What are the 3 things we are all after in life?
Energy, Connection, Enthusiasm
The global energy drinks market generated $53.01 billion in 2018 and is expected to generate $86.01 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.20% from 2019 to 2026.
Asleep, awake, eating, bathing, grooming, working or engaging in passionate pursuits, you need energy. Energy fuels your body’s internal functions and supports the external activities that enable you to interact with the physical world.
Social connectedness is a key driver of wellbeing and resilience. Socially well-connected people and communities are happier and healthier. Strong, healthy relationships can also help to strengthen your immune system, help you recover from disease and may even lengthen your life. There is also a flow-on effect, whereby people around you will want to spend time with you.
Enthusiasm is another key factor of success and happiness. In fact, happiness and enthusiasm can trigger creativity and they will ultimately help you succeed. It has been scientifically proved that people who have a positive, happy and enthusiastic mindset are more creative and have better insights. Once you become enthusiastic, you cannot remain quiet without acting.
How do we get more energy, connection and enthusiasm?
GOAL SETTING.
Many people feel as if they are adrift in the world. They work hard, but they do not seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they have not spent enough time thinking about what they want from life and have not set themselves formal goals.
After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!
If you can successfully set personal goals for yourself, you will experience many benefits. Even if you do not reach all your goals, just having them can enrich your life in several ways.
The following highlights the many benefits you will receive if you create goals and stick to them:
Provides direction
Clearer focus on what is important
Clarity in decision making
Gives you control of your future
Provides motivation
Gives you a sense of personal satisfaction
Gives you a sense of purpose in life
STEP 1: DETERMINE YOUR LIFE INTEGRITY
Setting goals come down to this fundamental question.
What do you want your performance life to be about?
This is your WHY and will be your anchor and your guide. It will be the reason you work hard and go through adversity.
Take a moment to review what you have written.
Can you identify 5 themes or values, that if you have them in your life every day, you would live a truly wonderful life.
Values are a consistent way of doing things. They are standards to live by. Standard of behaviour that you hold yourself accountable to. The person you want to be consistently.
I like to call it LIFE INTEGRITY.
It is not limited to just one area of your life. We live our values in every situation. I challenge my clients to define their values in 4 performance areas. What kind of leader they want to be at work? What kind of husband or wife? What kind of father? What kind of team player?
Then comes the big question.
Are you that type of person now?
Here is where we come face to face with our reality. Often what we want people to say at our retirement dinner are not the values that we are currently living. To create such a legacy, we must behave in such a value direction every day.
When you are challenged. Ask yourself: Will this action move me to what I value the most? Or is it simply in service of what feels good right now.
After clearly identifying what our values are and what they look like behaviourally, our next step is to develop an awareness of how we act.
We can often act mindlessly. Values not only provide direction, they also provide energy.
People who focus on values perform better than those who lack value clarity. They make better choices, especially in hardships. They are more likely to persevere in day to day activities that lead to goal achievement.
STEP 2: SET YOUR GOALS
Having reviewed your values, it is from here that you set your goals.
If values are your compass, directing where you go, goals are the map and a specific plan for exactly how you want to get there in a behavioural, descriptive way.
Goals provide the necessary direction of our energy and our actions. Goals that are too easy or to hard will show no increase in performance. Easy goals do not push you. You can protect your self-esteem by setting easy goals and achieving them, but you will not improve. On the other hand, setting hard goals does not work ether. Goals that have the greatest effects are moderate, absolute, combined and challenging.
Absolute goals have specifically defined outcomes and shows the greatest improvement of performance. Setting and combining your absolute long-term outcomes goals and your short-term performance and process goals, is a great way to move you in the desired direction.
Link 1 or 2 process and performance goals with an outcome goal. Linking them this way can improve results
PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
Topic: During a family vacation everyone is going for a hike and you need to sit back, because you are overweight and do not have the endurance. You are missing out on family time. You want to lose weight and get in shape.
1. Why? Let say you value family. (Remember goals need to be personal. You are not doing it for them. You are doing it for you).
What do you value about family? What does that mean? If it means close relationships, time spend together, interacting and really being involved in each other's lives. This can be a positive motivator. One that has the potential to keep your attention. Your value is now set.
2. Now you goal. Keep the guideline we set in mind - A moderate, absolute, combined and challenging goal. What does that picture of health looks like in behaviour terms? What do you see yourself doing with your family that you are not doing now?
You now know exactly why you are doing it, but that ship is still a long time away. You need some short-term performance and process goals. This is how you monitor your progress. You must be realistic about these challenges and modify your goals to meet them.
3. Setting performance goals. You have determined that you need to lose 20 kg in 6 months and improve your walking tolerance. Weight and walking times are easy to measure. Now you are specific about your goals which is SMART.
4. Setting process goals. What do I need to do to reach these goals?
Process goal 1: Diet
What is going to get you to lose the weight. Maybe you set out some diet guidelines. No more fast food. No more sweets. No snacking at night. Minimum of six glasses of water per day. Minimum of 2 vegetable servings per day. Replace one pizza slice with a salad on Friday night. See how specific this is. This will guide your actions every day.
Process goal 2: Exercise
Now what exercise process goals do you have in mind. Maybe you start by walking 2 km/day after work, 5 days per week. Be specific when plotting this down in your diary.
You now have specific daily process goals, linked to monthly performance goals that feed into your value outcome goal.
EXTRA TIPS
Involve people. Make it public. Making your goals public makes them very real.
Use your calendar more strategically. Schedule your action steps daily and stick to them.
Write down your goals. Position them so that you see them daily.
Add emotions as far as possible to your goals.
When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so.
Absorb the implications of the goal achievement and observe the progress that you have made towards other goals.
If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve.