STRATEGIES, GOALS AND VISION

STRATEGIES, GOALS AND VISION

By all accounts, Steve Jobs was a visionary. One late September day in 2001, he stormed into the office and seemed to be raving. “A thousand songs in your pocket! A thousand songs in your pocket!”  He’d made a promise to his daughter to put a thousand of her favorite songs in her pocket. It was a promise that he fulfilled by creating the first I-pod. He was a man possessed, and what carried him to his goals was his ability to “see” it in his mind’s eye. Add that to his organizational skills and he was unstoppable!

How can we tap into that unstoppability? First order of business is to set a goal. Ask yourself: “what am I trying to achieve?” When cultivating a goal or looking to create a new one, I look toward my passions and my interests. I look at what may be missing in my world, or something I’d like to incorporate. I look toward an objective that is going to improve my life and add interest and value. Your interest and your curiosity are the breadcrumbs that your true self is leaving for you to follow. 

It could be that you want to increase your income by a certain percentage. Maybe you want to create a love relationship or deepen the one that you’re in. You might be looking to add a habit or practice into your life, like working out, or learning yoga. Maybe you just love to paint! The point is, it has to be something you can want. 

I’ve said it here and in my books that in order to manifest anything, you need three things:

1. Intention- “I’m going to do (state your intention)”
2. Burning Desire- fill your mind with pictures and images of what you want and of you getting it and celebrating
3. Personal Power- 
   • a) take your power back from whatever you’re giving it away to
   • b) Attention to detail in creating achievable steps

Pick a goal. It can be big or small, but it must be a SMART goal. See the chart below.* 

Once you’ve picked a goal, you’ve got to have a strategy, an overall plan for how to achieve that goal. The goal needs to be specific. You can’t just say “ I want more money.” You might say “I want to save $5,000. by the end of the year. Be sure you have some pathway to achieving that, and be clear that you really want it. 

The following are some tactics for achieving goals, and some pitfalls that will stop you:

Here is a set of tactics to follow in order to achieve your goal:

• Set a S.M.A.R.T. goal. Make sure it is a goal that you want. It should inspire you and stir your passion. Ask yourself why you want it.
• Make a plan. …write it down
• Write down five achievable steps, and do one every day
• Make a timeframe
• Picture and visualize achieving that goal every day
• Fill your mind with positive thoughts and feelings about this goal
• Set aside time every day to work on your goal, even if it’s five minutes
• Connect with your emotions when you see yourself achieving that goal
• Reward yourself. …celebrate every successful step toward your goal
• Share your goal. …make yourself accountable to others
• Seek out collaboration, assistance and feedback
• Stick to your goal…failure is part of success

Here are some reasons why you haven’t achieved your goals in the past that need to be avoided now:

• You didn’t have a burning desire for it
• You didn’t believe you could
• You kept it a secret
• You didn’t get help and collaboration
• You didn’t have a plan and didn’t know what steps to take
• Fear of success and failure
• Analysis paralysis
• Fear of the responsibility and visibility of achieving your goal
• Perfectionism
• Being overwhelmed by the bigger picture
• Taking too big a step
• Filling your head with excuses instead of possibilities
• Expectations and attachments
• Listening to negative people and/or your own negativity

Here’s what I suggest to cultivate your vision. Try this: close your eyes for two minutes and see yourself achieving what you want. See the world applauding and supporting you. See yourself happy and celebrating, and everyone celebrating with you. As you fill your mind with these pictures and images, connect to the emotions that it brings up in you. Feel the enthusiasm and joy, and the sense of accomplishment. Once you’ve connected with the emotions, you can open your eyes. From time to time during the day, flash on one or more of those images and feel your emotions. It will renew your excitement and enthusiasm. 

The reason that this works is simple. The mind does not make any distinction between  what is real and what you imagine. This is why we can go to a movie and get terrified when the murderer is sneaking up on the hapless teen. We  believe what we see. Whatever you feed your mind, becomes your mind’s truth and you start to make a thousand choices and micro-choices based on that “truth”. Of course, this cuts both ways: if you are thinking negatively, you will make your choices accordingly. 

I urge you to get back in the game. Life without dreams is a very dreary affair. When you are pursuing a goal or a dream, you are acting through your authentic self, and this is who you really are. So, come back to life! You are a passionate, resourceful, positive person. That’s how you came here to this planet, before all of your programming convinced you otherwise. Make up your mind that you are going to get what you want and live your full, vibrant life. You deserve it! Discover for yourself that you have your own version of “a thousand songs in your pocket!”