Developing An Action Plan For Leadership and Personal Development

Section 3.3: Never-Ending Goals

Successful leaders have an action plan for leadership in both their personal and professional lives. Leaders understand that results don't just 'happen', results are made to happen.

In this section we'll discuss goals that are never-ending and how you will continue to manage these goals on an on-going basis.

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People too often think of a goal in terms of something that has a specific start, middle and end. Understandably, they want to feel secure in the knowledge that at some point in the future, they will eventually experience an end result.

Great leaders know that is some cases the goal planning process is on-going because over time things can change - priorities, circumstances, competitive environment or other. In certain cases, leaders must embrace a never-ending goal planning process.

Many of your most important goals in life will be ongoing, without any definite end. These ongoing goals are very important to your overall action plan for leadership in your personal and professional life.

"Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals."

When you think of goals that are never-ending, consider areas of your life that mean the most to you.

For example, you love your family and you always want them to know that you love them, correct? Then a great never-ending goal would be to make sure you demonstrate your love to your family members.

Giving you husband or wife a big hug and saying, "I love you so much." is a great action step toward your goal. After that lovely interaction, however, you can only take credit for managing your goal, not for fully achieving it. These types of goals are never fully achieved.

Action Plan for Leadership of Never-Ending Goals

Think about the following life goals. These are additional examples of never-ending goals.

As you read through the list, write down 1-2 action steps you can take to effectively manage each goal. (Remember, write it down for easy reference later on.)

Examples of Never-Ending Goals:

To be grateful to God
To be generous, loving and romantic
To be honest, trustworthy and loyal
To be self-disciplined and focused
To be understanding and flexible
To be healthy and fit
To be playful and spontaneous
To be intelligent, fair and constructive
To be strong, decisive and daring
To be passionate and persuasive
To be observant and aware of my surroundings
To spend quality time with my family and friends

By keeping these ongoing goals in front of you, you'll be reminded how important relationships are in your life and why you need to take the time to manage and nurture the people you care for.

This proven action plan for leadership in your personal life is worth adopting as it will aid you in becoming the person you wish to be by keeping track of the times when you exhibit these important behaviors.

For example, if you spend an afternoon with your son or daughter doing a special activity, take credit for it! Write it down in your journal or goal planner as a way of celebrating your success. Writing down your achievements will feel good, and more importantly it will help to keep you motivated to continue the positive behavior.

As you collect these special moments on paper, you will feel great about making the effort and accomplishing the sort of things you wish to achieve in your life.

"Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them."

- Dennis Waitley

Success Lesson #7: Always Expect The Best

There is a great power in having the self confidence to expect that great things will come to you. This belief is the fuel that pushes you through the challenges and obstacles will most certainly arise as you pursue your goals.

There is nothing quite so helpful to a man or woman as the carrying of an optimistic, expectant attitude - the attitude which always looks for and expects the very best.

"Goals determine what you are going to be."

- Julius Erving

People who have high self-worth expect good things to come, they believe that with enough hard work and planning they can achieve their goals. They believe that through personal growth and an action plan for leadership they will acquire the good things in life. After all, if others can have fine things, why not them?

On the other side of the coin, too many people lack a strong belief in their ability, and even their right, to have the finer things. They do not guard their self esteem and as a result it diminishes over time. They settle into thinking they aren't worthy of a better life - that the other half are entitled and they do not belong to the higher class.

"You owe it to yourself and everyone around you to always exhibit the highest and the happiest outlook on life."

But why are they in a different class? Simply because they think of themselves as belonging to a lower class; that they are inferior in some way; because they adopt personal limits and boundaries.

When building your action plan for leadership, understand that you are the only one who can place limits on your ability to be successful.

Never forget that you will become the man or woman you are, based on the quality of your thoughts.

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