Prosper News: February 2007
Dear Student,
Another month has passed and with it has come opportunities to learn and grow. Take your chance to seize those opportunities. Knowledge and creativity are the keys to identifying the opportunities that will benefit you personally and professionally.
We encourage you to embark on a lifelong pursuit of learning. Seek out knowledge in all your experiences, both good and bad. Read good books and absorb the information contained within them. Allow yourself to be creative when faced with difficult situations. Continue to make 2007 the best year ever.
Your Friends at Prosper, Inc.
Reevaluate and Recommit
Accomplish Your Goals
Throughout the first couple of weeks in January there is often an influx of people into gyms. Personal trainers meet record numbers of people wishing to improve their health or appearance. This influx is generally the result of New Year's resolutions. Often by the beginning of February, the consultations have returned to normal levels and the gyms are far less crowded.
While visiting the gym or hiring a personal trainer is not the only resolutions that are made, it highlights an interesting trend; many people do not follow through with their New Year's resolutions. Maybe you should take the time to ask yourself: How am I doing with your resolutions? Do I even remember what they all were? Am I better off for having made my resolutions?
If you are struggling with one or more resolutions you made, you are not alone. Most resolutions are abandoned within a week or two. However, if you truly wish to set yourself apart from others and reach new levels of success, goals are essential. There are many reasons why people give up on both resolutions and goals. Below are some pitfalls many encounter and ways to avoid falling short when it comes to your goals:
Lost Focus—often, when you take time to set goals, you focus on the areas of your life you wish to improve or specific tasks you wish to accomplish. This focus allows you to pinpoint the things you must do to move in the desired direction. This focus can easily be dimmed or lost completely after a short time.
Avoid lost focus by creating a map outlining the desired outcome that your goals lead to. Revisiting the map often will allow you to refocus and make your goals much more effective.
Lack of Motivation—motivation is the fuel that drives the accomplishment of many goals. Motivation can come from both internal and external sources. Many times goals are set without the proper motivation in place to begin with. This is one of the major reasons that many goals dissipate within a week or two.
Whether you begin with the proper motivation or not, you must continually create motivation in order to accomplish many worthwhile goals. There are two main ways to increase motivation. First, positive thinking about the outcomes possible by accomplishing your goals can be a great source of internal motivation. Second, find one or more people willing to be a support to you as you strive to accomplish your goals. Tell them what you want to accomplish and how you plan to do it. Establish a system where you report your progress to your support team. Also, be sure to allow your team to give you encouragement when you are struggling. This is a great source of external motivation.
Unreasonable Expectations—many times goals are set with unreasonable expectations. This is not to say that you should not use goals to push yourself well beyond your comfort levels, but by the same token, you should not expect yourself to accomplish the impossible.
In order to maximize your goal-setting potential, you should learn to set goals that will allow you to push yourself while giving yourself the ability to achieve your goals. Evaluate your goals based on the progress that you have made and not necessarily on the end point.
Setbacks—there are often events that cause delays in even the best-laid plans. These events range from physical setbacks, such as injuries or illnesses, to financial setbacks, such as low cash flow or lack of funding.
While setbacks often cannot be avoided, you can take the time to reevaluate your goals and adjust them accordingly. At times, setbacks can lead to discoveries that you would have otherwise missed.
Procrastination—this could be one of the most detrimental factors to goal accomplishment. Procrastination could also be one of the easiest to fall prey to. It is easy to get lulled into thinking that there is plenty of time to accomplish your plans. The temptation to procrastinate can come from many sources too. These sources may include a busy schedule, laziness, failure to place the proper importance on your goals, etc. Regardless of the source, procrastination silently kills success.
Overcoming procrastination often goes directly against human nature. It is easy to get caught up in the web of procrastination. This being said, it takes a concentrated effort to avoid it. One effective way to avoid procrastination is to include a due date with each goal you set. Also, create a to do list that guides you to the completion of the goal.
Goals are powerful tools. They propel those who utilize them to great heights. Most of us have goals or resolutions that we have allowed to be swept under the rug. Perhaps it is time to identify the reason that the goal or resolution went unaccomplished. If the goal is worthwhile, recommit yourself to accomplish it. Do not leave your goals to chance; take the initiative today.
