Excite Yourself ' Effective Goal Setting

Copyright (c) 2011 Willie Horton

Google 'Goal Setting' and you will discover all kinds of advice and techniques on how to set your goals. But what if, like most people that I've met in my fifteen years of personal development and self improvement work, you don't know what your goals are? Sure, most of us know what we're running away from in life, the things that we don't want ' stress, worry, fear, lack of self esteem, ill health, weight problems, it's a very long list ' but focusing on what you don't want only adds to the ongoing 'not-too-bad' that constitutes the normal life. You've got to be running towards something ' that's the only way that your subconscious mind can clearly focus to bring the desired outcome about. And, in order to captivate your subconscious mind and energize it, your goal needs to be a turn on ' you need to excite yourself.

Do you know your goals? I bet you that you've a good idea what you'd like to change in your life but that's not the same thing as having big and exciting goals. We all know that things that we want to get rid of in our lives - health worries, financial worries, all the worries that you can think of! We want to get rid of stress and all its associated physical and psychological problems. Maybe we want to get over some personal problem that we think we have - like thiking that you're shy or that you're short on self-esteem. In other words, we're all experts at knowing all the problems that we want to be rid of. The key question is, have we a clear idea in our heads of what we actually do want? And, even when we think that we do know what we want, how often does it change? From what I've seen, it appears to me that the normal persons' goals are as variable as the Irish weather - one day it's a new car, next day it's a new job, the following day it's a different car because the neighbours have just got one, the day after that, it might be a holiday or a holiday home. The point is, even if you're into setting your mind to different goals, it's damn difficult to hit a moving target.

So, here are a couple of suggested questions that might fix your mind on the kind of life and lifestyle that you really want. First of all, consider this. If you discovered today that you've only got three months to life, how would you spend those three months? Don't get me wrong - you're not to answer that question by saying that you'll sink into a deep depression for the next twelve weeks! I believe that this kind of self-questioning gives your mind the kind of focus that it needs. And, of course, you must realize that you only have a finite amount of time available to you anyway - perhaps you need to think in this manner constantly.

Secondly, who and what are the people and things that are most important to you in your life? Do you devote your time and attention to these priorites or those people as things stand - and how might your life be different if you spent more time focused on these things and people than the way in which you waste your time and energy at present? How important are you to you? Do you invest in yourself. How much 'me time' do you set aside just for you? This is not a question of selfishness - it's a question of getting your priorities right because, until you're at peace with yourself, you'll be at war with everything else in the world, often including the people who are most important to you.

How would you describe your ideal life? What would it have in it - not what would it not have in it! If you could pick a moment when all is right with the world and your place in it, what would that feel like? Where would you be, who would you be with. In order to focus your mind, you've got to grab it's attention. And the best way to do that is to paint it a big, colourful exciting picture. Your mind experiences and views the world through the only interface you have with external reality - your five senses. So, you don't set your goals using phrases like 'When this happens, I'll get that' or 'I wish this or that would happen' - you have to describe your objective to your subconscious mind in language that it understands - the language of the five senses.

OK - after you're considered the foregoing questions - here's another one! Can desribe what your perfect moment would be like - what you'd see, how you'd feel, what you'd hear, smell and tatse? Forget about how you might have arrived at this point. Simply ignore how your current life appears to be vastly different from your ideal outcome. You don't need to know the how or the when, you need to know, with certainty, what it is like to have arrived. Your subconscious mind dictates your reactions, your behaviour and, therefore, your life based on psychological 'snapshots'. You've got to engross your subconscious by providing it with an exciting photograph. You can only do this using your five senses. More than that, you will directly impress your subconscious mind by handwriting all the details - what you see, feel, hear, smell and tatse - as if you're already experiencing them.

There's an old saying that nothing concentrates the mind like hanging! You need your mind to be concentrated and focused - because if you don't achieve this first vital objective, all your other objectives will be unachievable. Oh - don't forget, you need to take great care in deciding what you want...


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Willie Horton launched his now acclaimed Personal Development Seminars in 1996. His clients include Pfizer, Deloitte, Nestle, KPMG, G4S & Allergan. His Personal Development Workshops are now online, together with hundreds or 'quick tip' articles and videos, at Gurdy.Net, Willie's Personal Development Website.