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Trust the indigenous guide.
My goal for February was to read the book "The Success Principles" by Jack Canfield AND do all the exercises in the book. In the introduction Jack recommends reading the entire book first and then go through it a second time and THEN do the exercises. Boy was that some good advice! Not that I followed it when I made my February goal however. Some of the chapters were short with no additional work required. Others were quite involved, taking time and energy and creativity. I learned a lot working through the exercises, especially that goals can change and that it takes more than a month to establish all the habits necessary to become successful.
The information in the book is amazing. I got the feeling that by actually following through with even 50 – 60% of what he suggests will make success inevitable. I could feel the momentum increase the further into the book I got. And then it got overwhelming. A lot of the chapters had extensive exercises and that’s when I realized the wisdom of Jack’s words about simply reading through the book first. Now that I’ve finished it, I thought I was ready to commit the next few months to going through it again and making the exercises happen. Until last night.
At my regular Toastmasters meeting we learned that we are going to be one point short of reaching our annual goal. There was a miscalculation and now we’re going to come up short. Looking at what I need to accomplish in the next 4 months to contribute that additional point, I need to complete 6 speeches before June 30th. Yikes! That’s no small feat but I think I’m up for the challenge.
So, for my March goal, I am committing to spending 1 hour a day on my speeches, not only the next one or two, but all six of them. That should be enough time to get the bulk of them done or at least well under way.
How are you doing with your own goals? Any impressive insights or helpful lessons you’ve learned?