Monthly Archives: February 2011

Goal Setting 101; get back to basics

Being a fan of hockey, last night I read an article about the surge in winning games by the New Jersey Devils. They were running almost dead last in the NHL prior to the New Year.

Since a few weeks they have a new former coach, Jacques Lemaire, who had helped the team win several Stanley Cups. Now he has gotten them back to winning games and there record over the past few weeks has been 12 wins, 2 ties and 1 loss. Pretty impressive for a team that could not find a way to win prior to his arrival.

What did he do? He got the team back to mastering the basics of good hockey, which begins with solid defence of quickly passing the back out of the home zone so at to create offensive opportunities.

Now you may be reading this post many months after it has been posted, but I can bet that if you pick up the sports section you may find another team going through what the Devils did. It could even be in another sport. The point is that if you get away from the basics of the game your track record for success can be put in jeopardy.

The same is true for success in business and in life. To win the game you need to be focused on a key goal. Not 10 but really 1 or 2 as more than that creates stress and confusion. You can have sub goals attached to your key goal and that makes sense because there are always small steps to take to reach the bigger goal.

I recently listened to a recording by Earl Nightingale who provides clarity about the principle behind goal setting and positive thinking in the The Strangest Secret. He recorded this in 1956 but this recoding still is listened to by million each year. Here it is taken from YouTube.

As well you can get going on goal setting by downloading this goal setting form from our website or use the year in review PowerPoint.