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“Do You Know Where You’re Going?”
If Not, Would You Like To?
Most certainly you have already heard of goal setting. In business this is called »reaching the objective« or »reaching the target«. And in business it’s quite clear to everybody that each organization must have a clear business objective.
What about in personal life? If we set business objectives, why wouldn’t we also set personal ones?
Business objectives are set to streamline company operations or – put it better – to clearly identify the path the company needs to take to increase profits.
Have you ever asked yourself where you want to go, where you want to be in two or five years from now?
Have you ever thought of setting personal goals in order to life your life full of abundance and prosperity?
It’s so easy. Just get a sheet of paper and a pen and put them down. I, personally, put down the goals at the end of the year, like New Year’s Resolutions. And I’ve only been doing it for the past three years. I always have in front of my eyes »the big picture« or as we would call it in neurolinguistic programming (NLP) »the big chunk«. For me this means, where I want to be in five years’ time.
The span of five years time seems manageable by most of people I work with. Then I chunk it down into smaller pieces, small steps that I want to achieve in the year, which is about to come.
While doing this, I always keep in mind the following:
- Have the objectives written in the present tense, otherwise your goal will forever remain in future;
- Have the goals written in positive, in terms of what you want, not what you don’t want;
- Avoid using »have to, must, should« or corresponding words in Slovenian (if necessary rather give yourself a choice by using can or could);
- By all means, avoid putting down a goal using words of doubt (try, hope, perhaps …), e.g. »I’ll try to lose 5 kilos«, because you’ll be just trying, not really working on it;
- Make a goal sound simple, which in turn makes it clear as what you want to achieve;
- Be as specific as you can, avoid generalizations, e.g. »I’d like to lose five kilos« is much better than »I’d like to lose some weight«;
- Always know how you’re going to measure it, so you’ll know when you’ve achieved it; In business the figures speak for themselves, in personal life not everything can be measured in figures;
- Above all, make realistic objectives, put down something, which is truly achievable and reachable;
- Dwell on the end result, which tells you that you truly know what you want;
- The objectives may change, so revise every now and then what you’ve put down (the big chunk and small chunks);
At this point, let me just stop for a second at the fact that a goal must be realistic. Let’s say you want to learn a foreign language and have absolutely no basis of it. If you set a goal in terms of: »I want to speak fluent English in six months«, might be a tough nut to crack.
But if you set your goal as: »In six months I’d like to learn enough English to be able to pick up the phone in the office myself and meet visitors«, I’d say it’s more than possible. And it’s a small step toward the big chunk – speaking English fluently.
Let me expand on this topic a bit more. When we speak about the goals we want to achieve, I can easily say that each and everyone of us is far more able than we perceive ourselves. If the going gets tough, we will do things once thought as completely impossible. So, be realistic, but don’t be overly modest.
After you’ve set the goals it’s essential to remain positive even though the goals don’t materialize instantly. And they won’t. It takes time and effort.
Gurus from this area suggest the following technique to remain focused and positively oriented, when in the process of achieving them.
Let’s say you’ve put on your list of goals a slightly more expensive trip abroad. You’d like to visit a country, which truly inspires you. Try this to keep yourself motivated:
- ask for what you want, which you’ve already done – the trip is on your list; If you want to highlight this goal put up on the wall a cork board and »decorate« it with the photos, descriptions, newspaper and magazine articles, which talk about your destination; Also, hang the board onto a prominent place, so you’ll have it in front of your eyes constantly;
- believe in it with all yourself, without trying to understand how it’s going to come true; You don’t need to know everything at once, you’ll learn all about it when the time is right;
- receive it and feel good about it; While you’re going to work, in the car, on the bus or before falling asleep you might want to visualize yourself being in this country, travelling around, meeting people, enjoying their cuisine, everything you want to do there; It’s essential to dive into this picture yourself and not visualizing it in the »second person«, seeing yourself as an observer, because it might happen
then that you remain an observer forever;
It will occur, on this pleasant and exciting journey of yours of setting and achieving goals that you will experience a kind of despair or you will feel as an underachiever.
If you – when this happens – start telling yourself: »I can’t do this« or »What was I thinking … I’ll never reach this goal«, the response you’ll get is exactly this. The goal will slowly start fading away, until you completely forget about it.
If you find a way to keep yourself motivated, positive thinking (positive thoughts are far more powerful than negative ones), then the pieces will start coming together one by one. It’s what we call »The Law of Attraction«, where you attract exactly what’s on your mind. And you probably know that the mind is the most powerful, graceful, enjoyable, versatile tool, which is in your absolute control. If you know, want and will use it to your advantage, your life will become one of abundance and prosperity.
