Bullseye!: The Ultimate Guide to Achieving Your Goals

By Blake Beattie

Get ready to go on a life-changing journey that will revolutionize the way you approach goal achievement forever. Blake Beattie's simple, fun, and interactive goal-achievement solution empowers you to use your individual values to define success, and then gives you effective strategies to reach your goals more quickly than you ever thought possible. In this book, you will discover how to formulate inspiring, realistic goals using Blake's leading POWERTIP achievement system, maintain momentum during difficult times, blast through obstacles and break free from habits that limit you, among others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Jun 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781742469294

Book preview

Introduction

In 1992, a little-known Australian athlete failed to make the semifinals of the Olympic 400 metre race. She was devastated, but determined to turn around the result. Her ultimate goal was to win a gold medal in the Barcelona Olympics in 1996. She worked out that the time she would need to win was 48.6 seconds, so she wrote this number down, and put it on her dressing table, where she would see it every day. She then worked out the time she would need for each of the 400 metre sections and trained accordingly. In 1996, Cathy Freeman ran a time of 48.63 seconds, just three hundredths of a second outside the goal that she had set for herself. She thought the time would be good enough to win gold; instead it was France’s Marie Jose Perec who won with an Olympic record of 48.25 seconds. Freeman said that she was happy to get silver because it prepared her for what was to come next: a gold medal in front of her home crowd at the 2000 Sydney games. Success for Cathy came from her singleness of purpose and the clarity of her goal.

For most people, goal setting is something that is done once a year in a tired state on New Year’s Day. Countless people make resolutions for the year ahead, such as:

• ‘I am going to lose weight this year.’

• ‘I am finally going to start a course that will further my career.’

• ‘I am going to turn my business around and make my first million.’

• ‘I am going to meet my soul mate.’

• ‘I am going to save enough money to put a deposit on a house.’

A new year brings a sense of optimism, and with it an opportunity to start again more successfully. It is an exciting time … for a while, anyway.

Fast forward to the end of January. What has happened to the goals you set? Most people’s goals have fallen by the wayside. Why? Because time just seems to speed by; other commitments and responsibilities get in the way and old routines and patterns surface, rendering the changes we wanted to make ineffective.

It would be great if there was a way to get back on track and achieve those goals you set in the first place. The achievement system you are about to learn has the potential to do just that. It will transform your performance in all areas of life, and enable you to put past frustrations, disappointments and ineffective habits behind you. You will become more energised as you gain a greater sense of purpose and drive.

A number of years ago I was working at a family resort in Vermont and was asked to play a game of darts with some friends. Not having played darts before, I asked my friends to explain the rules to me: the winner of the game would be the first person who hit each of the target areas in order from one to 20, followed by the bullseye at the centre of the dartboard. I was also told that if you hit a ‘double’ in the outer ring on the correct number, you would get to skip a number. Similarly, if you hit a ‘triple’ on the inner ring, you would skip two numbers — a great way to fast track your way to victory. The game rules were simple enough to follow, but my skill level was nowhere near as good as my competition’s skill level. I tried to fast track my way towards a win by throwing doubles and triples, but I lacked the accuracy. Not only did I lose the first game, I did not win a game all night. I knew what I had to do, but just didn’t have the skills or ability to achieve the desired goal. My competitors had years of experience, so how was I going to compete, anyway?

Think of a dart board for a moment. What is the colour at its centre? All those dart players out there probably know the answer, but for others it may not be clear. Similarly, in life some people are very clear about which targets (or bullseyes) they are aiming for: they know exactly how much they want to weigh; they are clear about the amount of business profit they are gunning for; or they are committed to saving for an end-of-year family ski trip. Other people will not even know where the dart board is, let alone the bullseye at its centre. They are unclear as to what would make them happy in business and in life, or even as to what their definition of success might be.

Just as in dart games there are ways to fast track your success, in life there are also ways to do it in life. These methods can be used to achieve incredible things, and apply equally to all aspects of your life, whether they relate to your work, personal relationships or health and fitness. I am excited about sharing these with you so that you can reach your goals faster. I have known many people who have achieved their goals, only to realise that they were unfulfilled once they reached them. We need to make sure that your goals match your values, and there is a powerful process for achieving this, which I will take you through.

Over the past 12 years, I have had the unique experience of working with thousands of people at all points on the motivation curve. I have worked with top business managers and CEOs, employees at all levels, Olympic athletes, highly disadvantaged teenagers and the long-term unemployed (some of whom had been out of work for more than 20 years). During this time, I read countless books and attended numerous seminars to learn about effective achievement tools that anyone could apply easily and effortlessly.

In the course of my research, I realised that many of the tools on offer had serious flaws. Some of the systems were so complex that the effort required to utilise them was just far too great. Other techniques sounded great in theory, but in practice they delivered very little. I was amazed at how many books on the topic of goal setting and achievement were carbon copies of each other, using the same outdated, regurgitated techniques that failed on a number of different levels.

There had to be a better way: a simple yet powerful system that could deliver results for people regardless of age, background or social status. The system would have to be practical and tick all the critical achievement boxes.

This book is it.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a seasoned goal setting professional or someone who is thinking about setting goals for the first time; this book will be of huge benefit to you. If you are already achieving some outstanding results, Bullseye! will spur you on to even greater successes. For those of you who have been frustrated because things haven’t been going quite to plan, this book will provide you with concrete solutions to get you back on track. If you are relatively new to setting goals (and believe me you are not alone) then you have come to the right place. This book is quite simply a one-stop goal-achievement shop that delivers unparalleled results.

In the first two chapters of Bullseye!, you will be inspired by the true stories of ordinary people who dared to dream and achieved their goals against all the odds. Inspiration comes from the Latin word inspirare, which means ‘to breathe life into’. You will be energised to breathe new life into your goals.

Chapter 3 will take you on a journey of self-discovery to ensure that you know which goals matter most to you, and that you are therefore focusing your energies on achieving things that will make you feel a sense of pride and satisfaction.

Chapter 4 reveals the world’s leading goal-achievement system: POWERTIP. The foolproof system will help you formulate each goal correctly to ensure maximum chances of success. POWERTIP is simple to use and incredibly effective, and it will ensure that you are set up for success in everything you do.

Once you have your goals properly formulated, it is important to look ahead to prepare for what could go wrong — otherwise, goal achievement is like trying to compete in a hurdles race where you can’t see the hurdles! In chapter 5, I will share with you the top seven success stoppers, and explain what you can do to combat them. After reading this chapter, you will be armed with strategies for getting past any obstacles you may face in the achievement of your goals.

A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.

— Anonymous

The ability to achieve goals can be hindered by stubborn bad habits, which can be very difficult to break if the right strategies are not in place. Chapter 6 will reveal some powerful techniques that will help break the chains that bind you to bad habits.

In chapter 7, you will learn revolutionary strategies that world-class performers use to embed goals into their subconscious mind. With these strategies, you will no longer question whether or not you will achieve the goals you set; the only question will be: what will you do to celebrate? Together we will break down your goals into achievable steps and then use the time line technique to stimulate the reticular activating system (RAR, the gateway to your subconscious mind). It is a very effective process that you will wish someone had shown you years ago.

In chapter 8, you will discover how to properly map out your goal achievement steps using the triple P effec-tiveness blueprint. Never before will you have planned and prioritised your tasks with such clarity and purpose.This technique aims to harness three of your most critical resources: time, money and energy. The effectiveness blueprint will give you optimal returns on your investment in each of these three areas as well as giving you a com-petitive advantage.

In chapter 9, you will discover the secrets to main-taining momentum en route towards your goals using a unique system that is easy to implement. You will learn invaluable strategies to keep you on task and on time towards your goals.

Everything that you will have learnt by this stage in the book will benefit you immensely, but without the right mindset the techniques may prove ineffective. Chapter 10, the ‘magic mindset’, will enable you to utilise the most powerful supercomputer in the world: your brain. You will discover the important link between thoughts, feelings and actions and how you can shape your goal beliefs towards the outcomes you want. I will show you the practical techniques I wish I had known while going through school — it would have made such a big difference!

Finally, this book will give you the confidence that comes from knowing you have the very best goal achieve-ment tools at your disposal. No matter how good or bad your results have been up until now, I know that I can help you take your performance to the next level. I have been lucky enough to work with some incredible people over the years, and in the process have learnt some powerful lessons. I am excited about sharing what I have learnt with you so that you can achieve the success that you deserve. By reading this book you are one of the few people who ‘do’ rather than one of the many who ‘talk’. Dr Stephen Covey said it this way: ‘To know and not to do is not to know’. Therefore, this book is not meant to be passively read, but actively implemented. If you commit to the strategies in this book, there is nothing you cannot achieve. It is a real pleasure to be sharing the journey with you, and I look forward to hearing about your achievements.

Blake Beattie

Sydney

January 2010

Chapter 1: Dare to dream

In 1942, a boy was born into a poor family in a working-class suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. When the boy was four, his father departed for war, and his mother abandoned him. He went to live with his father’s two sisters, who treated him badly and continually told him that he was worthless. When his father returned from the military, he sexually abused his son for five years, until the boy was 15.

As a young man, he worked as a boilermaker in the Glasgow shipyards. As a sideline he did some folk singing with a band, where he introduced some comedy into the warm-up part of the act and into the songs. It was here that the man was spotted by a talent scout who urged him into stand-up comedy. From there, he built himself up to be a popular figure on the comedy circuit, working alongside comic greats such as John Cleese. The same man had suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder and been an alcoholic.

Despite his difficult beginnings, he has forgiven his deceased father and moved on; his ability to make the best of a bad situation is something to be admired. He is now a regular face on TV and at comedy festivals, and has long been considered one of the most important comedians of our generation.

From a terribly sad childhood, Billy Connolly overcame adversity and moved onwards and upwards to become a household name — not just within the UK, but around the world. Who would have thought that someone from such humble beginnings could make it that far?

A poor man is not the one without a cent. A poor man is the one without a dream.

— Henry Ford

Think back for a moment to when you were a child. Your whole life was before you, and the possibilities were endless. Your mind had not yet been filled with the restrictions and limitations that other people and life experiences inflict. You were yet to know the meaning of the word ‘responsibility’, and you were free in body, mind and spirit. What lay ahead was a world full of possibilities, of goals and dreams that were unrealised but never out of reach. The future looked bright. Take a moment to think about what your dreams and aspirations looked like during your early years. What were your hopes and dreams back then?

Fast forward to now. Are you living the dream? Do you consistently hit the targets you aim for? Are you happy when you hit those targets? Are you moving closer to what you want? (Assuming, of course, that you know what that might be!)

Why don’t people live the dream?

For many reasons, people are pulled away from what they want most in life. Dreams are rarely actualised overnight, and in this era of instant gratification and short attention spans, it is easy to understand why many people don’t achieve their dreams. There are countless reasons why people’s dreams are left unfulfilled, but some of the most common ones are:

1. not knowing what the goal is in the first place

2. not having the willpower to commit to a goal

3. not having the discipline to perform the actions required to achieve the goals.

Recently, after delivering a talk in Cairns, I was speaking with a lady who told me how she had always wanted to holiday in Fiji. I was instantly excited for her, because Fiji is a magical place of which I have very fond memories. I asked her when she planned to go, to which she replied: ‘If only! I have too many responsibilities here, and we don’t have the money for that sort of thing’.

What a shame! This woman had given up on her dream, despite the fact that it was very achievable given some planning and dedication. Many people make excuses for not pursuing their goals, or fail to follow through with actions from time to time. However, saying that something ‘can’t be done’ cuts one off from so many possibilities. We all have myriad reasons for not making certain things happen, but no matter what your background, past experiences, age or current circumstances, you can do so much more than you think you can!

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