If you do the right things right, you're going to succeed.
If you have correct goals,
and you keep pursuing them the best way you know how,
everything else will fall into line.
You are what and where you are today because you first imagined it.
Knowing where you want to go is all you need to get there.
Just return over and over to that picture in your mind
of the place you are headed for.
The first time I heard the word GOALS was at a training program early on in my career led by a man named Pope. Before that I had never heard the term used, at least not in that sense of the word. I never understood what it truly meant. I just thought it was something that you did in hockey. You know, you have a goalie at one end of the ice, another goalie at the other end, and you have to get the puck into the net to make a goal, scoring a point. What did that have to do with what I was doing? I was hooping and hollering and screaming “Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!”
As I pondered my goals, the program instructor goes around the room and asks the each person what their goals are.
One person says, “I want to become a future team leader.”
“I want to make $100,000 dollars,” says another.
“I want to go to Europe,” declares a third.
And so it went on and on, with people wanting mostly business related things. Then it came to my turn and he says, “Okay Lynette Queen Bee, you are the last one. Let’s hear what you have to say.”
So, I thought for a moment…there I was, about 31 years old. We were in the top 3% in the nation. I had status and cash….what should I say I wanted? My husband at the time didn’t want any children, but he said if we could find a house on a hilltop with some sparkle and view, he would contemplate having a child. I had searched high and low for such a place, anywhere there was a bump in the ground, a hill, a view, or whatever, but to no avail. I was coming from a place of people pleasing and empowering him to think he had power over me. I did that. He didn’t do that. I had empowered him to have power over me, although I didn’t realize it at the time.
Sitting in my chair lost deep in my thoughts, I heard Pope’s voice say “Lynette….Lynette.” I looked up and blurted out… “I want a child!” He stopped in his tracks and said, tell me more.
I put my head down and said, “Well, my goal is to have a child and my biological clock is ticking.” I shared with the instructor and the rest of the room that my husband and I were pondering having a child. We had been married for nine years and I was reaching my 30th birthday that fall. I explained that my husband wanted to be settled into a house before we had a family. He wouldn’t settle for less than house on a hilltop with a beautiful view to enjoy the sparkle and twinkle of the city lights at night. I had been looking for land or a home for the past two years and all the realtors would laugh and say “Lady, what you want does not exist.” Somehow though, even though I had recently moved Michigan and didn’t know the lay of the land so well in central Massachusetts, I observed the rolling hills around the city and continued my quest.
As the entire room quietly listened, pondering my story. Pope moved slowly over to me, bent down and looked straight into my eyes as I lifted my head back up. With one hand on his hip he said with sincerity, “Well then, we are going to have to move a mountain to Worcester for Lyn Monopoli.”
At that moment, I felt my temperature start to rise like a wave of heat through my body. It started in my toes and it worked its way up to the tip of my head. It felt as if the spirit of something bigger than myself shot through me like electricity; all the doubt and negative input from the world was small and insignificant. Even though I was all heated up, I sat there frozen and shivering. I thought to myself, “My God what is this?” I could feel a physical being inside me. It wasn’t a blush. I never felt it before, and I have never felt it since. But it was something amazing that changed my whole life in a split second.
Pope continued, “Before this can happen, you must get a book and write down everything that you want. How big is the house? How many windows? What color is it? How high up? How far from the city is the land? How large is the lot? How many trees? How much will it cost? What is the school system like? Describe that house in as much possible detail. Write everything down until it becomes a crystal clear picture like you are focusing in through a camera lens. Count the hairs on your head, down to that minute detail.”
Although I sat there stunned, I internalized everything that he said to me. That same evening, I went home and got a small notebook and started to write down everything that I could come up with. I had started my own Dream Book!
To learn more about Dream Books and how to make your goals a reality, grab a copy of The Knowledge of U: 30-Day U Plan on Amazon
