Goal Setting Activities - Are you in a training circle?

You have to determine the people who are regarded as the best in your line of work, and decide to model them. You don’t have to be like them, but you can study and learn from them. If you associate with people who are not goal and success orientated, that alone can prevent you from achieving goals in your life and the success you desire.

Warren Buffett once said that the best investment he ever made was in him-self. You have to commit yourself to lifelong learning. Your goal setting activities can include reading, listening to mp3 audio, attending seminars and taking personal development courses by successful gurus. The most valuable asset you will ever have is your mind – invest in it continually. You must use your time wisely. Make sure that you are not wasting a minute and are always spending your time in valuable ways.

I recently watched the movie “The Mask of Zorro”. Zorro, which is the Spanish for “fox”, is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega, a Californio nobleman and master living in the Spanish colonial era. He is a dashing black-clad masked outlaw who defends the people of the land against tyrannical officials and other villains. He delights in publicly humiliating those same foes. In “The Mask of Zorro”, the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega, is captured and imprisoned just as Spain concedes California to Santa Anna. 20 years go by and his mortal enemy, Don Rafael Montero, returns to California with a plan to become wealthy at the expense of the peasants. The original Zorro escapes from prison and trains a new Zorro to take his place.

There is one scene in particular that depicts the value of having a mentor in your life and I am using it as an analogy for replicating those people who have succeeded before you. The new Zorro, played by Antonio Banderas, is sitting down at a bar drinking whiskey and drowning his sorrows after his brother has been murdered. He is understandably angry and keeps drinking shots of whiskey. From afar, he spots the man who was responsible for his brother’s death, Captain Harrison Love. He gets up off his chair, stumbles (due to the whiskey) and pulls out his sword, ready to attack and take his revenge. But he is stopped in his tracks by the original Zorro, who is an elderly man at this stage. Antonio Banderas character tries to fight off the old man but he struggles and eventually gives up. He shouts at the old man and asks him why he is stopping him. He says “I've never lost a fight. The old man points out that he has just lost to a crippled old man.

Antonio Banderas explains that he would have killed the Captain. The old Zorro says “No, not today. He is trained to kill. You seem trained to drink. Oh, yes, my friend, you would have fought very bravely, and died very quickly. Who then would avenge your brother?”

The old Zorro wants to train Antonio Banderas and help him seek revenge. He starts the training on a training circle, a master's wheel as he calls it. “This circle will be your world, your whole life. Until I tell you otherwise, there is nothing outside of it … As your skill with the sword improves, you will progress to a smaller circle. With each new circle, your world contracts, bringing you that much closer to your adversary, that much closer to retribution.”

I was sitting there watching this because I thought “what a great analogy for mentorship”. If the new Zorro did end up fighting the captain in his drunken state, he would surely have lost. I can relate this back to my sales training and journey of personal development.
I went out into “the field” as they call it in sales and kept losing to the market (in other words Captain Harrison Love). These failures were valuable and because of the pain of rejection, I sought to get mentors of my own. These mentors are still teaching me about the master’s wheel. After each lesson, I get closer to retribution and achieving my goals.

If we chose to go it alone, we may well get some small successes but we will ultimately get pain. John Assaraf said his career has been built on following the blueprint of his mentors, constantly copying them. You have to learn to crawl before you can walk.

Mentors tell you to pace yourself, help you when you become overwhelmed and they make sure that you take no shortcuts. Without this it can be dangerous. You have to learn just how to get ahead as well as your values and what you stand for.

It’s important to speak a little on values. Seek a mentor that shares your values. This is important. For example, if I use a sales guru that wants me to pressure clients into a sale, I will not be comfortable with this because it is against my nature. I prefer choosing a sales guru who bases his teachings on trust. This is something I am comfortable with.

If you do not have a mentor in your life right now, this secret may encourage you to ask yourself, who inspires you. You can never be too old to have a hero, or two or three. When I picked “Ronaldo” as my player to aspire to in my back yard all those years ago, I felt ten feet tall. This is the power of having a mentor. This is the power of real confidence.

Who is your mentor? Don’t have one? Then just look at the industry you work in and ask yourself "who is the most successful person in this industry?". You have now found your mentor(s).