spoken extensively about goals. It is one of the common denominators of all these wise men. They all came to an agreement on one simple point…you must decide what you want with clarity if you plan on getting it. My favorite quote about goals comes from Jim Rohn who was Tony Robbins’ mentor and coach, who said… “The true purpose of goals is to compel you to become the person it takes to achieve them.”
Too many people mistakenly think goals are a destination you reach or don’t reach. They feel good when they accomplish the goal and bad when they don’t. For most, this bad feeling leads to not setting future goals because “they don’t work for me.” What is clearly most important is who do you have to become, how do you have to grow and change so that you accomplish the goal you set to stretch yourself. Understanding this pivotal concept makes goal setting not only highly effective, but consistently raises your self esteem and self image.
A study by the Success Motivation Institute found that 97% of people never set any goals at all. These people drift through life without any real direction or purpose. They let life happen to them. They also discovered that the 3% who do set specific goals accomplish more than the other 97% combined. Choose right now which group you want to belong to. You wouldn’t think of building a house without blueprints, or going on your dream vacation without specific plans, but we blindly attempt to have the Practice Of Our Dreams without a plan or a specific set of goals. I am urging you to schedule some ‘alone time’ for yourself in the next week to think and to listen to your innate voice, so that you can BEGIN the process of getting clearer as to exactly what do you really want. Decide now where you want to be this time next year. Remember that goals are not NEEDS; they are WANTS. Goals bridge the gap between where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. It is a process that begins with a clear and specific direction, and continues with purpose and personal power. Goals are important because of the person they allow you to become in order to achieve them. A goal properly set is an incentive to grow. When you choose a goal, your life immediately improves because you have become aware of a new direction for your life to take. Remember the rule: Where awareness goes, energy flows. Goals give you a reason and a method to continually raise your level of awareness and level of expectation that is so important for success and happiness. There are different goals for different aspects of your life. You should have professional goals, personal goals, financial goals, family goals, personal health goals, spiritual goals, travel goals, etc. You should also establish your goals with time frames. Have specific onemonth goals, three-month goals, six-month goals, one-year goals, three-year goals, five-year goals, etc.
Another critical distinction is that… A goal without a timetable is
called a WISH. To really accomplish your goals, you must become and stay extremely focused. In goal setting and goal achieving, anything that does not move you closer to your goal is a distraction and should be eliminated. The idea here is to simplify your life as much as possible and turn you into an unstoppable, heat-seeking missile aimed right on target for what you want from life…The Practice And Life Of Your Dreams. Always language your goals in the first person, present tense, and state the goal in the affirmative, as if it were already accomplished. William James, the greatest philosopher of the last hundred years said, “To become, act as if.” First, start with your big goals and then chunk them down into daily goals, which make them so much easier to manage and accept as real. Then, create a list of strategies needed to increase the odds of you accomplishing these goals. Finally, create a list of identities of who you have to be, how you have to showup in order to accomplish your goals and then find ways to leverage yourself to go after accomplishing your goals like a hungry dog going after a T-bone steak. Let me share with you how I leveraged myself successfully. I would calculate exactly how much additional income would be produced when (not if) I accomplished my practice goals. So for example, if my goal was to create an additional $100,000, I would take out a pen, a pad and a calculator. I would then spend this extra income in advance on paper. Be as specific as possible. Perhaps I would spend $12,000 on my dream vacation to Hawaii for a week. I would put $30,000 into an interest bearing account. I would spend $23,000 to redecorate and modernize my office. In addition, I would pay down my debt with $10,000 and then I would use the remaining $25,000 to hire needed part-time staff and market my practice to attract more new patients. Make these plans as real as possible. Get brochures of the hotel and beach in Hawaii.
Cut out a picture of the part time CA you want to hire, and figure out how much your $30,000 in an interest-bearing account would be worth in twenty years. Once your innate mind can see clearly, specifically and emotionally how you will spend the extra $100,000 earned…it will then go into action to actually earn it. Your innate mind must have a target to anchor to and then make mid-course corrections to hit the bulls-eye of the target. Make it a priority to spend some quiet time alone this week and write down your specific goals for 2003. It is important to allow your subconscious ninety days to germinate and manifest your goals. Remember that either you tell the universe exactly what you want, or the universe will give you whatever is left over and you will never achieve the life, practice, financial abundance and loving relationships you have always dreamed about. Set goals this year to have more fun in practice and to consistently produce the miracles that chiropractic is famous for. Set goals to adjust more specifically and with more unconditional love. Set a goal to shift from being a mechanic to a healer. Set goals to empower your staff, to systemize your office, to be more profitable and to give back to your profession. Set a goal to raise your self-esteem and to finally hire a coach to help you create both the practice and life of your dreams. How about setting a goal to send someone to chiropractic school this year? The experts tell us to set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for SPECIFIC, MOTIVATIONAL, ATTAINABLE, RELEVANT AND TRACKABLE. After you set your smart goals, you can then chunk them down into smaller and accomplishable tasks. The next step is to create specific strategies to succeed at accomplishing your goals and then align your team to support and assist you. It is also important to track your goals so you can determine what needs to be done to ensure your success. So many people either never set goals (big
mistake) or look-back after the deadline and say “Great, I achieved my goal,” or “Darn, I missed it.” If your goal is to grow 100 visits a month in your practice, step one would be to chunk it down by calculating that 100 visits divided by the number of weeks in a month, which equals 23 extra visits a week. If you are in your office four days a week, it calculates into less than 6 visits a day. Chunking it down further means you must average growing two visits in the morning shift and four in the afternoon shift. That seems so much easier. Next, create a series of strategies to grow six visits a day. Some possibilities would be: A concerted effort at recalls, getting stronger at having patients make up missed visits, or being more clinically sensitive to influencing patients who have had a re-injury to get adjusted more frequently for a short span of time. It may also include attracting more new patients by asking for referrals, doing your health care class with an effective close, making it a policy for every new patient to bring their significant other to the class, etc. The next step would be to align and empower your team. Be the leader that they expect of you since your practice is waiting for its leader to show up. Direct them, motivate them and hold them accountable . Create the practice and life of your dreams and remember that success does not come to you…it comes FROM you.
Dr. Bob Hoffman is President of The Masters Circle, Inc, a personal consulting and leadership coaching organization dedicated to helping Chiropractors achieve the practice and lifestyle of their dreams. Dr. Hoffman is a visionary leader and acclaimed speaker spreading the Chiropractic message around the world for more than 20 years. Dr. Hoffman has created powerful practice building and educational materials to help Chiropractors get better results. You can contact Dr. Hoffman at The Masters Circle by calling 1-800-451-4514 or email at
[email protected].
