Goal Setting for Losers

By Mike Shaw

"Goal setting for Losers" Is based upon my passion to help the millions of people who have tried and failed to find a winning formula to help achieve their goals. Despite the best efforts of my "Alter Ego Mike James" once I incorporated the Power of the Universe into my goal setting I became a winner, despite the many challenges and distractions I encountered along the way. This is a "Bull Crap" free book that will empower you to success in achieving your goals. Follow my promptings and you too will enjoy a life of abundance you may never have imagined. I will share with you how by incorporating The Law of Attraction as the power behind what I call Win, Win goals you too will become a winner!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479762897

Book preview

Goal Setting

for Losers

12943.jpg

Mike Shaw

Copyright © 2013 by Mike Shaw.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 04/24/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

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Contents

Chapter 1    My Story

Chapter 2    The Long Walk to Redemption

Chapter 3    What Is a Goal Anyway?

Chapter 4    The Wannabe Entrepreneur

Chapter 5    Who Is Mike James?

Chapter 6    What Price Hindsight?

Chapter 7    What Is Charity Anyway?

Chapter 8    Me, Me Goals: What Are They?

Chapter 9    Goals, Smoals

Chapter 10  It’s Just Stuff!

Chapter 11  The World’s Biggest Loser

Chapter 12  Statistics Don’t Lie, Do They?

Chapter 13  So Why Do You Set Goals?

Chapter 14  Shocking Statistics

Chapter 15  So Why Are You Failing?

Chapter 16  This Year, You Are Definitely Going to Lose Weight, Right!

Chapter 17  Real-Life Examples

Chapter 18  News Flash! Breaking News!

Chapter 19  Don’t Mess with the Law of Attraction

Chapter 20  Lisa’s Story

Chapter 21  The Why’s Have It

Chapter 22  Doug’s Story

Chapter 23  Mike’s Story No. 1

Chapter 24  Who Is Doug Roberts?

Chapter 25  Mike’s Story No. 2

Chapter 26  The Power of Win-Win Goals

Chapter 27  Life’s Lessons Learned on The Long Walk to Redemption

Chapter 28  Preparing for the Long Walk to Redemption

Chapter 29  I Had an Empowering Why that Literally Made Me Cry!

Chapter 30  To Summarize and in Review

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W HEN IT COMES TO SETTING GOALS, DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A LOSER ? PROBABLY NOT. HOWEVER, THE STATISTICS SUGGEST THAT DESPITE WHAT YOU MAY THINK, THE REALITY IS YOU PROBABLY ARE! You may not want to admit it, but the sad truth is you might well be a loser when it comes to goal setting! How can I make such an outrageous statement? Well, before you get all bent out of shape at my assertion, let me explain the shocking statistics ! For starters, anyone who tells you they achieved 100 percent, every goal they ever set is probably lying! So don’t feel bad. The hard reality is this: of people who set goals, 90 percent fail to achieve them! I base that statement on my own observations and the statistics. Data from the last U.S. census taken in 2010 show the U.S. population at that time was approximately 311,800,000. Based on age profiling, approximately 288 million could be considered to be potential goal setters.

According to information published by various experts, less than 20 percent of the U.S. population actually set goals; What I find shocking is the fact that only 10 percent of the 20 percent who do set goals actually achieve them! Additionally less than 60 million of the US. population actually see the value in setting goals! Even more shocking is the sad fact that fewer than 6 percent or less than 3.6 million of goal setters in America actually achieve their goals. Wow! That is a pathetically small number of people who attain their goals! How can that be? Is it any wonder then that with such huge numbers of people failing to set goals that as a society, we are in trouble? Guys, this is America. Hey, it was an American engineer who invented goal setting in the first place! We can do better than that right!

As a successful entrepreneur, I have been setting and achieving my goals for the past four decades. Of course I did not achieve every goal I ever set, particularly when I first started setting goals. However, I eventually figured out how to embrace the law of attraction when setting goals. From then on, my successes ratio went through the roof!

So why did I write this book? My primary goal in writing this book is to help you become one of the 10 percent, one of the winners, when you set your future goals. With that in mind, do not set another goal until you incorporate my winning formula into your goal setting. I will share with you the powerful formula that empowers me to succeed when I set what I call win-win goals.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A LL OF THE people I refer to in Goal Setting for Losers are real people. They are part of my exclusive inner circle — a group of special people. I am delighted to say it includes members of my immediate family and my closest and dearest friends.

I would especially like to thank my good friend Barry Crowther for all his help. Despite the fact that Barry is a successful author in his own right and he is also a crazy busy and successful business man, he took time out of his hectic schedule to help and mentor me. Mega thanks, Barry!

To my daughter Lisa and my best friend Doug Roberts — thank you both for your excellent contributions. Your experiences will be of enormous help to people who struggle to reach their goals. Your critique of my work is very welcome. More importantly, I thank you both for your love and support, you are the rocks of my life. You have always been there for me. I love and appreciate you both.

Many thanks to the special people who took the time to review the first drafts of this book.

Thanks to my sister Jennifer, daughter Nikki, my son Ryan, my sister-in-law Karen, and my good friend Wendy. I love and care for each and every one of you. I really value your input. Thank you all!

To my wife, Melanie, thank you so much! Melanie has put up with me rolling out of bed at 3:00 AM so that I can apply myself to getting this book to this point. However, I’m not sure she would appreciate some of the more colorful elements of my past life being shared with our kids! Hopefully, she won’t get too mad? Thanks for your tolerance, honey. Love you.

INTRODUCTION

S O WHO IS Mike Shaw?

Welcome. This book is written by a proud working-class lad from the northwest of England who never lost sight of his roots despite his success in setting and achieving most of his goals. Having been born into a childhood of poverty and deprivation, he went on to escape his humble beginnings to enjoy a life of abundance he could never have imagined as a child!

However, despite his success in business, flying his airplanes, driving his fast cars, chasing fast women, his adventures while traveling the world, and God only knows what else — at heart, he is still the shy raggedy-arsed kid he always was!

However, this particular book is not about me and my shenanigans; it’s about you and how I can help you to successfully set and achieve your goals! (Sorry for the letdown!)

On a Cautionary Note

I hope you find this book a fun, informative, and empowering read. However a quick heads-up! If you are a sensitive soul or you take offense easily, you may find I am a little direct in some of the descriptive references I use in my book. If that is you, then I apologize up-front for any offense caused. It is not intentional.

My Research on Goal Setting

When I did my research on how many people in America actually set goals, I was shocked to discover just how low the number of people is as a percentage of the total population of the USA that actually set goals!

From my own experience, the habit of setting and achieving goals on a regular basis has completely changed my life in an extremely positive way.

As a consequence, I have many and varied reasons for writing the thousands of words you will find within this book.

I have four main goals I want to achieve that I would like to share with you. First, my main purpose is to inspire at least some of the millions of people who have never actually considered setting goals to get involved. I hope after they read of my experiences, they will consider making it a lifelong habit. Sadly unless they do, they will never experience just how powerful a life-changing habit it can become.

Secondly, I would like to help people who might be looking for guidance on how to make sure they can achieve the outcome they expect when they do start the process of setting their goals.

Third, I would love to help the triers, the 90 percent of people who, according to statistics, have tried and failed in their efforts to achieve their goals. These might be people who are in the habit of setting goals but have not yet been as successful as they would wish to be and are searching for more effective advice on how to achieve a positive outcome when setting future goals.

Setting goals is not rocket science, but I do have a number of tried and trusted strategies that will be of help to you in achieving success. I will share my experience and strategies with you throughout this book, together we can set you firmly on the road to success.

Fourth, I am passionate in my quest to raise awareness and contributions for the two wonderful charities I support. To that end, a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of each book will be donated to the charities. Hopefully, I will have your support in my efforts to help people who are worse off in life than we are. So if you find my information helpful, and or you just enjoy the read, please refer it to your friends. The more readers I attract, the more copies are sold, and the more money we will raise for the charities.

So Why My Book?

Unlike many traditional inspirational books you may have read, you will find my writing style somewhat different. Nonetheless, I am confident you will find the answers you are seeking in your search for success in achieving your goals!

Most of the goal-setting books I have read tend to be written more like a dry instructional manual — informative but dry and lacking in empowerment and inspiration! Just give me the facts, and yes, that works for some people. However, goals are not dry. Of course, goals can be challenging, but goals should be fun and empowering, so why not treat them that way? Have fun with your goals; I did and still do, and so should you!

From my perspective, I would like to think that my story will not only give you the facts, but will also inspire and educate so that you can turn to it as you would a trusted old friend whenever things go wrong or when things are not quite going the way you wanted or expected them to. You can always turn to this book when the need arises. And when you don’t know what to do, you will always be able to ask, What would Mike do? Or you can go to my blog and ask me a question. I will always get back to you as soon as I am available.

I have found, when setting goals that sometimes we lose our way, and we are in need of direction. It may be you just need some moral support or positive reinforcement, or you are in need of a reminder of the how too. Most importantly, you might feel the need to reaffirm the all-powerful why. Why it was that you set your goal in the first place? Believe me during the process we can sometimes lose our way. That’s the beauty of setting goals — they give us a track to follow; they are the compass of our life!

My approach in helping you become successful in reaching your goals is anything but dry. I will weave into the fabric of the book my own colorful story, my firsthand, battle-tested tips and solutions. Rest assured the information is factual