Alan W. Goff
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Goal Setting Lessons from the Dry Cleaner
Recently, I was picking up my laundry at the counter of a local dry cleaner and as usual I was engaged in conversation with one of the front end girls, Leanne.
Normally I pay with a credit card which doesn’t really require anything from me but a signature, but this day I handed her my debit card instead. Waiting as usual for Leanne to pass me a receipt to sign, I just stood there like a bump on a log making idle chit chat.
"Uh, Mr. Goff… I’ll need your card again, I think it timed out" was all she said as she took back the debit machine pin pad that had previously been pushed in my direction. Although the transaction required me to actually do something, it immediately donned on me that I had failed to do what was required of me to get the desired result.
As she swiped my card again, I felt a bit stupid in the awkward silence and blurted out, "I guess I shouldn’t just stand here waiting for something to happen… I should make something happen".
Wow, what a life lesson. If you just stand around in life waiting for something to happen, you’ll get exactly nothing.
Have you ever had big dreams or ambitions? Have you ever wanted something…I mean really wanted something but didn’t know how to get it so ended up not even getting started? Have you ever said, "one day I’ll…", "some day…" or "It would sure be nice to…" and never achieved it?
The biggest reason the masses don’t achieve their goals is inaction. Just like me standing at the counter in the dry cleaners waiting for a receipt to sign, if you stand around like a bump on a log waiting for something to happen you’ll ‘time out’.
Even the most positive optimistic person who thinks all the right thoughts or focuses on their desired outcome or verbalizes to the universe that their ‘manifesting this’ or ‘manifesting that’ will get absolutely nowhere without action.
There is a six letter word that is the single most important factor in whether you’ll accomplish your goals this year. It’s so powerful it will even make up for poor or incomplete goal planning. In fact, without this factor you can have the greatest plan in the world and you’d still fail. The word is action. Hugely successful people, the kind that go from mediocre to millions almost overnight know that the major key to their success was taking action; massive action. Napoleon Hill told us in Think and Grow Rich that when success comes it comes so fast and in such abundance that we wonder where it’s been all along, and that secret is simple… it’s been waiting on massive action.
Not happy with your current results, conditions or circumstances? Maybe it’s time for action; MASSIVE action. Are you taking action but not getting the desired outcome? You’ve all heard the definition of insanity; maybe it’s time for a different course of action. None the less – it’s time for ACTION!
As Yvon Chouinard founder of Patagonia stated, There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, "Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything," and an optimist who says, "Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine anyway." Either way, nothing happens.
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