Thursday 29 March 2012

The Power of Goal Setting

Darren Hardy
If you want to achive anything in life, you have to know what you want and believe with absolute conviction that you will achieve it.

Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe it can achieve. - Napoleon Hill

I've always been a very postive and focused person and I tend to get what I want out of life. I still have lots of huge goals which I'm pursuing and after this weekend I'm even more certain that I'll achieve them.

Darren Hardy
I'm a huge fan of Darren Hardy,  the visionary force behind SUCCESS magazine as its Publisher and Editorial Director. Darren is also an accomplished entrepreneur, author, keynote speaker, private equity investor, corporate advisor and peak performance mentor.

I was first introduced to Darren Hardy by my good friend, Stuart Edmonstone when he gave me a copy of The Compound Effect. I listen to it at least once a month in my car via my iPhone and I love it. I've recently subscribed to the Success Magazine app for iPad and it is absolutely superb!

So when Stuart found out the Keynote speaker at the annual Utility Warehouse conference was Darren Hardy, Stuart got me a ticket! The event was this Saturday.

Last week I tweeted Darren and he tweeted back so I was hopeful he might remember me.
Darren Hardy's Tweet to Dickie Armour

Utility Warehouse
Utility Warehouse
The event was for distributors of Utility Warehouse to celebrate the year's successes and it's the event where the senior management team announce lots of exciting changes. I was really impressed. The conference was incredible. Very impressive with some great speakers and lots of people went up on stage to collect awards for the success they had achieved in the business.

A lot of people turn their noses up at Network Marketing but I have to say Utility Warehouse is one business that bucks the trend. More on that in a future blog post - watch this space!

So as I'm not a distributor with Utility Warehouse, I was in the minority at the event but I had a goal. My mission was to meet Darren Hardy. Now at first glance that felt pretty achievable. I was in Telford at the International Conference Centre and so was Darren. How hard could it be?

I didn't realise there would be nearly three thousand people attending! So you can imagine at the end of his talk, he'd do a book signing or a "meet and greet" and there would be up to three thousand people queuing up to meet him! This wasn't my goal.

My Mission to Meet Darren
My goal was to meet Darren in a quieter environment where we could chat for a little bit. So I had to focus on this plan. There was a motivational book, CD and DVD seller there called "Barry the Book" who owns and runs Knowledge is King. He had a huge stand with every kind of book and CD audio going. I spoke to Barry and he said last year they had a book signing all arranged but this year he wasn't sure what Darren Hardy's plans were. He thought Darren might just speak and then leave!

I was devastated. Short of running up on stage like some lunatic, I began to think the others were right; "Dickie, there's no way you'll get to meet him with all these people here."

Andrew Lindsay - CEO of Utility Warehouse
But I'm never one to accept defeat easily and I kept my vision in my head and later on during one of the coffee breaks, Stuart pointed out Andrew Lindsay, the CEO of Utility Warehouse. So me being me, (I'm never shy or slow in coming forward) I approached Andrew; introduced myself and asked him if he knew if Darren was in the building. He said he didn't think he was and he didn't know if he would be doing any book signings.

So I didn't discover anything else, but I did get to meet the CEO and shake his hand which I realised later was quite a big thing. Andrew Lindsay is an Olympic Gold medal winning oarsman! And one of the great things about Utility Warehouse is they recognise success and as people reach the different levels in the business, they get invited up on stage at their conference to meet the CEO and Chairman. So I'd already got to meet the CEO and shake his hand and I wasn't even in the business!

Back to my goal. Lunchtime came and still no sign of Darren but I'd heard there was a Chairman's Lunch for all the high flying achievers so I left Stuart and Kathy and went to investigate. If Darren was in there then I thought, he's got to come out at some point.

I'm a big believer the law of the Universe, it brings you what you need, when you need it. Ask and you will recieve. But you have to know what you want and believe with absolute conviction that you will achieve it.

The Law of the Universe
The reason I mention the Law of the Universe is that the International Conference Centre in Telford is massive! I knew the lunch was happening upstairs on the first floor but where? I had no idea. But where we'd stood to eat our lunch was a set of stairs so I headed up there to begin my search. At the top of the stairs, less than 20 yards away was the double doors to the room where the Chairman's Lunch was taking place! I'm not kidding! Of all the stairs in the whole place I walked up those! I was beginning to get excited. It was a sign.

A lovely lady who was outside the lunch room confirmed that Darren was having lunch in there. Oh My God!! Brilliant I had found him!

I'm Not a Stalker!
Please don't get me wrong here. I know it sounds like I am a stalker, but let me put this into perspective for you. I'm a huge fan of postive, motivational, success coaches like Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Brian Tracy, Darren Hardy, and so on. Yet, they all have one thing in common; they are American and they live in the USA and most of their events and speaking gigs are in the USA.

So to get a chance to meet them in person is a huge motivation for me and something I love to try to do. After all, they feel like friends. I've listened to them over and over again in my car, I've read their books and they have all really helped mould me into the guy I am today. So to get to meet them and thank them in person would be an amazing thing to do.

The Chairman's Lunch
So I'm upstairs outside the lunch room and I was amazed that it so quiet up there. Literally I had just walked up a flight of stairs leaving behind a mass of three thousand people and yet this corridoor was empty.

I have to wait no more than 10 minutes and as I glance up from my iPad, who should I see walking down the corridor towards me? The man himself!


So I approached and said hello and he was just so relaxed and happy to chat. Stuart magically appeared at exactly the right moment to snap this photo of me with Darren!! Thanks Stu!

A dream come true. I dared to dream. I had a goal which I truly believed with conviction that I would meet Darren and get to chat with him. I didn't listen to the people who doubted it.

As Darren said during his talk - "It's My Mountain! And I'm climbing it and getting to the top!"

I took action when every one else was stood round having lunch. I climbed my mountain! And Darren was even kind enough to sign his book for me!

Thanks Darren - 2012 is my year for Going BIG! ;-)

The Moral of The Story
You must have goals and you must believe with absolute conviction that you'll achieve them.
What are your goals? Think about them now and choose maybe the top two. The two which if you could achieve them would bring you the most pleasure and satisfaction and make you feel like life was just fantastic!
Think of those two goals - do you believe you will achieve them? Do feel a rod of iron of absolute conviction in your stomach that will achieve them?
If not you need to think about your reasons "WHY" you want to achieve your goals.
See my blog post - Forget Will Power - You Need WHY Power

Climb Your Mountain
So choose your two top goals, write them down and make sure you know the reasons WHY you want to achieve them and then ensure you have the rod of iron conviction and belief that you will achieve them and take action and get climbing your mountain!

Please do comment below and share your story.