What exactly is your goal?

So you have a goal. Something that you’ve set your sights on. You may even have a plan of how to achieve it. But how do you know if it’s really going to provide the satisfaction that you’re after?

Goal setting is a proven way to help achieve success. Goals provide direction and concentrate effort. Achieving our goals is closely correlated to how much they motivate us. Sometimes our goals are more of a ‘should’ than a ‘must’- ‘I should lose weight’; ‘I should get fitter’. These ‘should’ goals are born more from perceived pressures to conform and will lack the lustre needed to see them through. To be fully motivated to achieve our goals, they need to really matter to us. We need to know what it is that we really want, what is the intention behind the goal?

So how do we find this out?

We can use an NLP (neurolinguistic programming) technique called stepping up. Start with the current goal and imagine that this goal has been achieved. Try and visualise the scenario, really live and breathe it. Maybe even write it down. How does it make you feel emotionally, what things are you doing because you’ve achieved this goal, what do you see, how do you act, how will life be different?

Then ask yourself the following question — ‘As I see myself having achieved my goal, what does it do for me?’

Take the answer ‘X’ and repeat the question — ‘As I see myself having X, what does it do for me?’

Repeat the process until it can go no further

For example:

Goal — To run half marathon in less than 2 hours

If I achieve this goal, what will it do for me? Show me that I can achieve what I set out to do

And now I know I can achieve what I set out to do, what does that do for me? Gives me confidence in my ability

And what does that do for me? Means I can make bigger plans

And what does that do for me? Means I can go after my dreams

And what does that do for me? Gives me a sense of freedom

And what does that do for me? Makes me feel alive

So now you know that your highest positive intention is that you want to feel alive! Knowing this can change the way you make choices, go about setting future goals and how you choose to live. You now know what you are really searching for. Give it a go, you may be surprised what you learn.