The Goal Crafter System
What exactly is the Goal Crafter System?
It’s the system I follow which incorporates mindset mastery to keep ME moving forward with my goals and my aspirations.
This Goal Crafter System pairs tried and true goal setting tactics from the Giants of Goal Setting methods – Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy - with the power of prayer and the constant daily, habit of thought assessment.
It helped me lead three multimillion dollar businesses simultaneously.
It helped me author and publish books.
It helped me create and develop blogs .
It helped me obtain a degree in business just as I turned 50.
It helped me start new businesses.
It helped me buy and sell homes.
It helped me take wonderful family vacations.
And it hasn’t just helped me! No, I believe in sharing what works with others. I have been teaching and mentoring others with this exact same system for years.
So --what is the system?
As Simon Sinek would say, start with the Why. If you haven’t seen his brilliant Ted Talk on knowing your why, you should!
For me ---my why arose out of learning about goals three decades ago, after which I became relentless in the pursuit of change in many areas of my life. No question – I was HUNGRY!
Goal setting fed my pieces and parts in a way that was sooo exciting to me.
It helped me realize that I was not thinking clearly about myself. I realized I hadn’t thought of myself as creative, much less as a CRAFTER my whole life.
I was surrounded though by family and friends who could create easily and effortlessly: crochet – knit – sew -- build – grow gardens. None of that stuff appealed to me – let’s face it – to this day I hate to get dirt under my nails!
And because I didn’t believe I was creative in a world where it seemed most people around me were -- I felt a bit invisible. I raised my kids, grew my family, worked to support them, but all the while, I knew my best life was eluding me.
I had this ever-present, deep down feeling that there was more to life, a lot more, and I just couldn’t quite see it or reach it.
When goals came into my life – well it’s fair to say it changed me forever.
It sounds a bit cheesy but I literally could feel myself begin to blossom. Crazy, I know.
Still, I started to find my way.
A big part of that was finding myself beginning to yearn for and eventually find a closer, more personal relationship with God.
It was baby steps at first. And it was certainly not linear. In fact, just how big prayer and mindset are in crafting and achieving goals was not apparent to me at first.
No—when I first started crafting goals, I would jot them out on a piece of paper or in my homemade goal notebook (I still have that little book) – the more the merrier. I had read about Lou Holtz’ list of 100 goals, and ever-competitive, I set out to create my own list of AT LEAST one hundred GOALS.
At various times I did in fact have more than 100 goals on paper for my big OLE life.
Nothing wrong with that, and even today, part of my system includes a massive download of sorts.
But—quantity is not equivalent to success in crafting a goal or goals that will light you up!
Ahhhh – but if quantity is not the answer to success, then what is?
Think about the word –craft—what it means. As a verb – to craft is to make or produce something skillfully, brilliantly, capably. Produce – skillfully, brilliantly, capably.
So to become a goal crafter, we take a meticulous approach to establishing the goals we really desire.
The goals we really desire.
The goals we really desire!
Success in goals I believe comes down to these things – these steps that comprise my Goal Crafter System.
1. Discerning through chatting with God the desires of our heart. This is the first step and it is crucial for believers. Two verses that speak to this are Psalm 10:17 O Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline your ear. And Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. God hears us when we speak to him, but it is up to us to create the conversation. And when we do, He says to delight ourselves in Him. What an invitation. This is the beginning!!
2. Creating a mindset of belief about our creative capabilities. Mindset mastery runs throughout the crafting and achievement of your best goals. Belief that you can do, be or have what you establish as your goal is Muy Importante! If you believe it, you CAN achieve it. If you don’t, your success will be hampered or even inaccessible to you. There are ways to strengthen your beliefs about your goals and we will cover that incessantly throughout future blogs 😊. But hint, hint – your thoughts play a gigantic role in them. A very strong verse in scripture, given us from Jesus is Mark 9:23 And Jesus said to him, “’If you can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Henry Ford said, “IF you believe you can, or you believe you can’t, you’re RIGHT!” Let that marinate!
3. Choosing the dreams we believe will help us live a brilliant, beautiful, buoyant life. Listen up – God gave us the gift of free will. Inherent in free will is OUR ABILITY TO CHOOSE – TO DECIDE! No action can occur, no progress, until we decide what we want for ourselves. Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established. As soon as you decide which of your ideas to choose to elevate to the status of a goal, you progress!
4. Writing them out with a due date for future completion. There is a multitude of research in the public domain that demonstrates something pretty astounding. The mere act of taking a pen or a pencil and writing out a goal increases your chances of accomplishing it by 42%. And, there is much more to be done that will take those percentages even higher. This is reinforced in scripture. Habakkuk 2:2 Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. Back in the day when there was no paper – even then – God instructed His believers to write out their vision – their goal. Get it out of your head and onto paper. You will be glad you did!
5. Seeing yourself reaching your goal at just the right time. Habakkuk goes on in verse 2:3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Thought it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. Oh. My. Mercy. So much good stuff here. Spend time with the vision behind the goal you have crafted. This mental activity will keep your vibe high and will be a source of fuel for you AND your goal.
6. Crafting and devising the perfectly imperfect plan to make your goal a reality. Notice the words imperfectly perfect. Years of experience crafting and going after goals has shown me that my plans are often incomplete or out of step with what really needs to occur to accomplish the goal. Practice though does make perfect. The danger in trying to develop the perfect plan is that you will plan and plan and plan and never actually progress because you believe the plan is not quite ready. Do the work – and then get ready for the next step. And remember, Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the Lord And your plans will be established.
7. Taking committed, disciplined action. I have found that with goals, any action is better than inaction. Having said that, it is also wise to stop for a hot minute and ask yourself what the NEXT BEST ACTION could be that would get you closer to your goal. Then-do THAT. Keep in mind Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men. And – when you follow this advice and keep the Lord in mind as the ultimate reason you are expanding His Kingdom, it just makes goal crafting and achieving so much better.
That’s it. 7 steps, guided by biblical truths, that you can use to craft the life of your dreams – the one that is right there – on the other side of your goals.
To be sure, this Goal Crafter System is merely the framework to utilize to get the momentum going with your goals. There are many, many nuances to the process of crafting and accomplishing your goals – nuances such as roadblocks, repetition, and review, for example.
But starting with this model is a great place to begin. Be still and be real today with the ultimate mentor – God the Creator. Your best life awaits.