PowerGoals / Chapter 3 / Part 1.

How to Set and Achieve Goals / That Turn Your Dreams into Reality.

by Dr. Hannes Dreyer (Ph.D.) with Elzet Blaauw

Chapter 3: The Power of PowerGoals?

Now that you know why we need goals if we are going to live the life of our dreams, let us delve a bit more into what PowerGoals? is and why it is so powerful.

But first.

Before I discuss PowerGoals? in any more detail, there is something you need to do.

By now, I am sure that you have thought quite a bit about your own goals as you read the previous chapters. What things have you been thinking of? What are some of the dreams and goals that you have been reminded of?

If you were an obedient reader, during the first chapter, you started writing down the things that you want. Whether you did it or not, I want you to write down those things now before you read the rest of this chapter.

It is important that you put down a raw, unfiltered list of the things that you want before we go into the details of PowerGoals?. That way, after we have covered the criteria, you can come back to your raw list of wants to craft your PowerGoal?.

If you do not write down your list of wants now, you might start censoring them as we go. We do not want that. We want it raw. I do not want you to get stuck in analysis paralysis.

So, before you read anything else, write down those wants.

Sometimes, we get confused when we hear loaded terms like the word goal. So, to stop you from overanalyzing whether you are writing down.

a dream or a goal or whether it is right or wrong, just ask yourself: what do I want?

What do you want in life?

Do not overthink it. Just write down everything that comes to mind.

Do not censor your thoughts. Do not scratch out or delete anything that you wrote because you think it is not valid or important. Just get it all out. Do what is called a “brain dump”.

If you think, But is this even a goal?  Or is this the type of dream that Hannes is writing about? write them down anyway.

There is no right or wrong here. Your dreams and your goals are different from other people’s because you are different.

Do not think about me or any other person in your life reading what you wrote. Because, you know what, no one is going to see what you write down. If you ever share any of it, it will only be because you want to. (More about that later.)

This is about you. What do you want – not your mom or your spouse or your children or your cat or your dog or your boss. Not your mentor or your coach or anyone else.

Before you read any further, I want you to put down this book and start writing them down

Workbook Q3.1: Return to question 1.1 in the workbook and do a brain dump of all your wants.

Write it down.

Did you do it? Did you write it out down?

How did it feel? Did it feel good? Did it inspire you? Was it a bit hard? Did it challenge you? Do not feel overwhelmed or discouraged at this stage. We are taking things step-by-step, remember.

I have good news for you: you have just completed one step that takes you closer to turning what you want into a PowerGoal? – you wrote it down.

Writing down something you want or something you want to achieve does not automatically make it a PowerGoal?. But one of the things that makes a PowerGoal? so powerful is that it is written down. Studies show that by merely writing down your goals, you are 42% more likely to achieve them than people who don’t. Writing down and reading what you wrote helps to rewire the brain to help you achieve your goals.

It is also important to state it positively. For example, instead of “lose weight”, say “healthy body fat percentage” or, even better, state the specific weight, e.g. 87kg. (I explain why it must be specified later in this chapter.) When you read your goal, you want your brain to focus on where you are going, for example, your goal weight, instead of what you are leaving behind, which is implied in something like “lose weight”.

Desirability.

I asked you to write down what you want and not what other people want or what you think you should want because a PowerGoal? must be personally significant to you. It must be something that you want. It must be based on your dreams. It must come from that spark of inspiration that I mentioned in the previous chapter, something that is very personal to you.

It must be something that you really, really want.

Desirability is not something that comes from analytical thinking. It is an emotional response. Your PowerGoal? must have deep and powerful emotions behind it to work.

I always tell my students that your PowerGoal? must have a desirability level of 10/10. On a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is not desirable at all and 10 is extremely desirable, there must be no doubt in your mind that your PowerGoal? is a 10/10.

That desirability level will be different for different people.

For one person, it might be extremely important to lose weight. It is a 10/10 for that person.

For another person, it might be extremely important to start a cash flow-positive business. For that person, that business is a 10/10.

One of my PowerGoals? was to fly my own helicopter. Now, for you, flying your own helicopter might not have a desirability level of 10/10. But I really wanted it.

When I was a young man in the police force, I heard a helicopter pilot describe the art of hovering over a helicopter. Among pilots, there is a saying: to fly is heavenly, to hover is divine. When I heard that pilot describe his experience, I thought to myself, I want to do that!

At the time, it was a completely unrealistic dream for me. With my poor academic background, there was no way I could get transferred from the police to the air force.

However, years later, when I was financially free, I found an old journal that reminded me of my dream from many years ago. The idea of it captured me again. It was a new challenge, something which would push me beyond myself. I imagined taking Tanja for flips into the mountains – a romantic picnic for two in some isolated spot.

I got fired up all over again. That spark motivated me to get my helicopter license and to start and build a new business that paid for my helicopter.

For one person, it might be a helicopter or a Ferrari. For someone else, it might be something completely different.

One of my students really wanted to lose weight. It was very important to him. He was not obese, but he was overweight. He only wanted to lose 10kg or 22 pounds, but he battled to do it.

While doing one of my mentoring programs, he went through a process to ask himself why he wanted it. He realized that even though he was not yet 30 years old, he had been diagnosed with high blood pressure. Having a healthy weight is a very important part of having normal blood pressure.

But his blood pressure was not the real reason why he wanted to lose weight. He wanted to lose weight to lower his blood pressure so that he can be healthy and live a long life to see his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up.

That was his real reason – family. The family was personally significant to him, so when he made the connection between his goal of losing weight and his dream of growing old and seeing his future generations grow up, he was much more motivated to lose the weight.

The person who wanted to start a cash flow-positive business was his wife. Her deepest reason was also family. A cash flow positive business would have enabled her to spend more time with her young children in a very special time in their lives. Because this goal was personally significant to her, it propelled her to action to overcome her limiting beliefs about being a business owner and to start and grow her business.

That is why Chapter 2 calls a PowerGoal? a worthy goal. It is a worthy goal for you. For someone else, losing weight might be very shallow. Another person might see focusing on your business as focusing on the lesser important things in life. But to those two people, their goals brought them closer to their dream life, and in the process, they became better people.

On the other hand, be careful of goals that you are doing for other people or that you are doing to impress other people. Remember to be, do, have.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking you will be more successful and important if your friends or in-laws or whomever you are trying to impress think more of you because you have that Ferrari, for example. Trying to impress others is not a strong enough motivation. It is not linked to a deeply personal dream irrespective of others.

On the other hand, if having a Ferrari is what motivates you to transform and grow, that is perfect. If flying your own helicopter gets you excited as it gets me excited and motivated, go for it!

Or maybe you want to give your wife a game farm for her birthday as I did. I really like to make my wife happy by giving her things. Sometimes they are small things, but once I gave her a game farm. It was not about the game farm, really. It was not about trying to win her favor or make her love me more.

Tanja grew up on a farm, and she had many fond memories of her childhood. She always told me many stories about the openness of nature, being present in the moment, and having lots of open space all around.

Being able to make one of her dreams come true was the spark that got me fired up. And it was the inspiration that led me to start my own university, the Wealth Creators University, where we taught classes on that very game farm.

Because of the criteria of desirability, it is important to know yourself, to know what is important to you, and to know why it is important to you.

Workbook Q3.2: How much are you influenced by others?

Do the exercise and read the extra material in the workbook before you continue.

Finding those goals that are truly significant for you is extremely powerful. It is one of the reasons why PowerGoals? allows you to live a remarkable life of joy, fulfillment, happiness, success, and abundance in all areas of life.

The seven areas of wealth.

I need to interrupt myself here to explain the meaning of the word wealth.

When people hear the word wealth, they usually associate it with financial wealth. But when you look at the root word of wealth, which is the Old English word weal, it means well-being.

And that is what we want. We want to have well-being in all areas of our lives. That is ultimately what we want to achieve, the identity that we want to have. Whom we want to become is someone who has well-being.

So, when I refer to wealth, I refer to a state of well-being. It refers to this joy, fulfillment, happiness, success, and abundance that we are talking about.

That is why I refer to the seven areas of wealth or the seven areas of well-being. They are:

? Spiritual

? Mental

? Physical

? Family & close friends

? Social

? Financial

? Vocational

Vocational covers your profession, your job, or even your business, in other words, what you do to generate income.

You can have different levels of well-being, or wealth, in the different areas of wealth. However, they do influence each other. Take the example I used earlier of my student who wanted to lose weight. His PowerGoal? was in the area of the physical. However, it had an impact on the area of family.

The seven areas of wealth are important because your PowerGoal? must increase your wealth, or well-being, in at least one of these areas. Many people focus on financial and physical goals. They want to make more money and be healthier. However, if you only focus on those two areas of life and never on the rest, you won’t have total well-being.

So, yes, make more money. But it is no use you keep on making more money, and you do not have the time freedom to spend it with your loved ones. Or if you focus on your physical health but not on your mental and spiritual well-being, your total well-being will also not be complete.

At a specific time, you might have a reason to focus on one area more than another. But over the course of your life, you want wealth in all seven areas of life.

Difficulty.

A PowerGoal? is not just any goal. It is not even any personally significant, desirable goal. A PowerGoal? is a big goal. It is one that will stretch you to your limits and then some. It must scare you. It is what Jim Collins, in another context, calls a BHAG – a big, hairy, audacious goal.

The difficulty level of a PowerGoal? must be a 10/10. We are again working with a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is not difficult at all with your skills and experience, and 10 is basically impossible. A difficulty level of 10/10 is only possible if you become the person with the necessary skills to do that thing.

The levels of difficulty and desirability go hand in hand. If a goal has a difficulty level of 10/10 but the desirability is anything less than 10/10, you will not be able to achieve it. In other words, you must want this thing so badly that you are willing to become the person who can achieve it to get it.

But why can’t it be an 8/10, Hannes? you might be thinking. Why set yourself up for failure?

Your PowerGoal? must have a difficulty level of 10/10 for two reasons. The one reason we have discussed already: a PowerGoal? must lie far enough out of your current abilities that it requires you to transform. If your goal only requires you to do that which you are very comfortable doing, you will not have to transform.

For example, on 15 April 2019, I could have said that I want to make an additional $70,000 or more in a year. But for me, that would not have been a PowerGoal?. I have made that much money in a year before, several times. Even using only $1 or less to make that amount is not a big stretch for me. I know how to make money with nothing. In one of my courses, I teach my students how to start and grow a business with no money at all – which is an infinite investment.

For most people, those two aspects would be entirely outside their ability. Many people do not believe it is possible at all, and of course, for them, it is then impossible. But for me, those things are very possible. Of course, I wanted those things, but to turn it into a PowerGoal?, I had to stretch myself. So, I added components to push me outside of my limits: the portfolio must be in cryptocurrencies, it must support my trip, and it must be worth the same as when I started the trip when we are home again.

Why was it important for me to turn my goal into a PowerGoal??

Firstly, I want to grow. I want to stretch. I want to transform. It is the most important thing in life to me. I use what I want in life to enable me to do what I believe is most important. Many people think that personal transformation is hard and unpleasant, but let me share a little secret with you: it is the most fulfilling and most fun thing you can ever do. You will never feel as free as when you realize that you can be and do and have anything you want in life. It is amazing. So, I push myself again and again because it is a spiritual practice for me.

But there is another reason. And if you are not yet convinced that you want to transform (even though I believe deep down you want to), this reason will hopefully convince you.

You are much less likely to achieve a goal if you think it is easy than if it is hard.

Of course, it cannot only be a hard goal. If I tell you you must climb Mount Everest, you are probably not going to achieve it because, yes, it is hard, but it is probably not personally significant to you. But if you have a goal that is very significant to you, if it is the most significant or one of the most significant things to you, your best chance to achieve it is not to make it easy for yourself.

You must be captivated by your PowerGoal?. You must obsess about it. You must think about it all day and wake up in the middle of the night because of it.

It must be big. It must be audacious. It must be scary even. But it must inspire you and compel you to action.

Unrealistic.

When I explain a PowerGoal? to my students, I often call it unrealistic.

I do not mean that it must be completely beyond what you can even imagine. It must be possible for you to imagine you could achieve it.

However, when people say something is unrealistic, they usually mean that it is unrealistic for the general person to achieve. They do not take into consideration how desirable that thing is to the person who must do it. They often also do not consider that person’s skill level.

Many people who hear about the challenges that I set myself, which of course are my PowerGoals?, say that they are impossible and unrealistic. Even if I went to an expert like a fund manager or a financial manager and told them about the PowerGoal? I set on 15 April 2019, they would tell me I am crazy and that it is impossible. It requires me to have a growth of more than 7,000,000%. A realistic growth in South Africa at that time was around 10%.

But what people mean when they say that my challenges are impossible and unrealistic is that they are impossible and unrealistic for them. Of course, it would be – these are my PowerGoals?, not theirs. Their PowerGoals? would not be unrealistic for them.

People do not only use the words impossible or unrealistic to describe other people’s goals and dreams. They also use it for their own. When they do use those words about their own goals and dreams, they do so to convince themselves that they should give up on their dreams. But deep down something in you believes it is possible, or you would not have dreamt that dream or have thought of that goal.

People use words like unrealistic when they think and talk about their own goals because they are scared. The thing is, you should be a little bit scared by your PowerGoal?. However, people let themselves get paralyzed by that fear, and then they cover their fear by saying that that goal is impossible and unrealistic.

But you know what? Somewhere someone is probably doing what you think is impossible. To someone else, it is very possible, easy even. And even if no one has ever done something before, it does not mean that it cannot be done. Before Roger Bannister completed the four-minute mile, scientists actually “proved” that it could not be done. But deep down, he knew it could. So he proved it to himself and the world.

And the amazing thing is that in a very short time after he did it, others were doing it too.

So do not let fear hold you back. Do not let others’ opinions and ideas and what the majority of people are doing keep you from living your life the way you were meant to.

You are not the majority of people. No one is. That is why your PowerGoal? must inspire only you, and it must stretch only you. It may sound unrealistic to everyone that’s listening to you. But for you, it is not unrealistic because it is part of the dream. And that is what is going to motivate you to tackle it. Deep down, you know that you can achieve it.

Therefore, I recommend that you do not share your PowerGoal? with too many other people, in fact, maybe not with anyone at all. When you tell most people about your PowerGoal?, they will say that it is impossible. Some may even ridicule you and tell you that you should not dream so big. Often, it is the people who love us the most who do it – our family, our spouse, our parents. They do not want to see us get hurt. And remember, for them and from their perspective, this PowerGoal? of yours is impossible.

Deep down you might know that unless you are going to chase that dream unless you are going to make that dream that is within you a reality by turning it into a PowerGoal?, you are never going to live your purpose and experience a life of abundance.

But the people around you, even the ones who love you dearly, do not feel those things. Simply because they are not you. So be very careful when and with whom you share your PowerGoal?.

But you are sharing your PowerGoals? with the world, Hannes, you say.

Yes, I do. But I have had years and years of success in achieving such PowerGoals? to back me up. I have systems in place to protect me from negative feedback at times when I might be vulnerable to it. And I have a few wonderful people close to me who share my dreams and my goals.

Tanja, my wife, was extremely skeptical of some of my PowerGoals? when we were newly married. But now, after more than 37 years of marriage, her belief system has changed. So even if she does not understand or get my goals from her perspective, she supports me in them.

She has come to realize that what is unrealistic for her is not necessarily unrealistic for me. And she loves me enough to see me grow and stretch and transform and even sometimes to fail. Because she knows that that is actually what life is about.

Workbook Q3.3: Have you allowed fear to rob you of the life of your dreams?

Do the exercise and read the extra material in the workbook before you continue.

For more information on the Powergoals method;