Let’s talk today about how you set goals and intentions that resonate with you. I am sure you have all heard about SMART goals. I love using that system with my clients but there is a process we go through before we even get to that, I call it – What, How, Why. Let me explain..
What do you want?
The first thing to realize is that we are inherently programmed with knowing what we don’t want.
When I ask people ‘What do you want? What do you want to achieve?”, more often than not they can tell me what they don’t want but not what they do want. For example, if we are talking about finances they will say ‘I don’t want to be in debt.’
So our first step is to encourage your unconscious mind to know what you do want in positive terms. If we use the negative with our unconscious mind, it doesn’t recognise the difference so it will work towards whatever you are thinking about regardless of whether you want it or not. You can’t direct your unconscious mind away from something, you can only draw your mind to something.
An example that I use often is ‘Don’t think of a blue tree.’. As soon as you read that, the first thing you think of will be the blue tree. So if you say to your unconscious mind, I don’t want to have debt, it focuses on giving you that – debt!
A beautiful side effect of focusing on the positive is you build excitement and drive around it. It’s hard to get excited about something you are pushing away, but as your positive goal comes closer you can feel the anticipation and joy.
How do you get there?
Now how do you find what you want once you have clarity around it?.
One of the ways to do that is to slow down and create space. A large percentage of our lives are lived on autopilot so we just keep putting one foot in front of the other, not really looking at where we are going.
When we stop, lift our head up and take notice of our surroundings, we can sometimes discover a more fulfilling path to where we want to go.
When you have your path ahead, I suggest breaking it down into small manageable steps and scheduling time to gently chip away at these whilst tracking your progress.
Why do you want it?
So you have your positive goal and you have taken time to think about how to get there. This is where I turn you on your head and ask you – whose goal is it?
You may find that you have a lot of goals you want to achieve or that you aren’t feeling crystal clear on which ones you need to tackle first. I often find this is because some of the goals have come from the expectations of others and society.
A lot of the time we focus on keeping others happy or doing what we think is expected of us rather than what is in our heart. So look at your goals and feel free to put a big black line through the ones that don’t truly resonate with you. I guarantee you that the list will get shorter pretty quickly.
When we use these 3 steps at the beginning of our goal-setting session, you will find that you will have more clarity around exactly what you want and how to get there. Often my clients find their goals are then much easier to achieve as they are authentic to them and they are super motivated to reach them. I invite you to try this today and I would love to hear in the comments below how you went.
If you would like to discover what thoughts and behaviours are sabotaging them from attracting more abundance into their life or business book in your free 30 mins call with Sandra here.