WITHOUT A GOAL, IT'S DIFFICULT TO SCORE - ALBERT ELISHA OBERDORFER

WITHOUT A GOAL,
IT’S DIFFICULT TO SCORE
ALBERT ELISHA
OBERDORFER
Why goalsetting is a must if you want
to be successful and how you can do it
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WITH A VISION, PEOPLE
FLOURISH.
SOLOMON, THE WISEST man who ever
lived once said something powerful.
Something foundational.
Solomon revealed a key for living.
It is something that can make or break our
lives.
If we have it, we will flourish; if we don’t
have it, we won’t.
Solomon said,
“Where there is no vision, the people
perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)
The word perish also means ‘to cast off
restraints.’
That makes sense.
If people do not have a clear goal —a vision
for what they want to accomplish—they
won’t be able to say ‘no.’
They will become yes-sayers.
But there is a problem with this is.
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They will be saying ‘yes’ to a lot of things
that will not be useful or beneficial for
them.
So Solomon says that without vision,
without a clear goal, people are
unproductive.
Unhappy as well.
Unfulfilled.
Because they have no clear direction for
their life.
So the opposite must be true then as well
If people do have a vision, if they do
have goals for their life, then they will be
fulfilled.
Happy.
Productive.
Prosperous.
Joyful.
We can say, “With a vision, people
flourish.”
So finding and defining a vision then needs
to be our priority. Because everything else
will depend on it.
So then what is your special sauce?
What is it that you were put here on earth
to do?
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WHAT DO YOU WANT?
THERE IS A story in the bible that is quite
amazing.
A blind man on the side of a road is crying
out to get Jesus’ attention.
Obviously, you’d think Jesus would know
what the man wants.
He would want to be healed, right?
So, when they finally take the blind man
to Jesus, you’d assume that Jesus would
immediately heal him.
Not so.
Before doing anything, Jesus asks the man
a question:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
(Mark 10:51)
And the blind man then answers,
“Rabbi, I want to see.”
And you know the story. Jesus then heals
the man, and the man then follows Jesus.
This teaches us a powerful principle.
We need to be clear about what we want.
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We need to have clear goals.
If not, nothing much will happen.
But, if we do have clear goals, we can
move mountains.
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Unless you
have a clear
goal, you will
be lost in a
maze of blings
and beeps in
the hyperconnectivity
of today’s
world.
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If your goal
isn’t clearly
defined, you
will not know
where you are
headed.
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Having a
clear goal
can become
your greatest
asset.
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CONTENTS
WITH A VISION, PEOPLE FLOURISH. 3
WHAT DO YOU WANT? 7
WHY HAVING A GOAL IS SO
POWERFUL. 19
1 THE POWER OF FOCUS. 21
2 I AM, I HAVE, I EARN. 25
3 TAKE ACTION. 33
4 EAT THAT FROG. 35
5 DO IT NOW. 39
6 ON A MISSION. 41
7 REMEMBER PARETO. 43
8 THE POWER OF A CHECKLIST. 47
9 TIME. 49
10 A SLIPPERY SLOPE. 51
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11 THE POWER OF A NOTE-BOOK. 55
12 IF YOU DON’T QUIT YOU WIN. 59
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WHY HAVING A GOAL IS
SO POWERFUL.
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This building is the result of someone’s vision.

1 THE POWER OF
FOCUS.
THE ABILITY to start and complete a task
is a crucial factor for success.
To be able to complete a task, we need to
be focused.
We need to be able to say ‘yes’ to what it is
that we want to complete and ‘no’ to things
that distract us from completing the task.
This is not so easy in this age of
hyperconnectivity.
In this age of constant beeps and bleeps.
These beeps and bleeps will distract you.
Seriously.
If you let them.
How can we learn that?
To know what we should be saying ‘yes’
to, and what we should be saying ‘no’ to?
We need to set goals.
Daily goals.
Weekly goal.
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This world is full of opportunities if you have a vision.
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Monthly goals.
Yearly goals.
Even life goals.
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Did you know that you can re-wire your brain?
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___________________________

2 I AM, I HAVE, I EARN.
YEARLY GOALS.
Take a clean sheet of paper and write down
a list of 10 goals that you would like to
accomplish in the coming year. 1
Be specific.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
Write your goals as if you had already
accomplished them.
This is important.
Because it will begin to re-wire your brain.
So, for example, write
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Eagles have this amazing ability to rise above the storm.
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- I earn _xxx_ dollars per year.
Write down a specific amount.
The key is that you are specific.
Or,
- I weigh _xxx_ kilograms.
You can set your goals in all the different
areas of your life. Like,
- Relationship goals,
- Financial goals,
- Career goals,
- Business goals,
- Etc.
I ______ [am, have, etc] ______ [in year].
It is critical that you write your goals in this
way because those sentences will begin to
trigger a powerful process in you.
In the bible, there is a passage that says,
“Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe
that you have received it, and it will be
yours.” (Mark 11:24)
Before we can have something, we need to
believe that we already have it. Then we
will have it. In other words, it will manifest.
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Goal setting will help you to rise above the clouds.

The actual limitations do not consist in
external circumstances. They exist inside
people—inside their minds.
So writing down those clearly defined goals
in the ‘I’ form, as if they had already been
accomplished, will trigger off a powerful
process in you.
You will find yourself becoming what you
believe.
So once you have your list of yearly goals,
take a look at your list.
Then pick one of these yearly goals to be
your life goal.
LIFE GOAL.
You will find it easy to pick your life goal.
It will stand out. You will feel excited
about it. Thinking about it will infuse you
with passion.
And once you have identified your life
goal, transfer this one goal on another
clean sheet of paper.
And then start to make a list of 20 items
detailing what you can do to get you closer
to that goal.
1)
2)
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It is almost finished.

3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
19)
20)
Write down 20 ideas because by doing so,
you are digging deep into your mind.
And your mind will give you some
amazing ideas.
It is powerful.
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Taking action: This is where the rubber meets the road.
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3 TAKE ACTION.
ONCE YOU have clearly defined your
goals, then it is time to schedule things
that you can do that will bring you closer
to your goal.
Once you have come up with a schedule
for each goal, take action.
It will be easier for you to take action if you
have clearly defined goals and a schedule.
Because then you will be able to focus.
You will be able to say ‘yes’ to the essential
things.
And ‘no’ to things are not unimportant.
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What would this frog taste like?

4 EAT THAT FROG.
IF YOU had to eat a live frog, the first
thing in the morning, before being able to
do other things, how would you eat it? 1
Quickly, right?
And if you had to eat two frogs, and one of
them would be uglier than the other, which
frog would you eat first?
The uglier one, right?
So what does that have to do with goals
and task completion?
There is a particular strategy that we can
use to be very effective.
Not all tasks are equally important.
Some are more important than others.
Some will move the needle in our lives
forward a lot.
And some will not.
So if we make a list of tasks, before starting
on the tasks, we can first figure out which
tasks are more important than others.
We can list the tasks in the order of
their importance, starting with the most
important task first.
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Prioritizing tasks will help you to step up a gear.

And then we do the most important tasks
first.
Before doing the less important tasks.
This may not be easy at first.
Someone said that everything is difficult at
first before it becomes easy.
But if we can do the most important tasks
first, before doing the less important tasks,
it will move the needle in our life forward.
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If not now, then when?

5 DO IT NOW.
THE KEY TO SUCCESS is taking action.
But taking action gets easier, once we
know what to do.
And what is important.
And if what we are doing is aligned with
our goals and plans.
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Life is a battlefield. If you know your mission, you
will know which fights you should get involved in
and which fights you should stay out of.

6 ON A MISSION.
THERE IS POWER in writing out a
mission statement for your life.
What is your mission in life?
What is it that you are here on this earth
to do?
What are your core values?
What are the fundamental principles that
you are living your life by?
Identifying those fundamental core values
and writing out a mission statement for
your life will help you again to be focused.
It will bring clarity to your life.
Then what you are doing will give you
a greater sense of fulfillment if it is
connected to your core values and your
mission in this life.
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Mr. Pareto discovered a most powerful principle.

7 REMEMBER PARETO.
VILFREDO PARETO may have looked
like the man on the left. (But this isn’t his
picture though.)
He was an Italian economist who discovered
a powerful principle.
It is called the 80/20 principle, or Pareto
principle.
This principle says that the majority of
results can be attributed to a minority of
causes.
In other words, a minority of causes results
in the majority of results.
Let’s say you have a business.
Then it is likely that 20 percent of your
customers will cause 80 percent of the
revenue.
And 80 percent of your customers will only
account for 20 percent of the revenue.
So if you can identify the customers that
bring in the most revenue and then focus
on serving them exceptionally well, and
finding more of such customers, then you
can increase your income by having to
work less.
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She has already completed the most important tasks.

The key is not to work hard but to work
smart.
It’s not to work harder but think harder.
And then do more of what works and less
of what doesn’t work.
This is a straightforward but immensely
powerful principle if applied.
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Pilots like checklists. They make their
lives so much easier.

8 THE POWER OF A
CHECKLIST.
PILOTS, FOR EXAMPLE, use checklists
a lot.
It helps them to get routine work done
effectively and efficiently.
Checklists are powerful because when you
use a list, you will need to have done the
work already in your mind.
You will need to have envisioned the
working process and the work outcome.
Then, it is only about executing what you
have already envisioned in your mind.
So there is a process of creating something
in your mind first.
Planning.
And then there is a doing part.
But doing something is easier if you have
planned well.
There is a saying that every minute spend
planning something will help you to get it
done faster by 8 minutes.
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Much in life is about prioritizing how to
spend your time.

9 TIME.
HAVING CLEAR goals, plans, and
checklists will help you to break the power
of procrastination.
You will get a buzz from completing tasks.
It’s much like an addiction.
Certain drugs release chemicals that give
you a buzz, like dopamine.
But if you can learn to complete tasks, you
will also get a buzz from that.
And you will get addicted to that.
You’ll get addicted to completing tasks.
Which is a good thing.
So, you will be able to make use of the
time wisely.
By stopping procrastination and wasting
time on things that do not matter.
Things that derail you from your goals.
Having goals will help you to be more
productive.
And happy.
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Keeping on track in these circumstances
is not easy.

10 A SLIPPERY SLOPE.
IMAGINE YOU driving on the road in the
winter.
It is dark.
The headlights of your cars are weak.
The road isn’t visible.
You can’t see very well because the
windscreeen is all fogged up.
And on top of that, the road is icy and
slippery.
The chances are that you are going to slide
off the track, more likely than not.
It’s the same with your life.
If you don’t have goals and clear plans
what you want to do with your life.
What you want to do with your time.
If you have not clearly defined what your
priorities are.
What it is that you really want.
The chances are that in todays’ era or
hyperconnectivity, the beeps and bleeps
that are coming from your phone will
ultimately derail you.
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Beep!
Bling!
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If you let them.
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Writing things down helps you to memorize better.

11 THE POWER OF A
NOTE-BOOK.
WRITING IDEAS down locks those ideas
in our brain.
Because when we are writing something by
hand, the brain is much more active.
When we are typing things on a keyboard,
the brain is much less active.
Most highly successful people will use
physical note-books to jot-down ideas as
they come to them.
You can use some pages of a notebook
to gather ideas, and then synthesize your
thoughts in a to-do-list.
You can have a to-do-list for
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TODAY THIS WEEK THIS MONTH
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- TODAY,
- THIS WEEK, and
- THIS MONTH. 2
So you will tackle the items on your
‘TODAY’ to-do list first, and then the
things from your ‘THIS WEEK’ to-do list
and your ‘THIS MONTH’ to-do-list will
move from the right to the left.
This is a powerful method of how you can
plan to get things done in an uncomplicated
way without getting overwhelmed by
planners that are overly complicated to use.
You can also classify your items.
Put a tick next to the most important item.
And mark those items that are needle
movers.
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This creature knows how to keep going.

12 IF YOU DON’T QUIT
YOU WIN.
PERSISTENCE is an essential quality that
you need to develop.
If you don’t quit, you will win.
Never give up.
You will win, eventually.
Someone said some people might have the
resources.
But another quality is more valuable than
having resources: which is resourcefulness.
If you don’t have resources, but you learn
to become resourceful, you can still make
things happen.
And in the process grow.
Develop your skills.
Goal-setting skills.
Time planning skills.
Prioritizing skills.
And so on.
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You can do it!

Someone has said that life is not a sprint
run, but a marathon.
It is not about starting well, even though
this can be important too.
It is about finishing well.
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Without Having a Goal, It’s Difficult to Score: Why
Goalsetting Is a Must if You Want to Be Successful and
How You Can Do it.
Copyright 2020 © Albert L. Oberdorfer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
written permission of the author.
PICTURE CREDITS
Unless otherwise stated, all images are courtesy
of Pexels.com and Pixabay.com. Any inadvertent
omissions can be rectified in future editions.
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Endnotes
1 This idea is from Brian Tracy. See
Youtube: “The 7 C’s to Success with Brian
Tracy.’
2 This idea is from Dean Graziosi’s Better
Life Journal.
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