Here’s a quick link for those who didn’t pick up Acquisition: The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System yet. If you haven’t already, you can get Acquisition with a 3 payment plan, if you like. This will disappear as soon as the rapidly diminishing stock has been vaporized.

The word “goal” is one I always hesitate to use.

“Goals,” are things most people fail to achieve – and, in so doing, see themselves as failing and then feeling that failure as a bad thing. To be sure, sometimes failure is a disaster, but in most cases, failure is not that big of a deal.

Most successful people consider goals differently than people who are “hoping” desired outcome.

A goal is a commitment.

A goal is a virtual certainty. A goal is for all intents and purposes a future fact.

As a word, it is one I rarely use when I speak or write. I only use the word “goal” because it is commonly used in vocabulary. With Acquisition you learn that a goal is ultimately something you will do, experience or acquire.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to do…..”

That is your “goal.”

From today forward, the word “goal” is convenient for simplicity, but realize that “goal” is really a promise, it’s a fact.

“I will go to the store and get groceries.”

That is a goal.

“I will finish the website this week.”

That is a goal.

Both will happen and utter shock and surprise will happen if they don’t.

Is it remotely possible “the goal” may not happen?

I guess, but really…when was the last time you didn’t get groceries?

When you and I talk, face to face, don’t tell me what your “goals” are. Instead, tell me what you are going to do….

Given this important discussion, for today, use the word as a substitute for all that has been stated above!

While you wait for Acquisition: The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System to arrive, here’s what I want you to do:

Identify Clear Actions You WILL DO

Now that you’ve specified your goal it’s time to think about the actions that will move you toward the finish line.

Consider which key efforts would create the results you desire. Your answers will depend on the specifics of your goal, the type of goal, and what you need to do to get there.

There are typically two types of action steps. The first kind pertains to planning and preparation. This would include activities like research and education – laying the groundwork for the bigger stuff you’ll do next.

Obviously, if you haven’t done this yet, your first focus should be on this type of activity.

A word of warning: don’t let yourself get stuck in the planning and preparation stage!

Most people don’t move beyond this point because the body rebels against unfamiliar efforts which would follow.

In pursuit of a specific outcome, you may feel inclined to do more and more and more research because you don’t feel “ready” to MOVE. People get stuck in this phase for years. Eventually you will have to concede that you’ve researched and planned enough and it’s time to MOVE!

When you do move forward you can accomplish most ANYTHING in life.

If you’ve already laid the groundwork, you next focus on PRODUCTIVE actions; the actions that will carry the most power, the actions that will inspire the greatest results.

People do the dumbest damn stuff.

I’ve got a friend who is starting a business and he sent me brochures, logos and letterhead, asking what I think. Why people don’t just ask the question, “Should I spend money on letterhead…” first…ah well…

Your friend shows you this mostly useless stuff because they want to hear positive feedback about their new business project.

They couldn’t POSSIBLY want to know what I think because brochures, logos and letterhead….really aren’t very important.

Perhaps a 1 or 2 on a scale of 1-10, 1 being stuff to do to waste time so you don’t have to do things that matter.

What should the subject of conversations be?

Productive actions: You identify action steps that you will take in blocks that form a sequence of actions. You’ll do this daily, weekly, and monthly if necessary. A Sequence is something that actually ACCOMPLISHES something that will matter to your project succeeding or being profitable.

Remember, goal acquisition is a predictable process. You can’t take action just once and hope it works. Most goals will require consistent effort, specific action steps taken day after day, week after week, month after month!

Perhaps year after year!

Identify the things you can do on a regular basis to keep your plans moving forward.

Better?

Identify the actions you can take all in one week or one month to complete the process as rapidly as is humanly possible. Speed and chunking UP is typically important in goal acquisition. There are exceptions.

Here’s something to ponder…

As I’ve worked closely with people as manager, therapist, consultant, presenter and coach, I’ve discovered the sum of what a majority accomplish in one month can typically be accomplished…in an evening.

Most (definitely not all) people “beat around the bush,” and “dink around” to a tragic point.

For years I’ve heard this;

“I’m going to write the book as soon as….”

Shh….

Write 1000 words per day minimum. Every day for 80 days.

Now you are done writing.

End of story.

It’s not a “goal” to write 1000 words per day, it’s like eating dinner. You just DO IT.

Most people babble a couple THOUSAND meaningless words at lunch. Instead of having lunch, grab your laptop and crank in 1000 words. Can you type 50 words per minute?

1000 words is 20 minutes.

No kidding.

You can do it.

If you have to research, great (the lazy don’t and this makes you far better already than your future competitor!), go ahead and research and THEN type 1000 words at lunch.

Once simple stuff like this is habitual….it’s habitual. It’s the same as eating or sleeping.

Daily actions are usually moderate in scale but the value of them is cumulative in effect. In fact these daily actions must become addictive. It doesn’t matter whether it’s “fun” or not.

What happens is after you have written your 1000 words per day for a month or two you become addicted to the behavior. It’s the same principle that is used for creating addictive video games.

Cause someone to do an addictive and repetitive behavior which constantly needs completion in some way and you cement that addiction.

Devious huh?

The more you do them, the more effective they become. Addiction becomes obsession if obsession didn’t start the loop in the first place.

Weekly actions are usually a bit larger in scale, take a little longer to complete, and HOPEFULLY involve an element of risk or something that makes you feel a little uncomfortable or you might reconsider what you are doing.

Why?

You need to habituate yourself to intelligent, rational risks.

You’re not jumping off of a building. That’s not intelligent. You’re doing something that costs some time or a little money that has a decent probability of a decent payoff. (The process of these calculations is discussed at length in Decision Point, the e-course which begins next week.)

Bolder actions in modest risk/high reward areas most often bring about bigger results. Tiny actions and baby steps as taught by most, generally get you…nothing.

Let’s get specific here.

Writing 100 words per day for that book (for example) is going to require 800 days for completion of the writing. Those “baby steps” are infantile and will produce nothing.

But if those “baby steps” are writing 400 words three times per day, every day, until you have called it a life, THEN you have accomplished massive things.

Almost all projects are broken down into small steps but like video games THOUSANDS of those steps must be taken for them to become habit.

Realize bigger actions are more often subject to failure, which is no big deal because you’ll do something different next month. That something will bring a different result.

Failing is anticipated and planned for. If you don’t, great.

If you only rarely or don’t EVER fail, something is desperately wrong. If fail, it’s rarely very important. Everyone who succeeds, fails….a lot.

You’ve been thinking about doing something important with your life/business this summer. You know if provides a unique opportunity to get ahead of the rest of the world who will be solely slumbering away. Just for the heck of it, list the most productive actions you can determine should be done daily, weekly and monthly for this summer. It’s important to note that you are not setting a schedule with this exercise; you are simply identifying key, productive action steps that you can take on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Finally, these steps must yield an ABSOLUTE RESULT.

Don’t get caught up wondering how you can find time to do all this, or whether a certain task should be done daily or weekly. Simply put down a general idea of the most productive actions that you can think of. You can always add to this list or change it later on.

Do NOT THINK TOO HARD. JUST DO….

Put down your Daily Actions Now.

Daily Actions (a.k.a. stuff you will do)

Daily actions must be habitually challenging but have an attainable result. Think in terms of 3-four hour blocks each morning or night after everyone has gone to bed if this is a new project or business.

1. Action 1:

2. Action 2:

3. Action 3:

4. Add More As Needed

    

Weekly Actions

These should be larger steps that involve an element of intelligent risk or aggressive forward movement: Something that has a decent chance of FAILING is a good criteria…Example: I put a webinar on in March. I put 20 hours of creation time into the webinar. That’s not an enormous amount of time but it is significant. When people got to the shopping cart they couldn’t buy the program that was being promoted at the end of the web event! That is darn irritating.

Most people hit this moment and say, “It doesn’t work.” But the fact was I missed a detail. (Or someone did, but ultimately it’s my business, it’s my blunder.)

It drives ya’ a little nuts but you MUST move on. What is the alternative?

The answer is you get right back at it. The world did not end. No one got hurt…well at least not many people…

1. Action 1:

2. Action 2:

3. Action 3:

4. Add More As Needed

    

Monthly Actions

These should be extraneous steps like evaluating your progress in writing your book. Did you get your 30,000 words completed? THIS IS CRUCIAL: If not, you will take the next 2 – 4 days erase everything else off your calendar and FINISH those 30,000 words. You take a sick day, you cancel lunch with the cute girl, the future boss, the husband, whoever and YOU FINISH WHAT YOU TO TOLD your Self you would do.

1. Action 1:

2. Action 2:

3. Action 3:

4. Add More As Needed

    

Notice how this is…well…not quite what anyone ever taught you about goal acquisition?

Step Four: Set a General Timeline for Completion

This part of the process has the potential to fuel your efforts, or stall them completely.

There are soft deadlines: “I will write a thousand words this Tuesday and everyday.”

There are hard deadlines: “I will write 7,000 words this week by Sunday night.”

The hard deadline gets done like the grocery store gets done. There is ZERO room for futzing around here. It GETS DONE. You can write 2,000 Monday, 500 Tuesday, 1250 Wednesday but when it gets down to the end of the week your brain now learns that YOU are in charge. YOU are the boss and YOU will decide in advance what will happen and YOU will make it happen…like getting groceries.

Successful people complete projects LONG before ANY DEADLINE is even NEAR.

Coffee with Kevin Hogan is published 45 weeks per year. In weeks it’s published, it gets written by Sunday night.

Period.

There is no, “golly what if it doesn’t?”

• “…what if I fail…”

   

• “…what if I do a bad job….”

Coffee with Kevin Hogan averages 16 hours of my time per week.

A week like this week where there is a promotion that is extremely important for readers, can require 30 hours per week on top of a 50-hour week.

Twice or three times each year, Coffee won’t actually get out til Tuesday morning. A couple times each year, it won’t get done in a specific week.

That does happen and I don’t like it, but you don’t freak out about it.

People get sick, people go to the hospital. They often die. You can control everything you can control and nothing that you can’t. That’s why Coffee is 45 issues per year. On one hand, setting a deadline can be incredibly motivating. It can urge you to stay focused, push yourself to work harder and smarter, and be proactive in overcoming obstacles.

On the other hand, a deadline can cause immense impatience and frustration if things don’t move along at the pace you expect.

Read the last word in the sentence above again: EXPECT.

The Effect of Expectations

Our expectations can get us into trouble more often than we’d like to admit. This happens most commonly when other humans and technology are not fully considered.

If we expect something to go well and it doesn’t, we feel angry and disappointed. If we expect results by a certain date and it doesn’t happen due to circumstances beyond our control, we can lose all hope and give up because it seems futile to continue. I’m sure you’ve experienced situations like these before – most of us have.

While it’s favorable to set a GENERAL TIMELINE for completion of your goal, you would be wise to DETACH EMOTIONALLY from any firm expectations, especially as they relate to OTHER PEOPLE.

What do I mean by “detach emotionally”?

I mean don’t get hooked on the idea of certain things happening at a certain time- especially if those “things” are largely out of your control.

Set a timeline for completion of each of your ACTION Sequences, rather than the results you see from your action sequences.

Also, be sure not to set unrealistic timelines. Don’t create more stress for yourself by taking on a massive project and expecting to complete a one year project in a few days. Consistent powerful actions will be more effective than getting burned out.

And most people WILL and DO burn out.

All that said, once you set a timeline, do what you can to stick to it.

• If someone invites you to dinner…NO.
• If someone asks you to go to a movie…NO
• If someone says they need to talk about ….NO.

It was either something important enough to DO or NOT.

• Your conscious mind is SMART.

   

• Your nonconscious mind is POWERFUL.

Write this down and remember it forever:

POWERFUL will always beat SMART at the end of the day.

Say “NO,” early in the day so you can get stuff done at the end of the day.

This is a really elementary action that you won’t have to do six months from now, but DO THIS FOR NOW….

List your Key Action Sequences.

List your key action sequences below, with an estimation of the time needed to complete them:

Action Sequences / Approximate date for completion:

1. Action 1 / Completion Date:

2. Action 2 / Completion Date:

3. Action 3 / Completion Date:

4. Add More As Needed

    

Now set a GENERAL TIMELINE for completion of your ultimate goal:

Plan B

If you’ve ever come to a screeching halt with a goal because you encountered a big obstacle, you know the importance of having an alternate plan. As much as we’d like to hope that things will always go according to plan, we know better.

Having a “Plan B” for every step of your journey can save you a lot of time, not to mention frustration! Imagine the difference between feeling immobilized because your path is blocked, or calmly switching gears and moving to Plan B. It can make or break the fulfillment of your goals.

It’s easy to forget that there are numerous paths leading to any desired outcome. While we might be attracted to one path over another, ultimately the outcome is the most important thing, right?

In order to ensure stable momentum, take a few minutes to prepare an alternate plan for each part of your goal. Focus not only on alternate paths to the final goal, but alternate activities for each of your action sequences.

Here is a simple way to identify viable alternate activities: as you review each step, consider the question, “What would I do if this step or activity was not possible?”

Examples:

• If you didn’t get accepted into a degree program, you could: enroll in non-credit courses to expand your knowledge of the topic, seek an entry-level position at a related organization, or explore volunteer opportunities at related organizations.

   

• If your weight loss stalls for more than 4 weeks, you could: increase the intensity of your workouts, eliminate certain foods from your diet, or increase your water consumption.

   

List your key action sequences below and identify some alternate plans:

Action sequence or activity / Alternate sequences or activities:

1. Action 1 / Alternate Sequence

2. Action 2 / Alternate Sequence

3. Action 3 / Alternate Sequence

4. Add More As Needed

    

The Right Mind-Set for Success

“Mind Set” is one of those hokey phrases most often used by people who don’t know anything about achievement psychology or real world results. That’s okay. We’ll borrow the phrase because it describes what it says it is.

THE MIND IS SET

Your Mind is in CONTROL of Your Results.

That is Mind Set.

By now you should have a clear, detailed plan for acquiring your outcome. You should know what you want, have a solid idea of the sequences that make up your larger desire, have a list of specific sequences use will use, and a general expectation about both the completion of your activities and the culmination of your goal. You’ve even done your homework and formed alternate plans so you won’t get sidetracked if something goes wrong.

How could you fail with a plan like this? You couldn’t . . . unless you let your brain begin to work against you.

And that is what 95% of people allow to happen.

Remember: The brain is POWERFUL.

There are some key things to keep in mind if you want to stay focused and motivated.

Commit to your outcome.

You are crossing the street. Cars are coming. You don’t move, you get hit. So you MOVE.

Same with all sequences and actions you use in outcome acquisition.

It’s all at that level of certainty and motion.

You are “willing” to keep MOVING toward what you want no matter how difficult it may seem at times. You must be willing to ignore your inner critic (or actual criticism from people in your life) and push on in spite of any negative comments. You must make a strong promise to yourself that you will NOT give up, no matter what obstacles you encounter.

You must make the achievement of your goal the most important thing in your life. Without this level of commitment, you will find it very easy to slack off, get distracted, or give up altogether.

MOVE!

The most detailed and effective plan is worthless if you never MOVE. Make a promise to yourself that you will take action immediately and consistently, despite any feelings of fear or hesitation.

Remember that your results are dependent upon the VALUE, intensity and frequency of your MOTION. If you want big results, take big actions. If you don’t mind smaller results while you’re building up your confidence, then start with smaller actions. Go ahead and do the simpler 3 – 4 hour blocks per day but for goodness sake, MOVE.

ACT.

…and screw the brochures, logos and letterhead….do something that MATTERS…

Don’t get wrapped up in frustration about things you can’t control.

Don’t worry about seeing results right away. You start writing a book, you don’t see a result for nine months or as much as two years when it is published.

Focus on taking actions that MATTER, following your plan and keeping your eyes on the prize.

Focus more on enhancing your own performance, stretching your limits and refining your approach. Detach from unrealistic expectations and instead keep your attention squarely on what you CAN control, which is your own actions.

Evaluate Your Progress

You might think that evaluation is pointless because you’ll either see results or you won’t. Not typically the case! Remember that achievement is a process and nothing is permanently carved in stone.

Writing a book? Remember you don’t see results for a LONG TIME.

So, evaluate your progress. Did you write your thousand words?

No?

Then don’t go to bed yet.

Get stuff done, then go to bed.

Get into THAT habit and you will WIN.

Sometimes you’ll notice small results, but not as much as you’d like so you need to tweak your plans slightly to adjust the outcome. Or you’ll figure out that changing your approach on one simple thing will increase results big time!

Questions to Ask Yourself

Evaluation is a worthwhile activity because it can help keep you honest about your efforts, it can reveal holes in your plans and it can inspire you to keep going when you notice even moderate results happening.

This is particularly true if you have an evidence process for your evaluation.

That’s why I like 1000 words. You can count that.

I don’t like stuff I can’t quantify.

I like stuff I can say I did…or didn’t do.

“I worked on cutting the lawn today.”

Ummmm….No.

Did you or did you NOT do it?!

The lawn IS DONE or IT IS NOT DONE.

Keep evaluation SIMPLE.

There are two types of evaluation you should do periodically. The first involves frequent evaluation of your daily actions.

Every one to two weeks, take a few moments, perhaps 10 minutes, to answer these questions:

• Are you sticking to your original plans?
• Could you improve upon your sequences in any way?
• Have you had to move to Plan B at any time?
• If so, how is that working out for you?
• Do you need a Plan C?
• Can you see room for improvement in your original plans?
• Have you made any modifications?
• If so, are they working better for you?
• Have your results met your expectations so far?
• If not, why not?
• What can you do to improve your results?

The other type of evaluation can be done monthly or even quarterly; and it should focus more on your long-term progress rather than your daily actions.

Answer these questions:

• Are your plans moving you in the right direction?
• Is your ultimate goal still the same, or are you considering a change in direction?
• Can you think of any ways to improve upon your original plans?
• What are you learning about yourself through this process?
• Have you developed a stronger appreciation of any aspect of yourself?
• Which of your qualities and habits still need improvement?
• How can you begin to expand your potential and stretch your limits?
• Are you beginning to think of even larger outcomes you can acquire now?

Repeat and Succeed!

Do you see now that every acquisition has clearly defined routes with plenty of prepared detours when necessary, leading to its realization? Do you see how with a fair amount of planning and foresight, you can easily achieve any objective?

No matter what outcomes you set now or in the future, you have an easy-to-duplicate formula that will help you achieve them.

You’ll learn the Acquisition process in the program itself.

For the moment let’s recap the Goal Acquisitions Pre-Plan steps:

• Specify what you want/want done.
• Break it down into slightly smaller parts.
• Set clear sequences.
• Set a general timeline for completion.
• Form a “Plan B” for each action step.
• Train your mind to commit, MOVE, and DO UNTIL.
• Evaluate your progress frequently.
• Repeat….

Once you become comfortable with these steps, making your life happen will become a simple and doable experience for you – no matter WHAT you want to attain.

You’ll know how to conquer your inner demons (like fear and confusion), face challenges head-on, and move quickly and precisely to your chosen outcome.

Through the process of choosing your own outcomes and making it your mission to acquire them, you will strengthen and empower yourself more than you would believe is possible.

You’ll realize that your quality of life is largely within your control, and you need only follow a specific route to reach any destination you desire.

Then repeat the process to get to your next destination, and the next, and the next!

When you get Acquisition: The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System you’ll learn the Comprehensive Planning Strategy. For now you have a sketch of the pre-plan. It’s the Genesis story of your life.

“What Would Happen if you really Acquired all of the GOALS You Set this Year?”

Be one of the first to own…

Acquisition!

The Comprehensive
Goal Attainment System
That Gives You Everything You Really Want in Life

Get Your Copy of Acquisition!
for 3 easy payments of $127

You’ll Never “Try” to Achieve a Goal Again…Now They Predictably Happen

You want a car that will get there every day.
You want a spouse who will be there for you. Period.
You want to look good and feel good. Always.

You want a goal attainment system that is actually going to accomplish what it sets out to do:

You do 1,2,3,4,5 and you get X, Y, Z.

Simple enough.

Until today, you found out what everyone else found out…goal setting systems to date…didn’t work.

Why?

They all attempt to teach “setting a goal…”

No goal system until today is designed to actually acquire your goals.

It’s like buying an iPhone and then looking at it all day, every day and TURNING IT ON and OFF and ON and OFF and On and OFF…

This is square one.

Perhaps you write down, “I want to lose 20 pounds,” and stick it on the fridge.

You don’t need a system for that. You need a fridge, a pen and a paper.

But for a dozen reasons, that simple idea won’t work either, even if you had a system attached to it.

Acquisition! is designed specifically with you in mind.

You would say something like,

“If I could have anyone design a goal setting system for me, I’d want it to be Kevin Hogan and then I would be certain that it would actually work.”

A Goal Setting System that actually worked would be worth $100,000. Perhaps more.

One of the many, many problems in all goal setting systems I’ve encountered to date is the language of goals.

Be Careful What You Say to Yourself

• Reach
• Aspire
• Inspire
• Optimistic
• Hope

   

What do all those words “say?”

The language of 20th Century Goal Setting comes down to one word: maybe.

I hate *maybe.*

I’d rather hear “no.”

When it comes to your goals…

Maybe = Failure

Evidence?

Go back into your goal setting program from last year and see if you acquired more than say 25% of the goals you set for everything that was set for greater than one week into the future.

Survey says?

Didn’t happen.

Here’s what’s unsettling…

A lot of people were religious about setting goals and they STILL didn’t happen. You could have done everything from A to Z and wouldn’t have made any difference. You might as well have been hanging out on Facebook.

Whose fault?

This time around it IS the developer’s blunder.

Why?

They didn’t do their homework and sold you something that CAN’T produce for you. It doesn’t work. It can’t work. It won’t work. It looks pretty. Toss it now.

A…Little Better… Language of Goal Setting

Now, go up to the middle level language of goals which has been the language of the last 15 years.

• Peak
• Reach
• Meet
• Top
• Arrive
• Achieve

   

Well…it IS a little better.

You are directed toward hitting a target with this language.

Seriously, it’s a better group of words that create better imagery in the brain.

The message is that you stood in front of the guru and got to shake hands.

He probably has nice hands.

That’s pretty darned good. You made your $10,000 bonus last year. Very nice. You lost 20 pounds though you did gain back 10 of it. Nevertheless, even after you left, at least you had arrived. You hit the top of the hill regardless of what happened next.

That is much better than, “Gee maybe I’ll get there. I’ll keep a positive and optimistic attitude, put it on my vision board and believe it.”

You already know how that story ends…

Translation: Slicker looking goal setting systems with slightly improved language aren’t causing success to connect with other successes anywhere except in people’s dreams.

What is the language of Acquisition? that opens the door to the possibility of success?

• You don’t “set” goals per se. You sequence them.

   

• You don’t “hope” for anything. They happen.

   

• You don’t “work on your goals.” You complete projects.

   

• You don’t hope to arrive at the grocery store. You go shopping.

   

• You don’t hope your child goes to school. She goes to school.

   

• You don’t hope you get exercise today. You get down and do 20.

   

• You don’t hope people see you as credible. You are credible.

   

• You don’t hope to be believable. You are the picture next to the word in the dictionary.

   

Completion and achievement are nice things.

But they are really pretty rudimentary.

Did you seriously impress by going shopping?

Of course not.

Everyone knows you just go shopping!

There is no “wonder” or “uncertainty.” The plan is in place.

You put the cake in the oven.

“I hope to have a cake in one hour. I really believe in myself and I know I can have a cake in an hour if I work hard enough at it.”

or

“We’re having cake in an hour. Be here.”

End of story.

Goal acquisition can be a fact as soon as you learn HOW to make acquisition a fact.

“I hope to use the restroom in one hour. I really believe in myself and I know I can have a successful restroom visit if I work hard enough at it.”

or

“Where is the restroom? I’ll be back in a minute.”

Language can represent what is in the mind or language can create new images for the mind.

There is no hoping, wondering, optimism or pessimism. There is no “negative” or “positive” attitude. There is no aspiration.

You do it.

Yes, of course you can “achieve” some of your goals.

What I really want for you…is to HAVE what you want in life because YOU CHOOSE it and you ARE in control of your life to the point where when you want something, something is what you get.

There’s nothing to “reach for.”

You are going to literally learn to DO and then DO and I promise no one has ever shown you how.

1. You learn the requirements for specific goal acquisition.
2. You prepare for and then meet those requirements.
3. You create the possibility and context.
4. You mold the possibility in the context into “sequences.”
5. You begin.

    

And then you acquire what you said you wanted.

It sounds super simple and difficult all at the same time. Five years from now you will have used the system and you won’t even think about it any more. When you want something you simply “go to the grocery store.”

This is the stuff no one has ever taught you. None of the gurus. No one at University.

Before you set a goal, you have to create a sequence for it to be all but certain it will happen. Then the language is “real.” The language then represents, “I’m going to the store. Back in an hour.”

If you had no access to a car, fuel, had a broken leg with no crutches and no one to help you get there, you can say anything you want but you are going to watch TV. This has nothing to do with “pretend things.”

You’ve either set the table for dinner or you are eating with your fingers. You can use any words you want but if you aren’t prepared, nothing happens. Takes 3 minutes to set the table.

Most people never set the table of life.

When you create the setting, the opportunity, the possibility…, by having a car and fuel, healed legs or crutches, or someone to help you, now you can say, “…back in an hour.”

And it happens.

No one is surprised when you come back with a bag of stuff from the store. You SAID you’d be back in an hour. Why would anyone be surprised?

You sequenced it years ago.

It happens.

You do it without even being conscious.

The language changes matter because the new language represents using very different means and different ends.

And then it happens.

Language matters because it generates shifts in emotion, priority, drive…and with goals?

Language Precludes Acquisition.

You acquire.

You capture.

You have.

You own.

You are.

You possess.

You are in control.

You do.

It’s done.

You Learn to Use the Tool of Environmental Triggering to Spark Outcomes You Want When you Want Them

So all you have to do is change your language and you achieve your goals?

No.

Of course not. Language only opens the front door to the building of acquisition. Becoming the President of the company in the building takes a few more puzzle pieces set in place.

If the language doesn’t represent using an actual Maserati instead of an old junker, it isn’t processed as real and you won’t get what you want.

You have to make some important adjustments “deep inside” first.

These adjustments are setting the table. And it takes a bit more effort to be able to get pretty much all the things you really want than it does to set the table. But once you have it…you have made the adjustments and you have tested them, you don’t have to make them again.

Five years from now this goal acquisition system will be burned into your Passive Goal Guidance System and you will never set a goal quite the same way ever again.

You won’t need to because goal acquisition will be a default track written in your brain and not something worked on by your mind.

Once you have the formula burned into the neurology of the brain and use it regularly…you have it forever.

You’ll never think of anything in terms of goals or dreams beginning in 2017.

You will simply write it down and every single person says about you, “he’s going to X.”

… and they are right.

They seriously think it is “easy for you.”

They miss the fact that you use effort and sweat when you cut the lawn. The illusion for everyone else is so intense that they believe you are a magician that makes stuff appear out of thin air.

Like the Acquisition program itself.

Make It So

I told a few people in the Inner Circle that Acquisition will be out on April 10. That was right around 5 months ago. It’s scheduled to come in two days LATE! (Gasp!)

“Kevin’s going to finally do that goals program I’ve wanted…”

It was over dinner months ago.

They assume it is done before I’ve laid out the Sequences.

They assume it is done before I set up the recording time.

They assume it is done even though I’m under doctors orders to only speak a couple of hours each day because of bowed vocal cords!

They assume it is done before the cover is created, the copy is written, before the research has been completed and in some cases started.

And on and on…

They heard me say, “it will be out.”

And then… it is done.

The group was right.

BUT:

Let me say this: THERE WAS A LOT OF RESEARCH AND IT TOOK A LOT OF WORK collecting all of the data, honing new strategies and approaches to controversial requirements for goal acquisition to happen.

It did just happen…but a great deal of energy was expended in getting it to you!

And so it will be when YOU say, “I’m going out with her.”

Your friend says, “She doesn’t even know who you ARE?”

“She will.”

It is the highest form of certainty. It is 100% fact based and it happens.

“I’m going to the store. I’ll be back in an hour.”

You say, it’s “not that easy.”

Correct.

It requires being absolutely prepared, sequencing and effort.

Then it happens.

I hope you don’t mind if I take out some words from your vocabulary and add a few new words so you are able to acquire what you will have.

Goals As “Dreams”?

Until now setting a significant goal like adding $100,000 to your income, losing weight and keeping it off, wanting a secure retirement, making more sales, getting a better job, becoming involved with someone you find attractive, or even raising successful kids was all a “dream.”

Some of it was ethereal. Some of those things happened only to people who got lucky.

The metaphor of the dream, of course, is a disaster movie in and of itself. “Living your dreams,” is a common phrase in the American way of speaking. But what most people “dream” about only ends up happening when they sleep. Rarely do the dreams manifest in real life.

The dreams almost certainly won’t happen in real life because the brain capably and predictably reacts to the fact that what you dream about ends when you wake up. The brain will protect you from your dreams. Count on it.

One of the most important cognitions you’ll ever get is that brains don’t think. They react and act on a few basic types of programming, which are all very predictable.

You’ll learn precisely how to harness all of this for the acquisition of your desires and goals in Acquisition.

A Goal Seeking Device?

One old timer suggested that the “brain is a goal seeking device.”

Dr. Maxwell Maltz was 100% correct and he was 100% incorrect.

The brain is a goal seeking and acquiring device for all things related to survival and then it shuts off.

Brains rarely seek goals that have anything to do with anything other than minimum survival.

Here’s what really happens in your brain:

The brain is the control center where genetic code which generates impulses to self replicate is interpreted and acted upon. Genes meet up against decades of behavioral conditioning and interconnecting neuronal networks that are stimulated by external stimuli. This interaction is what causes your brain to either shut off, achieve survival goals or to carry on with “acquisition goals.”

I didn’t say it would sound simple, but it’s what happens.

With proper preparation it will acquire the latter. Without it, there is almost zero chance of goal acquisition.

Maltz thought you could program the brain to get you a new car. That thought was like the belief in 1700 that you could get a man to the moon. You can. But you can’t do it with conventional horse and buggies.

He was ahead of his time in one sense. He observed people surviving in the most difficult of times.

And more importantly, he observed the life changes that plastic surgery did to people. Their lives changed dramatically. It was something that could only have happened in the 20th century going forward. What was missing? He simply didn’t have the technology to cause people to do more than survive.

He understood the role of the reticular formation. The rudimentary pieces were starting to come together. A very resilient and persistent individual could painfully bump along and achieve some goals. But the tech wasn’t quite there.

Survival is Essential and Soon Your Goals Will Be As Well!

Don’t get me wrong, survival is *really* important.

Your genes have literally been self-replicating for 2,000,000 years. It is really hard for you to screw up your survival chances prior to the age of reproduction.

Half of men never reproduced 2,000 years ago!

Today you are walking proof of the success of genetic code “doing its job.”

Genes copying themselves. Simple and powerful survival.

But survival is generally not goal acquisition.

While your brain takes you away from what it interprets as real danger and causes you to eat ’til you are more than full and then causes you to procrastinate…well…those are all survival behaviors.

The brain interprets opening doors that have unfamiliar settings behind them as dangerous. The brain wants you to rest, eat, sleep, attempt to reproduce, rest, get out of pain, rest some more and stay safe until those offspring can reproduce themselves.

The brain spends its time on those activities. If someone is comfortable within those parameters, the code goes as far as to drive the individual to belong to a group, to help others survive, to learn.

Your Brain is Flat Out Amazing

Your brain is remarkable. It recognizes the folly of one’s past failures at anything and does everything in its power to discourage the individual from doing anything similar again. It doesn’t think. It acts upon recognition.

The brain causes survival and it screws up the majority of people from doing anything more than being comfortable in a familiar environment…because it needs you to survive. It is very, very good at the jobs it performs!

Fortunately you and I have a mind which is not the brain.

I’ll keep this really short and sweet. It is important.

Most People are “Sleep Walking Living”

For most people, the mind (consciousness), is shut off most of the time. How often are people “awake” while they are ..awake…?

Many people walk through their life with minutes of conscious activity each day. The majority might be interacting with the world in conscious interaction an hour or two per day.

But there are some people who begin to emerge at a higher level of conscious awareness. They are “awake” a lot more often.

They know they want to achieve, accomplish, acquire and attain because it is sensible and desirable.

What causes them to be special is their mind thinks into the future beyond tomorrow.

Most people are uncomfortable thinking too far into the future and they shut off and return to resting, eating, sleeping.

Your outcome is to be as awake as you can be and take advantage of the brains powerful survival drive and use that potential energy to acquire what you desire.

Write this down: The time is coming after you complete Acquisition!, your goals will no longer be goals. They will be obvious results. You simply will have them. Do remind people that it required effort because it LOOKS LIKE MAGIC.

Every single day the brain makes absolutely certain you:

• Eat
• Sleep
• Rest
• Use the restroom

   

It doesn’t make any mistakes. You *do* these things and the brain doesn’t let you not accomplish them. Period. When the body for some reason doesn’t experience one of those things it goes into Great Danger mode and does everything it can to direct you to comfort.

The brain almost always gets what it is programmed to get.

Don’t think this means because you want a Maserati you will get it. That thought vaporizes in the neurology of the brain right after you read it.

There is plenty of new wiring and plenty of rewiring you’ve never seen or done before that has to happen to get that Maserati.

If you tell the brain to add:

• $100,000 more in 2013 than in 2012.
• Lose 35 pounds in 2012.
• Get the right girl in 2012.
• Have a happy home in 2012.

   

The brain with standard wiring will get you none of it.

And if you got lucky, the brain would almost certainly do what it could to get rid of the money, put back on the weight, get the girl out of your life and return your home to misery as soon as possible.

That’s what brains do…they follow specific deeply entrenched programs that are very difficult to uproot and change.

The brain got you to this point with no significant change in 2,000,000 years.

Makes sense: The genes in the brain have were copied from genes an ancestor of yours had 2,000,000 years ago.

That…is power.

The System Causes the Brain to Be an Ally!

Fortunately there is now, yes, a system to take advantage of that wiring and reroute it to goal acquisition.

Today you can start a process using the brain as an ally not only for survival but for goal acquisition that will indeed predictably cause you to add:

$100,000 more income in 2013 than in 2012.
Lose 35 pounds in 2012.
Get the right girl in 2012.
Have a happy home in 2012.

…and not have the brain go back and erase it all.

And best of all is it SUPER EASY and INSTANTANEOUS?

Heck no.

“Reprogramming” takes a bit of time. Not as much as you might think, but it is NOT instant.

Brains hate doing anything that takes time. It’s not comfortable at first. Then when it becomes familiar, it becomes very comfortable.

The fact is you can have pretty much anything you want in life.

You can have your brain as your ally.

And if you have stumbled upon some degree of success to this point in life, you have a bonus opportunity of exponential growth.

But let’s not get carried away.

Acquisition! is replicable. It will work for virtually anyone.

If you can add 17 and 5 in your head and come up with the correct answer, Acquisition! will work for you. If you can’t…it won’t.

I imagine you’ve used a goal setting system of some kind in the past. If that’s the case, forgive the developer. It’s over. It’s past.

It was destined to fail because they didn’t know how to make it so it would work.

That’s the nature of life.

If you tried to work within that old method, you certainly worked hard at your goals and while you probably hit some of the smaller and shorter term goals, most of the bigger 1 – 3 year goals almost never happened.

You are a walking testimonial for how that gurus goal setting system doesn’t work.

But you don’t need or want to “give” that anti-testimonial.

You really simply want what you want in life and want a real way to attain it.

When I set out on my own after having to quit college at 3 years because I ran out of money, I picked up some books and set tons of goals. I failed at just about all of them for the first 5 or 6 years of setting goals.

It made no sense to me.

I felt like an idiot.

Typical Goal Setting Systems Don’t Work

I worked very hard still ended up working at a restaurant as an Assistant Manager vs. the goals I had set which were far more desirable than that.

Ultimately, I learned a great deal from being an Assistant Manager for a year. I could have read the book and done what I really wanted to do in life instead. But I was using a “system” that wasn’t going to work except by luck.

It was a cool looking system with a lot of beautifully crafted pieces to the system.

But all the cute in the world didn’t mean it worked. When I left the restaurant business, I went back into sales and fundraising. Other salespeople used it. They made no more money. Their lives weren’t better. These were people who were dedicated. These weren’t the kind of people who buy something and set it aside. They USED the thing! No difference.

The creator of the system was quite a successful man, someone we all looked up to. I don’t know about them, but I figured it had to be me.

I followed the instructions to the letter for years. I was religious. I still have everything and just looking at it still makes me feel embarrassed even though I know that if I would have continued doing that, I would never have hit any level of success.

It just didn’t work, and frankly it depressed me.

I always abhorred working *really* hard and getting no result.

Eventually I set aside the goal setting systems I tried out. Either they were a disaster or I was.

Finally: A New Approach

I developed a very new and rudimentary approach to goals.

It was far from a system. It was an approach.

Coincidentally, within two years I had tripled my income and then some. I can’t prove the clunky approach in those early days made the difference. Being a bit of a nerdy scientist, I knew that my results were just that. And they certainly didn’t mean much in anyone else’s real world.

But I fine tuned it over time and pretty soon it wasn’t a clunky system anymore. Pretty soon I had attained almost every goal or it’s twin sister. If I set it…there was a good chance it would come to fruition.

Example: One goal was in 2005 when I wrote I wanted my next book with Penguin. It turned out to be placed with Wiley. I counted that as a goal accomplished. It was huge. Millions of people would read that first book that was published with Wiley.

Had I known about one more piece of the goal puzzle, Penguin would have taken the book and saved me a few weeks.

Again, all of this was my result of using a clunky approach to getting what I wanted in life.

Over the next few years I did a great deal of research into achievement motivation, researching “individual differences,” the influence of controversial findings about depression, anxiety, etc. on human accomplishment.

I devoured hundreds and hundreds of scientific papers on what caused specific behaviors within people. What drove people. What people’s default drives were, when those drives engaged and disengaged. Crucial secondary research was into mirror neurons.

That triggered two great aha’s that when applied in my life, that had predictable results. No one was studying entrepreneurs, salespeople, people wanting the best person in their life possible, artists, creative people, therapists, people who lived much less structured lives than those who went to an institution every single day (a corporate office, a government office, a university).

The research that WAS being done was always transpiring in structured locations. This revelation brought one of the final pieces together as you’ll see when you begin to use Acquisition!

I was FINALLY able to tweak the clunky approach into a very specific laser and my world changed.

More importantly, I was able to observe the impact of various degrees of integrating certain pieces of this new methodology into other people’s lives. I watched companies integrate a very few specific strategies to cause executives who were terrified to bring in new business…to bring in new business.

It…was working.

Over the last 7 years, I’ve directly observed people I work with typically have their best years as far as income and/or relationship and/or life satisfaction or both having their best years in their careers. All of this happening in a time period when a lot of people were struggling to keep a job.

I also have discovered a few surprising factors about what causes accomplishment when people who are attaining diverse and unrelated goals come together.

What I was doing bore only a small resemblance to anything else others were teaching. It was not the easiest approach. It was not a complete goal setting system. Today, however, it is just that.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not stopping the research just because something works.

Acquisition! is here for you today. 10 years from now there will be another factor discovered. The system will come out in 2.0. Another decade? 3.0

For now, people deserve to have a life they earn.

Why is it that every goal setting system you have used has failed?

How is it possible that such smart people with so many great books and programs thought they had a great system only to find customers and clients left without results from that specific program?

How would you recognize a system that worked if you saw it?

What might lead you to believe that Acquisition: The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System is really different and will actually work for you?

And really, couldn’t you just synthesize four or five other programs out there and pick and choose what seems to make sense and then put your own system together?

Acquisition! is the product of researching real people in the real world.

Most of the time the academics “get the science right” and “discover and report.”

Unfortunately, the academics tend to study college students and goal performance for things related to studying and exams.

That’s extremely useful information in its context!

And, unfortunately, that experience doesn’t map over to you unless you are also a student in a structured setting. In THAT CASE it DOES map over.

But most people aren’t in that position.

Goal achievement research at university for years showed a big disconnect from the real world. There IS some research FINALLY being generated now but it is slow coming and still based on achievement in structured settings like a corporate office, a management team and again, University.

Do understand, I am not, not, not, knocking this work. I respect the work being done. For people in those settings that material is priceless. So why doesn’t it explain and predict (work) in real life out here?”

Because the salesman lives in a completely unstructured environment. The salesman drives their car, goes on appointments and in most cases their income is dependent on one thing only: performance. Researchers almost never study unstructured careers or entrepreneurs because access to these people in “controlled settings” is not only not possible, it’s counterproductive.

Entrepreneurs, salespeople, therapists, entertainers, artists, creative people, people who are in charge of their own destiny in some way haven’t been studied in their natural environment to the end of discovering what causes “success” and “failure” as far as income, relationship success, accomplishment of tasks outside of structured situations.

It’s that simple.

The Observer Effect

Metaphor: When you want to study fish, you can’t go to the ocean, go fishing, take the fish out of the water, bring the fish into the classroom and observe their behavior. You can only study fish to the end of understanding them by looking down into the ocean without actually entering the ocean and messing up the research.

In science this is called “The Observer Effect.”

In 90% of research into everything else in the world, “observer effect” can be controlled.

Not here.

The point is that what seems to be “right” or “common sense” is rarely right in general but in particular this is true with goal motivation, achievement drives and acquisition of desired outcomes.

And that is the case because scientists aren’t in charge of their own destiny. They aren’t salespeople, entrepreneurs. They view the world in very, very different ways from each other. Scientists are paid by Universities and other institutions and then they go do their research without the pressure of having to acquire new business to earn their paycheck. They work…and they get their paycheck. That is their life experience. It is not the life experience that salespeople, entertainers, entreprenuers or those who have a life experience which has no “safety net.”

I could elaborate further, but my goal isn’t to be unkind to the researchers whose work in almost all areas of life is so important to my life and yours.

Meanwhile most of the popular goal setting programs and books aren’t written by academics. They’re written by people most typically in the field of selling.

You would *think* that salespeople writing a goals setting course would excel at being able to address the crucial aspects of goal acquisition. They seemingly do it themselves, how could they not be considered “the expert” for such a program or book?

The answer is the flip side of the academic.

In this case you have someone creating a program based on what has worked for that person.

“How did you do it?!”

Accumulation of History

Writing the process of acquiring your goals into your brain comes right after learning what few tracks you should avoid.

Some people want to go to the moon, themselves, when they have no rocket ship…

The answer to that is that it is not “impossible.” Not much is “impossible.” But you can mess up a life chasing some strange dream that isn’t going to happen. I’m inclined to say, “it just doesn’t work, it can’t work.” But I know that is unsatisfying; so simply consider this:

Le Bron James takes off work from his job as a basketball player…He’s going to show me how to be a pro basketball player. He budgets the entire YEAR. Every day, 14 hours per day. He’s the best. To not only learn from the best but to do precisely what he does will easily make me CLOSE to the best basketball player of the century…won’t it?

Let’s say it goes further than that. Let’s say LeBron gets the ENTIRE Miami basketball team to take off and work with me as well. Now we have a context. We are playing 5 on 5 every single day. All day.

Let’s also put it out there that every single one of the guys is focused on making me the best basketball player in history.

WOW!

They whip me into shape. We work out. We practice, drill, drill, drill, drill. We get 3,000 hours of work in as no one takes any hours off except to sleep this year.

Surely I must be a Professional Basketball Player in 2014….

But obviously not.

I’m not 27. I don’t have 20 years of dribbling, shooting, reading offenses, reading defenses, the agility to move in a way that is instinctive and as much as I will be one heck of a ball player one year from now, I wouldn’t be able to play professionally. I’d get run over. Oh, I’d be healthy, stronger than ever and I’d be pretty amazing for my complete lack of experience and age.

The fact is I will gain two years of amazing experience in one year which is huge, but these guys all have 20 years of experience. They breathe better when they dribble, they think better when they dribble. Yet 10 professionals can’t get you to be able to be a pro just because you drill, practic

About Kevin Hogan

Author of The Psychology of Persuasion, Irresistible Attraction, and The Science of Influence, Dr. Kevin Hogan is trusted by organizations both large and small to help them understand human dynamics, body language, persuasion, and how to influence. Kevin is an internationally known keynote speaker and corporate educator based in Minneapolis Minnesota. Have Kevin speak at your next event.