Last year I wrote a book on goal setting. I am now in the process of editing that book. As I edit, I will post excerpts here on my blog. This is from chapter one:
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When I started teaching, I began spending lots of time around other teachers.
Some of the teachers liked getting together to discuss books. Almost all of us loved reading. Forming book clubs came naturally. Mostly, we read books on theology.
One day, I looked around and realized something. All of us were struggling financially. We were all academically intelligent. We were not all financially intelligent.
I realized I was in a group going nowhere. We were going to keep reading theology books. There is always another theology book.
It was about this time my wife brought home the series, Goals, by Zig Ziglar.
Mr. Ziglar’s series reminded me of the old goal-setting habit I used as a kid.
I began setting weekly goals again. I have set weekly goals consistently ever since.
I stopped going to the book clubs. Instead, I dedicated that time to figuring out how to set goals, and how to hit them.
I began writing down my major goals and I broke them into monthly, weekly and daily goals.
One of my goals was simple. I determined to become a famous Latin teacher.
The truth is, I did not care about the fame. I figured financial rewards would come with the fame.
A quick goal-setting guide
To hit my goal of becoming a famous Latin teacher, I did several things.
First, I determined exactly what I wanted. I came up with a goal.
Second, I wrote the goal down.
Third, I broke the goal down into action steps.
Fourth, I started working on those steps every day.
Fifth, I tracked my progress.
Sixth, once a week, usually on Sundays, I read over my long term goals again.
And that’s it. You could stop reading now if you wanted.
If you simply followed the five steps above, you would accomplish more than most people ever accomplish.
Few people take the time to go through those five steps.
In fact, the rest of the book is simply commentary on the steps listed above.
Inspired by Zig Ziglar, I went through the goal setting process above.
I started doing again what I had done as a kid all those years ago. I wrote out my goals at the beginning of the week, and as I hit them, I checked them off the list.
I kept doing it week after week.
And, then it happened.
I starting hitting my goals.
I am doing it again
I did the exact same thing with this book.
For years, I considered writing a book on goals. I kicked the idea around over and over.
I never wrote anything down.
Until now.
In order to write this book, I went through the five steps above.
First, I determined exactly what I wanted. I set a goal to write a book on goals.
Second, I wrote the goal down.
Third, I broke the goal down into action steps.
Fourth, I began working on those action steps every day.
Fifth, I tracked my progress.
Eight months later, the book is done. You are reading the results.
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If you are learning Latin, I have written a book with all of my best tips and strategies. It’s available as a free download here: https://dwanethomas.com/via/
If you are interested in learning Latin, you can go through the classes on my site 24/7. I recommend the book Lingua Latina by Hans Ørberg. If you tackle the book and find yourself bogged down, you may find the classes on my site helpful. To join, just click here: https://dwanethomas.com/join/
If you want a more professionally filmed experience, check out the best-selling DVD series: Visual Latin.
Or, if you want to skip Latin, and just jump right into learning English words from Latin and Greek roots, you may enjoy the series Word up! Warning. Word up! is a bit wacky. You will learn a lot… but, you may find yourself rolling your eyes, too.
By the way, some of the links in this post are affiliate links. Not trying to pull a fast one on you. I only promote what I believe in.
