When people ask me about goal setting and measuring success there’s a couple of important
facts that you need to know.
First of all, in the human bell curve of life, 65% of people aren’t even setting goals.
They’re not even in the game, they’re doing the best they can, trying to survive,
getting from one day to the next.
Now at the 66 percentile that doesn’t mean that they’re winners or that things are
going their way, it just means that at least they’re in the game, they’re trying.
Now as we go from to 66th to 90th percentile where at the 90%, just like the mechanical
sciences has the Pareto principle at the 80-20 level, psychological sciences is even higher,
its 90-10.
At the 90%, that’s where you flip into a very success based psychology.
And what they tend to do as a business 101 principle, I’m sure you’ve heard about
it, they create SMART goals as a path to success.
What that stands for is Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-based.
When you do that, “I’m going to lose 20 pounds by Feb 1st using the Atkins diet,”
that is a Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time based goal.
And generally because you have the intelligence and psychology to get there, what you then
tend to do is, “I’m going to get an Atkins cookbook, I’m going to take an Atkins cooking
class by this time.”
And you put all the detailed steps in place and you follow in that pattern.
You’re in the top 10%.
If you want to go to the top 1-3%, they don’t do it as a SMART goals, meaning “I’m going
to lose 20 pounds by Feb 1.”
They flip into an arena we call a SMART outcome.
And the difference between a goal and an outcome is a goal is in the future and an outcome
is in the past, it already happened.
So how can I already have lost 20 pounds?
Because using the power of your mind and creativity and imagination, you create a psychology that
says “It’s Feb 1st, I weigh 180 lbs, I feel incredible, I feel magnificent!
Boy the last 4 months has been a great time on my diet, I love the Atkins, I love my diet!
I remember how I got through Christmas, I did this, I did that.”
You put in your mind the future goal already accomplished and done, it’s in the past.
And you see that, hear that, feel that, focus on that, and you talk about it that way and
then it’s a smart outcome.
Those men and women are in the top 1-3 % of the population.