Hello friends,

You must be surprised as to why I am wishing you a happy G.O.P.T.A. year in place of a very happy new year. There is a specific reason behind this. New year is season of taking resolutions, lots of which survive hardly 15 days. This year let us do some real work to achieve success and progress in life.

As you all know that G.O.P.T.A. is an acronym given by me to ‘Goals Oriented Positive Thinking & Actions’ in my bestselling book 'How to Add 50000 Productive Hours to Your Life'. As you can see, GOPTA has following three limbs:-

GOALS ORIENTED: You have to identify your goals and every action should be in the direction of achieving your goals. It will also improve your time management skills because you will learn to ask questions to yourself, as to whatever you are doing at the moment is the most appropriate use of your time or not.

POSITIVE THINKING: This is impregnating your sub-conscious mind with positive beliefs & positive attitude and inculcating positive values and habits to speed up the journey towards your goals. Positive thinking will help you inculcating strong beliefs and improve your self-image, which will drive you towards your goals and remove the brakes on your progress.

ACTIONS: Taking disciplined & persistent actions on daily basis in the direction of your goals, as without taking action, even the best planning is of no use.

This is the reason why I always say that GOPTA is essential for success. Negative thoughts manifest into negative circumstances and positive thoughts mystically bring positive circumstances. If you want success in life, you can’t afford to ignore any of the above three limbs of GOPTA.

I believe that the first & foremost thing is to identify your goals in life and to take necessary actions with positive frame of mind in that direction only.

The most important benefit of goal setting programme is that you get the direction. I always say in my workshops that ‘Direction’ and ‘Speed’ are two different concepts altogether, as far as goals are concerned. Slow or fast - speed is not important, if you are on the right direction. I live in Kanpur. Can you reach my residence without knowing my correct address? This is practically impossible. Though you will reach Kanpur but will wander here and there. Though there is a bleak possibility that by chance you may trace me in the city but the high chances are that you will have to spend many days. On the other hand, if you have my correct address beforehand, you will find me easily.

Suppose you have to travel from Kanpur to Lucknow. If you know the exact destination and the route, you will reach Lucknow, sooner or later. It is not important as to whether you are travelling by car or by bus or by two wheeler or even on foot. In any case, you will reach Lucknow crossing one milestone at a time. Thus speed and vehicle is not important in reaching Lucknow from Kanpur but the important thing is knowledge about the destination & the direction. The same applies to the goals also. If you do not know the destination, how you will reach your destination.

Most of the people wander here and there for their whole life pursuing nothing and there is no surprise that they get nothing. So, first of all, we have to identify what is the purpose of our life, so as to correctly work upon goal setting process and effective time management. Cross one milestone at a time, but in definite direction.

To work upon the mindset of present & future generations, I have taken voluntary retirement under the age of 50 and from today onwards, I would actively work upon this life mission.

I would like to reiterate that I don't charge any professional fees from the students upto class 12.

For continuous learning on GOPTA, you can also visit & join the group 'G.O.P.T.A. - Goals Oriented Positive Thinking & Actions' at Linkedin.

Once again, wishing you good luck and happy GOPTA,

Sanjay Kumar Agarwal

CEO, GOPTA Academy