High-Performance Achievement 8 steps of action

When I was at the Dave Ramsey live event we picked up this audio cd of Dave at a meeting for his employees. The tape was so great I decided to share the 8 Steps outlines on the tape in my opinion on how they work.

1. Establish a big, hairy, audacious goal - In the tape the goal was running a 26k marathon. In my case its becoming debt free by October.

2. Plan out in the incremental steps that will lead you to accomplish your BHAG. To become debt free I have taken on what is called the baby steps: baby emergency fund, debt snowball. Both have worked great in the last two years and I believe working the baby steps is by far the best plan out there but it only works when you get intense!

3. Fine people who have accomplished the same or similar goals and find out how they did it - At first I didn't have a support group or anyone I knew that was on the same path now I have Brad over at enemy of debt (he is debt free and awesome) and a host of other people that are in the PF blogging world. Talk about motivation!

4. Heed the warning from the experts, but don't dwell on the negatives - Some warnings I have found about becoming debt free were: have a blow fund which I didn't listen too and still have problems with it sometimes. As far as the negatives I can think of any but in Daves case they told him to pace and sometimes he wouldn't and also that he would quit at the 2o mile mark, which he didn't!

5. Decide what you are willing to sacrifice to hit high-performance achievement - This was a big one for me, over the last few weeks I figured out getting out of debt was most important to me. Working at the salon is secondary, even dating is not so high on the list (scary right) but I made the choice to put debt first, when this is over I can move on to another BHAG!

6. Keep away from negative people and get around positive influences - Trust me this has been so detrimental to my success. The better things get the more I realize how much I need positivity in my life. Its important to have your own personal cheer team because right when you are ready to quit the cheer team is yelling YOU CAN DO IT!

7. Visualize your plan in your mind repeatedly - I see myself being debt free all the time and its so cool to feel a taste of what it will be like when I become debt free I just can't wait!

8. When you win, enjoy it! Celebrate - I plan too!!