Setting Goals CAN Change Your Life

If you want to greatly improve your chances of success then you need to make goal setting a part of your life.

When you look at successful individuals the world over, no matter what area of life they have achieved their success in, you will find that almost all of them have one thing in common and that is this unwavering belief that they WILL accomplish their goal, regardless of what obstacles stand in their way.

It’s not surprising either that in some way, shape or form their goals were put down on paper long before they set out on their journey to success.

Setting goals is an important part of success, it gives you a purpose, something to focus on and when written down is a powerful way to help program your subconscious mind on finding a way of achieving even the most improbable of goals.

To achieve anything in life you need to know what you want and where you are going. Getting your goals down on paper gives you a tangible manifestation of your thoughts, dreams and ambitions.

When I say ‘getting it down on paper’ it doesn’t always have to be in the form of written goals. Neither does It always have to be ‘on paper’, after all in this digital age where we have our mobile phones with us during every waking hour, what better place to have your goals than on a screen you probably look at a hundred times a day!

If you don’t fancy writing down your goals then how about a ‘vision board’ made up of images, photographs and magazine cuttings depicting your goals in a more vivid way. Or as I tend to do, why not use a combination of the two?

Regardless of how you decide to manage your goal setting, it’s IMPORTANT that you do for three main reasons.

Firstly, Just the act of goal setting or just searching for the image of that ‘dream car’ starts to get your subconscious mind working and takes you a step closer to making it a reality.

The second reason to get your goals on paper is to give yourself direction, after all you wouldn’t set out on a journey before knowing your destination would you?

No!

So why then, do so many people stumble through their lives without knowing where they want to go or how they are going to get there?

In the end, if you don’t know where you are going how will you know when you finally arrive?

Thirdly, if you have goals to look at everyday, no matter how big or how small it helps you to build up a positive mental attitude, this in turn builds momentum that little by little coupled with some form of action will help turn your goals into a reality.

Okay! how do you do this…

First grab yourself a few sheets of paper and a pen, sit down in a quiet room where you will not be disturbed and clear your head of any limiting thoughts that may restrict your ambitions.

Then just start writing…

write down everything your heart desires, everything you want to achieve, everything you want to own, how much money you want to make, where in life you want to go – both physically and emotionally, every character trait you want to change or improve, where you want to live, what car you want to drive, the places you want to see, the people you want to help.

Be positive and write it all down, no matter how improbable it may appear to you at this moment in time, do not limit yourself to goals that you think you COULD achieve, write down what you WANT to achieve no matter how crazy it may seem.

For most people all our lives we have been told by parents, teachers, work colleagues and friends that these things are beyond us, we are not the kind of people who can achieve these heights, we don’t have the right education or we are being silly for even wanting these things in life, worst of all when we hear it over and over again from so many different people we come to believe it ourselves.

Therefore what we have to do is break a lifetime of limiting thoughts and conditioning…

You can download my personal goal setting guidebook here to take you step by step through the whole process.

Where do we start?

Once you have everything down on paper read through it again and make sure you have it all covered. Don’t worry about how silly it may sound when you read it out loud to yourself, we all feel that way when we first do this, it’s only natural. After all you are going against everything you have been told all of your life.

Anyway nobody is going to be reading this but you!

What you need to do next (this is a very important part of the goal setting process) is take each goal and write it out again, but this time write it in as much detail as possible and as though you have already accomplished it…

For example if one of your goals is to be more confident don’t just write…

‘I want to be confident’

Write…

‘I am a naturally confident person and very self-assured even in the most difficult of circumstances’

If you have decided to do a vision board then post images of people you admire for their confidence or a photograph of you when you were in a situation where you felt particularly confident.

If some of your goals seem extremely ambitious or even beyond what you think you are capable of achieving at this moment in time, don’t worry …

look at how you can break those big goals down into a number of smaller more attainable goals. This way for every smaller goal you accomplish you are one more step closer to the big one.

The trick is to be as detailed as possible so you convince your subconscious mind that what you are reading or seeing is actually a reality.

Once you have your goals clearly written out or your vision board prepared then you need to look at it

EVERY DAY – NO EXCEPTIONS!

Visualise each goal in your head, do it in as much detail as possible, see yourself in the situation, feel the emotions you will experience once it is achieved…

Walk through that dream house looking into every room. Notice the decor, the furniture, the smells and sounds…

Climb into your luxury car and breathe in the aroma of the leather, feel the texture of the steering wheel in your hand…

Count the money you are making, seeing every bill as you place it onto the table…

Feel your self confidence grow as you walk up to give that big presentation…

Enjoy the taste of your fruit cocktail as you recline on that secluded beach in the Maldives…

REMEMBER – EVERY DAY, NO EXCEPTIONS!

setting goals can help you achieve anything

Two, three, four times a day or more, but once a day at the very least…

Preferably before you retire, because the time just before we drift off to sleep is when your subconscious is most susceptible to absorbing the information you are sending it.

It’s generally believed that we need to repeat something 30 times or more before it becomes a habit. What this means to you is that for the whole of the first month you are really going to have to make an effort to do this on a daily basis. However over time it will become a natural part of your daily routine and once it does then you are well on your way to turning those dreams, goals and ambitions into reality.

Having said that, goal setting alone will not accomplish anything unless you have the self motivation to take action.

Read my blog post on self motivation here.

You can hold an acorn in your hand and visualise the mighty Oak tree that it will become, but none of this will come to pass unless you TAKE ACTION! You need to plant the acorn in the ground and make sure it has the light and water that it needs to grow and flourish.

Similarly just like the acorn you need to action your goals and provide them with the sustenance they need to realise your eventual objective.

All the visualisation in the world is not going to help you achieve anything unless you do something about it in the real world.

As the old proverb says “Even the longest journey begins with a single step”

As long as you take action – no matter how small it may seem at first, visualise your goals and continue to do so on a daily basis the change will come.

Suddenly you will start to notice how ideas are popping into your mind, you will find solutions to problems you previously had no idea how to solve, everything is starting to look much clearer than it did before and opportunity seems to be around every corner.

In short Goal setting WILL change your life for the better.

Don’t be afraid to set yourself BIG goals and when you do ask yourself these questions…

WHY?
WHY NOT?
WHY NOT ME?
WHY NOT NOW?

Download The personal Goal setting Guidebook here to help you keep track of your goals and your progress

What have you achieved by setting goals? Do you have your own method of visualisation?