3 out of 4 stars
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Success With Goals by Eric Whitmoyer is a combination of pep talk and guide book on how to set life goals and achieve them. The author begins with his own experience of goal setting. He achieved success with reaching his goals and catapulted his life far beyond what it would have been otherwise. However, in a matter of two years, his life had fallen apart. He lost his wife, his income, his house and his cars. Upon analyzing what had caused his situation, he discovered a missing piece in his goal-setting process. Without adding an emotional element, a reason for creating every goal he set, Whitmoyer found that he lost focus, got lazy and eventually lost everything he had gained. After incorporating this missing element and getting his life back on track, the author proceeded to write Success With Goals to help others who might be headed toward the same trap.
Success With Goals covers a 10-step process of goal setting that is based off of who you are and your particular set of beliefs. One point Whitmoyer made that resonated strongly with me was that a person cannot achieve a goal that is in direct opposition to his beliefs. He gave the very useful example that if a person believes rich people are immoral, that person is not likely to achieve a goal of making a million dollars. Their very subconscious will work against it.
His 10-step process was inspired by tips he learned from great mentors such as Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield. Whitmoyer combined these tips with his own experience of what worked for him. A few examples of his ten steps are listing your goals, prioritizing your goals and choosing one goal as a “breakthrough goal” to be accomplished in one year. Whitmoyer takes you through his process step by step, helping you identify what matters most to you and teaching you how to build your goals off of these things. He says, “It’s not goal setting; it’s designing a life with purpose.”
In addition to gaining value from his comment about setting goals based on your core beliefs, I also liked the title of the book itself. I’ve read many self-help and instructional books on improving one’s life as well as articles on goal setting. This title really appealed to me and was one of the reasons I chose to read this book. I feel many articles and books teach one how to set goals but not necessarily how to reach those goals. Success With Goals stood out from the many other titles by addressing the matter of reaching the goals you set.
There were a few things I would change about this book if I could. Overall, it had good information. Much of it I had heard before, but the author’s personal experience made the book unique. Mainly, I would change the layout of the book--the way the chapters and other sections are arranged. There are three sections before the table of contents is listed. There are three additional sections before we reach the first of the ten steps. This arrangement interrupted the flow of the book a bit for me. I felt I was waiting a long time to get to the main point of the book. The information in the multiple introductions is important, but I felt it would have worked better to incorporate it into the main chapters. Also, the wording of a few sentences throughout the book were akin to run-on sentences. Those could be easily fixed. Overall, I liked the relaxed and casual tone of the writing--a good approach to a subject that could turn into more of a lecture rather than a friend helping a friend.
Because of the slightly awkward arrangement of the book, I give it 3 out of 4 stars. I do believe the book was edited. I found only a few mistakes. I do think it could benefit from additional editing, just to clear up those few instances of cumbersome wording and a couple typos. Overall, these mistakes did not hinder my reading.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking to set goals and actually achieve them. The book includes a link to Whitmoyer’s website where you can get additional information and materials so you don’t have to trod this road alone. For those who like to fly by the seat of their pants, this book may not hold as much appeal. However, I think there is much to benefit from in this book, particularly the author’s own story of going from success to failure and back again to success.
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Success with Goals
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