What is a worthy goal?

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“Change is inevitable, but personal growth is a choice.”

You have a tremendous amount of creative potential – and the truth is, there is no-one alive who can even guess at what you, as an individual, are capable of achieving.

So, if this is the case, why do so few people actually achieve anything of any significance in life?

Why is it that only 2-4% of all the people who go through our educational system become successful in their chosen field?

Well, there are many reasons, but one of the most significant reasons is that the vast majority of people never even aim for success, because we have become so conditioned, by our upbringing and our surroundings, into believing we have to know HOW to achieve something before we even seriously consider it.

So most people never even get as far as making it their goal to be successful.

The Wright brothers didn’t know how they were going to make a plane fly when they first made it their goal in life. Edison tried over 10,000 times to invent a working lightbulb – he had no idea how he was going to do it until he made it his goal and started working towards it.

And yet, for most people, their dreams never even become a serious consideration because they don’t know how they’d do it.

Instead, they settle for mediocre goals – goals they think they can probably achieve rather than the things they really, desperately want to be, do or have in life, often because of fear of disappointment.

A true goal – a WORTHY goal must come from within. A true goal’s purpose is to cause you to grow – it causes you to draw from a part of you you didn’t even know existed.


Do you have a C-Type Goal?

In Thinking Into Results, we focus on 3 types of goal: A-, B- and C-Type goals.

An A-Type goal is something you already know how to achieve.

Maybe you ran the London Marathon last year and you’ve decided to make it your goal again for this year.

That’s not a worthy goal because it’s something you’ve already done once – you know you can do it and you know how. There is no personal growth needed to achieve an A-Type goal.

A B-Type goal is what most people progress to after an A-Type goal.

A B-Type goal is something you think you can probably achieve if a number of factors you’re expecting fall into place. Businesses set these kinds of goals all the time – a 10% increase in sales, a 5% increase in net profits…

They create a detailed, meticulous plan for how it will happen and call this their goal.

But the truth is there is no motivation – no inspiration – in A or B-Type goals. There’s no skin in the game. It’s a safe bet.

What’s the worst that will happen if these goals aren’t achieved? Usually nothing – ‘we’ll just try again next year’.

What do you really, really want?

But a C-Type goal is your ‘wants’. This is the thing or things you really, really want in life. If you could be, do or have absolutely anything, without restriction, what would that be?

And yes, it starts of as a fantasy. Every achievement of any note has started life as a fantasy and you won’t know how you’re going to do it when you first start out – that’s the point.

Because it’s the personal growth that takes place within you while you’re finding out how to achieve it that makes this a true goal.

It’s what makes this a goal worthy of you trading your time, energy and money for – trading your life for.

If you’re going to spend your days working towards something, make that ‘thing’ worthy of you.

Imagine what your life would look like, what each day would look like, in a life you’d designed. Visualise yourself living it. Imagine how you’ll feel once you’ve achieved it.

This is the first step to setting and achieving your own Worthy Goal.

Why not book an honest, exciting, no-obligation chat with me about YOUR goals – YOUR dreams?

You can choose a time to suit you in my personal diary at https://my.timetrade.com/book/XRJC2

Why is having a big, worthy goal so important?

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And why do most people never achieve the things they really want in life?

It’s in our DNA

Human beings are goal-orientated creatures by nature. We are, as far as we know, the highest form of creation and we are supposed to set goals.

We are supposed to look for ways to improve our own lives and those of the lives around us  because it plays a huge part in the evolution of our species.

Dissatisfaction with your life is a healthy, creative state of mind  therefore  we are DESIGNED to be discontent!

Creative discontent is at the very heart of motivation, and yet so many people settle for what they currently have (and frequently complain about it) rather than taking measures to improve things.

And these are usually the same people who, when you tell them about any potential goals/dreams you may be considering will tell you to ‘stop fantasising’.

They’ll ask you why you ‘can’t just be happy with what you’ve got and leave it at that’ because of jealousy, fear or their own guilt.

But the truth is, in order for any human being to live a fulfilled, creative life, goals are essential.

The Law of Creation And Disintegration

One of the most dynamic laws of the universe is the Law of Creation and Disintegration. Absolutely NOTHING will stay as it is, therefore  you’ re either improving the quality of your life or, by default, you’ re taking away from it in one way or another.

And so the choice is yours. It’s a decision only you can make and making no decision is to make a decision.

But the fact is, it’ s only when you become sufficiently dissatisfied with your life as it is now, that you will begin to think of ways to improve it — most importantly, you will decide on a goal.

Dissatisfaction has given us cars, planes, TV and the internet. It has taken us out of the cave and put us into skyscrapers.

It is only because Thomas Edison experienced a deep dissatisfaction with the candle that we’re not all reading by candle light today.

How would YOU like to live?

So start to think about how you’re living now. The things you do from the minute you wake up until you close your eyes at night.

Now think about how you’d LIKE it to be — how, with the infinite potential you possess (we all possess), that scenario might be improved upon.

Keep thinking about this — several times a day, every day — and you can be sure that dissatisfaction will set in, if it hasn’t already.

Someone once said “In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to daily acts of trivia.”

Isn’t that true? So many people fill their days with meaningless tasks that result in…nothing (or just more of the same), because they just don’t really give what they’re doing any serious thought.

Goal achievers are interesting people. They’re productive, happy people beacuse they aren’t bogged down with such trivia.

As a committed goal achiever you will likely accomplish more with your life in one year than most people do in a lifetime.

Which way would you rather live?

To read more and receive 8 Questions That Warrant Your Attention if you are ever to achieve the things you really want in life, go now to https://emmahague.com/tir-its-time

Your Infinite Mind

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Paradigms are responsible for how we think, feel and act on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis. They are the result of all the mind-programming we have ever received – both gentically, in the womb, and environmentally growing up.

The information we have received, the experiences and feelings we have had over the years have conditioned us to think a certain way, to behave a certain way and to believe certain ‘truths’.

This infomation (or paradigm) has enormous influence over everything we do. It controls how a person’s logic is structured. So what may seem logical to one person seems completely illogical to someone else.

As the current paradigm controls our thoughts, which in turn control our actions and then our results, if we have any chance at all of achieving better results than we currently are (in any area of life), it is necessary to first change the paradigm.

We have to break out of the invisiblebox that our current paradigm keeps us locked in – and most people will require the help of a coach or mentor to do this.

Our mental programming has taken place over such a long time that, for most of us, it will require persistence, courage and determination to change the thought patterns and habits that govern who we are and the results we are getting.

The Frustration Of Being Stuck

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The frustration of being stuck at a particular point in life can be almost unbearable.

No matter how much more information you take on board – how much more you learn – in order to improve your circumstances (health, incoke, relationships – you choose) it just doesn’t seem to make the difference we hoped it would.

The problem is there is an enormous difference between what most people know and what they actually do with that information. In Lesson 2 of Thinking Into Results, we call this the Knowing / Doing Gap.

Although they know what they need to do to be successful, on the whole, most people are not taking the actions they know they need to take to get where they want to go in life.

The underlying reason for this is that their paradigm – the current conditioning in the subconscious part of their mind – is trying to keep then where they currently are. In the same way an aircraft’s auto-pilot is designed to work.

They may try to change their behaviour by doing things a different way or focusing on desperately trying to change their bad habits, but if they do not change their paradigm first, it will continue to pull them back to their original course.

Even though a person may have all the knowledge / information they need to achieve their goals, this is stored in a different part of the mind to the paradigm. The information is stored in the conscious – or ‘educated’ mind. The paradigm is stored in the subconscious or ‘doing’ mind.

As it is a person’s subconscious mind that controls their actions – and their habits – it is the subconscious mind that must be changed to allow any kind of permanent change in their results. The current paradigm is not allowing efficient use of the information stored in the conscious mind.

Taking on more and more information is of little use without first changing one’s behaviour at it’s primary cause – the paradigm.

In order to make this change, it is first necessary to identify all those non-productive habits that have been holding us back, and to begin to do exactly the opposite. We need to start to take the actions we know will drive us forward instead of keeping us where we are.

Understanding the paradigm, and why we do what we do, helps us to make these changes and take quantum leaps toward our goal.

Lesson 2 from Thinking Into Results is called ‘Th Knowing/Doing Gap’ and focuses on identifying exactly what your non-productive habits are and how to change your paradigm one habit at a time so your mind is working subconsciously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to move you closer to where you want to be.

You can book a free Discovery Session with me where we’ll discuss YOUR true desires and find out what’s stopped you achieving them up till now – just pick a day and time to suit you now at https://calendly.com/ds

Does Mindset Really Matter?

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For a long time I poo-pooed all the talk that flies around about ‘mindset’ when I was building my first business.

I am a practical, logical, no BS, not-even-particularly-emotional kind of girl (I’m an accountant by profession for crying out loud).

Quite frankly, I found that ‘guff’ about talking yourself rich embarrassing.

‘Just show me what to do and how to do it’ has been my mantra since school. And I’ve generally been fairly successful at whatever I’ve put my mind to.

The problem was that because I was so dismissive of any information around ‘mindset’ or ‘mission’ or ‘creating a new paradigm’ I didn’t take any steps at all to find out anything about this vital ‘piece’.

Until about 12 months ago that is – and that’s when everything started to change for me. That’s when I began my own Money Breakthrough.

When I finally opened my mind (and ears) and started to read about, hear about and learn about all the internal things that are actually happening to us as women, I began to realise exactly what had been holding me back in my own business for so long.

You see, I have taken just about every course there is on marketing and client attraction – direct mail, Facebook ads, Google Ads, email campaigns, ezines, webinars, teleseminars, telesummits… I could go on and on. And I’m pretty good at all of them – because I’ve implemented what I’ve learned.

I haven’t had too much trouble attracting clients and have helped others do the same. But there’s a difference between having lots of clients and creating lots of money.

Like many business women I am constantly learning, constantly wanting to find that magic ‘thing’ that will suddenly make all the hard work pay off.

So I couldn’t understand why, with all this technical knowledge, I still wasn’t getting the results I really wanted. What more was there to learn?!

And then I finally started to address what was going in my head – and let me tell you, I never… NEVER… thought I would be writing those words!

As a woman who has worked most of my adult life in male dominated working environments (and being a bit of a tom-boy), I just could not see that this piece of the jigsaw even existed – let alone that I was missing it.

It turns out this is INCREDIBLY common for women. We take so many more courses than men do, we implement better than men do, take time over getting the how-to’s ‘just right’…

But we still see fewer rewards than men do. We attract fewer clients, convert fewer leads and make less money in general than men do. Fact.

So I started to learn why… and not only has everything become clear to me, my results have sky-rocketed.

I’ve been able to seriously start paying down old debts (and save money at the same time), budget PROPERLY and create money goals that I am actually achieving every fortnight.

It’s all to do with getting a grip on our own relationship with money (and for me, a big part of that was pricing), with the emotions we feel when we’re talking about money, asking for money, considering what to do about money… and as we all know, like it or not, emotions pretty much rule our lives as women.

Even mine!

Focus on what your own issues are around money – WHY do you feel bad increasing your fees? WHY do you feel guilty charging people who need your help? WHO is it you’re worried about upsetting? HINT: It’s often to do with the money story you grew up with.

My goal setting has never been clearer or more detailed and I’m breaking the habits that have been sabotaging me for so long.

In fact this has been such a game changer for me that I have incorporated what I’ve learnt and implemented into my own trainings.

How you do money really IS how you do everything.

Feel Guilty Charging For Your Services?

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One of the most common reasons I see for business owners (and women in particular) undercharging, failing to chase late payers – and in some cases not charging AT ALL – is that they feel guilty ‘taking’ money from people who clearly need their help in one way or another.

I can totally relate to that… but this feeling could be sabotaging your business.

As someone who has made a career of helping people get set up in business with little or no money, help them make better money decisions and work their way out of debt, believe me, I have faced this dilemma myself on more than one occasion.

And it’s part of the reason why my first business failed. Overcoming it is one of the reasons my second business is a completely different animal.

While I could talk all day (literally) about charging what you’re worth I realise in a blog post I need to be brief!

So here’s my advice – and it’s 2-fold:

I) Giving away help for free (or almost free) very rarely creates the outcome your client is looking for. In my experience, clients only a) value your expertise and b) actually put what you’ve given them to good use, if they’ve had to make an investment of some kind.

If they haven’t, there’s no motivation to ‘make the changes they need to now’.

This has also been true of my own learning experience – I only actually started making progress in my business when I bit the bullet and invested in training. All the free PDFs and tele-classes and webinars I’d downloaded before that had certainly given me food for thought, but it was only when I was thinking ‘Okaaay, I’ve just put £1,200 on my credit card – I’d better make this bloody well work and earn some money’ for the first time that implementation started to happen for me.

Yes, give away a part of your knowledge – a really useful part, that potential clients will get true and instant value from… but then show them the transformation they could get by investing in your full service.

ii) Separate your business from your charity. You want to help people. I want to help people. If we didn’t have that to drive us, we wouldn’t (shouldn’t) be in business for ourselves.

But you can’t help people the way you want to – the way they need you to – if your business doesn’t survive. You have to earn money and most reasonable people understand that.

If they ask you to give away your services for free, or as a trade-off or at a discounted rate, they don’t value what you’re offering and probably won’t get the results you want for them anyway.

Asking for money can be uncomfortable to start with but that can be changed with a few tweaks to the way you think about money and your own value.

If people really want what you have, in my experience, they will find the funds they need.

Once you start earning good money, you can choose to generously support whichever charity helps those you most want to help.

The ripple-effect that occurs when women start to increase their self-worth and net-worth and to create more money is truly inspiring – for their family, friends, colleagues, charities they support… almost everyone they connect with on an emotional level.

So understand the value of what you’re providing, charge what you’re worth and you’ll be able to help more people than you think.

Dedication (oo-ooh) That’s What You Need

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Ah, good old Roy Castle had a point, Bless His Soul (yes, I know I’m showing my age), and it’s as true today as it was back in the 1980’s!

If you want to be the best and you want to beat the rest, you do need dedication and you do have to be committed to what you want to achieve.

“You don’t say!”, I hear you cry, but so many people talk the talk without walking the walk – true commitment is hard to come by and, truth be told, this is one of the biggest key’s to success for the small business owner.

know – I’ve watched enough people start a business (some fail and some succeed) to see just what a HUGE difference it makes. And I’ve experienced the shift for myself when I actually realised how important it was to me to make a go of my own business.

So, let me ask you – are you truly committed to making a real success of your business or are you just interested? This is HUGE and is the difference between really successful business owners and the ones who are just getting by.

If you are committed to growing your business and achieving something special, you will be doing all or most of the following:

*Spending more and more time working ON your business instead of just working IN it.

*Actively developing a marketing system to ensure you have a constant supply of customers – not just marketing when the work dries up.

*Focusing on client/customer attraction and retention and constantly researching the best ways to do this.

*Stepping outside your comfort zone to establish yourself as a trusted expert in your field – writing articles, running teleseminars and/or workshops, speaking at local events, developing information products and free reports etc.

*Following your ideas through to the end – making sure you finish projects and get them out into the public domain.

True commitment means you will do whatever it takes to achieve your desires. You know what your goals are and work hard to complete the tasks you need to get there.

You make sure you schedule time into your diary to work on marketing and you know the importance of getting it done.

Of course, we are all interested in success to some degree, otherwise we wouldn’t have set up our own businesses to start with, but many are in it just to do what is convenient for them.

For those who are simply interested, it’s all about when they can ‘find time’ to work the above things into their schedule. They allow themselves to find excuses about why ‘now’s not the right time’ or they just ‘don’t have time’ rather than going about finding how to MAKE now the right time and FIND the time they need.

The truth is you pay a high price for being just interested in growing your business. The lack of total commitment and dedication costs you in the end because it puts your ultimate success at risk.

The difference between those who are successful and those who are just about (or not even) ‘getting by’ is the difference between doing whatever it takes and doing what is convenient. Successful people do whatever it takes, especially when it’s uncomfortable.

All it takes one decision. The decision to go for it no matter what. The decision to do whatever it takes to have the success you dream of. So which one will it be for you?

Charge What You’re Worth And Get It

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Fact: The vast majority of small business owners struggle with pricing.

More specifically, the vast majority of small business owners undercharge for their services.

Common statements I hear on a daily basis from my coaching clients go something like this…

“My clients can’t afford to pay more than they do now…”

“I won’t get any new clients if I charge more than I do now…”

“People will think I’m taking advantage of them if I charge more…”

While I could talk all day (literally) about charging what you’re worth, I need to be fairly brief here, so here are the 3 biggest reasons most people undercharge, and how to make sure you don’t:

  1. When anyone starts out in business and needs to know how to set their fees, they look around to see what everyone else is charging.

Or maybe they look at what their own trainer or coach or mentor charges.

This is a BAD idea.

The vast majority of people who have their own business undercharge.

So if they’re undercharging and you’re looking to them as an example to base your fees on, you’re going to undercharge too!

What’s worse is, because you see that they’ve been in business longer than you, they’ve had more clients than you, have more testimonials than you – you set your fees lower than theirs.

Or maybe you go the other way and think “Well, I’ve got a qualification that they don’t have and I’ve created a better website so I’ll charge a bit more than them.”

But guess what? You’re still undercharging – because you started from a low base.

Instead, I teach my clients to a) work backwards from the amount they want to earn each year and b) make sure they create packages that are worth at least the amount they need to charge to meet their goals.

  1. Fear of not getting any business.

Fact: Low fees do not necessarily mean you’ll get more clients – in fact very often the opposite’s true.

Think about it…what are you saying about your services if you undercharge?

You’re telling potential clients that you don’t really believe in what you do. You don’t believe your services are as good as someone who charges more than you.

Is that really how you feel?

Instead of having low fees to get more clients, you can create a smaller package that’s more limited in scope than your main offer, but that gives potential clients a lower entry point to experience working with you.

  1. Fear of what other people think.

There’s just something buried deep inside us as human beings (and women are more prone to this than men, interestingly) that wants to be liked.

I can totally relate to that…but this feeling could well be sabotaging your financial future.

As someone who has made a career of helping people get set up in business with little or no money, help them make better money decisions and work their way out of debt, believe me, I have faced this dilemma myself on more than one occasion.

And it’s part of the reason why my first business failed. Overcoming it is one of the reasons my second business is a completely different animal.

It’s incredibly common for small business owners to be held back because of concern about what someone else might think – maybe it’s a partner or a spouse or a colleague or a current client.

And at the end of the day you have to

  1. recognise it for what it is
  2. make a decision

Are you going to accept it and let that fear determine how your business pans out or are you going to address that fear so you can free yourself to charge what you’re really worth and earn more money?

And that’s something only you can decide.

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Here are the 4 biggest pricing mistakes I see people making in their businesses and how you can avoid them:

  1. Losing control of when you discuss/reveal your fees

This is incredibly important, and it’s one of the reasons I suggest you don’t show your fees on your website IF customers are not buying online.

There’s only one good time to tell someone what you charge, and that’s after you’ve had an in-depth conversation with them about the problem they’re experiencing.

It’s important to clarify if and how you can help them first of all but, most importantly, what it’s really worth to them to solve this problem.

If you quote your fee before you’ve had this discussion, you (and they) are just guessing what they need and how you can help them.

Quoting your fee too early can lead to you being judged as being too expensive or not enough value – and quite often at this point clients will try to put their own package together to suit the fee they had in mind!

And that serves no-one.

  1. Doubting Your Fees

If you doubt your fees then you’re probably focusing on the processes and features of the service you provide, rather than the benefits or results that clients get from working with you.

This is you if you’re inclined to start telling them

  • about the different kinds of products you use
  • what qualifications you have
  • the broad range of skills you have
  • what awards you’ve won

This is a big turn-off for potential clients because until they’ve decided they really want to work with you all they’re thinking is “Nice…But how does that help me solve my problem?”

Switch your focus instead to the benefits they’ll get from working with you so your client hears what’s important to them which is ‘what is the change that’s going to happen for me and what are the results of that change?’.

  1. Apologising, over-explaining or justifying your fee.

Now, from experience, I can tell you that this often happens in conjunction with pricing mistake number 1.

It also tends to show up if you’re feeling doubtful or guilty or just not confident that they’ll say yes – it’s very tempting to start explaining your fee but it is crucial that you don’t do that.

And the only way I found to combat that to start with, if this happens to you, is to say your fee then to force yourself to say nothing.

Stop talking and sit back while your client then deals with whatever’s coming up for them.

Let them lead the conversation from there.

  1. The 4th pricing mistake is charging by the hour (or session) instead of creating packages.

I’ve been there and done the hourly pricing thing and I can tell you, if you’re charging by the hour or session you are causing yourself 2 problems you don’t need to have:

  1. There is potential for clients to compare your hourly rate to someone else’s (even though your expertise, your knowledge and your expertise differ greatly)
  2. There is potential for clients to question the number of hours or sessions it takes you to complete the service you’re providing

Each of these can lead to you feeling like you have to justify what you’re charging or even revising your fees down if someone challenges you.

Creating a fixed price package and agreeing the pricing in advance completely eliminates this problem. It also makes your cash flow easier to forecast and is a proven way to help your clients achieve better results.

The far-reaching results you provide for your clients are, in reality, priceless.

Help maintain your own credibility and reputation, and that of your profession/industry as a whole, by making sure you charge what you’re really worth.

You can do that with me (as a part of building a unique, authentic business that you LOVE) in my Ignite “6-Steps To 6-Figures” Mastermind Programme.

I run it 4 times a year and you can read more and register for the latest intake now at support@emmahague.com