Let me ask you a question, What is your vision for your future? Can you truthfully answer and if you can, is it one that will draw you to it like a magnet even through those tough times.
Many people in life know what it is they should do, but they never do it. Why? One reason is that they lack the drive that only a fulfilling future can provide.
It’s time to burst out our box and begin to dream at a top level, to think up crazy and unusual possibilities and maybe you will find something that can take your life to a level you never dreamed of.
To create a fulfilling future and live the kind of life we desire for ourselves we must have potent goals. You will never find the drive you need if your goals are not exciting.
Once you find your goals exciting, they will keep you up late at night and get you up in the mornings raring to go, they will inspire you to effectively use your innate resources and everything you can find within your reach to bring them to reality.
When people say that they don’t have any or that setting goals is a waste of time, what they don’t understand is that according to how our minds work it is always going after something even if it is just to reduce the anxiety you feel day to day or to increase the joy we feel some days.
Every one of us has goals it’s just that we are all not consciously directing the use of our resources to achieving them.
For many people their goals are to get by in life or what is called survival goals, these kind of goals will never give you the power to tap into the reserve of creativity and unlimited potential within you to design the life you want.
To tap into the unlimited possibilities that lie within us we must find a goal big enough and strong enough to cause us to go outside our limits and find our true potential.
Keep in mind that where you are now in life is in no way a reflection of your innate potential, it is merely about the quality and size of the goals upon which you are presently focusing.
Once you set large goals they will appear impossible for you to achieve. An important step in goal setting is to find a goal big enough to inspire us.
Your goals must be something that will make you let your power show. In order to achieve whatever seemingly impossible goals we have and be inspired during the process we must put aside those limiting beliefs we have about ourselves, and what is possible for us to achieve.
When you set your goals you are taking the first step in turning the dream into reality. Once you truly set a goal, providence will comes to your aid working with your own intensely emotional thoughts to create your ideal situation.
You therefore are able to design the life you want through the thoughts you continually put out each second of your life.
Do you realize that all the commodities, technological product, and other developments we now enjoy once existed only in the minds of the people who created them.
The light bulb started out as an idea in Thomas Edisons mind other products alike the airplane, computers, the internet, websites, search engines were all just crazy thoughts in someone’s mind.
All of these inventions and development were created and brought into existence amidst beliefs that said it could not be done.
What if the Wright brothers had listened to the naysayers, we all would not be able to travel by plane now. So no matter how crazy your goals seem to be to other or even to you it is possible to achieve them.
You may be thinking all this so far is too philosophical and is for other people, setting goals you think really doesn’t change anything nor cause thoughts to become real.
Well let me be frank here, setting a goal is not and can never be the be all and end all of the process, no, no.
Any goal you set for yourself must be immediately followed by a plan of how you are going to achieve it and then all out consistent and persistent action directed toward its attainment. A simple process, but hard one to execute for many.
Why then do people not set goals? What’s preventing from doing so? Many of you have read all the self help books, many with special chapters on goal setting so you have an idea of what goal setting can do for you.
Chances are you do not have well clarified goals about the end results you would like to create in you life. What may have halted many of you is that you have a subconscious fear of being disappointed.
For many people when they have set goals in the past and failed to attain them, the pain of the disappointment and the fear of it happening again in the future cause them to stop setting goals.
These folks are afraid to set goals with any high expectation of them coming to past least they do not and they end up being devastated.
Then there are those people who will set a goal and crucify themselves by staking their own existence and joy on being able to achieve them even though the attainment of the goal may be beyond their control.
It must be said here that just because you set yourself a goal means that you will achieve it, for life has a way of presenting to you, as you head towards your goal, other worthwhile and better goals.
At times like this you may just decide to go with one of them because they inspire more. At times if you fail to achieve your goals you end up achieving your life’s goals (your real goals).
A friend of mine once had a goal of being a physiotherapist; she applied and was accepted into a university studying physiotherapy.
She flunked out after her second year and had taken a job as a customer service/marketing agent. You will not find a happier person alive, she loves her job to the point where she eat sleeps and walks it. When she speaks about her job I feel like I would want to do it.
It is also prudent to realize that when you are in pursuit of your goals that life goes on. The sun will rise and set at about the same time each day, flowers will bloom, seasons will come and go, the children will grow up.
All these things will happen whether we achieve our goals or not. So it is important to know that achieving the goal can never be the only thing that matters in your like, it is also the quality of life you live whilst pursuing it.
There are many people who see goal setting as something for some day in the future when something else has happened, like achieving something.
After that has happened then they will set and seek their goals, after that has happen they will be able to enjoy their life.
These people are going through life putting off their joy and happiness. Goals are great to have but we must also work to live every day to its fullest.
So instead of seeing your success or failure in life in terms of your ability to achieve a particular goal. It is necessary to know that its the direction that you are heading which is far, more important than the results.
For we may achieve the goals we are pursuing and much much more if we continue to head in the right direction. Missing your dream may lead you to your future.
This does not mean that if you are pursuing your goals and you come upon some initial failure or frustration that you should just stop chasing you goals and try another one.
You will never achieve a goal by being interested in its achievement, you simply must be totally committed to it. You must be persistent.
Persistence determines who will win. The key to achieving goals is the resolving to commit to being constant and consistent in your actions towards the goal.
Far too often many people are too fearful that they will fail and because of this they never begin to pursue a goal.
Many still give up far too soon after they start pursing their goal. They may have been on the right track going in the right direction to achieve what they want but because its not happening fast enough they quit, if only they had the patience and the persistence.
Change your approach if you have to as is necessary but never give up on your ultimate goal.
So what are you going to do now in order to take your dreams to the realm of reality? Get a sheet of paper and for each major area of your life (e.g. career, relationships, money, adventure) write down what your dreams are.
Ask yourself constantly What kind of life would I want if I could have it the way I wanted? What would I go after if failure was not a possibility?
Now when doing this you must do a couple of thing
1) put off you need to know just how you are going to achieve them
2) never doubt your capability nor question it. You have to be in a state of mind where you have pure faith and the expectation that you can create anything you wanted.
Next you are going to put a time line on each of your major goals be it one year, or ten years write it down.
Once again do not worry about how you are going to do it nor whether the time line is long enough. It is your commitment to achieving your goal that is important.
Now that you have your goals and have stet your time line you now have to choose your top one-year goal and write down all your reasons why your are committed to achieving this goal in the time line you have specified.
Write down as many reasons as you can think of and make them strong enough so that they can move you, give you the drive and get you excited at a deeper level about the process.
Its important at this point to make sure you look on your goals day in and day out. Display them where you can see them every day, be it on a sheet of paper stuck to the mirror in your bedroom, in your diary.
Everywhere and anywhere is good as long as you can see it. Be committed to doing something each day towards the attainment of your goal you are likely to make headway each day.
This next process may seem way out there but you must do it because it works. At least once a day (three times a day is preferable) see yourself as already in possession of the goals and experience the joy you will feel on a deep emotional level.
This consistent focus will cause you to feel a sense of certainty that your desires will be attained and hence your actions will ensure your success.
It is important to understand that your goals are just a means to an end and not what our life is about. Goals aid us in focusing our attention towards a particular desire, they help us in our personal growth. In the long term achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy.
It is who we become through the process of achieving our goal that gives us the greatest, deepest and long lasting sense of fulfillment.
So ask yourself What kind of person must I become in order to attain my goal? what skills do I need to learn? What kind of clothes should I wear? What kind of attitude must I have? What other areas do I need to develop in order to live my dreams?
Write it all down.
The most important step in setting your goal is your follow through. Many people set goals and all they remain is a something that was written on a sheet of paper because they never followed through.
Once you have set your goals you absolutely must take some form of positive action towards its achievement, immediately.
Your actions can be as simple as thinking up the name of the business you want to start, or doing some research on home financing for that home you want to buy.
Another crucial element in the whole goal setting process is that whenever you find that you are about to achieve a goal it is important that you begin to set up the next set of goals.
If you don’t you may experience a kind of let down and end up asking yourself Is that all there is? because you don’t see anywhere else to go from there. Some people even end up in deep depression after achieving their goals.
So it is important that you set highly compelling goals to guarantee a smooth transition from completion to new inspiration and a continued commitment to personal growth.
If your original goal is the ultimate goal for you then it can be difficult to have the commitment and drive to go outside our comfort zone and pursue a new goal.
But we can do so by giving of ourselves to others, as contribution is a powerful way of living and can inspire us for a lifetime.
In your drive towards your goals it is always good and a smart thing to figure out from the beginning what roadblocks you may face on the way.
What out there or within you that may prevent from attaining your goal and do something to deal with them right away rather than later.
A compelling future creates a high level of personal growth. It is a necessity that allows you to set out and achieve that which you desire.
You will have a sense of control over your destiny, and experience joy, excitement and growth as you go along the way giving your life meaning. Now go set some goals and do something to achieve them.
