Tony Williamson

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."(Elmer Letterman)

Last week, I placed before my readers a highly-successful planning tool for achieving success in life.

The acronym DOME stands for diagnosis, objectives, methods, evaluation. This week, I share with you some thoughts on setting your objectives in life and fixing your goals for success.

Successful people the world over are goal-oriented. Yogi Berra, in his own inimitable style, put it this way: "If you don't know where you are going in life, you're liable to wind up somewhere else." If you put Yogi's statement another way, it really asks, "If you don't know where you are going, how will you ever know when you get there?"

In 1865, the famous writer Lewis Carroll wrote a magnificent children's classic, Alice's Adven-tures in Wonderland. In the story, Alice chases a rabbit down a hole and meets all kinds of strange creatures in this weird, topsy-turvy world.

HAVE A GOAL

On her journey, she meets the grinning Cheshire Cat reposing on a branch in a tree beside the road. Here is the dialogue between the two, a dialogue which speaks so profoundly to a lack of a specific goal:

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where," said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"So long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat.

If you have no goals, you achieve little. If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing.

Be, Do, Have

There are three little verbs that should guide your goals - be, do, have. What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have?

'Be' speaks to character development, integrity and inner strength. This must be first on your goals, for if you have wealth and no character, you are a potential walking disaster.

Set goals and include a time horizon for their achievement. Be specific, where possible, for goals must be measurable. Do not set as a goal, "I plan to be rich." Instead, state the amount of money you intend to have in the bank, by when it will be there and how you intend to acquire it (methods). Write these down.

It is virtually useless to say, "I must buy my own house." Instead, write out the plan, including the time when you will do the purchase, where the house will be, what it will cost, what the house will look like.

It does not matter whether you have the funds at the present time. What is important is for you to envision the house, believe it will become a reality and work like a dog for its achievement.

Lifetime Goals

A DOME plan works not only for your career, but in every other area of your life. What do you want to achieve for the rest of your life? How would you like to spend the next three years?

Alan Lakein suggests that we all ask ourselves this most important question: "If you knew you would be struck dead by lightning six months from today, how would you live until then?" Commit your thoughts to paper.

Think carefully about this question. If you knew you would be struck dead by lightning six months from today, you would probably squeeze into that limited time whatever you consider important.

Now do this exercise; without including plans for your funeral. Get a piece of paper and quickly write out what you would do and how you would spend your last six months. Do this in no more than three minutes.

When you make this list, it will show you what is really important to you that you are probably not doing now. The activities on this list deserve more of your attention for the next six months.

After you have done this written exercise, there are two other written exercises you should undertake.

ABC goals

Write out how you would like to live your life for the next three years, then, finally, write out your lifetime goals.

Quickly write out the things that come to mind - do not take more than three minutes to do each section. Then go back over each list (six months, three years, lifetime) and prioritise each goal with an ABC system. 'A' goals are the most important to you. 'B' goals are the next most important, and 'C' goals come after.

The ABC priority system helps you to resolve competing goals. If you set a high priority on going back to school, then you may feel that family time, for instance, ranks below that.

This conflict might be resolved by making both of these 'A' goals. You could further refine your top-three goals by describing them A1, A2, A3.

Next week, I shall share further thoughts on goal setting.