clarify your goals - live your dreams
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9 Practical Steps to Achieving Your GoalsTRANSCRIPT
Clarify Your Goals ~ Live Your Dreams
9 Practical Steps to Significance & Success
by
Stacy Hawkins Adams
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©Stacy Hawkins Adams, 2014
This e-book is the original work of Stacy Hawkins Adams and should not be reprinted or redistributed without written permission from the author. Any excerpts or quotes used from this publication should be fully attributed to
Stacy Hawkins Adams. (www.StacyHawkinsAdams.com)
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Fulfill Your Dreams!If you’re reading this ebook, it means you have an interest,
dream or passion that refuses to be forgo?en. Whether it’s to achieve a particular professional goal or do something
personally meaningful, if it’s registering in your mind, heart or spirit, that means it ma?ers. Your challenge is to find the courage to listen and do. Hear what your heart is whispering; then discover a way -‐‑ or make a way -‐‑ to answer its calling. This brief guide offers 10 practical steps that can jumpstart your effort to dream big and achieve a new reality. If you’ll follow these steps consistently and persistently, you’ll find yourself on the appropriate path and eventually at the door through which your life is compelling you to walk. Be brave enough to travel where your destiny is leading, and once you
begin living your dream, don’t forget to encourage someone else on the trail you’ve blazed. ~ Stacy
©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• Keep dreaming, but also start doing. Write a Vision Plan.
Where do you see yourself in one year, five years, or 10 years? Get quiet and ask yourself these important questions. Write
down your top five personal goals and your top five professional goals, and make sure the two realistically can
move forward in the same direction.
©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• Determine your target audience, or the people your purpose will serve.
Who will benefit most as you’re on your journey to achieving your goal and once you’ve a?ained it? What mission will be accomplished when you’ve achieved the success for which
you’re aiming? Armed with these answers, you’ll know where to focus your energy and efforts to obtain the best results. This information will help you determine when to say “Yes” and the opportunities on which you should pass. With limited hours and resources, you must focus on the highest and greatest good toward achieving your mission. Every
opportunity won’t fit that criteria.
©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• Envision what success looks like, then map out the steps that got you there. Do you want to serve a certain number of clients, earn a
particular salary, or achieve some other specific, measurable goal in one, five or ten years? Answer those questions with heartfelt responses and specifically describe on paper what that achieved goal looks like: See yourself with 5,000 clients around the globe in five years, earning a salary that gives you
the freedom to live well, serve others and leave a lasting legacy. What does that look like, and what exactly did you do to create this specific picture? Next to each of these exciting visions, write each step or task. Did you find a mentor or hire a coach? Did you obtain a certification or a particular degree? Do you simply need to sit down and get to work? Whatever tasks present themselves, commit to adding them to your
routine, to go from vision to victory. ©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• Create a practical plan for achieving each task that leads to your success.
If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to grow your email list -‐‑ let’s say to 10,000 subscribers -‐‑ how will you achieve this?
Maybe you can start by drafting a list of themes and topics for each newsle?er for the next six months that will interest and resonate with your core audience. Maybe you can map out a plan to strategically participate in social media in a way that lures followers and potential clients. Maybe you decide to
measure your effectiveness through surveys, focus groups or meeting with a group of likeminded professionals. Whatever steps you choose, also build in time for emergencies, holidays,
and unexpected delays.
©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• Add a deadline to each tactic on your list and put that task on a calendar. Now that you have a list of short-‐‑term and long-‐‑term goals and some idea of the steps you must take to succeed, add reminders to you calendar (whatever kind suits you -‐‑ print, cell phone or online) that prompt you when the deadline is looming. If your goal is to network with more writers’ groups or meet more editors, for example, determine when will you join the first organization, then the second, then a third, and whether they are local groups whose meetings you’ll a?end in person, or whether you prefer to participate in an online community. If the la?er, schedule regular times to check in and engage members of the community in meaningful dialogue.
©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• Shape opportunities to fit your goals, but be willing to adapt your goals to take advantage of great opportunities. Be flexible and willing to change or transform your tactics or services as your clients’ or your core audience’s interests or needs shift or change. When you meet their needs, you’ll also be most effective in achieving your purpose.
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• Collaborate with like-‐‑minded professionals or visionaries.
Increase your productivity and creativity by collaborating with others on a similar or associated path. Brainstorming and networking regularly can yield success for you both. See this as an extension of the services you may be offering solo, and an opportunity to market to potential clients or new audiences
while keeping your distinct focus.
©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• View missteps as education rather than failure. A wise friend gave me this advice recently, and she was right. Rather than considering a plan that didn’t work as a wasted effort, see it as moving you one step closer to your winning strategy. Learn what you can from the process -‐‑ what worked and what didn’t -‐‑ and use that knowledge to refine your process and proximity to success.
©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• Sincere Intentions, coupled with Consistent Discipline, will take you the distance. Be true to yourself. Find the courage to respond to the call in your heart and see it through, so you’ll have no regrets.
©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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• Nine Steps To Achieving Significance and Success SUMMARIZED
1. Write a Vision Plan 2. Determine the people your purpose will serve and frequent the places and online venues where you’ll find them.
3. Decide what success looks like to you, then write out each steps it will take you go from idea to reality.
4. Create a practical plan for achieving lasting success. 5. Add deadlines to your tactics and put them on a calendar. 6. Be flexible and willing to adapt in ways that fit your goals, but also the most relevant needs.
7. Collaborate with others to create synergy. 8. View missteps as opportunities to learn rather than as mistakes. 9. Sincere Intentions plus Consistent Discipline will turn your dreams into your reality.
So there you have it -‐‑ a simple, yet effective list of tips and tasks that can take you the distance, from dream to “done deal.” It’s never as easy as it looks (or
reads), of course; and what you sow into the effort is what you’ll reap. The key is to find as much meaning and joy in the journey as you’ll feel when you finally achieve your goal; for all of it maFers -‐‑ every encounter, memorable moment, challenge overcome and victory experienced. You’ll find that your significance mushrooms in both the journey to success and in the fruit you bear once you’ve
aFained it. ©Stacy Hawkins Adams StacyHawkinsAdams.com
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Stacy Hawkins Adams is an award-‐‑winning author, journalist and public speaker with a reputation for crafting compelling fiction and nonfiction works while helping others be confident in their own stories. With her tenth book underway, Stacy also devotes considerable time to teaching writing in workshops throughout metro Richmond and around the nation. She is also a commiBed community volunteer, primarily with organizations that empower women and children. To learn more about Stacy’s novels, speaking, coaching and other work, visit www.StacyHawkinsAdams.com.
Also visit Stacy on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/BooksByStacy Twitter: www.Twitter.com/SHAdams Google+: www.google.com/+StacyHawkinsAdamsInspires
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