What's the Plan? -or- 3 Critical Components to Include in Your Goal Plan

"A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline."
--Harvey Mackay

We all have had dreams at one point in our life.

Some of us have chosen to allow our dreams to fade to avoid the disappointment of potentially not reaching them.

Others continue to dream, but don't take action on them, either hoping they'll just show up, or not knowing how to take action on them.

And even others take those dreams and turn them into goals, all with the simple action of making a plan.

Taking a dream and turning it into a goal by creating a plan is important, and there are some very important aspects to include in your plan if you want to succeed.

Here are 3 critical components that you will want to include in your goal plans:

1. Accountability - Whether it's to a mastermind or a coach, there must be accountability for taking the necessary actions.

2. Support Systems - There are things in place which support you through the lower energy portions of your goal plan. Perhaps it's actions that are more difficult. Or perhaps it's a unexpected set-back. No matter what it is, with a support system in place, you can keep the momentum going through to completion.

3. Milestones and Celebrations - Throughout the Plan there are milestones or achievement markers. It's those places in the plan where certain aspects are completed. Each of those milestones includes a celebration or reward. This again supports you to keep momentum and excitement as you achieve each step in your goal plan.

As you outline your goals and the steps to achieve them, be sure to include these 3 critical components. You will more than triple your chances of success in achieving your goals. Guaranteed.

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Velma Gallant is an Author, Speaker, Trainer and Abundance Coach. She's a co-author in a best-selling book series with Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer called "Wake Up Live the Life you Love: Finding Personal Freedom". Velma is the creator of Living Abundant Joy where she interviewed 19 outrageously successful speakers, marketers and coaches on Abundance. She publishes a weekly e-newsletter called "Welcome Changes", which reaches over 45 countries around the world. Velma coaches entrepreneurs and business people to be abundantly successful in both business and life. You can visit Velma's website at http://www.WelcomeChanges.com, or reach her by email at velma@welcomechanges.com.

Taking Chances

"Behold the turtle: He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out."
James Bryant Conant

Do you hold back from exploring new ideas and activities?

Do you automatically go for what you already know and are comfortable with?

Do you stay in your safety or comfort zone?

The thing about hanging out in safety zones is that you will never receive more than what you already have.

Do you desire more freedom and joy in your life?

Your desires are not going to make their way into your life if you continue doing the same safe things.

Have you ever heard it mentioned before that you can't expect different results if you keep doing the same things?

This definitely applies to taking chances.

Other ways to put it is stretching yourself, stepping outside of your comfort zone, or stepping outside of your box.

I personally like to refer to it as stretching my comfort zone. It feels better to me.

Fear can often hold us captive if we think about stepping out of that comfort zone completely. Yet if you think about, stretching a bit doesn't feel as big or overwhelming.

Here is an example from my own experience. I'm moving into more public speaking and mini-workshops. I've been stretching towards this for a while.

It started out with attending teleseminars, and speaking up from time to time. Next, I interviewed someone else over the telephone. They did most of the talking, but I asked the questions. I did more interviews, held my own one hour teleclasses, moved onto being interviewed, longer telecourses, radio shows, etc. Each action stretched me just a little bit more. And now I'm ready to go live!

I like to use a visual of a balloon.

When you take a balloon out of the package, it's hard to blow up. You may pull on it to stretch it and make it easier to blow up. Once you let the air out (kind of like setbacks), the next time you blow it up, it's easier. Each time the air gets let out and you blow it up, it gets easier and easier to do so.

Each time you stretch your comfort zone, it gets easier. You build your confidence. You give yourself more successes to build on.

Are you considering adding a new aspect to your business?

Are you thinking about starting a business so you can leave your J.O.B.?

What would it take for you to get started?

What would it take for you to commit to stretching yourself, even just a little bit?

Don't wait anymore. Get started now.

You can do it!

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Velma Gallant is an Author, Speaker, Trainer and Abundance Coach. She's a co-author in a best-selling book series with Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer called "Wake Up Live the Life you Love: Finding Personal Freedom". Velma is the creator of Living Abundant Joy where she interviewed 19 outrageously successful speakers, marketers and coaches on Abundance. She publishes a weekly e-newsletter called "Welcome Changes", which reaches over 45 countries around the world. Velma coaches entrepreneurs and business people to be abundantly successful in both business and life. You can visit Velma's website at http://www.WelcomeChanges.com, or reach her by email at velma@welcomechanges.com.

Baby Steps

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
-- Mark Twain

Many use Goals to move forward in life, yet there are many that have given up using Goals all together.

Why?

Sometimes it's because once the goal is set, looking at what needs to be accomplished to achieve the goal puts them into overwhelm.

Sometimes it's because the goal isn't achieved quickly enough.

Whatever the reason, there are many great people out there who haven't discovered their greatness because they stop setting goals.

It is important to set goals, but it's also important to put a support system in place to help you keep your momentum.

One of the really important parts of goal setting, and it can be applied to other areas of your life is Baby Steps.

Baby Steps can be used in two ways.

First, and most obviously, it's breaking your goal down into smaller, more manageable pieces. You may even want to set sub-goals to move your way to your ultimate goal.

Why is this important?

It helps to prevent you from moving into overwhelm. It can be like putting blinders on or using tunnel vision as you move forward.

If achieving your goal requires that you learn something new, Baby Steps is very important again.

What I mean by this is giving yourself permission to do things one step at a time, and allowing yourself to fall down too.

As a baby learns to walk, it starts out as a crawl. He pulls himself up on the coffee table. Soon he's furniture surfing! This process goes until he takes his first step, then two, then five. All the while the little guy is falling on his bum. It doesn't take long, though, before he's beaming from ear to ear as he toddles to one of his parents.

Do we get angry with the baby when he falls? No!

Do we berate him if it takes more than two or three tries before he starts to walk? No!

Do we tell him he'll never make it because he crawls rather than moving straight from rolling over to walking? No!

So why is that we, as adults, expect ourselves to learn something new immediately?

Where did the permission to practice go?

Do you have some goals you've put up on the shelf that if you looked deep inside you still want to achieve?

Are you ready to give yourself to take the baby steps required to achieve your goals?

Reach up there and grab that goal again. It's time you rediscovered your greatness.

You truly are magnificent.

~*~*~*~

Velma Gallant is an Author, Speaker, Trainer and Abundance Coach. She's a co-author in a best-selling book series with Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer called "Wake Up Live the Life you Love: Finding Personal Freedom". Velma is the creator of Living Abundant Joy where she interviewed 19 outrageously successful speakers, marketers and coaches on Abundance. She publishes a weekly e-newsletter called "Welcome Changes", which reaches over 45 countries around the world. Velma coaches entrepreneurs and business people to be abundantly successful in both business and life. You can visit Velma's website at http://www.WelcomeChanges.com, or reach her by email at velma@welcomechanges.com.