Goals / Purpose - Reflect Back and Plan Forward... - News: JFD Performance Solutions

A month into the New Year already. Are you rolling? Are you on your way to making 2010 truly better than 2009?

The start of a new year is always a great time to reflect back and plan forward. Here are some great questions to springboard that thinking. Remember, you're more likely to achieve something if you plan for it and write it down, so ... get your pens ready! Here goes:

Last time, in Part 1, we discussed the importance of having a purpose for your life, and we related it to many of the same reasons that a company has a vision. Just as an organization's vision acts as a statement of potential and a description of what it wants to become, a personal purpose statement gives shape and direction to your life. Conversely, not knowing where you want to go or how to get there is not a very effective way to live purposefully.
 
Now that you understand how important it is to live purposefully, you’ll want to get started, so here are some steps to get you moving in the right direction.

"Hi, my name's Kevin. So...what's your purpose?", I ask. "What? Wow, Kevin, where did that come from?", you respond. I know, I know. There are so many things to do. You're so busy it seems that you barely have enough time to breath, let alone think about something as seemingly abstract and elusive as what you want to do with your life. Plus, there's plenty of time for that later, right? Well, not really.

In this book, the author takes a contrarian view about how people attain high levels of success. He contends that certainly, although skills, knowledge and a lot of hard work are required, success is also greatly influenced by one's "ecology". Essentially, that we must look beyond individual merit, to areas such as one's friends and family, what a person's parents did for a living, one's upbringing, community, even birthplace and cultural legacies.

I have always felt that one of the most important skill-sets that a person can have is the ability to set goals and achieve them. Goals are essential for establishing direction, defining actions, and measuring progress. Similarly, it is critical that businesses be able to plan and execute.