Goal setting20 min read

What is goal setting about?

Set yourself a goal in life and score a life goal!

Goal setting is about getting what you want

Why would you want to learn about goal setting?

Imagine being able to set a goal and know that it is really going to happen.

With a simple process can get what you want.

How about being consistent in your results instead of starting things just to see them fizzle out?

Learning a few simple tricks and tips will make you see your results dramatically improve by making sure you are on track to success.

Effective goal setting is about getting what you want in life.

Let’s take an example

Have you ever had the best intentions and set yourself a target only to find that nothing much happens?

Here’s an example.

Perhaps you didn’t want to be unfit anymore and decided to spend your time in the gym working out. You’re soon going to be fit and healthy right?

You bought a membership and in the beginning you were quite good at going, perhaps making it three or four times.  

But then for some reason you stopped going, perhaps you were too busy? Perhaps there were other things to do so you couldn’t make the time?

You look back over the year and realise that you spent all that money on gym membership, only managed to go a few times, and still don’t feel fit like you wanted to.

Sound familiar?

So what went wrong?

What makes things happen?

Dreams without action are just that, just dreams.

While it’s great to have dreams we also need results. We need to do something about our dreams in order to make things happen in our lives.

 So how do we go about doing that?

How to set a reall effective goal setting

Here are a few great tips for making sure that the goal you set for yourself is going to get you the results you want.

1. Stated in the positive

      (What specifically do you want?)

This is a big reason for why our gym example ended up with little resuts

 If we talk about what we don’t want then that’s what we are focusing on, and it holds true that we get what we focus on. So instead, if we focus on what we do want then that is the result we’ll achieve.

 Remember, our unconscious mind does not process negatives.

 So for our gym example. Instead of saying “I don’t want to be unfit anymore” instead say that you do.

 Quite simple but very effective.

 2. Specify present situation

     (Where are you now?)

Measuring your goal is a really important part of the overall process. If you don’t know where you started from then how do you know how far you have to go to get to your destination?

Let’s break down our gym example a little further.

You don’t want to be unfit anymore. We’ve got it in a positive frame now which is great, in other words you want to get fit. But you’re still starting from a point where you feel you are unfit. What does unfit actually mean to you?

Let’s say it means you can currently only run 50 meters without having to stop, and when you do you are out of breath and feel dizzy and nauseous. That’s our starting point, our present situation.

3, Specify outcome.

     (What will you see, hear, feel, etc., when you have it?)

Lets say in our case you want to be able to run 100 meters and feel great at the end of it.

Rehearsing what it will feel like (see, hear, feel, etc) is a really effective way of placing a tangible end goal in your mind.

4. Specify evidence procedure

     (How will you know when you have it?)

If we don’t do this step then how would we know we have achieved our goal?

We need to tell ourselves that we have succeeded, and to do that we need to choose something that will let us know.

In our example we want to be able to run 100 meters and not be out of breath. So, what does out of breath mean?

In this case working out what a good breathing rate after exercise for your age and weight would be could be the target to go for, and achieving it would be our evidence that we have met our goal.

Here are a couple more things to keep in mind when working on your goals..

Think about time. Do you want to achieve your goal in a week, a month, a year, a lifetime? Having a timeframe will keep your focus.

Last tip I’d say is break down your goals into manageable chunks, or into smaller more manageable goals. Build your success in gradual steps rather than trying to achieve everything at once. You can certainly have a big dream in mind and working in smaller, more achievable steps, will make it happen for you.

What next?

So now you have some great pointers about how to make sure you achieve what you set out to.

Why not take a look  at your current goals and see if you could improve on them?

Summary

If you’d like to really turbo charge your results then come along to one of our diploma or practitioner courses. We spend more time talking about and working on effective goal setting and how you can get what you want and deserve out of life.

Or drop us a message if you have any questions using the contact form below, we’d love to hear from you.