You can learn all you like about anything, but if you don't develop the mindset to take advantage of the knowledge it will make you a potentially interesting person to meet at a party but you'll be the one drinking someone else's alcohol as you can't afford your own.
Lesson No 1: Set Goals
No great secret here. Any successful person will tell that that no amount of hard work will achieve anything unless you know what it is you are trying to achieve.
Goals need to be set at different levels, and need to relate directly to the level above (where applicable). If they don't, they must be part of some other goal you have not yet identified. If you do not identify it, quantify and manage it, you will continue to have conflict with your identified goals and to become frustrated and stressed.
There can be many levels or just a few, depending on the degree of structure in your life, but as a minimum we suggest:
A goal might be something as simple as "write an update to my blog" but it is only a goal if it is identified as such in that special part of your brain that sets priorities and is not just filed away under "Wish List". It helps to set goals using the SMART acronym:
Thus our Write Blog goal could be: Write a 250 word Blog [specific][achievable] update about <topic> [relevant] and publish it on my main site and 10 other sites [measurable][achievable] by 10pm today [timed][achievable].
A word here about Plans and Goals. Some people may make pedantic definitions about what constitutes a goal and a plan, or create aritifical boundaries like Goals are Objectives, Plans are the means to achieve those Goals, and so on, but if you just bear in mind the need to set goals at multiple levels, and to maintain relevance to the level above, then any distinction between Plan and Goal is redundant.
Lesson No 2: Take Action
Set the goals and then accept responsibility from yourself for getting them done. Other things may arise. You may assign them a higher priority. The goal may not be achieved, but that will have been your decision, no-one else's. The real winners are those that keep their priorities aligned with their identified goals.
Lesson No 3: Take Responsibilty.
Everything You Do that Goes Wrong is Your Fault. Get used to it.
Lesson No 4: To Be Continued ...
What advice would you give someone?
How well do you practice your own advice?
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