Archives for September 2012

Farmer Wants a Wife has been on Australian national television over the last few weeks and occasionally I get the opportunity to glance at it.  Every time I do I think “these guys and girls need to get clear on what they really want!”

For those of you not in Australia, Farmer Wants a Wife is a program where a bunch of farmers are paired with 10 girls each. Only three girls are invited to visit each farm. Then it’s down to 2 girls and finally they have to pick one that seems to be the right one for them to get married. In the process is a dinner with the farmer’s parents, which often has interesting consequences!

Having grown up on a farm, I remember city kids coming to visit and the joy (open spaces, calves being born) and new horrors  (cowdung,  plumbing that goes wrong, fires) they discover! I also remember my then fiancé being put through his paces by my father: Being made to open gates that didn’t have an obvious closure, or herding cattle into the diary. He passed! But I digress!

There are so many similarities between business, setting goals and relationships.  If a goal doesn’t excite you, it probably won’t be one you take action on.   Remember when you first fell in love? You didn’t need to think “who am I supposed to be in love with?” or “let me get my book out and see which name I wrote down and then I’ll remember”!

When you first fall in love, you can’t stop thinking about that person. You walk down the street and you’ll see someone who looks like him in the distance. Her face is everywhere.

Yet I see people going to workshops and programs, writing down goals and then needing to get their workbook out to remind them which goals they chose.  My answer to this is that they didn’t choose goals that are ones that excite them and keep them engaged.  Those goals are probably more of a  ‘to-do’ list. You know you can get them done, and they need to be done, but they aren’t goals in the true sense of the word. Businesses have goals that no-one remembers. Great business goals are the ones that everyone in the organisation can tell you about and have their eyes light up when they think of achieving them.

As Astrid said to me last week “I know I can achieve my goal and I have support for it, but I just haven’t got it done.”

When she figured out that it wasn’t a goal that engaged her, she understood why she hadn’t yet got it done. It wasn’t lack of discipline, because she had that in spades for the right things.  It was a goal smaller than what she’d been doing before – so it wasn’t going to stretch her.  Goals that used to excite and energise you a few years ago are NOT the same ones that will do it for you now.

There are a number of steps that are required in order to achieve goals – but the most important is the emotional test.  As my mentor Bob Proctor says “If a goal isn’t scary and exciting it’s not a good goal for you.”  It might be a good goal for someone else to have, but not for you.

Goals that excite you also energise you.  Great goals also give you growth. Achieving the goal isn’t the only thing that’s important here, it’s who you become in the process.  By stretching to achieve something that excites you, scares you just a little, something you don’t always know how to do when you set it, you become a better you.  You develop skills that are needed in order to achieve the goal.

Think about your goal like a lover. Do you wake up in the morning thinking about it, or do you need to go and page through your notes to remember what your number one goal is right now?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Jill Hutchison

Jill Hutchison specializes in taking successful driven professionals into their next stage of growth and advancement. She teaches business people how to shift their attitudes, beliefs and actions to spark the next level of achievement.

She also helps entrepreneurs create more meaning in their business and in their lives.

Mrs Hutchison runs regular programs focused on Goal Achieving, Mindset, Clarity and business success.

She has studied with thought leaders around the world and brings their expertise to locals.

Jill Hutchison’s programs include: It’s My Time, Men’s Mindset and Goal Workshops, Goal Achiever, Kickstart coaching and the Dynamic Mastermind Alliance.

More information is available at www.evolvedynamic.net

Jill Hutchison has 20+ years experience in international business, having the conversations that bring out the best in each person. With an economics degree from University of Cape Town and numerous certificated including Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) and Neurological Repatterning.

She is certified by Bob Proctor, from The Secret, to teach and train mindset strategies with professionals and business owners.