NLP Articles

“Success is all about goals and all else is commentary.
                                                                                  Brian Tracy

One of the amazing things we have been given as humans is the unquenchable desire to have dreams of a better life, and the ability to establish goals to live out those dreams. Think of it: We can look deep within our hearts and dream of a better situation for ourselves and our families; dream of better financial lives and better emotional or physical lives. But what makes this even more powerful is that we have also been given the ability to not only dream but to pursue those dreams and not only to pursue them, but the cognitive ability to actually lay out a plan and strategies (setting goals) to achieve those dreams. Powerful! And that is what we will discuss in detail in this article: How to turn your dreams intoachievable goals.

JOIN THE TOP 3 %!

There is a direct correlation between writing down clear, concise goals and the level of success.As per Harvard Study condacted between 1079 and 1089, only 3 % of people have a good goal setting in place. Those mere 3 % of people achieve in life 10 times more than remaining 97 % of population!

Many people, however, do not write their goals down. Many people don’t have goal setting in their life at all. People don’t set up the goals because they do not realise how important good goal setting is. They don’t set up goals because of their lack of knowledge. They may also choose not to set up goals because of their fear of failure or fear of rejection.

If you have a firm goal setting fit in your life, you will inevitably achieve success.

CLARITY IS EVERYTHING

Imagine this if you can: Professional runner racing against 10 others. This runner is exceptional. He can run faster than anyone else. He is full of energy, enthusiasm and motivation to win. His heart is beating fast with excitement running ahead as fast as he can. The only thing is, he doesn’t know where his race ends…nobody gave him directions.

How long do you think can this runner remain focused and motivated? How long will his energy last?

This runner’s race is similar to our own success journey. We all want to be successful. That’s the fact. I haven’t yet met one person who does not desire to be successful. But what does it actually mean???

Success is as ambiguous word as it can be. It can mean just anything. There are tens or even hundreds of definitions of ‘success’ and you cannot argue with any of them. What is more important is to make a crystal clear definition of success for you.
In general, there are four areas that people define success by:

1. To do what we love to do
2. To be fit and healthy
3. To have great relationship
4. To be financially independent.

What does success mean to you? You need to have a crystal clear idea about what is it that you want. You need to know exact destination of your journey. The greater clarity you have regarding your true goals, the more of your potential you will unleash for greatness in your life.

HOW TO SET YOURSELF A SUCCESSFUL GOAL

To set yourself fantastic goal that you will DEFINITELY achieve, simply follow these steps:

1. Set yourself a goal that is so BIG, that if you achieved it, it would be the most important day of your life!!!

The starting point of all goal attainment is burning, intense desire. You need to desire your goal greatly in order to achieve it.

There are thousands of examples in our history to prove that desire coupled with belief is responsible for achievement of any goal, no matter how unprobable it may seem right now.

When Edwin Barnes arrived at Mr. Thomas Edison’s office in Chicago  to present himself as his future business  associate, he was dirty after travelling for several days, he was penniless, he was unshaven. He didn’t have enough knowledge or experience to become a business associate of one of the richest business people of that time. But he certainly had one thing – burning desire to accomplish this, combined with unbreakable belief.

It was this intense desire that helped Edwin to become a millionaire through association and friendship with Thomas Edison.

Your goal needs to be similar to Edwin’s.

 Make your goal challenging. Make it compelling. Make it so once you have it you know that your life will change. Go 5 years into the future and make out of your 5 year fantasy a clear, precise goal, with a deadline.

Once you have the biggest goal written down, it is easy to come up with smaller, short - term goals that will help you to achieve your dream.

2. Take pen and paper and start writing in PRESENT TENSE:

It is …( a certain date in the future)… and now I ….(write down what have you achieved)

Remember - goal is not a goal unless it’s written down. Without writing it down, it is only a mere wish or a dream. No dream is an achievable dream unless turned into clear goal by writing it down.

Writing your goal down in present tense allows your unconscious mind to become more familiar with this achievement. Our mind likes what is familiar, hence you will get faster towards the goal written in present tense and this goal will come faster to you.

3. Ask yourself – what specifically do I want? What will I see, what will I hear, what will I feel once I got what I want?

These questions will assist you in clarifying our future goal. Have a final image in your head that represents exactly achievement of your outcome.  Write it down in your goal. Look through your own eyes and notice – what is it that I see? What is it that I hear? What is it that I feel? These sensory based description of your goal will help you to achieve it greatly, because every time you re- read your goal, you will re – experience it, which sends plenty of great suggestions to your unconscious mind to make this reality.

Emotion is the most important part of your goal setting. Emotion is an energy in motion and if your goal doesn’t carry enough positive emotions with it (desire is the most powerful one), it is very unlikely for you to achieve it.

4. Be extremely specific when writing your goal down.

The unconscious mind works on the principle of least resistance. This means that it will find the most easiest and shorter way to achieve your goal. You have probably achieved many of your goals in your past without knowing it!

Jim set himself a goal of ‘being surrounded by money’. He put a deadline on this goal thinking that this will make his goal specific enough.

Jim achieved his goal – on time. He became surrounded by money through getting job a Securitas van driver! So his unconscious mind was probably pleased with achievement of what Jim asked for, whilst Jim didn’t enjoy being surrounded by money that never belonged to him.

If Jim asked for 'having more money by acertain date', he would certainly find few pence on the floor and there it would be – he would achieve his goal!

Having more money, being slim, being happier etc. are examples of not well written goals.
Make sure that your mind cannot cheat you when achieving your goals. Don’t be Jim, be clever. Be very specific when writing your goal down. Have the final image of achievement of your goal firmly in your mind.

4. Make sure your goal is SMART

SMART goal formula is heavily used in business since the 60's in NLP, we take this a little bit further by making sure the SMART goal is also a 'mind friendly' (in other words, if your goal is SMART, your unconscious mind will support achievement of your goal).

S - Specific

M - Measurable and Meaningful to YOu

A - As if Now

R - Realistic - in other words, you need to believe in achievement of your goals!

T - Time bound and Towards what you want - refrain writing goals about what you don't want!

EXAMPLES OF WELL WRITTEN GOAL

Here are couple of examples of real, achieved goals for your inspiration and guide.

“It is July 1st 2006 and I am sitting in my 5 bedroom, detached, neo Georgian house near Guildford. The  lounge is 45 feet long and 25 feet wide and the floors throughout the house are oak. The room is decorated in pastel shades of green , blending in perfectly with the french curtains and the Italian furniture. There is a spacious feel about the whole house as each room is large allowing a sense of freedom. Each room is decorated to my taste and I am delighted with the overall feel of the house.

 I can see the garden through the window, the beautifully manicured lawns bordered by borders filled with summer blossoms.  As I smell the scents of the garden floating in through the french windows I reflect back at the time 3 years ago when I wrote this goal and recall the first step of the journey to this house when I set up my own practice.

As I sit here now I have a real sense of achievement, a feeling of well being and excitement of finally achieving some of my potential.

The house is mortgaged to 50% of its value on the day I purchased it.

"It is 20th July 2008 and now I am enjoying driving my new red Porsche 911 Carrera. I can clearly see the road ahead and can hear Amy Winehouse playing on the CD player. My hands feel relaxed and enjoy the sensation of guiding the steering wheel as I smell the scent of my new car.

KEEP FOCUSED AND TAKE ACTION ON DAILY BASIS

Action is integral part of any goal setting. Take at least one action on a daily basis towards achievement of your goals. Ask yourself: "What have I done today to achieve my goal today and what will I do tomorrow?"

Read your goals at least twice a day, every single day. If you do that, not only will you be very focused and inspired to take action, your RAS part of brain will help you to notice opportunities, people and ideas that will help you to achieve your goal.

Some people create vision boards and colourful goal books to keep the goals in 'front of their mind'. Personally, I have my goals written on a small index cards - small enough to have them with me all the time and read through them very often. It doesn't matter how you go about this as long as you have your goals in 'front of your mind'.

BE PREPARED TO TAKE A SIDE ROADS ON THE WAY

Once you write down a SMART goal, it is literally like setting a destination into your navigation system. You don't question your navigation system in the car every minute, right? You trust it. You know that even if you need to take various roads - sometimes left or right - you will eventually get to your desired destination.

It is very much same with the goal setting. Decide where you want to be (destination), write it down (enter it into your navigation system) and start the journey (take daily action). Sure, you will meet with many obstacles (red lights) and with a little patience you'll find a way to continue (green light). Sure, you will need to take a turn left or turn right here and there. Sometimes you will be unsure of what the next part of the journey will look like. And that's fine.

Obstacles are integral part of goal getting. They are there to test your willingness to persue the goal and desire. They are signs of being on the journey to achievement of your goal.

AND REMEMBER...

There is no such a thing as failure. There is only feedback. If something doesn't turn out for you exactly as you wanted, just learn from this experience and move on!

Once you make a good goal setting a vital part of your life, you will never look back. You will be much more productive, much more focused, much more motivated as a result of reading your goals daily, much more confident as a result of achievement of you goals. A good goal setting will make you a much more of a happy person.

To your success,

Lenka.