The achievement of my goal by the end of this semester was no accident. After an entire semester of hard work and flirtations with failure, I can happily state that my goal has been reached. Before we go further, my goal was to reach an online income level of $4000 by the end of the semester. Having previous online sales experience, I wasn't too worried about achieving the goal, but still felt challenged by large amount of sales volume. Previously, I had never made over eight hundred dollars in a one month time span. Obviously, that would not be enough to achieve the goal, so I had to create a new strategy. First and foremost, creating small baby step goals was a very helpful tactic for me as I charged towards victory. When faced with the main goal of earning four thousand dollars, I felt slightly overwhelmed by the task at hand. By setting smaller goals, my stress was eased about achieving the primary goal. The baby step goals created smaller, perfectly manageable steps for me to take towards accomplishing my goal.
At the beginning of the semester, I found myself completely lost as to which steps I should take. Fortunately, I had several small goals to help direct me towards success. However, once I began working towards my smaller goals I encountered several problems with my strategy. As I attempted to accomplish a small goal, I would sometimes find that they were 'empty' goals which did not further my progress or were totally ineffective. This is where the key trait of flexibility came in to assist my progress.
Without great flexibility, I would have stuck with my initial plan and charged towards a potentially ineffective formula. There were several unexpected bumps in the road which caused me to change my course of action. Certain strategies which I laid out in the beginning of the project proved to be ineffective. I am unsure about whether or not I would have been successful having not changed my course of action. However, it is obvious that changing my course of action, several times, lead me straight to victory.
Through brainstorming exercises I was able to open new paths for accomplishing my goal. When I would sense that a certain strategy was stagnant or ineffective, I would settle down for a relaxation exercise and brain storming session. One of the most difficult parts of brain storming is coming to terms with abandoning a once 'good' plan for another. Once I settled down for a brain storm session, some amazing ideas came to the surface.
I used several visualization and relaxation methods to center myself before working. Marketing is no simple task. There was a great need for creative thinking and strategizing. Through relaxation practices I was able to ground and center myself before crafting effective ad campaigns and website concepts. The most effective relaxation practice came from your breathing exercises provided on the CD. Whenever I would begin to lose my sense of control, I would redirect my attention into the task at hand. As I practiced the CD more and more, the skill of redirecting my attention became much easier to master.
One surprising tool that helped me was to remind myself of my goal. There was an abundance of distractions this semester which tried to sway my attention away from my goal. I would keep my goal posted above the computer I normally do work at. Every time I sat down to goof off, I would be reminded that I should be working towards my goal. I also established some accountability partners to assist me in keeping motivated about working more. Thankfully, by reminding myself about the goal I had to accomplish, I remained focused throughout the semester. Even during the busier times of the semester, I was constantly reminded about what I should be working towards. This was a huge factor in my success with achieving my goal.
Working towards my goal helped me discover a lot about my work habits and work style as well. What I had previously learned by taking your beginning of the year evaluation was that I had a diminished commitment trait. Once the process would become difficult for me to carry on with, I would deeply consider aborting the process. However, having an awareness of my weaknesses was a great tool. Due to my knowledge of these committal issues, I was able to determine the difference between a hasty escape or a knowledgeable change of paths.
Accountability was also a huge factor in making progress on goal achievement. There were even some times when I would simply make progress due to my accountability. It was almost shocking how much of a difference was created by being held accountable for my goal work. One significant example was during class when all of the students shared their week's goal in a circle. Sure enough, at the end of class, I went directly to work on my goal for that week.
I have learned many lessons over the last few months pertaining to goal achievement. The lessons can probably all be summed up by stating without action, your goals will never take off. It is so common to hear people project goals into the air. After really understanding goal achievement, I now know that projecting your goals into the great abyss will not cut it. You must identify your goal and write a road map to get there.
