Davis  is a former professional cycler who In 1986, became the first American to win a stage at the Tour de France, while riding on the American-based team 7-Eleven Cycling Team.  He was known as an extraordinarily fast sprinter and very well have won the most races in American history.  His racing career spanned two decades and included two stage victories in the Tour de France.

Since retiring from cycling, Davis has remained active as a cycling sports commentator, public speaker, journalist, and avid Nordic ski racer. In 2007 Davis’ son Taylor became the Junior World Time Trial champion at the 2007 UCI Junior World Road and Track Championships.

Davis was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 40, and established the Davis Phinney Foundation in 2004.  The Boulder, Colorado based foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease – today and in future.

Listen to Davis’ words carefully they are the words of experience and true courage.  Applying them in our own lives would impact not only us but the world.

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

 The SMART goals template has indeed helped thousand of would-be goal achievers move from desire to possibility.

All good for sure and certainly better than no specific criteria at all… but I believe however that the SMART goals formula falls short in several areas and may actuary be one of the many reasons most people fail to achieve their final desired outcome.

In my book 7 Rules of Achievement  I outline what I believe from my own personal experience and from having coached thousands of people through the process is a better more effective way.

I call it the –  A.C.T.I.O.N. GOALS CRITERIA – and it is designed to create, not just a “written” goal, but rather a more crystallized, powerful and effective “outcome achievement statement” and kick off the process of  programing (without any ambiguity) both the conscious and unconscious mind to move congruently in the direction of the goal seekers desired outcome.

How to Create Your Outcome Achievement Statement using the ACTION Goals Criteria: Goal Setting Worksheet

The proper guidelines for creating an achievable outcome or “Outcome Achievement Statement” can be summed up as “ACTION”

A – Accessible  

C – Clearly Stated and Concise  

T – Towards and Timed  

 I – Impassioned 

O – Organic 

N – As if Now  

Accessible:

This means simply that your objective must be accessible. Meaning it must be within reach and obtainable.  If for example you were to make one of your goals to own Fort Knox one day you may find it a little more than difficult to find a broker for that particular piece of real estate.  It’s not accessible or obtainable.  Is this to suggest that your desired outcome should be so easy to reach that it poses no challenge and therefore little or no reward.  No!  In fact it has been said that “a man’s reach should always exceed his grasp.”  I agree with that statement. The achievement of your desired outcome should always force you to grow, to become someone more, or learn something new in the pursuit of its achievement.

Don’t allow your objectives to be determined by others peoples beliefs or self imposed limitations.  I would also caution you on believing your own. Question your own self impose limitations and learn from those who place no boundaries on themselves and what their capable of.

Clearly Stated and Concise:

You need to state your objective as completely understandable and without the ability to be misinterpreted.

Towards and Timed:

Simply stated some goals are what we move towards and some we move away from.  We move towards those things that we want in our lives and are willing to sacrifice, work, or expend resources for.  Towards goals represent the pleasure side of what Tony Robbins describes as our twin motivators of “Pain and Pleasure.”  Away from goals represent the pain side of the equation and are motivated by what we don’t want or will work hard to avoid.

Timed: Consciously you may have a pretty good idea of when you expect to achieve your objective but if your unconscious mind and the universe don’t know “specifically” it’s a pretty good bet neither will rush to make it happen.  Remember when programming your internal success mechanism you must be as specific as possible. This means letting it know when the intended target must be achieved.  In addition, when you attach a challenging yet achievable time frame or “deadline” to your desired outcome you instantly move it from the world of the coulds, woulds, and some-days to the world of the tangible and measurable.

There is one more extremely powerful element associated with placing a deadline or timeframe to your objective.  It’s PRESSURE, or what business growth trainer, Blair Singer refers to as “PERTURBATION.”

Perturbation is a term used in physics and astronomy meaning “a variation in designated orbit resulting from the influence of one or more external bodies”

Impassioned: 

Anything we want bad enough that it becomes a must, not could, would, or should…but a true must can create enough passion and impetus that we can almost will it to happen.  Have you ever wanted something or needed something so bad for example that you simply could not live without it.  I’ll address the subject of passion and desire more in the next chapter when we explore the WHY, but for right now it is extremely important to understand that if you cannot convey in your Outcome Achievement Statement a powerful and impassioned message then it’s likely you yourself are not impassioned about achieving it…or you don’t truly believe you can.

Organic: 

If your Outcome Achievement Statement is full of additives, preservatives, or pesticides it is not organic.  Meaning it has to be natural for you.  It has to be in line with your values.  For example, many people value their family as their absolute highest priority. They will sacrifice everything for family.  For others, money or the obtainment of wealth usurps all else, including family. These people place the value of money in the primary position.  Almost unconsciously, they will make decisions that move them toward making choices that emphasize those values.

Setting an objective or desired outcome that is in direct opposition with their values hierarchy will cause massive conflict and very likely failure. For example if you were trying to motivate a weight loss client who valued being fit as a way of connecting with their family to drop 20 lbs so that they could look great in a bikini this summer it probably wouldn’t work so well. Sometimes however we can “re-frame” the desired outcome so that it aligns with our values or even to shift our values to better serve our and others needs.  More on values when we get into the WHY behind your desired outcome. For now it’s important to understand that trying to achieve

something that runs counter to who you are may wind up presenting immovable opposition.

As if Now:   

Your Outcome Achievement Statement should be stated in the present tense…as if it is happening now in this moment. Because of the way information is processed in the brain, future tense statements lack impact. Your mind says “OK” one of these days, in the future, I will earl a million dollars. What’s next to program?”

The mind works literally. With future tense statements the mind programs the idea that you will do something, rather than programming you for doing it. Writing or stating an outcome achievement statement in present tense may sound and feel a little strange at first.  However, present tense writing of your statement is the most effective way of conveying your intention to your unconscious and the universe.

Now that you have the formula for goal setting success there should be nothing standing between you and success…. except massive, consistent and courageous ACTION.

Please share your thoughts… I would love to hear from you.

This truly unique global tele-series will inspire and empower you to think bigger, strategize better, and make the contribution you’re capable of making.

I am honored to share the stage with some of my personal heroes, NY Times #1 best-selling authors, self-made millionaire entrepreneurs, and global visionaries such as Marianne Williamson, John Robbins, Ali Brown, Bruce Lipton (<– one of my VERY favorite), Julia Butterfly Hill, Bill Drayton and more inspiring pioneers of social change.

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You’ll get the latest thinking on green marketing, conscious marketing, mission-based business, online movement building, client attraction, book authoring and marketing, branding, niching, outsourcing, generating a mindset for success, the blueprint for starting a social enterprise, and the steps behind a successful product launch.

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As I said, I am honored to be a part of such cool group of people!!

Registration details and a complete list of speakers

“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”
Napoleon Hill

“All achievement is based first on the strength of our will.“
Tom Terwilliger

“All you need is a plan, a road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.”
Earl Nightingale

“The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything if you want to succeed in business–or almost anywhere else for that matter.”
Lee Iacocca

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
Mark Twain

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”
Pablo Picasso

“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”
Vince Lombardi

“We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.”
Helen Keller

“What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art that could be for every mental worker, for the businessman as well as the man of letters, for example, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair that provides relaxation from fatigue.”
Henri Matisse

“A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do. Nothing else.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.”
Henry Ford

“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.”
David Ogilvy

“The value of achievement lies in the achieving.”
Albert Einstein

“If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
Bruce Lee

“The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.”
Napoleon Hill

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”
Henry Ford 

“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.”
Vincent van Gogh

“The future you see is the future you get.”
Robert G Allen

“I skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
Wayne Gretzky

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

“My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you’ll win….Channel your energy. Focus.”
Carl Lewis

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
Helen Keller

“Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision.”
Muhammad Ali

“Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.”
Henry David Thoreau

“My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”
Hank Aaron

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement,
achievement, and success have no meaning.”
Benjamin Franklin

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.
Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”
Michael Jordan

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
John F. Kennedy

“It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever – the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it.”
Vince Lombardi

“If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.”
John Rockefeller

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Dr. Seuss

When you do, you begin to discover how your beliefs about who you are and what you’re capable of¬† impact your performance.

Case in point… The Warrior Dash in Copper Mountain, Colorado.

Challenge Yourself at Every Opportunity

The Achievement Mentor

It happens all the time.

I can remember as a stupid kid missing out on a really cool and what should have been fun bike ride all my friends were taking just because I had to make sure my bike had the perfect spit shine… I was seriously bummed.

Case in point:

Last week I sent out an email (perhaps you received it) announcing a very special teleseminar I was doing with lifestyle strategist, John Rowley. The email started with a silly spelling error that I nor my computers spell check (which I depend on heavily) had caught.

Here was the line from that email:

“If you have ever been asked for advise or have even been given advise… you already have an idea of exactly what coaching IS NOT!”

Did you catch the errors? Of course you did… because you can spell better than I can and maybe even better than ” word spell check.”

The error of course is that I should have used the word ADVICE with a C not an ADVISE with an S.

What you will read next was is an actual email (one line) I received based on that spelling error along with my response to that email. None of which should suggest that we should not seek perfection and mastery of everything we do but does point out the possible ramifications when we allow such a quest to blur the bigger and sometimes much more important picture or message or even the delivery of that message.

After reading – I would love your feedback and opinion… not advice.

Received:

I suggest you coach yourself how to spell first.

Reply:

Hi ———–,

I truly appreciate your feedback, suggestion, and ADVICE and the time it took to formulate it. On the other hand your coaching style is a little blunt‚Ķ but that’s ok no one expects you to be a coach and I am sure that was not your intention in the first place. It’s interesting, don’t you think – that the subject of my less than perfect email was about coaching vs. giving advice?

Now, because I can’t help but coach if you are open to it keep reading. If not, let’s leave it at – Thank You for the constructive feedback.

If you are still reading, please take what follows as a casual observation, feedback and yes some coaching, not advice.

I have long since understood that some people always, always, always look for what’s wrong or what’s missing instead of what is present and right. Like the improvements my spelling capabilities can clearly undergo, it might be helpful for you to recognize if you fit in the above category. It generally reflects a “what CAN’T be done” rather than a “how CAN it be done” attitude.

It shouldn’t surprise you that at a big conference I once wrote the word magnificent on the flip chart as “MAGNIFICANT.” When the error was less than politely pointed out to me I acknowledged my blunder and politely pointed out to the audience that if you focus on what is wrong you can easily miss out on what is right. I also suggested that what they had been focusing on is the word CANT ‚Äìand that they may also MAGNIFI‚ÄìCAN’T in many other areas of their life.

If I had been focusing on “I CAN’T spell well” and had let it stop me from communicating my mission I would never have written 7 RULES of Achievement and I would not be a #1 bestseller today nor would I have had the honor and privilege of helping thousands of people manifest their potential.

If blind mountain climber, Erik Weihenmayer had focused on the what was wrong “I CAN’T see” he never would have made it to the summit of Mt. Everest.

So the question is where else in your life have you been focusing on what’s not right, what’s missing, and the word CAN’T that perhaps has held you back in the past from risking what it takes to manifest your MAGNIFI-CAN?

Always with much respect and love,

Tom

John is also giving away as part of his Lifestyle Transformation Coaching launch 2, 30 day lifestyle coaching  jumpstart packages plus by being on the call live your hear some of the best coaching tips you can get this side of the equator.

Make sure you join us..

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Well, I think we can agree that we don’t want to be just anywhere. We want to be where it is we want to be, and we want to know for sure we’re there.

Creating personalized easily recognizable and undeniable road signs, landmarks, and mile markers, to help you recognize where you are on your journey is imperative. Those same signs will also tell you exactly when you have arrived at your destination. It is important to understand that the terrain itself will look different than the map you have created. The map is the overview; the terrain is down in the trenches, it’s through the woods, and over the boulders.

Imagine how easy it would be to achieve your goal if you had already been there a few times—if you knew the terrain inside and out?

Do you think that would be helpful?

Like the smaller, less prestigious competitions I used as stepping stones on the way to the Mr. America contest, the achievement of your sub-goals and tasks will provide much (not all) the measurable evidence you need to know you are moving toward your goal and not going in the wrong direction or even going backwards.

Without evidence of advancement, the terrain begins to look unfamiliar and sometimes even hostile, and you can wind up frustrated, discouraged, and lost, or worse yet – ready to quit.

On a personal note, I have been asked on several occasions, “What was your body fat percentage when you were in top shape for a contest?” I can only guess when I give them an answer. I really have no idea. I never once measured it.

My evidence procedure was almost completely visual. I had to see what it was I was after. Visually I knew whether or not I was on target with my progress for a particular competition. I could have been measured at 20 percent or 2 percent body fat, but if I did not like what I was seeing in the mirror, it would have meant absolutely nothing.

Get clear on the evidence you need to see, hear, or feel along the way to achieving your objective.  Get familiar with what others have experienced and used as road signs and mile markers along the way to achieving a similar goal and then flavor it with what will resonate with you.

-The Achievement Mentor

Achievement Process 7 of  7

In this video I¬†share the 7th RULE¬† in the Achievement Process and what it’s going to take to claim and hold your turf against some serious opposition. This RULE perhaps more than any other RULE in The 7 RULES of Achievement can make or break your ability to succeed.

– The Achievement Mentor

Simply awesome –Thank you, West!