Getting the first spark is easy, follow through and actually reaching your goal without failing is the hard part. It is like starting an engine on a cold winter morning, it might take a couple of tries before you get started, and still you need to endure the distance and be persistent. So what do you do to keep your engine running? In this blog post I am going to talk about sticking with the plan.

Achievement goals and Learning goals

Let’s say that you are a salesman and you need to get 12 sales each day. It is easy to do the math and set the goal to 60 for a week. This is called an achievement goal. Now let us examine a learning goal: I am going to continually improve my selling skills. Is this limited to 12 sales each day? No? Is it possible to fail? Maybe, if you are really crap and become worse as time goes by, but as all learning humans we tend to evolve.

A learning goal is a commitment to become better

So how do you become a better salesperson? By learning from those that are better, by improving your skills, by reading some books, by talking courses, by practice and devotion. I have been on a five year long conscious journey to become the best possible leader. I have just ordered six new books on customer service, leadership and motivation. I am on a healthy diet and exercise plan to lose weight, because fat people are according to research losing out to thin people, because we are judged as lazy. There is strong evidence that obese job applicants face weight bias in job evaluations and hiring decisions. I thought the world was less superficial, but I just need to face the facts. So I have lost 15.4 lbs (7kg) in four weeks. I have not been this thin for about 7-8 years. Why am I talking about my diet? It is a part of a learning process, what does it take to reach my full potential? Diet is one of the elements I need to consider, because I cannot let a first impression cheat me of an opportunity. I am committed to becoming better and this is one step on the way, I am committed and it gives me a lot of motivation.

Let’s break it down

There are a lot of myths about motivation and working with goals.

• Don’t set your goals to high
  
• Set yourself big goals, so you got something to reach for
  
• Don’t tell anybody about your goals, so it don’t hurt when you fail
  
• Tell everybody so you feel pressured to continue
  

As you see there are a lot of contradictions when you work with motivation. I like to look at goals as directions, not a place with a finish line. So my first advice is:

• Find yourself a learning goal
  Walt Disney wants to make people happy. If he at first made two people happy, he would still be making people happy, if he limited himself to 5000 people happy it wouldn’t become a worldwide establishment.

As soon as you have your learning goal, you need to break it down to bits. I read books and I exercise and eat healthy. To successfully make my so far 27 days of diet into 2700 days of a healthy lifestyle I need to track everything, I am weighing myself each day, I am measuring my waist once each day. I am writing it down on a white board each day. I am drawing a plan for the next few weeks. I am analyzing the numbers to spot progress, because progress is a strong motivational factor for me. I might not see it from day to day, but as I am calculating average per week I see progress. This works for me. People tell me, you can’t do that every day, you will lose motivation as you stall. I don’t care; I need to do it my way. I have not set a final destination, but I am chasing progress all the time.

So for my second advice:

• Do whatever works for you, not what other people tell you to.If you need to plan, if you need to keep score, if you need to wing it, whatever you feel comfortable with, do it.

A learning goal can be a life long journey. Henry Ford once said: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” and I agree. This brings me closer to my third advice; analyze your progress, are you moving forward? Are you stalling? Are you moving backwards? This is actually a way for you to draw new directions, eliminate obstacles.

My third advice is:

• Find out what is stopping you and find solutions
  “Obstacles are things a person see when he takes his eyes off his goal.” – Cossman

Finding a solution to a problem is learning. But still you could fall out of flow and into your old ways. What do you need to do to stay motivated over time? After all I have been dieting for 27 days so far. No great achievement by itself, but I am trying to change my lifestyle, this means a permanent change, not for a set period of time, but for the rest of my life. Hopefully for about 15-16000 days into the future. This is where your inner drive, your why and your values are important. Why do you want this learning goal? Is your goals aligned with your values? I want to teach about motivation, how can I teach you about motivation if I cannot succeed myself? I have no goals of running New York Marathon. But I hope I can keep improving my health. I want to become the best leader possible. I am falling in love with motivational theory, and being able to inspire other is giving me a lot of energy. I want to make other people better. So my goals are aligned with my values of knowledge and sharing. I need to remember why I am doing what I am doing.

This brings me to my next advice: Lockdown.

• Lock yourself to your current results
  

This means that you shall not cross this line ever again. I have managed to become 88 kg (194 lbs). I am never going to weigh more ever again. I need to take action if I am getting close to this limit. This means I can enjoy a juicy burger, fries and a chocolate milkshake, but be on the healthy wagon as soon as I am getting near my locked goal. My next lock will be on 85 kg. As a seller you might lock yourself to 10 sales each day. You might have slow days, but then you need to find out what to do to prevent slow days. Now you will know what actions to take if this ever happens again. You learn to avoid fall backs and you will learn how to get on track fast.

Still it might be hard to succeed, what do you do to keep motivated over time? I need to quote Mark Twain to finish this blog post:

“If He Tom Sawyer had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” – In other words make it fun.

I hope you enjoy my blog and feel free to subscribe. Thank you so much for reading, you rock!

Motivational Gardener

I want you to think about your goals and find out if your goals are learning goals or achievement goals. There is a significant difference in the way these difference goals work.  You should figure out which kind of goals you should apply in order to get the best out of them. I will start by sorting out the two main differences.

Achievement Goals

An AG is a goal where you are supposed to complete something with a specific result. Let’s say you want to get an A on a test, or run 100 meters in less than 14 seconds. Complete 45 calls during one day or Getting to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. Even getting that promotion is an achievement goal.

Learning Goals

The most common thing to do to recognize a learning goal, is that you can put “I want to become better at…” in front of the rest of the sentence. I want to become a better soccer player. I want to become better at speaking French. I want to improve my ability to lead. I want to be the best possible chess player. These goals are not limited to time and progress; you will be on track as long as you continue to improve.

Combine for Optimal Power

If you set your ambitions as learning goals, you will be able to supply with achievement goals to keep learning. If you want to become better at speaking a foreign language;

 “I want to become as good as possible at speaking Spanish” – Learning Goal

“I first need to attend a beginners class within the next few months” – Achievement Goal

“I need to practice speaking Spanish as often as possible” – Learning Goal

“I want to visit Spain for a month to improve my language within next summer” – Achievement Goal

“I need to buy an online Spanish class” – Achievement Goal

You will keep adding small achievement goals as you go along to keep improving your learning goals.

How to use this at work?

Identify how you can implement learning goals. “I want to be the best salesperson possible”, “I want to know as much about web design as possible”, “I want to keep learning more about call center strategies”, “I want to be the best possible leader” – These goals does not limit you to your current job. It does not limit you to a certain promotion. It will make a pathway as you keep evolving. My learning goal is: “To be the best possible leader”- I will continue to chase learning opportunities within or outside the company. Where I work is not important. I might need to get more education (Achievement goal) or attend a class (achievement goal) or read books (achievement goal) to support my long life learning goal.

I hope you find this useful when you determine your goals.

If you decide to fall in love with my blog…
There is a lot of reading to do at my blog, take a look at my index. Or read more blog posts about goals, and do not forget to subscribe to my blog. You Rock!

Are you looking for a way to find meaning in life? Not the meaning of life, but making some sense out of what you do? I am going to try to share my life philosophy with you. If you have read my blog for a while you might be familiar with the illustration I am using today. I made it first for another blog post a while back which you can read here – Since then I have had this graphic as my desktop background, learning to appreciate it every single day as a reminder and map of my life and it makes sense.

The GIKA SPICT – I am really not sure about the name, feel free to suggest a better name for this  I just made it up from the input and output of this circle – Goals, Inspiration, Knowledge and Abilities on one side and Share, Produce, Inspire, Care and Teach on the other side, not very creative, but it helps me remember when I try to teach this to others.

I have come to believe that humans thrive when they feel some progress in any field. People quit their dead end jobs when they imagine that this is all they can get. I work at a call center and deal with the “after one year I know all there is to it”-syndrome all the time. They get bored and start looking for new jobs and production is dropping. Unless we get the GIKA SPICT-philosophy flowing.

You can use this in any setting to create growth and meaning, at work, at home, in sports you name it. This is probably why people teach with low or no pay at all, it creates a greater purpose in life, and you do something greater than yourself.

Challenge yourself to get new abilities, acquire some new skills or knowledge, find inspiration in others and set yourself goals. This is what I am looking for; this is why I am currently trying to obtain a stronger mid-game in chess. This is why I read books about coaching and leadership. This is why I have started a political career. This is why I have found a good cause to support at Arc Kenya.

But that is not enough. One way of making sure you are untouchable at work is to acquire a critical skill that no one else possesses. You won’t get fired, but it will not make you evolve unless you are unselfish and share and teach. This is why you should fire people that won’t share as they prey on knowledge your company would benefit by, if it was taught to the masses. Transferring knowledge is a strong unselfish act that will give you a greater meaning in life. Do not underestimate the power of sharing and teaching. I am trying to teach my kids to play chess; it is a rewarding gift of fun and joy. Teaching my kids to play chess is just a small part of it, but it shows that this philosophy is scalable to the little things as well.

Are you having a productive day today? How does it make you feel? We like to feel productive; if I do not clean the kitchen for a day my wife feels unproductive and shares the wisdom of delegating work with (to) me. But seriously a productive day provide more self esteem, your time is not wasted. What productive really is, depends on the individual, but you can recognize it by a feeling of wasting time.

Care about others, care about your co-workers, show your family that you care. Appreciate important people in your life. This creates a good feeling in both you and the ones being appreciated. Care for a cause if you can, it all helps you to feel useful. If you care about the people around you, and teach them to care about the people around them you will end up with people caring about you. This is Karma baby! – But it works!

By following this philosophy you will inspire other people as you go along. And this is where the circle is completed and you start evolving. As you help other people to evolve and as you motivate people to complete achievements this will in return be very fulfilling to you. If you as a co-worker, manager, family individual or in any other setting strive to help other people evolve and grow, you will experience a greater meaning in life. It might still not be the meaning of life, but for me it is as close as it gets.

Positive thinking is also a strong element in my strangely named GIKA SPICT philosophy. Read more about positive thinking here

A young soccer player at the age of 14 has his entire life been spending most of his career on the bench, with a low point in his career going to Norway Cup, the largest soccer tournament in the world for kids, being benched in all matches and played zero minutes in a tournament that this kid was looking forward to. The winter was long and a new season started, and due to one player moving to another part of the world he got his first match this season. He ran up and down the left wing of the field feeling that it went alright. After the match one of the other’s dad came up to him and said: “what the h…., have you been doing this winter?” – The kid felt the world crumble and was ready to be yelled at for poor performance when this man said; “you played very good out there, you have truly improved greatly since last year”. The kid played each game the rest of the season and continued to play frequently for another four years on junior levels. For the first time in his life, he felt that he could manage to do something right.

This same kid grew up and started his own record store at the age of 19. He talked with one of his customers one day that said; “You might not make it with this store, but you have great visions, you will make it great, and I am sure we will see greatness from you.” – The store closed two years later.

At the age of 24 he went to a motivational seminar, listening to former pro road racing cyclist Dag Erik Pedersen ( He said: “it is all in your mind, and if you really want to achieve something you will, if you put your mind into it” – It resulted in this now grown up kid quitting his job, and educated himself to a web master title, getting his dream job as a web designer within two years. He also believes strongly in the human capacity to perform to great extremes.

A few years later he started his leadership career with a feeling of not having the natural authority until another kid once told him; “You are scary“– This made him realize that he had grown as a leader and that he had respect, also changing his approach towards future employees completely.

These four small sentences have changed my path completely, and almost isolated transformed me from an insecure little kid to a self secure man with great confident in myself and others. I am now the man that can give short sentences to other kids. I have lately told my nephew that I am proud to see how he displays his soccer talent, and that I am sure that he can make it to become a pro if he wants to. I told my oldest kid that I was proud when he took a beating from his little brother without retaliating, talking about this great quality that he should honor in the future. I have told employees that they hold a great future as leaders. I try to share my short life changing sentences. They might not change anything, they might be forgotten tomorrow, but if one person will remember what I said and this was a life changing moment… Well I know the impact of one single sentence how it can totally alter your self-confident.

What is your life changing sentence?