Write the goal you think you can achieve in 6 months from today. State your goal positively as something you have accomplished.
Envision achieving your goal.
Anything worth having doesn't come easily. It takes commitment and discipline. Why not use all your resources, including your imagination?
Make your goal as real and as visible as possible. Football and basketball players have a big advantage. Their goals are unmistakable.
It's not hard for them to keep their eyes on the basket or the end-zone. But goals in life are usually much less tangible. That's why a picture of your goal or something that symbolizes it could help. If a large brick colonial is what you want, why not keep a picture of one where you can see it every day. You might ask a friend to take a picture of you in front of your dream home.
That technique worked for one Sale to Success graduate who had been unemployed for 4 years. When his job as a marketing manager for an industrial company soured, Gary tried his hand at writing. After two books-but no publisher-he was lonely, dejected, and weary of hearing "When are you going to get a job?"
An antique car buff, Gary kept a picture of a classic Rolls-Royce convertible on his desk as he enrolled in the professional sales training program. Fortified by his newly honed skills, he persuaded Paine Webber to give him a chance.
Within seven years, he reported excitedly, "I drive to work in Rolls. It's a used one," he confided, "but what a beauty!" Whether your goal is the grand opening of your restaurant, owning a Rolls-Royce, or becoming a veterinarian, the more you can experience it with all your senses, the more empowering it will be. If you put your imagination to work, rather than depend solely on your will power and determination, you may probably get better results faster.
Visualization exercises. Most athletes train mentally, as well as physically, because that kind of training has proven effective in achieving top performance. When we see an Olympic diver, concentrating deeply just before his dive, he is performing visually and kinesthetically. He creates in his mind the template of the perfect dive that will guide his real body?
If you're clearly focused on your goals, you can use this same kind of "end-state imagery to imagine yourself in a peak performance state, successful, and admired. Exercise in visualization that takes just a few minutes a day. The template in your mind will be an image of yourself not executing a perfect dive but achieving your goal?
Build belief
The biggest part of achieving your goal is writing it down. But it is not enough. You must build belief in yourself. Commit yourself to accomplishing your goal. Commitment is belief that something is attainable through your own efforts.
Optimists and pessimists are both right. If you think you can, you can.
If you think you can't, you will insure that outcome. Since you're insuring yourself, why not go for a positive outcome?
Once you're committed to your goal, you must take charge, develop a positive approach, and plan. Think of yourself as the artist painting your self-portrait 5 or 10 years from now. What you will look like depends on the goals you set, the plans you make, and the action you cake to implement them. Will it be a masterpiece? Or a canvas with only a few tentative brush strokes?
Employment Insurance Checklist
- Did you set your goal?
- Is it achievable (but requires you to stretch)?
- Is it measurable?
- Did you write it?
- Did you create your Goal Setting/Planning Guide?
- Did you do a reality check?
- How committed are you to reaching your goal?
- Are you enthusiastic?
- How are you reinforcing your commitment?
- Do you see, read, and repeat your goal at least 3 times a day?
- Have you made it public?
- Are you avoiding negative influences that may undercut your efforts?
- Can you envision achieving your goal?
