Page 36 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

Goals and Plans
1.1 Setting goals
I started reading self-help books in the mid-1980s when I was in my mid- 20s. One of the books I read was a book called The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches by Joe Karbo. It taught me to set goals. The first time I set goals was on 31 December 1985. I still have them and sometimes bring them out and look at them. Every year I write down the goals I want to achieve for the upcoming year and then look back on what I have achieved. I always do this on the first or last day of the year.
Setting goals is setting the end result of what you want to achieve, whether for business or personal. First, set the goals, and then set the strategy and plan to achieve them. The plan is how you are going to get there. Set goals, then plan!
At 38 years of age, I wanted to earn a black belt in karate, and I set myself that written goal to get there. To get a black belt, I had to achieve twelve or so gradings. It was hard, but slowly I knocked off all twelve.
I failed one grading (1 of 12). I was gutted. There was no consideration for a dislocated arm. I had failed. But I picked myself up and kept going. Every year I set where I would be at the end of the next year, e.g. green belt, brown belt,
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