At the beginning of each year many people create concrete goals for the year ahead, while some people make resolutions to give up bad habits or the things that hold their lives back.
While giving up things can be very beneficial, in many cases it is often better to create a new habit that counteracts the old bad habit, rather than forcing ourselves to change a bad habit.
Creating a new habit is a lot easier and results in the same outcome.
Personally, at the beginning of each New Year I think it’s a lot more effective to create clear concise goals and create a set of action steps that we will take to achieve them.
Goal setting is really straightforward, but a lot of people do it in such a way where they end up not achieving them and instead become disillusioned and disempowered.
There really is no big secret about how to achieve our goals, and how we can do this in such a way where we are guaranteed great results every time.
The first step is always examining what it is that we truly desire; the things that we truly yearn for and to write these down on a piece of paper.
Once we have a basic list of goals, we then need to rewrite them into short, concise statements. It’s important that each of our goals is crystal clear, so having long wordy goals isn’t a great idea.
A very important part of goal setting that many people leave out; is to have a very clear reason WHY we are setting the goal and include it as part of our goal statement.
For example, we may be concerned about our health and we may recognise that we need to take more exercise.
Having a goal simply to take more exercise is not very specific, nor does it include a good enough reason to take that exercise.
So, if we add a very clear strong reason for achieving our goal, then it gives our goals far more momentum and power.
We might consider rewriting our goal in such a way as something like this:
“I will take three hours of vigorous exercise each week, so that I become strong and healthy, and live a long productive life, where I can contribute greatly to the happiness of my wife, children and society for many years”.
Okay, that’s a rather long statement, but I think you get the idea of what I’m saying.
When we build into goals a very clear reason why, we give them energy and power and on a subconscious level we are far more motivated to achieving them.
If we don’t include a reason why, then chances are as time goes by we will be less inclined to bring our goals to fruition.
Another very important part of goal setting is to include a date by which we will have achieved our goal.
Again, this affects us powerfully on a subconscious level, but it also adds additional motivation for us to take concrete action steps towards achieving a goal by the date we have set.
So when we create crystal clear, concise goals, and include a strong motivating reason why we will achieve them, and a deadline by which we will achieve them, we infuse our goals with energy and power.
So, if we do all this correctly, is it still possible to not achieve our goals?
Well, the short answer is of course yes. Everything depends on the consistency of our efforts towards achieving our goals and our continued motivation to do so.
Many people give up half way, and this can really end up piling on disempowerment and disillusionment. Making half-hearted attempts to achieve goals can do more harm than good and it can hold us back from achieving future goals.
So by looking at our goals every morning and every evening, and infusing them with emotion and excitement – these things will have a VERY strong affect, and will ultimately enable us to achieve our goals.
So emotionalising our goals is really important.
It’s also important to visualise as clearly as we can what is will feel like and be like when our goal has been achieved. This day dreaming about what it will be like once we’ve achieved our goals can have a very beneficial effect and can speed up the process greatly.
As I mentioned earlier it’s very important to break down each of our goals into very definite action steps. For example, if our goal is to become a skilled writer by a certain date then our action steps might include such things as doing a course in creative writing, setting aside one hour every morning to write, but also include doing a course to improve our typing speed.
Unless we sit down and figure out what action steps we need to take achieve our goals, our efforts could be in vain.
Now, I do realise that when we set some types of goal we may not yet know what all those specific action steps should be.
However, we still need to write down as many action steps as we can think of. Then as we take regular consistent action every day towards achieving the goal, as time goes by and our understanding grows, the next steps in the plan will naturally emerge.
Now, there is something else that holds back so many people from achieving the goals. And that’s our subconscious beliefs about ourselves, about life, and what is actually possible for us.
Many people make goals but subconsciously they don’t believe that they will be able to achieve them, or that they are not even worthy of achieving them.
Our subconscious beliefs are really what dictates what we can achieve in life and who we will become.
Even if we are setting our goals 100% correctly and taking actions towards their achievement; it still possible for our subconscious beliefs to completely sabotage the entire process.
This is something that stops most people from achieving their hearts desire. We all have subconscious beliefs that sabotage the things that we try to achieve in life.
We build up these beliefs through the conditioning we receive while growing up, painful experiences that we go through, and by believing all sorts of incorrect things that society tells us.
So how do we reprogram our subconscious mind so that we can achieve our goals?
Well, if we have a goal to run a marathon in two months time, and if we are currently very overweight, then achieving such a goal could be quite challenging.
Firstly, we need to get fit and lose weight, and possibly change how we eat. We may also have strong subconscious beliefs that tell us that such a goal is impossible.
So if you are making a goal that will change your life dramatically in some way, then it is often much better to gradually stretch the limits of your subconscious beliefs.
In the case of running a marathon, it might be better to set the goal to run a marathon in six months time rather than two months.
You see, what we believe deep down is what will really determine whether or not we can achieve something.
We need to gradually increase the limits of our beliefs. We just can’t very easily do it all at once, especially if our goal is really big.
Another example might be determining to make $1 million within one year. If we have never earned more than $100,000 in a single year then making such a determination could be stretching the limits of our subconscious belief a bit too much.
It might be better to make a goal of achieving $200,000 in the next year and then later after we have achieved that goal and as a result of the empowerment that comes from achieving such a goal, we can then make an even bigger goal.
So, it really is important to gradually stretch the limits of our inner beliefs. Because when we do this, we are far more likely to have greater successes.
If you just set dramatic huge goals for yourself without having achieved such things ever before then in many cases you will end up very disappointed and disillusioned and even disempowered.
As I said earlier this can actually have an even greater negative affect on future goal setting.
Back in 2002 I had a rather dramatic experience that showed me the true power of determination.
And had I made this determination six months before, I would have had no hope of achieving it; simply because the limits of my belief were much, much smaller back then.
During 2002 I was on radio and TV many times speaking about the scientific evidence for life after death. It is a topic that is very close to my heart and when you have learnt a lot about a subject that can help many people, I believe it is your duty to share that knowledge and understanding.
I believe it is a crime to learn all sorts of things that can help people dramatically, and never to share them with anyone.
Anyway as a say, I was on radio and TV a lot during that year and towards the end of September I made a very spontaneous and deep determination. In fact it was more than a determination it was a vow or a 100% commitment that I made to the universe.
I vowed that within the next month I would positively affect the lives of more than 280,000 people.
In fact I made this vow totally spontaneously, without even thinking about it and it absolutely came from the depths of my being.
A moment later I was shocked by making such huge commitment and my immediate thought was how am I going to do this?
But then I realised I’d already been making quite a difference in radio and TV interviews and that such a goal really was possible, providing I did the right things.
It turns out that I didn’t have to do anything, because the very next day I got a phone call from Ireland’s most popular talk radio show. They had heard about my work and they wanted to interview me.
The interview went really well. I was told that I would only have five minutes to speak, but the interview went on for almost an hour. It became one of that show’s top 10 most popular interviews of all time.
As a say, making such a determination would have been impossible six months before. However gradually by gaining confidence in my abilities I was able to make such a huge determination.
As I say, it was completely spontaneous and came from the core of my life. And it shocked the hell out of me!
But the amazing thing is that radio show had over half a million listeners and I was flooded by emails, letters and faxes from people all over the place thanking me for inspiring them and helping them to overcome their fear of death.
Anyway, I hope this short talk about how to make goals correctly has helped to.
Everything comes down to how clear your goal is, a big reason why you wish to achieve it, and a very definite date by which it will be achieved.
After that, you need to read your goals (preferably aloud) morning and evening with emotion and excitement, as though you had already achieved them.
And visualising exactly what it will be like when you achieve them. You need to imagine all of this, as though it were happening right now.
Then you need to take strong consistent daily actions towards your goals achievement.
Your actions don’t need to be huge or stretch you too much. Just small daily consistent actions over time add up to dramatic improvements in your life.
Thanks so much for joining me today and I look forward to serving you again very soon.
