This was the point of my life where I started learning what synchronicity was. Swiss psychologist Carl G Jung coined the term to describe “temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events.” or “meaningful coincidences”. In a nutshell the idea is that when you are on course to achieve a goal, help will inexplicably appear along the way to make sure you arrive. As hokey as this may sound the first thing I have found about this is that I have been on the recieving side too many times to doubt the veracity of this concept. The second is that the more committed to your goal the more likely you are to be affected by synchronous event. When we are doing things that make us happy we are much more likely to be truly committed to them.

In making these discoveries I realized that I had chosen the wrong path. That if I wanted to be successful I had to choose happiness first. Success would follow. Happiness and success are not mutually exclusive as so often shown in our rat race paced world. But our society often teaches us to chase them in the wrong order.

I was taught that if you work hard you will become successful and that will lead to happiness. What I have found as I have lived my life is that if you do the things that make you happy success will naturally follow.

I will be Bigger, Stronger, Braver…….This year I will actually accomplish all my resolutions. It is a New Year, hear me ROAR!!
And then, somehow life seems to get in the way. Our great ideas, our willpower, our promises seem to little by little escape our grasp.
WHY?
Great Intentions are a wonderful start but if you want to achieve a goal you need four things, at minimum.

Number one is a precise and realistic goal. You need to know exactly what you are aiming for. “I will lose weight” is an idea but not a goal. “I am going to lose 25 pounds” or “My goal weight is 174 pounds” are precise. Are they realistic? That has to be your decision, but picking a realistic goal greatly increases your odds of accomplishment and who says you can’t pick a new goal as soon as you accomplish this one?

Number two is a plan. If we stick to our weight lose scenario we realize that it requires one of two things (or both), less intake (eat less) or more outlay (exercise more), to reach our goal. If we do not design and stick to a plan the odds of reaching our goal are a long shot at best.

Number three is ongoing measurement. When we want to go someplace we must know where we are, where we want to go and keep track of where we are along the way. You must have a system in place to keep you on track to achieving your goals. It doesn’t need to be a fancy system but tracking keeps you on track. Some of the goals I am most proud of having accomplished were tracked with a piece of paper taped to my mirror and checked on daily.

Number four is celebration. It is amazing how celebrating your successes reinforces the habits that helped you achieve them. Celebrate the big accomplishments and the little ones.

I know these four steps seem very basic and easy, but it is in the basic and easy that we succeed or fail.

I wish you good luck and hope these four simple steps will help you make 2011 your best year yet.

Let’s take a trip to a friends house across town as an example. We can stare at the map that shows us the way all day long but we will not get an inch closer. So a plan with out action will not get us to our goal. We can hop in the car and drive up and down streets all day long and chances are that you will never arrive at your destination. So action without a plan is also extremely unlikely to get us to our goals. However, the person who sets his destination , uses a map for guidance and then gets in the car and drives is very likely to arrive. So a goal plus planned or meaningful action leads us to our destination.

This is an oversimplification I realize but at the same time quite accurate. All too often we get so caught up in the planning stage that we never seem to get started on the implementation. On the other side I have known way too many people that are busy running in circles all the time. They use huge amounts of  action and yet accomplish very little. They are whirling dervishes that no matter how fast they spin don’t seem to be able to achieve their dreams.

The solution, of course, is to do both. To set a plan and then to act upon that plan. Do not expend energy just so that you can say you are in action. Expend energy that moves you in the direction of your plan and presumably your goal. It’s as simple as that.