Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your ideas [for the future] into reality.

The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you should concentrate your efforts.  You'll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you away from your intended direction/goal.

Properly focused goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving them, you'll find that your self confidence improves and your vision grows.

Goal setting techniques are used widely in business, sport, academic achievement and also in everyday life. They give you long term vision and short term motivation. They focus your quest of knowledge and help you to organise your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self confidence, as you recognise your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set.

From the Book ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ by Rhondalynn Korolak

"You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.  Put your future in good hands – your own." ~ Mark Victor Hansen ~

You have to know what it is you are seeking to achieve in life otherwise it’s too easy to drift aimlessly. Years pass like days and next thing you know 20 years have passed and you’ve still not finished that novel that you started to write, not gone back to school to get that degree, not sorted your financial affairs, never bothered to get around to learning a second language etc.

There is one thing that we need to touch on in the context of goal setting – it is the distinction between goals and dreams. And it is this distinction that makes all the difference. Too often, traditional goal setting can seem like a very clinical exercise. Pick up any self-help or business book and it will tell you how to set SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. While I agree with the necessity of these basic factors, I also think it is absolutely crucial to incorporate the element of "dreams" and the "imagination".

By their very nature, dreams are illogical, irrational, non-sequential, without specific steps and difficult to measure. However, too many of us get limited in our goal setting by the constraints of our own imagination. We would all like to make an extra $100,000 a year but we have no powerful, compelling reason ‘WHY’. What exactly would you do with another $100,000? That is the critical question to ask yourself …

Connect with ‘what’ or ‘why’ and the ‘how’ will make itself known to you in the most miraculous ways.

Even so, $100,000 is not a huge stretch in today’s terms. But most never dare to aspire to double or triple their income. Why is that?

The missing element is the realm of dreams and imagination. By its very nature, a dream is something that is potentially unrealistic. However, dreams are incredibly powerful and compelling because they are about who you are becoming, not who you are now.

Dreams and imagination lie within the domain of the subconscious mind. By incorporating this additional element into the goal setting process, we connect to the infinite resourcefulness of the subconscious and ignite a passion that will inspire and drive us towards our goals.

Financial Foreplay® Highlights: Define your Goals:

1.When setting goals it is very important to remember that your goals must be consistent with your values.

2. A goal can not contradict any of your other goals.

For example, you can't buy a $750,000 house if your income goal is only $50,000 per year. This is called non-integrated thinking and will sabotage all of the hard work you put into your goals. Non-integrated thinking can also hamper your everyday thoughts as well. It pays dividends to continually strive to eliminate contradictory ideas from your thinking.

3. Develop goals in the 6 areas of life:

                   Family and Home

                   Financial and Career

                   Spiritual and Ethical

                   Physical and Health

                   Social and Cultural

                   Mental and Educational

Setting goals in each area of life will ensure a more balanced life as you begin to examine and change the fundamentals of everyday living. Setting goals in each area of live also helps in eliminating the non-integrated thinking we talked about in the 2nd step.

4. Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative.

Work for what you want, not for what you want to leave behind. Part of the reason why we write down and examine our goals is to create a set of instructions for our subconscious mind to carry out. Your subconscious mind is a very efficient tool, it cannot determine right from wrong and it does not judge. It's only function is to carry out its instructions. The more positive instructions you give it, the more positive results you will get.  Thinking positively in everyday life will also help in your growth as a human being. Don't limit it to goal setting.

5. Write your goal out in great detail. You must give the subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give it, the more clear the final outcome becomes. The more precise the outcome, the more efficient the subconscious mind can become.

6. By all means, make sure your goal is high enough.

7. This is the most important, writing down your goals creates the roadmap to your success. Although just the act of writing them down can set the process in motion, it is also extremely important to review your goals frequently. Remember, the more focused you are on your goals the more likely you are to accomplish them.

Sometimes we realise we have to revise a goal as circumstances and other goals change. If you need to change a goal do not consider it a failure, consider it a victory as you had the insight to realise something needed adjustment. 

MY RESULT Goal Setting Formula

Whilst you need the capacity to dream you also need to be able to move that vision from the ethereal to the material and that is where MY RESULT goal setting methodology comes in:

M          Measurable result. How will you know when you get there? What does the end step look like?

Y            Why? For what purpose/intention do you want it? Do not be afraid to dream BIG here!

R            Realistic and achievable. Don’t be afraid to set a longer-term goal that is a stretch or a challenge.

E            Ecological – is it good for you, others and the planet?

S            Specific, clear and concise goals – ensure you subconscious mind knows what it is working towards.

U           You have it now. The goal must be written in the present, as if you have it now and signed by you.

L             Looking toward your goal - not moving away from what you do not want. Action-oriented.

T            Time bound - must have a specific achievement date.