Kris de Leon's Blog

I hope you all got some kind of value from my series on the Goal Achieving Process. For those who joined the group recently, you can refer to my series of 4 articles on Goal Achieving on my blog
http://krisdeleon.com

I’m a believer that leaders lead by example, and that you should practice what you preach. I’m going to show you an example in real time how I’m applying what I just wrote in my series into my life.

By now, you should have received an invite to my event called “$7K in 7 Days Birthday Challenge for Charity” (http://bit.ly/fbafanevent). This is something I created recently, and I’ll show you step by step how I’m applying what I’ve written in my series of articles through this ambitious challenge.

5 Steps of the Goal Achieving Process

Step 1: Reflection and Evaluation
One of my desires in life is to become a philanthropist and set up a nonprofit in the next few years (I’ve set up my businesses to incorporate philanthropy)

Step 2: Dreaming Big Dreams
A big dream of mine is to find a cure for HIV/AIDS in my lifetime. I know a number of people affected by this, so I want to do something in my power to get there.

Step 3: Creating goal using S.M.A.R.T. formula

- Specific: $7K

- Measurable: I can track how much I’ve raised each day, and measure daily result against goal

- Attainable: At first, I thought this was beyond my capability because I’ve never raised more than $100 for a charity before. After researching, I came across a guy who raised close to $15K in 12 hours using Twitter last year (and he had probably just the same amount of experience I have)

- Realistic: It’s been done before by people with equal or less experience than me

- Time certain: Deadline by April 4 (7 days to my birthday)

Step 4: Implementation and Accountability
I’ve implemented by first creating a Facebook event page to raise awareness of this campaign, then follow through every day. I’ve done my research on people who successfully used social media to raise funds, and have borrowed some of their ideas.

I’ve asked a friend who I consider the “King of Fundraising”, since he does this for a living, to be my mentor and hold me accountable.

Step 5: Repeat process
I’ll evaluate my progress daily and make changes where necessary.

http://bit.ly/fbafanevent

I will keep you updated, but I would like to ask you for some help with this (as you can’t do anything alone), and you need a Mastermind group (hence why I created this group). I’d be grateful if you can help in any way, whether it be monetary contribution, creating buzz, promoting this event, advice, or simply RSVP “Attending” and post positive comments to show moral support. Whether or not you believe in my cause, I’d be grateful for any kind of help. Click here for details: http://bit.ly/fbafanevent

As of this writing, while 168 people RSVPed “Not Attending” against 20 who wrote “Attending”, I’m not going to let this discourage me. My vision by the end of April 4 is to write the following status update “Thank you everyone! Kris exceeded the $7K in 7 Days Birthday Challenge for Charity”.

Kind regards,
Kris

702-475-5733
Skype: krisdeleon
krisdeleon78@gmail.com

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Instead of stressing what to do for my birthday, I’m going to do something different this year and spend the last 7 days as a 31y/o raising money for charity. Why $7K? Because it makes a cool title! That’s ambitious, but I’m on for the challenge, so bring it on!!

The best birthday present you guys can give me is the pleasure of donating $7K (at least) to a worthy cause!!! If each one of you donated at least $2 (and 2 minutes of your time), I’d be so close to hitting this goal!

http://bit.ly/afanwalk

So where’s the money going? I’m raising money for Aid for AIDS of Nevada (AFAN), a charity to fight against HIV/AIDS and help out my local community. I know many people affected by HIV/AIDS, and I want to do everything in my power to help out. AFAN is hosting a charity walk on April 25, so if you’re in Las Vegas, come out and join the walk, and enjoy the picnic afterwards!

http://bit.ly/afanwalk

I’d be grateful if you can help out in any other way, like writing blog posts, creating buzz, retweeting my posts/videos, promoting this campaign, RSVP “attending”/post positive comments to show moral support, raising awareness of HIV/AIDS issues, or anything else you can think of.

I’ll post updates on my progress and build momentum, so help me win this birthday challenge! $7K is great, but let’s slash that target by April 4!! Thanks!!!

Click here to submit donations (credit cards acceptable for those outside the U.S.):
http://bit.ly/afanwalk

Kris
702-475-5733
http://bit.ly/afanwalk
http://twitter.com/krisdeleon
http://krisdeleon.com

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I’m now completing my series on the Goal Achieving Process with parts 4 & 5 here. There are two major reasons why people don’t reach they’re goals – they lack action (implementation) and follow-through (accountability). You may have the biggest dreams, and create S.M.A.R.T. goals, but without taking any action and following through your goals, then it’s worth nothing at all. You need to have a means and method to implement goals, and then follow-up. This all comes as a result of accountability.

The first step towards taking action and ensuring that you’re accountable is to constantly surround yourself with everything that reminds you of your goals. A great way to do this is by creating a vision board. Set aside a board in front of your desk, or anywhere in your room or office where you can see the board. Then hang up pictures of what you desire, and inspirational quotes to keep you going. This will ensure that you maintain your enthusiasm and energy level as you’re implementing your goals.

To continue with implementation, make sure you do the things necessary on a daily basis that helps you achieve the goal. If you’re in sales, and you want to double, triple or quadruple your results, then your daily activities can include being consistent on the number of phone calls or sales presentation you make. If your goal is to run a marathon, then you need to run every day for the necessary time and distance that will help you prepare for the marathon. Decide on the length and duration of these activities, and stay consistent.

The next step of implementation is prioritizing your time and money. Are you prioritizing your time so that you are focused on completing those daily activities that will produce results? Are you investing the right amount of money in resources, training or education needed? You will need a planning system on how to prioritize time and money. This is easy to do by using a day planner. One way to increase your productivity is to plan your next day before you go to sleep. When you wake up, stick to the plan. You wake up with enthusiasm because you know exactly what you’re going to do to accomplish this day. If an emergency or urgent matter arises, take care of it, then go back to working according to your plan. Make sure your plan focuses on the 20% of activities that yields 80% of your results. If you make this a habit, I’m sure you will see your productivity increase.

Now that you’ve implemented action plans to take you closer to your goals, take accountability by becoming the person you need to be. Jim Rohn said it best – “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” The more you become, the more effective you become at everything you do, and the more you attract successful people and opportunities into your life. You do this by focusing on personal development and working with a mentor who has already achieved what you want. A mentor or coach will help you stay focused and hold you accountable by reminding you of your goals.

Part 5 of the goal setting process is to review and revise your plans. This will take you back to part 1, which is reflection and evaluation, and you move through the process until you achieve your goals.

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In my previous article, I discussed the importance of dreaming big dreams. It gives you the power to overcome fear and procrastination and achieve anything you want. If you have big dreams, how do you make them real? The next step is to set goals, which are the building blocks of your dreams. The way to properly set goals is to use the S.M.A.R.T. formula, which is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time certain.

I’ll explain these components in more detail shortly, but first I’d like to discuss the different types of goals you can set for yourself. Bob Proctor talks about the ABC goals. He says that most people choose A level goals, which are those goals you are comfortable with because you’ve achieved them before. For example, if a person has lost 5 pounds, his next goal would be to lose 5 pounds. They’re not the type of goals that will get you to where you want to be. The B level goals are those you have never achieved, but not too far beyond what you’ve done before. Maybe your goal is to lose 15 pounds, but in your previous goal, you lost 10 pounds. These goals will stretch you, but not that much. The C level goals are those that really take your breath away. They’re so big that they frighten you, but are big enough to take you through obstacles and reward you for what you want. These are the types of goals you should aim for if you want to get closer to your dreams.

When creating your C level goals, make sure to follow the S.M.A.R.T. formula as follows:

Specific – It’s not enough to say that your goal is to “make more money” or “lose weight”. You need to be more specific, such as “I want to increase my yearly income by 15%” or “I want to lose 10 pounds”. People struggle with goal setting because they have not been specific enough. If you don’t have a target or something to aim for, you’re going to be all over the place with no focus. When you have clarity of your goals, you stand a much better chance of achieving them.

Measurable – If it’s not measurable, then it’s not a goal. If you’re watching a sporting event and there is no scoreboard, how would you know which team would win? The same holds true with a goal – without something to measure it by, how can you chart your progress and evaluate it? You won’t know if you met it or exceeded it.

Attainable – This is a tricky one because limiting thoughts might start to kick in. Don’t look at a goal from a belief standpoint, but rather from a commitment standpoint. Can you reach the goal based on the commitment you can give to it? For example, if you want to run a marathon, and have never ran a marathon before, can you dedicate the time and effort to train for one? Don’t say to yourself that this is not attainable, but rather can you invest the time to commit?

Realistic – This is another tricky one just like attainable. Does your goal violate certain physical laws? For example, do you want to go from dead broke to earning $100K within one month, if you’ve never done it before or made the necessary preparations? This is probably not realistic, but once you have more experience, it’s probably realistic to say that you can earn $100K in one month.

Time certain – Most people don’t put deadlines on their goals. If you want to lose 50 pounds, when do you want to lose it by? A dream is nothing more without a deadline on it. If you didn’t meet your deadline, don’t get discouraged. Simply extend the deadline, but you must keep taking action and not give up. Don’t ever procrastinate.

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The next step in the goal achieving process is dreaming big dreams. This is my favorite part of the process because it unlocks my inner child and opens up my creative faculties. We are all creators of our experiences, so why not make them as big and exciting as possible? Big dreams help you tremendously with goal achievement, especially since big dreams give you power and enthusiasm. When obstacles get in your way and things don’t go according to plan, big dreams make up for it with energy and enthusiasm. Small dreams don’t really give you any kind of power.

Fear and procrastination are two major roadblocks that keep you getting to your goal. If your dreams are not big enough, you’re going to procrastinate. Who gets excited about small dreams? You’ll also let fear overcome you, but with big dreams and energy, you are more likely to overcome fear and procrastination. If you add self-belief to the equation, then you’re definitely going to be an unstoppable force. According to Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, belief and desire are the beginning of all achievement. If you match fear and procrastination against big dreams and belief, chances are the latter will win in a heartbeat.

When you were a kid, did you come up with a list of things you wanted to do when you grow up? Did you ever write down them down in a list? If so, where did you put it and how much of that list have you checked off? I’ve asked one of my mentors, a self-made millionaire, what his secret was, and he said that he had big dreams and wrote them down. It’s as if he created the life he wanted, and the story book came alive and his dreams became reality. According to Brian Tracy, you have a 1000% greater chance of achieving your goals if they’re written down.

Dreaming is probably the most enjoyable, yet most important part, of the goal setting and goal achieving process. A big dream, coupled with self-belief, will make you unstoppable and will even destroy fear and procrastination. Sit down in a quiet place with a yellow legal pad or journal, and start to build your dream list of at least 100 dreams. What are some things or hobbies you enjoyed in the past? Where do you want to travel? What new things do you want to try? Interested in learning a foreign language? Want to start a multi-million dollar enterprise? How about flying to the moon? Whatever they are, no matter how crazy, just start writing them down. Be on the lookout for new dreams when exciting new things come your way.

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You must follow a certain process if you want to set and achieve your goals. When you are going on a road trip, you plan carefully how to get from A to B and follow that process. Goal achieving is similar, and if you follow a certain process, you will get to your goals in an effective manner.

There are five steps in the process of achieving your goals:
1) Reflection and evaluation
2) Dreaming big dreams
3) Create smart goals for your big dreams
4) Implement, take accountability and follow-up
5) Wash, rinse and repeat the 4 previous steps until you get to your goal.

In this article, I will discuss the first step of the process, and continue with the other 4 in follow-up articles. First, take a reality check and evaluate where you are in life at the moment. How are you doing in the different aspects of your life, such as physically, mentally, financially, relationships, leisure, spiritually, and career? Is there a particular area where you feel you are lacking or don’t feel happy? This is a critical first step. If you miss this step, then you can’t go through the goal setting and achieving process to get to where you want.

Once you’ve evaluated an area where you want to make an improvement, identify the past and present limiting factors in your life. These include your limiting thoughts, words and people in your life. An example of a limiting thought can include, “I’m not smart enough to do this.” If you kept thinking these thoughts throughout your life, you probably missed out on a number of opportunities. In other words, these negative thoughts can keep you from pursuing what you really want to do. In essence, thoughts create feelings, which create your behaviors. Your behaviors influence your actions, which produce your results. If you have limiting thoughts, it’s going to keep you doing what you want to do and getting the results you want.

Another limitation can be the people with whom you are associated. They can be your friends, teachers, and family members. They tell you things such as, “You’re crazy! You can’t do that.” Take a close look and see how people may have formed your limiting beliefs. For example, you might have had a school teacher who told you often that you’re not smart enough. Make sure you identify the people who have played a role in limiting your beliefs.

Once you have identified the limiting factors, reprogram yourself for success. Reduce or eliminate the time you spend with limiting people. If you have friends who are always critical of you and don’t encourage you, limit the amount of time you spend with them. This may sound harsh, but if you really want to achieve your goals, you must take action and decide how much time you will spend with them. What’s more important to you? Being liked and accepted by negative people? Or reaching your dreams? The next step is to associate yourself with like minded people. You want to be around people who believe in the impossible and want to go somewhere in their lives. Join organizations with like minded people, such as a business group or a toastmasters club in your local area.

Finally, monitor your thoughts. If you are thinking negative or self-doubt thoughts, eliminate them. Everything comes from thought, which eventually leads to your results. Read books on success, listen to audio programs and attend personal development seminars. I will continue with the rest of the steps in future articles, so stay tuned.

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If you want to reach a higher level of success, there are two things that will catapult you to achieving your true potential – getting rid of your excuses, and understanding the power of perseverance.

If you’re not getting the results you want, what is your story? Are you blaming the economy for the lack of sales in your business? Is your company not investing enough in marketing tools? Are you not happy with your company’s compensations plans? Or do you lack the appropriate resources to get the job done? Whatever your story is, if you want to get to the next level, stop making excuses. My mentor always reminds me that I have a choice – I can either make money or make excuses. But you cannot do both at the same time. Which one do you want to make? At the end of the day, you either did it or you didn’t. If you’re a sales professional, you either made the sale, or you didn’t. You either have a winning attitude, or you don’t. You’re either prepared for the sale, or not prepared.

If you want to go to the next level, you need to get rid of excuses and take complete responsibility for your results. As soon as you take complete responsibility for your situation, you start entering the game with the top performers. Excuses don’t make you stronger or more strategic. It only makes you feel better temporarily for the results you didn’t get. It will come back to haunt you eventually. No one is a loser until you start blaming others. No one became successful by making problems into excuses. High performers, on the other hand, take full responsibility for their results, and they commit to doing whatever it takes to get things done. They make the extra call, stay an extra hour, or just work harder. Hard work won’t guarantee success, but without it, you don’t stand a chance.

Are you working hard to prepare an action plan for your day? Are you preparing to develop relationships with your prospects and top customers? Excuses are so prevalent in our society. If you’re not getting results, you only have to look in the mirror to get answers. Results are directly related to the things you’re either doing or not doing. Are you prepared for each call? Are you returning your phone calls? Do you believe in your products or services? To get results, make a decision to play at the next level and get rid of your excuses. If someone doesn’t get the results he wants, a true performer would say, “It’s my fault because I did not cultivate enough relationships,” instead of saying “it’s the economy.”

In addition to taking accountability, high performers and champions know the value of perseverance. Without perseverance, you only get average results. If you feel like you’re hitting the wall, remember that this is a test for you. If you quit now, you are creating a pattern for the future of quitting when the going gets tough. How do you know if you persevered enough? When you achieve what you set to do. Perseverance is a seed to greatness – can you persevere through the tough times? Make a decision now to keep going. If you knew success was around the corner, would you keep pushing?

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Life is not a game of chance, but a game of choice. Winners determine their futures in advance. They project what they want to occur in the future, and hold themselves accountable for that. My mentors often tell me that successful people and winners create their futures, rather than live reactive lives and acting like victims of circumstances. Most people, on the other hand, spend little time creating their dreams, and use most of their waking hours making other people’s dreams a reality.

Take a close look at your clock. When you wake up, decide what you’re going to do today that will get you closer to the goals you set. Don’t try to fill up your entire day by fulfilling other people’s goals. For most people who work a typical 9-5 day, you have the greatest control of your day when you’re not working for money or being told what you do. This time is called prime time, which is anytime between 6-11pm if you work a typical job. Most people come back home to relax and start watching television. If you do this, you are using your free time, where you have greatest control, to continue making other people’s dreams come true. Through television, you are watching the actors, actresses, and comedians live their dreams, and getting highly paid for doing what they love and passionate about. It’s not called prime time for nothing. They earn money while you are watching.

I don’t have anything against watching a little TV every now and then, but why not dedicate some of your prime time to create your dreams? Spend some time on personal development, like reading and listening to audio programs. Instead of escaping reality for these several hours, why not create the reality you desire? Use this time to network, write in your journal, converse with your family, and read.

Start dreaming and write down the kind of life you want, and creating goals and plans to get you there. Imagine the kind of person you want to be, the kind of family you want, and the kind of lifestyle you want when you have time freedom.
Spend time talking to your mastermind group and mentors. Ask them questions and listen to their wise words of wisdom. Seek advice from them and find out where you can make improvements in your life.

Live in prime time instead of watching in prime time. Stop watching other people live their dreams. You are already doing this 9-5 making someone else’s dream come true, so why continue doing that from 6-11pm? Control your clock! Make it your prime time, not theirs.

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Have you ever wondered why some people work very hard, but never seem to get great results? While others seem to work effortlessly, sometimes with minimal work, and achieve great things? My mentors told me that the difference all lies in their way thinking, and I’d like to share with you these points.

There are three different classes of consciousness, or ways of thinking, that exist in the world. Please note in this article that I’m referencing the term classes to the way of thinking, rather than socio-economic status. First, the lowest level is middle class consciousness. It’s easy to spot these people because their mantra is “I just want to be comfortable, and I don’t want much.” They are taught to avoid risk, play it safe, and live comfortably without any much pain. In other words, their primary goal in life is to avoid pain and seek comfort, and they live a life of quiet desperation.

The next level is upper class consciousness. This group is comprised of people who are often considered success machines. They set a goal and make it happen. While they achieve success in one aspect of their life, such as business and finance, they don’t seem to have a sense of fulfilment. You may come across people who are very wealthy, but because they spend their waking hours at work, they don’t have any time to spend with their loved ones or enjoy leisurely activities. Before their rise to success, they initially believe that success and fulfilment are one in the same, but when they reach the top, they often ask themselves, “Is this it?” In addition, they feel they’re the best, the biggest, fastest, strongest and richest. Their major downfall is that they are ego-driven, and don’t seem to find complete fulfilment in their lives.

The highest level is world class consciousness. Like the upper class consciousness, they are fantastic at achieving success. However, they are also successful in attaining fulfilment. The main difference is that while the upper class is ego-driven, the world class have spirit driven consciousness. That is, they let go of their own self-importance, and no longer need to satisfy their ego. They are rooted in love, abundance and gratitude. This is the only level of consciousness where fear does not exist. They take full responsibility for their lives.

So how does one become a world class thinker? The first step is to force yourself to grow up and make a decision to abandon fear based language. The next step is to adopt a love and abundance mindset. Begin to monitor what you say to people, and weed out any fear-based language. Pay attention to what you are saying, and be aware of what people are saying around you. Determine what class they fall into. If their language reflects that of world class consciousness people, emulate them and spend as much time as you can with them. Soon, you will develop into a world class thinker.

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You will achieve great results through developing mental toughness. So what is mental toughness? It is the desire of taking control of your emotions in performance situations. Some people claim that they work well under pressure. My mentors often argue that the statement is a myth, and pressure can actually hurt you. With added pressure, the chances are high that you will start having negative self-talk, and then lose belief in your ability to complete a task or project.

Some people appear to perform well under pressure. While a number of people may perceive some situations as pressure filled, the person who seems to perform well has a different perception on the level of threat of that particular situation. In other words, they excel under stressful situations because they can control their self-perception of it. That is, they learn to control their emotions because they have developed mental toughness.

Everyone is born with mental toughness, but how do you go about developing mental toughness? While some may not believe they were born with it, picture yourself in the following scenario. Suppose you had a bad day at work, and the only thing you can think about are the numerous problems stacked on top of one another. Your mind is scattered all over the place, and you don’t seem to have a clue where your life is headed. Let’s say you’re driving, and as you approach home, you see a house on fire. You notice that it’s your house burning down. You try to get close, but the fireman won’t let you through. You’re told it’s too dangerous, but you know your kids are in there. What would you do? I’m sure you would choose to ignore the firemen and fight your way through the fire and do whatever you can to get the kids out. Your mind forgets everything else and you lose all your fears because your mind is so laser focused on bringing your kids to safety.

This is called mental toughness, where you focus all your energy and attention on one single task. So if we’re born with mental toughness, why isn’t everyone achieving great results? The problem is that most people have no clue what they want, or a compelling enough reason to fight for it, just like trying to save your kids from a burning house. They are not developing mental toughness. Mental energy is scattered all over the place, and they watch life go by instead of living it.

So if you truly want to achieve great things, you need to decide what you really want and why you want it. Uncover the emotional fire within, and convert that fire into motivation that will propel you to take the necessary steps to succeed. Ambition is not the only thing that fuels success, but it’s the emotional power and feeling that you get from a winning experience. Take the time and think of what you really desire. If it doesn’t excite you emotionally, then forget it. You need that emotion to sustain motivation and overcome obstacles that get in your way. Once you have this burning desire, you will start developing your mental toughness and stay laser focused on your goals.

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