It's an understatement to say Sir Richard Branson, the highly successful founder of Virgin Air and other excellent companies, creates his reality. Case in point, I recently stayed at the Kasbah Tamadot, the gorgeous resort outside of Marrakech in the foothills of Morocco's Atlas Mountains. Tamadot is one of Branson's many dreams come true and once was a "goal" written on a piece of paper.

               Yes, even Sir Richard writes goals. In fact, he is a master of it. I recently saw one of his "to do" lists. It was a full page of handwritten items and included such daily tasks as "start a new airline in Nigeria."

                Hardly the typical laundry list most of us write!

                When highly successful people such as Branson write goals, do you possibly think there might be something to it? Bransonesque people create realities. They do it with their passion, focus, and goals. Written goals keep them on track so that difficult circumstances do not derail them.

              Yet, too often, I see people silently saying, "Yeah, yeah," I do that already." Or, "I tried, and it doesn't work." If you already use Star Goals based on my offer from last month's newsletter, I'm writing this follow up from those of you who asked for more. If you missed that, you can still learn valuable lessons about writing goals by asking for a second worksheet. In either case:

              As my clients have learned, there's more for you to learn to make it easier and more effective. The process does work, although it can take some time to learn a process. Study after study reveals that people who write goals are more successful than people who do not.

                At times, what throws people off their goal-writing practice is that they don't understand key aspects of how goal writing works out in reality. Oftentimes, we don't recognize success, since it may come in a form we don't expect. Sometimes, we don't "see the forest for the trees."

               A classic example is: You created a financial goal to achieve by March 1 which doesn't happen by exactly March 1. Instead, it happens April 1. Plus, you happen to forget that before March 1, someone who owed you a past debt sent you a check out of the blue. All combined, you exceeded your goal, but it happened at slightly different times and came in slightly different formats. We have to be wisely flexible with the Universe, remembering how hugely flexible it is with us!

               As a result of working my way through goal setting and evaluating accomplishments over many years, I've honed my understanding of how to create them. For example, a common error is this: The "soil" in which you plant your goals matters, yet many people don't understand this. In other words, the soil refers to your state of mind and emotions. In toxic soil, plants die.  

              Created within toxic emotions such as worry, fear, overwhelm, impatience, expect your goals to wither away.  

               I watch clients in a hurry rushing through goal writing as if they were having to clean a latrine.  Do you think that's how Sir Richard created his goals for the extraordinary Kasbah Tamadot mentioned above. Not hardly. 

                This is just one example that can impact the outcome of your goals. There's more. Ask for the second worksheet to receive more ideas about writing your goals. You'll be glad you did.

                Next month, look for a third piece of information that will improve your goal-setting outcomes.