Yesterday I started writing about goals. I’ve had some responses. Some readers didn’t get the ‘you have potential’ line. In fact they were discouraged from doing anything. And at the same time, some readers have maintained a hope that they could do or be something meaningful.

Guess what?

You can.

I started writing about goals because I keep running into people who have told me that they ‘feel like’ a failure. I spent years feeling like a failure. I believed that I was failing. It was easy to believe I was failing because I had no way to measure success. Now that I have goals, I can see if I’m successful. I have a better way to determine what to do next. Best of all I have a way to collect victories, small accomplishments every day. 

Setting goals took me about a month to do. I listened to ‘Goals’ by Zig Ziglar and combined his way of working with a few other ideas around goal setting then started making promises to myself.

So. If you are interested in feeling less like a failure, over the next while, I’ll bring you through a process towards doing so. 

Yesterday I suggested writing down everything you would like to do over the next year. Write down every idea, no matter how outrageous it may seem.

Then?

Write down things you would like to have accomplished over the next five years.

Make some really big lists.

Once those are done we can start sorting things out so that we whittle your list down to three or four goals while having a system to come up with the next things. 

This process took me a month. In doing so, I live everyday with increased confidence. I know what to do. I know what’s next. I know what to say no to and what is a yes right away. I’m more focused, less distracted. And every day I can tell that I’ve made progress.

Between having goals and a creative daily practice, I’ve never felt more control, more assured and more confident. With this I’ve become more curious, present and compassionate. 

My hope is that the newsletters about goals will help you do the same.

And?

To those of you for whom having a system of goals and creativity isn’t news, I’m not making the foolsletter only about that. Tomorrow will likely be something else that’s weird, wonderful and hopefully, ultimately human. 

So. Write down your list of ideas. Take 48 hours to do it.

For bonus points in the risk department?

Find someone to share your list with.

Or, if you’re interested, I could organize a group of people to share their lists with each other.

After that?

Step 2.

More soon!

Jim