MENTAL DIET: HOW TO DEVELOP A STRATEGY FOR WINNING (PART 4)
“There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste, there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.”
- JEAN DE LA BRAYERE
CLEARING THE GROUND FOR GOAL-SETTING
The ground must be cleared if goals that will produce positive and significant changes must be established.
Until the ground is cleared for goal setting there will be a stumbling and a falling (emotional fall, financial fall, career fall, marital fall, relational fall, and the worst of all, a destiny fall) in the bid to achieve the set goals or even in spite of achieving the goals.
Consequently, the end does not justify the means but rather the means qualify the end.
To clear the ground for the set up of goals you must:
- KNOW YOUR VALUES
“What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?
- JESUS CHRIST (MATHEW 16: 26; THE HOLY BIBLE, THE MESSAGE TRANSLATION).
Until you know who you are, you lose the essence of your being in a bid to get what you want. Until you discover your true identity you will self-sabotage.
As Les Brown rightly states, ‘When your accomplishments exceed your self-deservedness, you self-sabotage”. I hasten to add, you uphold the right values when you know your true identity. And it is the positive and right values you live by that protect you from self-sabotage.
When you lose the consciousness of your true identity you stoop low in your conduct and function from a low level of consciousness that is ignoble.
Of what use is the attainment of great feats of accomplishments when the quality of inner life is bestial? Of what value is the attainment of a seemingly outward show of “success” when the conscience has been compromised?
True success must begin from the excellent quality of the inner life and manifest outwardly. The end product of goals is to make you grow better, bigger, and stronger inside-out in order for you to positively affect your world with your influence.
Values are the perception or conviction of what is right or wrong and to live up to that conviction comes what may is the challenge of the day. Values govern behavior and determine choices.
The quality of values you uphold will shape the quality of the value you create for yourself and others.
To clarify and set positive values you must answer these questions:
I Who are you?
- What do you stand for?.
- What do you believe in?
- WHO ARE YOU?
You are not your past; you are not your behavior; you are not the roles you take up in the affairs of life; you are not your title(s); you are not people’s opinion of you. All these are not your essence. They are changeable and some of them can be lost. Your essence which defines you is from an unchangeable core out of which your conduct should flow.
You are God’s brand; made in the image and likeness of God which makes you belong to the God class. You were created with the trademark of nobility, honor, and distinction and you must grow daily to live up to that character on the highway of success as you set and accomplish goals.
- WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?
Until you stand for what is right you will fall for what is wrong. To be crowd-driven is to fall for what is wrong. To be value-driven is to stand for what is right which delivers to you the value of true success.
- WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN?
Right believing lead to right conduct or actions. Wrong believing produces wrong actions or conduct.
Belief can be classified into head belief and heart belief.
Head belief is what you wished you believe.
Heart belief is what you actually believe.
What you really believe manifests in your habitual actions. When you are under pressure what you really believe is revealed by the choice of activities you engage in.
- KNOW YOUR GIFTS
What you do with distinction above others will distinguish you above others. Identify what you love and enjoy doing; use what you love doing to meet the needs of people and you would have found your life’s work.
Goals should be set in alignment with what you are passionate about because goals are driven by passion.
- BE GIVEN TO DEDICATED WORK
Clearing the ground for goal setting and all through the process of setting goals and accomplishing goals entails dedicated work. Dedicated work works out success in life.
To be goal-oriented you must become work-oriented and until you are goal-oriented you cannot be success-oriented.
- SEEK A WHOLESOME SUCCESS
For success to be meaningful it must be wholesome. Consequently, you must clear the ground and set the structure of goals that makes for a wholesome and balanced life.
Therefore, you need to structure a system of goals to accommodate the important areas of life which include: family and personal goals; physical and health goals; mental and intellectual goals; study and personal development goals; career and work goals; financial and material goals; spiritual goals.
This system of goals structures a lifelong progressive success.
- DISCOVER YOUR MISSION
Discover your life’s purpose or mission in the domain of life and give yourself unreservedly to it.
Look up and reach within for that Divine spark that ignites an insight into your life’s mission in your heart. That would be your major goal which other goals equips you to attain it. It is your contribution to life by giving selflessly to elevate humanity.
Give yourself to a cause greater than you. Live beyond yourself.
- SET AND PURSUE GOALS THAT ARE YOURS
Never live in pursuit of the goals that people or society expect from you lest you become inwardly drained and unfulfilled. Define your success if you want your life to be refined and your destiny refreshed.
When you get hooked to the media you get hooked on keeping up with the Joneses. The media defines success as the clothes we wear; the cars we drive and the houses we live in, with travel and vacations. The subtle message is that if you don’t measure up you are a failure. That’s a huge problem that has misled many.
Never strive to keep up with the joneses lest you keep up becoming a jaded failure. Create your own brand of success and never worry about what the rest of the world thinks lest your destiny stinks with their stinking thinking.
Never build a superficial image to impress the world but rather build up the reserve of character that will sustain heights of success and create an authentic image that will inspire people to become the best version of themselves.
The brand of success that guarantees fulfillment and peace of mind is daily accomplishing your life’s purpose – the reason you were created. And that has to do with your positive and significant impact on the lives of people.
A life of meaning and success is not about acquiring the luxuries and comforts of life even though there is nothing wrong with it if we want them for the right reasons and we don’t get lost in them, closing our hearts to the sufferings and needs of the poor and helpless.
A life of meaning and true success is about the positive and significant impact you create in the lives of people and your contribution to life – the world becoming better because you lived.
When you effectively clear the ground you will be able to effectively design a system of goals for the build-up of a maximized destiny.
