Page 74 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

One of the index cards I had pinned to my goal board simply contained the

bold-markered letters, “ASU.” It was almost lost among the hodgepodge of
photos and goals I’d covered the board with, and I’m certain I only barely
noticed it each morning as I got up. I put it up there because I thought it would
be great if I could give seminars to Arizona State University, especially now that
I was living in the Phoenix area. I really thought nothing more of it.

One day at the offices of the corporate training company where I worked, I
was asked to shake the hand of Jerry, a new employee. I asked Jerry to come in
and sit down. We talked in my office for a few minutes about his joining the
company. I asked him about his family and he casually mentioned that his
parents were living in town, and that his mother worked at ASU. Normally, that
would have meant nothing. ASU is a very well-known and oft-mentioned
presence in the Phoenix area. But something went off in my mind when he said

that, and I know in hindsight that “something” was my daily view of my goal
board.

My ears perked up when he said “ASU” and I asked him, “What does your
mother do at ASU?”

“She’s the chief administrative assistant to the development director at the
ASU Foundation,” he said. “They’re in charge of all the fund-raising at the
University.”

I really brightened at that point, and I told Jerry about my past work in fund-
raising at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and how I’d always wanted to do
similar work at ASU. He said he’d be delighted to introduce me to his mother
and to the development director himself. Within a month, ASU fundraisers were
attending my seminar on RelationSHIFT and I had realized one of the goals on
my board. I honestly believe that if I had not had a goal board up in my
bedroom, Jerry’s mention of ASU would have gone right past me.

This illustrates something important. We need to advertise our own goals to
ourselves. Otherwise, our psychic energy is spread too thin across the spectrum
of things that aren’t that important to us.

52. Think outside the box

Once I attended a new business proposal presentation by Bob Koether, in
which he had his prospective customers all play a little nine-dot game that