Write down your goals and reach them
“Written goals are dreams with deadlines.” Brian Tracy
We all have big wishes or little wishes. What separates the few from the many is the fact that these few have goals, which they strive to achieve. This makes this selected group successful and the other not. Although the definition of success may vary from person to person, I would agree with Earl Nightingale: “Success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile goal or ideal.”
Tons of personal development books have been written on the importance of goal setting to make the Law of Attraction work and bring the very things we want to come to life. I assume you agree with this and have set yourself on the path to success. My idea today is to share with you how to make these goals more powerful.
There are two main reasons behind putting your goals on paper. First, writing clears your mind, helps you analyze things better, and makes you think in more precise terms. Therefore, writing goals helps you make them more exact. Second, the act of writing down your goals helps them penetrate your conscious mind and then your subconscious, and from there guide your actions toward achieving them.
The goals you set should be SSMAART. Everyone has heard of the acronym SMART which means many things depending on your interpretation, but in my opinion the goals should not just be SMART, but SSMAART! This is what I mean.
Specific. State exactly what you want to achieve. “By the end of this year, I will be the founder and president of the Our City Personal Development Club, which is on a mission to help people reach their full potential.”
Stretch. I am also a firm believer that goals should challenge you, otherwise you are fooling yourself. The objective described above may require you, if you have never founded or chaired any club. If I set myself the goal of bungee jumping off a 50m cliff, it’s a specific one, but not that challenging as I’ve done it several times. However, jumping off a 100 meter bridge would really tax me.
Measurable. If one of your goals is to improve academically, write down exactly what GPA you plan to have. So not only “I improved in my studies, especially in that Calculus course I had to retake,” but “I have successfully passed the Calculus course with a B grade, and my cumulative GPA is 3.3 at the end of my studies.” my sophomore year.”
Aligned. That goal has to be aligned with your inner world and your Main Purpose. So if your main calling in life is to be a successful psychologist working in academia, it would be an unaligned goal to become an Olympic medalist in parallel swimming. It’s not that it’s not possible. But unity of purpose will get you up the ladder of achievement faster. In the meantime, if you set yourself the goal of participating in the 20 km marathon swim, you will be successful if you spend 1 hour a day swimming, every day, and 2-3 hours a day on weekends.
Ambitious.The goal should establish an ambition within you. A desire to achieve. A great desire to achieve! A huge desire to achieve!!
Swinging. “Most people fail in life because they major in minor things,” as Anthony Robbins eloquently said. So dream big. Be bold! Make your dreams excite and motivate you and shake your inner world. Be brave in your desires! Look, maybe you want to have a master’s degree in rocket science by the age of 30, and that’s an incredible goal for you. Or maybe it’s more daring for you to have a PhD in sociology at that time. As Joe Vitale said: “A goal should scare you a little and make you very excited.”
Limited in time. Any goal has to be defined in time as well. Since everything is possible with time, you need to define what the period limit is. Presumably, you want things to happen in this life. It’s the same logic behind the time limit on exams. If they let you solve puzzles indefinitely, you could solve any puzzle that could be invented. Therefore, the goal must be expressed with a clear expectation of the moment in your life when it will happen.
In order for your subconscious to take goals “wholeheartedly,” they have to be in the first person present tense. The statement of goals as something that has already happened or is happening makes them more powerful and stimulates the process of autosuggestion more strongly.
It’s even more important to visualize your goals and then just read them. Visualization is one of the finest products of the mind, and the mind, as we know, is the locomotive that brings your thoughts to reality. The goal is half achieved once you get a clear mental image of it. So if you have a list of Primary Purpose goals + 1 goal for each of the major fields (the fields of life as described by Brian Tracy, for example), it might look like this:
primary purpose: I am the most virtuoso pianist in the world in December 2027 (and imagine how easily and carelessly you play Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, while the 10,000 people in the audience look at you with sincere admiration).
Family and personal: I am happily married to an intelligent and beautiful girl who shares my passion for music and we have 2 healthy and happy children a boy and a girl due by the end of 2025 (be sure to imagine, for example, the wedding where you see exactly what your suit looks like and what hairstyle your future wife has; what songs are playing at this mega-party, and how the champagne tastes; as well as blinking various years in the future, you can see sweet little clones of you and your wife jumping around your house and calling you “Daddy, daddy, I want some candy”).
Business Career: I earn 5,000 EUR per month 2 years after graduating from university, at the end of 2017. I earn 50,000 EUR per month at the end of 2027. (See in your head the receipt from your bank account with these amounts, or in cash, if you can, or by check).
Self development:I am fluent in French at the end of 2017 and it helps me a lot when I travel with my concerts around the world. (As you read this, you can hear yourself singing “Bonjour, madame. Je suit un grand pianiste”), and you can smell the scent of your favorite perfume.
Health and energy level: By the end of this year I have gotten into the habit of jogging 4 km in the morning at least 3 times a week which makes me feel positive and energetic all day. (And you see how happy you are to keep your body in great physical condition.)
When you visualize your goals as already achieved, make sure that the projection in your mind is 5-D, as much as possible, that you are touching all 5 senses. For example, when you think of your own house by the sea, you clearly see the image of a two-story, ten-room mansion in the woods near the beach, you hear the voices of your children playing on the sand, and you clearly taste the flavor. freshly made Mojitos that you and your spouse are drinking while looking at each other with love and affection; feel the warm breeze gently blowing across your face and under your t-shirt, and smell the sea air and forest at sunset.
Anthony Robbins also said, “People aren’t lazy; they just have impotent goals… I mean… goals that don’t inspire them.” Therefore, make your targets attractive and magnetic. The goals you have should be such that when you go through the list with them, they put a feeling of elation in your heart and a big smile on your face. Every time you imagine yourself achieving these goals, you feel more powerful and joyful.
Be creative in designing your SSMAART life goals. As Napoleon Hill said: “Don’t be afraid of new ideas! They can mean the difference between success and failure for you.”
So write down your goals and reach them.