Since we're all setting resolutions and goals, I thought I'd repost my program on winning. This is what I've discovered after interviewing many successful people from just about every walk of life.

It turns out there IS a secret!

Here it is:

Work backwards.

Pretty simple, huh? But what does that mean?

It means that when you set a goal, work backwards from the end of the goal and set the milestones you need to reach to get there. This is what successful people do. Usually they write it down, but some people can do this in their heads. Writing it down is highly recommended, though. It's like you are making a contract with yourself, and it's always good to have a record if there are several milestones you need to reach.

Here is an example a young man used to earn a tennis scholarship. He had made his high school's freshman tennis team, but did not make it the next year (another player cheated in the tryouts). He was devastated but determined to be a champion. So here is the backwards-looking goal we set up:

College scholarship <---Win a Superchamp tournament <---- Superchamp ranking <----Win a Champ tournament <----Champ ranking <---- Win three ZAT tournaments <----Starting point

(ZAT, Champ and Superchamp are tennis rankings. ZAT is beginner, and Superchamp is the highest. You have to be a Superchamp to be good enough to play in college.)

Then, we set dates for those milestones - again, working backwards. Tennis scholarships are awarded in the spring of a player's senior year, so we knew he had to win a Superchamp tournament by December of his senior year. We gave it six months as a Superchamp to win a Superchamp tournament, so that meant he had to make Superchamp in the summer prior to his senior year. To make Superchamp, you have to win a Champ tournament. He had to win the Champ tournament in the spring/summer prior to his senior year, and if we have hims six months as a Champ to win a tournament, that meant he had to Champ up by the winter of his junior year. Before he Champed up, he needed to win three ZAT tournaments. Since we were starting this in the fall of his sophomore year, that meant he had a year and a half to get good enough to win three ZAT tournaments.

He knew exactly what he needed to do and WHEN it needed to be done, and he sat down with his tennis coach. Having a timetable like this, they worked on a training program and long story short, that young man is a senior on his college tennis team!

You can use this with ANY goal, whether it's athletic, financial, social, job-related. It doesn't matter. The important thing is to set milestones, and the way to identify those milestones is to work backwards.

A few other tips that I've learned along the way:

-Always believe everyone you meet has good intentions toward you. It's amazing how people will open up and help you when they feel that you trust them at the outset.
-Be thankful for obstacles. Everyone will have obstacle in their way. If you can train yourself to be thankful for them, the most amazing thing happens - you lose all fear of the obstacle, and quickly begin solving it.
-Promise less than you know you can deliver. This is how Bill Gates became the richest man in the world. Microsoft consistently outperformed Wall Street expectations, and that was no accident. Microsoft ALWAYS downplayedtheir projections and then blew by them. Result? Their stock price was meteoric of the better part of a decade. Outperform on your promises and you will be unstoppable
-Keep a written calendar/to-do list. There's something about actually writing stuff down on paper that keeps it in the front of your mind. Maybe it's because we write so little these days, but I've yet to meet a successful person that doesn't have a written calendar or list. Sure, they put all that stuff in their phones too, but AFTER they have written it down

I hope this helps you become all that you want to be!

This is pretty cool, Rodeo. I've been thinking about this method since I last heard you make mention of it. I may put it to use.

Interesting! gonna give it a try

I am a Project Manager. This is all I do for a living. And this is exactly how you build your plan. Look at the goal, break that down into manageable chunks, understand the order they must go in (dependencies, etc.), then figure out your timeline from there.


My bf kinda laughs at me when I apply these skills to other environments but seriously, I don't know how anyone accomplishes anything without having a plan.

[Edited 1/7/15 12:14pm]

CarrieMpls said:

I am a Project Manager. This is all I do for a living. And this is exactly how you build your plan. Look at the goal, break that down into manageable chunks, understand the order they must go in (dependencies, etc.), then figure out your timeline from there.


My bf kinda laughs at me when I apply these skills to other environments but seriously, I don't know how anyone accomplishes anything without having a plan.

[Edited 1/7/15 12:14pm]

It's amazing how few people use these techniques. But they are proven, and are used by every successful person I've ever met.

One way to look at it is that if one really wants to attain success, there are really very few people one is competing against. Most people - although they desparately want success - are just muddling through. Either they don't know these techniques, or just won't apply them.

I've been to many seminars where the speaker will tell the audience, "I'm going to teach you this or that, which is something that will definitely make you successful, but I know that only a handful of you are going to use what you learn today". And that is always the case, too.

My favorite example of mastering these simple techniques is Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was: (1) the greatest bodybuilder anyone had ever seen; (2) the highest-paid actor in Hollywood for almost a decade; and (3) the governor of the largest state in America.

That's incredible. He reached the absolute pinnacle in sports; entertainment; AND politics. He's the only person I know of that's reached the top in three completely different fields.

Read his autobiography and you will see that front and center, he credits these goal-setting techniques for all his success. As Arnold said, "I set goals and commit the plan to heart. This means that I have already accomplished the goal where it matters most, and now all I have to do is go through the physical motions".

If I ever get a tattoo, it's going to be that quote.

There are very few people I want to meet, but Arnold is one of them. Actually, I did meet him once at a book signing back in 1976, but I want to have dinner with him.

Thanks Rodeo, Interesting timing for me personally to read, and be reminded to stay open to new ways of dealing with... life's challenges, and so on.

Vision boards and writing down a goal work for some, but I know I find them daunting, and the same with lists. When I write it down, it becomes a cloud over my head. The other problem with designing a timeline you set yourself, is it doesn't allow for failure, or side opportunities.

I learned a similar concept early on, and heard several stories of very, very well known people who would sit around and matter of factly state where they would be in one year, three years, five years, twenty years...and they achieved all those lofty goals. Dupicating that is tough though. I turned down opportunities as a result of not wanting to stray from my timeline. What we want in life isn't always what we should be doing, or were meant to do in life, if you believe in callings. During that same time, I also noticed my friends having charmed success were stumbling into situations they could never have anticipated. It just proved to me that there's no one formula for everyone, but actively finding a system to organize goals and tackle responsibilities, is reallt important to being a grown up.

Life has a way of knocking best laid plans astray.

Surely that Tennis player needed to be able to play Tennis really well?

purplethunder3121 said:

Life has a way of knocking best laid plans astray.

And then you adjust your plan. Plans *always* change in some way or another. You stretch out your timeline, or ask for help from someone else or change your objective somewhat.

The other thing about really successful people is they fail a lot and they don't let it get them down. They learn what went wrong and move on quickly.

treehouse said:

Thanks Rodeo, Interesting timing for me personally to read, and be reminded to stay open to new ways of dealing with... life's challenges, and so on.

Vision boards and writing down a goal work for some, but I know I find them daunting, and the same with lists. When I write it down, it becomes a cloud over my head. The other problem with designing a timeline you set yourself, is it doesn't allow for failure, or side opportunities.

I learned a similar concept early on, and heard several stories of very, very well known people who would sit around and matter of factly state where they would be in one year, three years, five years, twenty years...and they achieved all those lofty goals. Dupicating that is tough though. I turned down opportunities as a result of not wanting to stray from my timeline. What we want in life isn't always what we should be doing, or were meant to do in life, if you believe in callings. During that same time, I also noticed my friends having charmed success were stumbling into situations they could never have anticipated. It just proved to me that there's no one formula for everyone, but actively finding a system to organize goals and tackle responsibilities, is reallt important to being a grown up.

I think that's where having your goals properly prioritized in life helps. Knowing what is most importanat to you, what you value most, what you really want makes it a little easier to not be swayed by distractions.

And if you find you'd rather be working towards that distraction, then there's nothing wrong with making a change, just adjust your plan accordingly.

novabrkr said:

Surely that Tennis player needed to be able to play Tennis really well?

Sure, and the plan we crafted for him developed that skill. Here's his backstory:

He tried out for the tennis team in 7th grade and didn't make it. He tried out again in the 9th grade, when he entered high school. His parents had hired a coach to give him lessons over the summer, and he was the last player selected for the high school freshman team.

He worked his way up the ladder during his freshman year to 9th place. Unfortunately, only 8 players got to play in tournaments. BUT, one player got sick before the last tournament of the year, so he got to travel. However, that tournament was rained out, meaning he never got to play in a school tournament his freshman year.

He had to try out his sophomore year and again, he was fighting for the last spot. The kid he was playing for it cheated like holy hell, and "won" the match. In retrospect, my friend should have called the coach over when his opponent started cheating but he thought he could beat him anyway.

So when he came to me, he was devastated and mad. He's a big kid, and strong, but not a gifted athlete by any means.

When he told me that he wanted to earn a tennis scholarship, he knew he was a long way from being good enough. Heck, he wasn't even good enough to make the high school team. It would be human nature to think "I'm not good enough to play on my high school team. How can I ever be good enough to play for a college?"

But he believed in the plan, and the reason he did was because we started at the end and worked backward. When we got to the beginning, I told him, "Right now, all you have to do is improve enough to win a ZAT tournament. Think you can do that?"

He thought he could, and he did. I can't tell you how helpful it was for him to sit down with his coach and say, "Coach, our goal is to win a ZAT tournament within three months. It's your job to teach me what I need to know to do that".

Zeroing in on that specific goal made the journey look doable and guess what? The journey was doable!

Every time he hit a milestone, all he had to do was set his sights on the next milestone. He knew that if he achieved a milestone, he could achieve the next milestone. Success breeds success.

I know for a stone-cold fact that lack of "talent" won't stop anyone if they work up a real plan and commit themselves to it. I've seen way too many people achieve incredible things, things that no one thought they could achieve.

I've spoken with a lot of highly successful people. And I've asked them exactly what you're asking me - don't you have to have a certain talent in order to be successful? The first thing everyone tells me is that they don't think they are particularly talented, and they know dozens of less-successful people that have loads more talent.

But they know the value of planning, committment and discipline. You don't need talent to possess those values.

What's your working relationship with this person anyway?

Do you work for a company that offers motivational speeches, career planning or something like that?

I can't take you entirely seriously because you're constantly emphasizing the "planning" aspect in that case and don't seem to think him being a good tennis player was the most important aspect of him "winning". Neither do I think the "progress" he's made by going from one tournament to the next one has that much to do with the type of choices people that have become successful in the business world or in the art world have had to make. How he had to advance from one point to the other seems rather obvious as he just needed to win some tournaments in order to be able to enter some others. He was hardly burdened by choice in that regard.

For that matter,

I'm not sure what you are attempting to do with this thread, but I hope that if you're selling some sort of "services" to others they're going to get something a little bit more detailed than that for their money.

My theory is not the best... cheat.


Jokes aside, great advice.

[Edited 1/9/15 0:45am]

novabrkr said:

What's your working relationship with this person anyway?

Do you work for a company that offers motivational speeches, career planning or something like that?

I can't take you entirely seriously because you're constantly emphasizing the "planning" aspect in that case and don't seem to think him being a good tennis player was the most important aspect of him "winning". Neither do I think the "progress" he's made by going from one tournament to the next one has that much to do with the type of choices people that have become successful in the business world or in the art world have had to make. How he had to advance from one point to the other seems rather obvious as he just needed to win some tournaments in order to be able to enter some others. He was hardly burdened by choice in that regard.

For that matter,

Every time he hit a milestone, all he had to do was set his sights on the next milestone. He knew that if he achieved a milestone, he could achieve the next milestone. Success breeds success.

This is all so self-evident that it borders on being meaningless.

I'm not sure what you are attempting to do with this thread, but I hope that if you're selling some sort of "services" to others they're going to get something a little bit more detailed than that for their money.

He's the son of a good friend, and a buddy of my son.

No offense, but it's clear to me that you aren't getting this.

I give my speeches for free all over Texas, but hope to write a book. I help as many young people as I can, mainly through work with churches (I offer my services for free to any and all churches.)

You are right in that there's nothing magical about what I'm saying - except for the part about working backwards from the endpoint of the goal. That's not a technique found in very many books, but it's exactly what the most successful athletes, politicians, astronauts, authors and businesspeople I've interviewed focused on.

I happened upon this technique in college. We were studying Alfred Sloan's management theories and the professor explained how Sloan would decide upon the profit he wanted General Motors to make, and then work backwards through the income statement to derive the sales and expense structure he needed for the company to meet that goal.

If it was so easy for my young friend to have made it as a college tennis player, I guess he would have never been cut from the high school team, huh? Don't forget - he was fighting for the LAST spot on the team. It wasn't like he was the second coming of Jimmy Connors at that time. All he really had going for him was his height (6'4") and strength. But he dang sure wasn't a very good tennis player.

He is now, though. Look - there's an old saying. "If you don't know where you're going, you'll never get there".

You have to figure out where you're going, and then you have to figure out that plan you need to get there.

Go talk to as many people as you can about this. I guarantee you that every successful person will confirm what I'm telling you. Every unsuccessful person will look at you like you're from Mars.

That's not a coincidence.