5 Tips for Manifesting Your Birth Business Goals

Note: I originally wrote the post in 2009 and came upon it recently as I was reviewing old blog posts. My son has grown up, and he's still manifesting his goals.

Baseball and My Son in 2009

For the past three years, June has traditionally been all-star baseball month for my son. Following the spring baseball season, Little League teams from around the city compete for the District Championship.

For the past three years, my son’s team has won the championship, due in part to my son’s role on the pitcher’s mound and as the shortstop. He’s at his best under pressure, and he works well with his team to get the job done.

His focus, skills, leadership, and teamwork certainly impress, but what was great about this year, in particular, was that at the beginning of summer, he wrote a list of goals he wanted to accomplish. At the top of the list was a goal to win the District 11 Championship.

When asked how he does so well pitching during a game, he always starts with the end in mind and pictures the ball flying through the strike zone, with the catcher’s mitt (or a bat) always his end goal.

To perfect his pitching, his catching, and being wherever the ball is, I acknowledge him for taking consistent action during practices and having supportive coaches and team members who offer him feedback and hold him accountable.

And finally, what really drives my son is his love and passion for the game of baseball. He loves the strategy, the structure and rules of the game, and improving his skills.

Update – Baseball and My Son in 2015

It's 2015 now, and my son is a junior in high school. My, where has the time gone?! Well, he's still playing baseball, and he's still setting goals. Last summer (in 2014) he was part of a national baseball program, and as a member of the city-wide team representing Austin, he and his team won a regional tournament and a place in an MLB-sponsored "World Series" tournament. That was his goal for the summer, and he did it. His team lost the regional tournament this summer and did not get to go to the World Series, but my son achieved some other performance goals that he had set for himself for baseball.

At the beginning of summer, he wrote down his goals and kept them in mind as he trained and played. He took consistent action since he played on three teams and had many practices and games. He had a fantastic support team of coaches who helped him correct and refine his skills, and his father and me, who shuttled him to practices and spent long weekends in the Texas heat along with him at many, many games. And, he undoubtedly still loves the game of baseball, and he worked hard to train and improve his performance.

Next on the list — college recruitment! I'll update this in less than two years from now to let you know what happened!

…And here's the update

It's June of 2017 now, and my son had quite a year. Actually, it started in the summer of 2015 while he was playing baseball. His PSAT scores were not so great, so I signed him up for test prep classes in the summer before his junior year. He had gone to Montessori school until middle school, and testing wasn't a big part of his experience. When he started taking standardized tests in middle school, particularly the reading and writing ones, his scores were a bit dismal, and he grew to hate them and felt he wasn't that smart (no matter how often I told him that those tests don't indicate intelligence).

Once he began test prep classes and learned the game of standardized tests, his confidence grew and his scores did as well. The next summer before senior year, at a meeting we had with one of the testing center counselors to go over his scores, the counselor told him that if he raised his score by xxx number of points, he'd be in range to possibly get into a certain top 20 university. After the meeting, my son told me that's exactly what he needed – a number to shoot for.

With that goal in mind, he created a study schedule and almost daily, he practiced the areas that he was weak in. He sought out support by going in for refreshers and tutoring at the test prep company. He learned more about the school and became more excited about the possibility that he might be able to go there. It took him a couple more tries at taking the SAT, but his score surpassed the number he set for himself… and he applied to, got accepted at and will be attending that certain top 20 university in a couple months.

Once again, he demonstrated decisiveness, focus, hard work and consistent action to get what he wanted. It's going to be fun watching him tackle adulthood!

Did you get the 5 tips for manifesting your business goals?

1. Write down your goals.
2. Work toward your goals by starting with the end in mind – reverse engineering the tasks needed to meet your goals.
3. Take consistent action toward your goals.
4. Create a support team who will offer feedback, validation, and hold you accountable for working towards and meeting your goals.
5. Let your love and passion for your work and your desire to meet your goals drive you.

My son has really got this manifestation process down — his passion for the first couple years in high school was his YouTube gaming channel, where he rose as an influencer in his space and earned money that he saved for college and retirement. Comparing baseball, his business, and now his journey to college, he's done the same five things to create momentum and success. You can do it too, with focus and consistency!