Go For Goals

I’ve heard so many times about how important it is for us to set goals if we intend to be successful. I’ve even been shown a chart of the percentage of people interviewed on how well they’ve set their goals. Apparently, only 3% of the survey group had definite, concrete and written goals. And later in life, these small groups of people became highly successful as compared to the rest who fell into the ‘Moderately Comfortable’, ‘Getting By’ and ‘Struggling’ categories of the financial scale where they either have a fairly good notion of their aims and objectives, have some thought only in the financial area or have no goals at all. Seeing the figures didn’t quite affect me at all because I remember actually writing down my 5-year and 10-year goals respectively when I was in my mid twenties and I am now not even remotely close to any of those goals. So I resigned to the fact that stating down my goals just didn’t work for me.

If I had known I was going to attend a talk about goal-setting a few days ago, I probably might have conjured up an excuse not to attend it. I actually thought I was about to attend a talk by this Caucasian guy who’ll impart us some skills on being a fantastic sales person.

Then John Kanary, author of the acclaimed book, Breaking Through Limitations, hit me right on the money when he gave us the reasons why many people don’t achieve their goals. They are:-
1. No clarity
2. We don’t believe we can pull it off
3. We lack commitment
4. No consistency
5. Lack of standards. Either too low or no standards at all.

In my line of work, it’s good to know what my clients’ goals are in their personal lives. And I’m still quite surprised sometimes when most of them don’t seem to have any set out before I asked them this question. Even if they had, they were mostly vague. Firstly, let us not confuse ‘goals’ with ‘dreams’. Dreams are something we fantasise about (and I don’t mean the type that involves costumes or props!). So it can be something as far-fetched as having my own vegetable garden. Yes, I do dream about that. And would you think it’s easier for people to have thought about their dreams? Interestingly, many I asked also haven’t thought about it until I asked.

Have we been so caught up in this rat race of ours that we’ve forgotten how to dream and are afraid to set goals for ourselves for fear that we’ll only prove in time that we’re failures?

WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT. Just think about it. If we go about our lives not imagining what we will become 20 years later, would it be a wonder if we’re still in the same state as we were 20 years ago?

If you’ve read my previous blog entries, you’ll know that I’m a great believer of the power of the mind. For instance, what made us believe that there were 9 planets in our solar system when there’s now 12? We know nuts about astronomy and simply believed that there were 9 planets just because we’re being told. Do you call this a belief?

So let’s set ourselves an achievable goal like owning our favourite car. Writing down that goal alone might not work because we may not believe that we can pull it off. So why don’t we go down to the car dealership and see that car right before our eyes? But instead of just seeing it, why don’t we get inside it and feel the wonderful interiors? And while we’re at it, get our friend to take a picture of us inside the car. If the car dealer would allow us, take more pictures of ourselves outside or even on the car. Later, have those pictures placed up so we can see them everyday. What we’re trying to do here is to get ourselves emotionally involved with our goal and let it get into our sub-consciousness. Because once it gets in there, we won’t be able to tell if it’s real or not. The next time we feel down and out, we can also look at those pictures and visualise ourselves enjoying our reward when we attain it. Get my drift?

Beliefs begin with a shift in our focus. For those who claim that they have no goals because they don’t know what they want, have you been asked if it’s this that you want or that, and then you go, “no, that’s not what I want.”? Don’t you think then, that actually you do know what you want but just don’t want to see it? You’re just not letting yourself focus on what you want. Have you noticed that when we’re talking on our mobile phones while we’re walking or driving, we tend to slow down our pace? We do this because our primary focus was in the conversation and not our destination. So if you think you are feeling a little lost, you’re not. You’re just not focused on where you’re going.

So we should spend some time visualising who we’d like to become or where we’d like to be in the future. It might just help give us a purpose in going about our lives.

“What lies before you and what lies behind you are tiny matters compared to what lies within you”- Ralph Waldo Emerson