I’ve previously written about how and why to set goals. (Check out that post here)
But is following the formula enough?
If you follow the “rules”, if you write down your goals, if you create a plan on how to achieve that goal and you commit to working on your goal every single day - you'll certainly be well on your way towards success!
But there is one more element to goal setting. And it can make all the difference between achieving those goals and letting them wither away.
And that is all about your mindset.
How you think will determine how you act - and therefore what you will achieve (whether you are conscious of it or not).
The human mind has great capacity, far beyond our current understanding. If you focus your mind on achieving your goals you can super-charge your ability to problem solve and reach your goals faster.
Applying the following 3 principles will ensure that you amplify your natural ability to problem solve and move you faster towards your goals.
1. You’ve got to have a “burning desire” to achieve your goal.
Napoleon Hill, author of the classic personal development book “Think and Grow Rich” states that we must have a burning desire to achieve our goals. What does he mean by that? (see my review of the classic book here).
Your goals must be so important to you that they consume your thoughts and focus your attention.
In my previous post on goal setting, I talk about writing down why achieving a certain goal is important to you. The ‘why’ behind your goal is the single most important part of goal setting. Without a strong enough why, your attention is too easily diverted, your resolve fades, and your obstacles become reasons to fail.
Your desire to achieve your goal must be unquenchable if you want to achieve great things!
2. You must believe you can achieve your goals.
Deep down you must believe that you are capable of achieving your goals. When our actions and lived experience don’t match our beliefs, we experience psychological distress (known as cognitive dissonance). When this occurs we become highly motivated to reduce that cognitive dissonance. If you take action to attain your goals but don’t believe you’ll actually succeed you'll sabotage your ability. You’ll begin choosing courses of action that hinder goal achievement. On the other hand, if you begin to believe you can achieve your goals you’ll begin to act in ways that enable that belief to manifest as reality. Brian Tracy sets out his trick for encouraging belief in his book “Goals”. He writes his goals out daily as if he’s already achieved them. So instead of writing “I will grow my business to $1 million in revenue” he would write “I have grown my business to $1 million in revenue.” Writing out goals daily, as if they are reality, will encourage your mindset which in turn will affect your actions.
3. Your actions must reflect the mindset you want - that means that you must keep taking action through the doubts.
This might seem a little contrary to my last statement. Yes, deep down, you must believe that you can achieve your goal. But this doesn’t mean you’ll never have doubts. Everyone has the little voice in your head that pops up every now and then (or more often than not for some of us) with questions like:
“Is it worth it?”
“Who am I kidding?”
“Who am I to think I can do this?”
“What if (insert any number of worst-case scenarios your brain is capable of coming up with)?”
“What if I fail?”
“What if all this is for nothing?”
These questions crop up more often than most of us would like to admit. But you’ve got to keep going despite this little voice. If you want to achieve your goals you need to recognise that the little voice is just that, a little voice, not a fact - and keep taking action despite it. (Check out my blog post on how meditation helped to me turn down that little voice here). This is why it’s so important to understand why this goal is important to you. Your “why” must be big enough to trump that little voice.
Your “why” must be big enough to get you out of bed at 5am, to give up that party, or that novel, or that trip with your mates, that burger, or that extra purchase you really want.
When your “why” is strong enough to propel you to continue to take action through the doubts - your mind will follow.
Think of your biggest goal right now, your "One Goal"... what’s your “why”? Let me know in the comments.
Related Posts:
6 Great Tools To Manage Your Projects
Further Resources:
Goals by Brian Tracy
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon HIll
Comentarios