I got confused when setting goals, and you?
Many of the success gurus talk about goal setting. In fact, goal setting is so important to upholding the laws of success, that if someone claiming to be a success guru downplays goal setting, they are not the “real deal.”
Still, while studying so many laws and principles of success, I was confused by the goal setting process. I would hear that I needed a clear, concise, and measurable goal and then I would hear that I needed to describe what I wanted my life to be like. I would learn from vision boards and life visions. Bob Proctor teaches how to start writing a clear goal starting with “I am so happy and grateful now that…” fill in the blank. In fact, fill two or three pages of whatever.
All this was very confusing for me because I saw everything as a mechanism: a goal. I didn’t realize you could break the process into several smaller parts. I didn’t realize that when breaking down goals, I need to start with the general or big idea and then break it down into smaller parts. When I had that “aha”, the confusion dissipated and clarity prevailed. So let me clarify how I did it.
I started with the big picture and drilled down into the relevant details. That means I started writing my vision of life. What is a vision of life? Simply put, it’s an overview of how you want your life to be. Some people write it as if it were the last day of their life on earth and now they are describing what their life was like in retrospect. Others use Bob Proctor’s script: “I am so happy and grateful, now that…”.
One thing to keep in mind is to use the present tense in all uses of the verbs. You know, ‘I am’, ‘I do’, ‘I have’. Avoid the future tense, such as ‘I will’ or ‘I want’ and the past tense, such as ‘I was’, ‘I did’ or ‘I had’
It’s a good idea to organize your life into categories and write about your life in the context of those categories. Some categories may include: your inner or spiritual life; your relationships or family life; your physical life and your health; your emotional life and your health; your business, your career and financial life, your dreams and aspirations. Woven throughout these categories, you will write your life purpose, your mission, your message to the world.
Chances are your life vision includes lifelong goals, but not something you hope to accomplish next month or this year. However, another confusion I had about life visions was that they are carved out of granite. They are not. I had a mentor tell me that he rewrote his outlook on life 6-10 times a year.
How long should your vision of your life be? You will read or listen to it at least twice a day for the rest of your life. So if you were to read it out loud, it would take you 10-15 minutes to read it. Some people take up to 20 minutes to read their life vision.
Once you’ve written a life vision, you can now break down your more specific goals into yearly or monthly goals, or even more specific ones. These are goals that you will write down separately and read about 70 times a week. Again, these goals are specific, measurable, and are written in the present tense as well.
The third category of objectives is the vision board. This is goal setting at its most fun. You literally create a “tic tac toe” (nine boxes) on your wall with painter’s tape, or you can make it as elaborate as you like. I took an old framed photo, bought it at a thrift store, and taped my nine boxes on it. Pretty sophisticated, huh? Then place pictures or three-by-five cards in the boxes. Be sure to check your vision board for three minutes in the morning when you first get up and for three minutes at night before you go to bed.
So here are the top three ways to set your goals; a life vision, specific goals that are broken down at a detailed level, and your vision board. I recommend doing all three. There will be some overlap in your goals between the three methods, but hey, I’d like all the boost I can get, wouldn’t I?
