Blink! The phone rings… it’s your boss and she wants you to sign on to a new 3 month project and she needs your answer now.
Blink! The e-mail notifier pops up on your computer screen… it’s an e-mail from a company selling online management courses and their latest course is now 50% off… if you act now.
Blink! Your fellow employee Bob pokes his head in the door… He says in a reassuring voice, “Remember that Toastmasters is meeting today at lunch in conference room A, I hope you can make it.”
In each case above, you need to make a decision and on average you’ll probably take about 3 seconds to make it. Yes or No … it won’t take long. The real question is… will your decision help you reach your goals?
Goals? You do have goals don’t you? You have spent the hour with pen and paper and written down the top 100 things you want to accomplish in life before you die? Or are they still locked away in your mind?
Surely you want to be featured on Jay Leno, and spend a few minutes on the Today show. You definitely want to climb a tall mountain and run in the New York Marathon. Most assuredly a job promotion is on your list. How about shaking hands with world leaders or speaking to a crowd of thousands about a cause you care about? And don’t forget, you certainly want to write a book!
Three seconds is all it takes…
Three seconds can make all the difference…
Three seconds can change your life… unless…
- You give up before trying
- Shun the challenge
- Decide to stick with the status quo
- Shirk responsibility
- Do just the minimum required
- Avoid taking action… out of fear
Author Les Parrott has written an amazing book on this very short subject. Three Seconds is the title and what you do in that time period can have a great effect on your future and your goals.
Over the next few days we’ll explore Dr. Parrott’s new book and see how three seconds can really change your life. In the meantime… you have written some of those goals down… haven’t you? 
5 Responses to 'Three Second Goals'
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I think the key to responding in such a quick manner is being prepared ahead of time and knowing what your priorities are. I would suggest working on these skills,
1.) Focus your life - One of the hardest things for some people to do is to say no when asked for help or to work on something at the risk of looking like a person who is not helpful, etc.
2.) pre-establish rules for purchasing. A lot of time time sensitive deals may sound good but more often than not it can be money wasted unless it was something you were looking into purchasing anyway.
3.) Unless your time is already committed it’s generally a good thing to network with other people. That helps your people skills and future business prospects as well and opens your mind to new ideas.
It’s my opinion it’s not the three seconds per se but the three days, week, months, years you have developed your goals and priorities ahead of time.
[...] Success Begins Today wrote an interesting post today on Three Second GoalsHere’s a quick excerpt Blink! The phone rings… it’s your boss and she wants you to sign on to a new 3 month project and she needs your answer now. Blink! The e-mail notifier pops up on your computer screen… it’s an e-mail from a company selling online management courses and their latest course is now 50% off… if you act now. Blink! Your fellow employee Bob pokes his head in the door… He says in a reassuring voice, “Remember that Toastmasters is meeting today at lunch in conference room A, I hope you can make it.” [...]
All of these are very easy for me.
Are they in my master plan or are they somehow related to where I am going ?
1. That one may be a challenge
2. There was a deal yesterday. There will be one today. And one tommorrow. If you were not going to buy it today don’t let the email decide for you.
3. Of course Toastmasters was already on my calendar.
I usually have my day planned out pretty good. And with very few exceptions other peoples urgencies don’t alter my plan or priorities.
A Little Link Bait - Blogs for Ideas…
Keeping up with the trend of making lists as Google juice and link bait, Troy Worman lists these blogs as outstanding, and many really are. So, hey, I like links too. Here’s a portion of his exhaustive list. You’re a better man than I am if you have …
[...] Three-Second Goals is another motivational post from Success Begins Today. [...]