How to Set Goals and Actually Achieve Them

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Will Edwards — No Comments ↓

Something odd is happening to me today. I can feel my thoughts are being changed and I am beginning to see events in my life slightly differently. Let me explain.

As you may be aware, I get a fair amount of requests to review books and products for the blog. At present, I have three reviews that I have promised to do and a fourth request from an author who wishes to write a guest post about her new book. I am always open to such approaches. I like to encourage new writers and I enjoy reading new ideas.

However, over the years, I have found that requests seem to fit into a number of distinct categories. There are people who have knocked something together fairly quickly, banged it up on Kindle and are really just seeking a bit of promotion. There are people who are regurgitating what has been said before and attempting to make money in the process.

Then there are the more serious authors who have written a proper book and got it published. They will usually send me their book through the post. Of course, I understand they are looking for publicity too – that’s how you sell books after all – but they are in a different category because their ideas are generally a little more original or, at least, they will have an original take on older ideas.

When I get an offer to review a book, I generally try to make an instant assessment of whether or not it will be worth my time to read it. If I think it is not worth my time, I will often suggest the author write a guest post. That way, they do some work for the exposure they receive in return, and I am able to make a fairly objective assessment of their writing ability without having to wade through a potentially lengthy document.

The reason I am telling you about my filtering process is that one particular book got round the process. I somehow made the mistake of thinking it was a physical book and so I agreed to review it. It actually turned out to be a Kindle book, but as I had already agreed to review it, I downloaded it today and started skim-reading it.

The book started with the rather familiar descriptions of quantum mechanics and the Law of Attraction – something that regular readers will know I am not particularly fond of. That’s not to say I don’t believe in the Law of Attraction; it is simply that I have hitherto preferred a different explanation of how it operates.

But as I skimmed the book, thinking ‘yes, yes, I have heard all that before’ I would periodically come across something that would stop me in my tracks. One of those moments occurred when I read the following.

You are never denied answers to your questions. Whatever questions you ask believingly and earnestly will be answered exactly. No more and no less. If you earnestly and believingly seek and ask how to earn one million dollars, the universe will conspire to bring your the knowledge, tools, people and events to give you that answer.

You may recall that I actually did set that financial goal for myself at the beginning of this year, so you might imagine how the above found resonance.

The book contains some questionable references. I do not relate to the proposition that there was ever a time before the big bang, for example. Time actually came into being as part of four-dimensional reality at the instant of the Big Bang, as we discussed here. Also, reference was made to the supposed Harvard study on goals, which almost certainly is a myth, as we discussed here.

But, all of that said, I could feel my usual reaction to some of the familiar material had been influenced. These ideas included the soul having a purpose for coming into being (John Godolphin Bennet), the idea that creation is effortless and synchonicity is not coincidence (many New Thought writers) and the notion that our experience of reality is an illusion of the ego (echoes of Deepak Chopra).

However, as I read about how the universe would conspire to fulfill my desires, I could not get away from thinking about how the book had first managed to slip past my review filtering process and then managed to pull me out of skim-reading into seriously considering the content. Was that all coincidence or was it something else? Really, I don’t know. But I do know I will be going back to the beginning and reading it more thoroughly.

You can get a copy of this Kindle book by David Gikandi here … How to Set Goals and Actually Achieve Them

My Top Recommendations

These are my recommendations for products and services I've personally used and found to be helpful. It is quite a short list as it only includes my top picks ...