How smart goals are set for the year: methodology and examples. With what goals and objectives to start the new year for successful self-development? Setting goals for the year

Do you know why so many goals are not being met? Because they are not delivered correctly. We all want something, we have plans and dreams. But from any desire one must make a goal. And it should be such that you can definitely achieve it.

I want to tell you about setting SMART goals. Every manager knows what it is. But we are not all managers, so let's figure out what SMART is and how to set a goal so that it can be realized.

SMART is an abbreviation formed by the first letters of English words:

• specific (specific);

• measurable (measurable);

• attainable;

• relevant

• time-bounded

The word smart itself is translated into Russian and means “smart”. Thus, the correct setting of the goal means that the goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, meaningful and related to a specific time frame.

To make it clearer, I propose to disassemble everything with an example.

PURPOSE: Buying an apartment

Specific purpose

It is not enough just to say: I want an apartment. Specify what kind of apartment you want. Maybe the studio is enough for you or you want to swing a three-ruble note? Determine what things in the apartment are important to you: balconies or loggias, a separate dressing room or a large corridor? Write down all the details, allow yourself to really want this particular apartment!

TARGET: Purchase of a 2-room apartment in the city center, with 2 balconies and a dressing room.

Measurable goal

Can you fulfill this goal? Will you have the money for the apartment you want? Calculate the required amount and enter it in to understand how measurable your goal is.

The goal cannot be realized: I want an apartment for 5 million, I have 300 thousand, and the rest I will find. Are you planning to unearth the treasure? Or borrow? First, calculate if you can .

Be sure to balance your strengths and capabilities with your goal. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much you can and not make a mistake.

TARGET: Purchase of a 2-room apartment in the city center, with 2 balconies and a dressing room for 3 million rubles, on a mortgage.

Achievable goal

Is it possible to achieve this goal? In our case, the example with an apartment is well achievable - getting the keys or completing the renovation can be considered the achievement of the goal. More difficult with abstract goals, such as “Learn English”. Here it is necessary to indicate to what achievable result to act. Perhaps it will be: reading blogs in English fluently, or keeping up small talk while traveling, or maybe you want to know the technical language for work?

Either way, set yourself an ambitious yet achievable goal. Only then will she motivate you!

TARGET:

Down payment: 300 thousand

I will be able to pay up to 40 thousand per month.

Significant goal

The goal must be meaningful to you in order for you to achieve it. You must understand what will give you the fulfillment of this very goal.

Not so long ago in telegram channel DO and DREAM I wrote that I refused to buy an apartment because I realized that I really want a house. In the same way, you will determine whether this goal is really meaningful for you. Or maybe it is imposed by society or advertising? Check how your goal is coordinating with your ? If it stillyour goal, perfectly! We have one more step left.

TARGET: Purchase of a renovated 2-room apartment in the city center, with 2 balconies and a dressing room for 3 million rubles, with a mortgage.

Down payment: 300 thousand

I will be able to pay up to 40 thousand per month.

Timed target

Goals need a time limit. This is the only way you will understand when you get your dream come true. And if the situation allows you to fulfill your dream earlier (suddenly there will be additional earnings;)) you will be even more inspired. If, on the contrary, you linger somewhere, you will have additional motivation to complete the goal on time. Just don't bet any time. You already have all the information to estimate your runtime goal.

For our purpose, I did this: went to the siteBanki.ru , entered data into the mortgage calculator and looked for how many years the mortgage will be repaid.

TARGET: Purchase of a renovated 2-room apartment in the city center, with 2 balconies and a dressing room for 3 million rubles, with a mortgage.

Down payment: 300 thousand

I will be able to pay up to 40 thousand per month.

I Will Pay The Mortgage For 9 Years.

This goal will motivate me and make me happy!

Look, our goal is already similar to the plan, let's compare it with the original goal setting:

Apartment purchase

See how much the goal has changed? Now before you is not just a goal, but a turn-based strategy to complete. It is clear what the apartment is for, how much it will cost, whether it is possible to buy it and whether there will be enough money for it.

Set all your goals for the year according to SMART so that they will be exactly fulfilled!

And that is not all! Want to take part in free finance trainings and earnings marathons? Then subscribe to my Instagram. There, among other things, I tell and show how I achieve my goals with the help of a Personal Financial Plan and frantic motivation. AT join our Success Club and know you will succeed!

The basis of the goal can be a dream or just hope. Having set a goal correctly, you can outline the ways to achieve it. Setting goals is not only useful, but also quite exciting. Psychological research has shown that goal setting gives us a sense of confidence, even if those goals cannot be achieved in a couple of weeks. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." You can take this first step by setting realistic goals.

Steps

Part 1

Formulate a goal

Think about what is important to you. Research results show that the likelihood of achieving goals is highly dependent on the level of motivation. Think about what areas of your life you would like to make changes. At this stage, the goal can be quite broad.

Try to figure out what you want to be in the future. This image will bring a little positiveness and happiness into your life, as well as help you understand what goals are most important to you. To understand what you want to become in the future, you need to take just two steps: imagine yourself in the future, when all your goals have been achieved, and then understand what characteristics and skills you need to possess in order to become who you want.

• Imagine a future in which you have achieved your goals. How will you look? What is most important to you now? Focus on what you want to achieve, not what your friends or family expect from you.
• Try to present every detail. Be optimistic, you can dream up whatever you want. For example, if you work as a baker, you can imagine your own bakery. How she looks like? Where is? How many employees do you have? What product?
• Write down all the details of your dream. Think about what characteristics and skills would help you achieve this result? For example, if you want to open your own bakery, you must understand this business, you must be able to manage money, interact with people, negotiate, monitor the demand for bakery products. Write down all the skills you need to achieve this goal.
• Think about what skills and characteristics you already have. Be honest with yourself and don't judge yourself. Then think about what characteristics and skills you need to develop.
• Consider how you can develop these skills. For example, if you really want to open your own bakery, but you don't know much about business, sign up for courses in business or financial management.

1. Prioritize. Once you've made a list of areas in your life that you would like to change, try to understand which ones are most important to you right now. If you try to succeed in all areas at once, then most likely you will fail. You will feel overwhelmed and your goals seem out of reach.

   • Divide the list of goals into three categories: general goals, second and third order goals. The general goals category should contain the goals that are most important to you. Break the remaining goals into the other two categories in order of importance. Typically, specific goals are recorded in the general goals category.
   • Perhaps the most important goals for you are: "improving your well-being", "improving family relationships" and "vacation abroad". In the second category, you will have goals: "to find friends", "to be a good housewife", and in the third category: "to learn to knit", "to succeed at work", "to play sports."

2. Now start fleshing out. Once you've identified the areas of your life you want to improve, set more specific goals. To do this, ask yourself the questions: "how?", "What?", "Why?", "When?", "Where?"

   It is very important to understand that it is you who are responsible for achieving this goal. Your perseverance is likely to play a key role in most goals, but some, such as “spending more time with your family,” should include your family members. Therefore, it is important to decide who is responsible for what goals.

   • For example, the goal of “learning to cook” applies only to you, so only you will be responsible for it. But if your goal is to "have a party," then only part of the responsibility will be on you.

3. Try to specify the goal by answering the question “what?". Understand what kind of result you want to get. For example, the goal of “learning to cook” is too broad. Think about what exactly you want to cook. For example, the goal should be “learn how to cook Italian food for friends” or “learn how to cook chicken noodles”.

   • The more specific the goal, the clearer it is for you what steps you need to take to achieve it.

4. Answer the question “when?". Break down your goals in stages. Establish an approximate time frame to achieve each goal.

   • Be realistic. The goal of “losing 10 kg” is hardly achievable in a couple of weeks. Think about how long it will take you to reach your goals.
   • For example, the goal of “learning how to bake a chicken in batter until tomorrow” is hardly a realistic goal. This goal will cause you to become anxious and nervous because you don't have enough time to learn something.
   • And the goal of “learning how to bake a chicken in batter by the end of the month” is a fairly achievable goal, because you will have enough time to learn something and practice. However, it is better to break this goal into several stages, because this greatly increases the likelihood of your success.
   • For example, this goal can be broken down into smaller steps: “I want to learn how to bake chicken in batter. By the end of the week, I'll have found some good recipes. I will cook chicken for each of these recipes. Then I will choose what I like best, cook chicken and invite friends to dinner. "

5. Answer the question “where?". Thus, you can determine exactly where you will work to achieve your goal. For example, if you plan to exercise 3 times a week, you need to decide if you will go to the gym, exercise at home, or run in the park.

   • In our case, if your goal is “to learn how to bake chicken in batter,” consider whether you will take additional cooking lessons or will cook at home.

6. Answer the question “how?". By answering this question, you will understand how you are going to achieve each of the stages of your goal. This step is needed in order for you to understand what actions will have to be taken to achieve your goal.

   • Let's go back to our chicken example. To achieve this goal, you will have to find some good recipes, buy chicken and other foods, prepare utensils and utensils, and take time to practice.

7. Answer the question “why?". As stated earlier, the more motivated you are, the faster you will reach your goal. You must understand why this goal is so important to you. By answering this question, you will understand what motivates you. Think about what the achievement of this goal will give you?

   Try to state your goals positively. Research has shown that a goal sounds more realistic when it is formulated in a positive tone. In other words, you will achieve your goal faster if it is something you are striving for, and not something that you are trying to avoid.

   • For example, if you are going to eat healthily, then the goal of "stop eating junk food" will be formulated in negative terms. This formulation unconsciously tunes you into the need to limit yourself.
   • Instead, formulate the goal in a different way: "Eat at least 3 times a day vegetables and fruits"

8. You should set goals when you know exactly what you want to achieve. Achieving your goals will require hard work and a sense of motivation. Therefore, make sure again that these are exactly the goals for which you are ready to try. Remember that you are only responsible for your actions, so you cannot control the achievement of the goal if someone else is responsible for it.

   • Try to focus on what you can do to achieve this goal. This will help you not to lose heart if you fail at some point. Feeling successful, you can achieve a certain result, and even if it is not exactly what you planned, you will still be happy with it.
   • For example, the goal of “becoming president” depends not only on you, but also on the actions of other people (in this case, on the willingness of voters to vote for you). You cannot control these actions, so this goal is theoretically achievable, but not under your responsibility. Nevertheless, getting into the list of candidates is a completely achievable goal. Its achievement depends to a large extent on you and your efforts. Even if you did not win the election, but were among the candidates, you can already consider this as a success.

   Part 2

   Develop an action plan

   1. Think about how you can achieve the goals that you set for yourself. Make a list of the tasks you need to complete to achieve your goal. To do this, pay attention to the answers that you gave (to the questions "where?", "What?", "When?" And so on).

      • For example, you might have a goal like this: “I want to go to college and study law in order to become a lawyer and help my family win cases in court.” This is a specific goal, but quite difficult to achieve. To make it easier to navigate and start somewhere, break this goal into several subgoals.
      • Here are some sample subgoals:
        • To graduate school
        • Participate in debates
        • Select university
        • Enter university

   2. Set a time frame. Some goals are easier to achieve than others. For example, the goal of “walking in the park for an hour 3 times a week” is quite easy, you can start working on it today. But some goals are achieved over the years.

      • For example, it will take more than one year to achieve the goal of “becoming a lawyer”. You will need to achieve several subgoals and go through several stages that will lead you to this main goal.
      • Take into account possible turmoil and other life twists and turns. For example, the goal of "choosing a university" must be achieved before you are going to enroll there, and there will be little time for this. Also, keep in mind that each institution has its own requirements and time frames for submitting documents.

   3. Turn subgoals into tasks. Once you've broken down a goal into multiple subgoals, try to set yourself goals that will lead you to those subgoals. Set a time frame for each task.

      • For example, if your goal is "to become a lawyer," then the first subgoal of "getting well in high school" can be divided into several stages. For example, “enroll in additional courses in law and history” and “attend additional courses in law”.
      • Some subgoals have specific time frames. This is important to remember to always be motivated. If a sub-goal does not have a time frame, we advise you to independently allocate yourself a certain period of time for which you will cope with this task.

   4. Turn tasks into responsibilities. You will soon feel that reaching your goal is not so difficult! Research has shown that specific goals, broken down into tasks, lead to increased productivity, even if the tasks themselves are quite difficult. Completing these tasks can be a lot of hassle, especially if you are not completely sure that you are truly striving to achieve this goal.

      • For example, if you have a task “enroll in law and history classes,” you can limit it to a time frame by dividing it into subtasks. You may end up with the following subtasks: "find out the class schedule", "discuss attending classes with the teacher", "sign up for classes before [date]"

   5. List the items that you have already completed. You may have already achieved some of the subgoals or are about to achieve them. For example, if you want to go to law school, you should be more interested in news and changes in legislation.

      • Make a list of even the smallest actions that can help you achieve your goal. You will realize that many of the items on the list have already been completed or are being completed. This will give you a sense of motivation and progress.

   6. Think about what you need to learn and grow. If you have many goals, you may not be able to develop all of your qualities at once. Think about what skills and knowledge you already have. Exercising yourself in the future will help you.

      • If you realize that you need some more qualities, start developing them in yourself.
      • For example, if you want to become a lawyer, you must develop the ability to speak to the public and the ability to structure your speech. If you are very shy, you will have to develop your communication skills with other people in order to achieve your goal.

   7. Make a plan for every day. Most people put off important things "for later", "until tomorrow", in the end and never starting to deal with them. Even if it is something very small, but you can do it today - do not delay. This will help you get even a little closer to your goal.

      • The tasks completed today will move you further. For example, if you need to agree with someone about something, then first you need to collect enough information about this someone. And if your goal is “walking 3 times a week”, then first you need to buy comfortable shoes. Even the smallest actions will motivate you to move on.

   8. Think about what is stopping you. In fact, there are not so many real obstacles in the world to achieving the goal. Think about what is holding back your progress. This will help you fight this "brake" more effectively. Make a list of obstacles to your goal and think about what you can do to overcome them.

   Part 3

   Fight fear

   Visualize. Research has shown that visualization strongly affects our well-being and our sense of motivation. This technique is often mentioned by athletes when they talk about their success. There are two forms of visualization: "result visualization" and "process visualization". For visualization to be more effective, you need to combine them.

   Be more positive. Research has shown that having a positive attitude towards life helps people change for the better. No matter what goals you strive for, having a positive attitude towards the world will help you succeed. This applies to both athletes and graduate students, volume managers, artists and so on.

   Learn more about False Hope Syndrome. This term psychologists call an unfinished cycle or a vicious circle, which you probably know if you ever made a promise to yourself in the New Year to change something in your life in the new year. This cycle consists of three parts: 1) setting goals, 2) realizing that these goals are too difficult to achieve, 3) refusing to achieve goals.

Christmas trees are dressed up, champagne in glasses, herring under a fur coat: everyone is looking forward to 2018. Are you sure you haven't forgotten anything? For example, write basic goals for the year. With a clear plan, the future does not seem so hazy, and dreams look more real. In the article, we tell you how to properly plan the coming year with SMART goals and not be disappointed with the result.

How NOT to make goals for the year

I decided to start 2017 with brilliance. I wanted a new life, work, more money, travel, beauty, and to sit on a transverse twine. I made a plan for the year. She identified 4 main areas for development:

• income;
• travels;
• health;
• foreign language.

I did everything according to my mind: I decoded each goal and divided it into stages. The plan turned out to be detailed and realistic - I believed in myself and that I would have time to complete my plan.

The plan was stretched into 4 notebook pages

A year has passed, it's time to take stock. And then a continuous fail began: not a single goal was achieved, only some stages were completed, but absolutely not on time! I confess that in a year I looked into the plan only 2 times, and at the end of the year I didn't want to look at all. Why, if I already know that I did not have time?

But the eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing: I opened the notebook, reread my unsuccessful to-do list, thought it over and understood what was the matter.

Why nothing worked for me: error analysis and advice

1. Too many goals

There are 4 of them in total, but the decoding of each took 7-10 points. For example: "body improvement" included the gym, yoga, pilates, contrast showers, jogging in the morning, and 2 online nutrition courses. It is not right. Billionaire Warren Buffett has a useful recommendation on this score:

Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, chairman of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway:
- List 25 goals that you want to achieve over the next few years or in your life. Anything that didn't make the top 5 is now taboo. You should avoid the rest of the targets until you have completed the first five.

2. Did not check and did not adjust the plan

The plan is not reinforced concrete. Your creative and professional goals for the year can be adjusted according to changes in your life. You have to be flexible.
3. Didn't complete microtasks every day

It is better to take 365 small steps than one big one, but with great difficulty (and never). You need to work on the goal a little every day: choose the color of the upholstery of the chairs, call the editor, pull up 20 times, etc.

4. Didn't create a thematic environment around me

The appropriate environment helps to achieve the goal faster: you can sign up for training courses on the topic, enter into discussions with experts in social networks, read profile books. Then there is movement around: promising acquaintances, tempting offers appear, the volume of knowledge and motivation grows.

5. Didn't visualize goals

There is little text, even if it is written in your favorite notebook. Visualization helps to adjust the mind and activate the subconscious: diagrams, calendars, photographs of what you want (new office, bank account, country). There are special services for planning and visualization, for example: Smart Progress.

The bugs have been fixed, and now is the time to start a new list. And I will do it according to the SMART system.

How to set goals for the year using the SMART system

The SMART system was originally used by managers to set tasks for employees, but now everyone uses it, including for organizing everyday life.

Let's take a closer look at how to set goals for the year using SMART technology, and give examples of setting goals and objectives for SMART.

Specific - specific

First, the goal must be clear and concrete result... Determine what exactly you want to achieve so that the task does not turn into an ordinary "want". An abstract goal leads to abstract results.

Measurable - measurable

Second: it is easier to achieve your goals when there are specific figures or other criteria you are striving for. Otherwise, when summing up, you will not even be able to give an exact answer: the task is completed or not.

Achievable - achievable

Third, the goal should be realotherwise how will you reach it? Consider all the difficulties, timing and your possibilities. If you set a task that is too ambitious for you, which is beyond your strength, by the end of the year you risk being disappointed in yourself and in all this planning.

Relevant - significant

In management, this smart criterion means the value of the goal for the company, and in everyday life it determines why you set this task for yourself. Before writing your goal, consider: why are you striving for this? What will it give you in the end?

Time bound - with deadline

Fifth, don't set a deadline - you'll be stuck in the jungle of procrastination. You will delay your plans to the last. The exact date plays the role of a magic pendel: the closer the cherished deadline, the higher the productivity. Just do not have to do everything at the last moment, it is better to do a little bit every day.

SMART Goal Example: Smart Goal Setting

Now that I am armed with the SMART system, one of my goals will look like this:

Target: July 2018 - I spend 2 weeks as a savage on Lake Baikal and keep a detailed photo report for my blog.

1. February 2018 - buy a map of Russia, draw up a detailed travel itinerary and calculate the cost of travel (transport + accommodation + food + equipment).
2. March 2018 - Choose suitable parking spots, read related blogs, watch videos, and talk to travelers on the forums.
3. April-May 2018 - make a detailed list of travel equipment and buy everything. Collect half of the backpack, buy long-term storage products and medicines.
4. June 2018 - buy tickets for the Moscow-Irkutsk train and completely assemble your backpack.
5. July 2018 - finish all work projects, notify customers about vacations. The first blog post is from the train. The journey begins!

If not all goals and objectives for 2018 will be completed, then do not scold or criticize yourself. Calmly analyze everything, find out what is the reason and draw conclusions. In the meantime, there is still time before the New Year, sum up the results for 2017, and then sit back in your chair and visualize yourself next year.

We are far from realizing all of our goals - and often it’s not laziness and weakness, but the inability to correctly formulate tasks and determine priorities. Mann, Ivanov & Ferber has published a book by self-improvement consultant Robert Sype on how to use brain science to improve productivity and focus on putting your ideas and desires into practice. Theory and Practice publishes a chapter from the book.

Reduce the number of goals

Write down the 5-6 most important goals you want to achieve in the next 90 days. Why exactly so many? The main thing at this stage is to reduce: the term and the number of list items. Why? There are five to six goals, because, as we already know, consciousness is not able to effectively cope with an excess of information. It is easy for him to focus on only a few tasks at a time. Of course, there is a suitable time and place for the so-called dream-making, when you get rid of all the limitations of thinking and time and indulge in bold and crazy thoughts. This exercise is useful for expanding the horizons and possibilities of your mind, but for now we will do another. Take a calendar and determine the closest checkpoint in about 90 days. Ideally, this is the end of the quarter, the end of the month is fine too. If the endpoint comes after 80 or 100 days, that's fine; the main thing is to be close to 90. Why is it important? Because for about such a time, a person can be very focused on one important goal, without pressing the "reset button", and still see real progress.

It's not for nothing that almost all diets or training programs are designed for about 90 days. The insanely popular P90X home fitness program is a great example. "P" stands for power and "X" stands for Xtreme. Essentially just a marketing trick. But behind the number "90" there are serious scientific reasons. The program is not called P10X, because you cannot achieve great success in 10 days, but neither is P300X: no one can stick to the program for so long without interruption. Why do you think Wall Street places such importance on quarterly financial statements of companies?

Because it is within this time frame that significant changes can be implemented without losing focus. In any important endeavor, a timeframe much shorter than 90 days is too short to see real progress, and much longer is too long to clearly see the finish line. Study the next 90 days and put numbers 1 through 6 on a piece of paper. You will write down 5-6 of the most important goals that you want to achieve in 90 days. Now analyze all areas of your life - work, finance, physical health, mental / emotional well-being, family, community involvement - so that your list is comprehensive.

While you are writing down your top goals for the next 90 days, review what makes a goal effective. In the last chapter, we went over the five essential characteristics of your goals in detail, and here I will list them again briefly.

1 . What you write should be meaningful to you. These goals are yours and nobody else's, so be sure to document what you really want to achieve.

2. What you write should be concrete and measurable. We're talking about a 90-day program with an explicit deadline, so general phrases like “increase income”, “lose weight” or “save money” are inappropriate. Be clear about what exactly you intend to achieve over this period. How much money to earn or save? How many kilograms to lose weight? How many kilometers to run? What will be your sales (identify specific numbers)? Your numbers or details themselves are not important to me, but specificity is needed. By neglecting this step, you will miss out on most of the opportunities this process gives you.

3. Goals must be of the right scale: challenging, yet achievable from your point of view. Remember: you have about three months to do everything about everything, and then you have to hang up. So choose the right scale for your goals. While doing this exercise, you will have to choose between the options "the goal is bolder so that you have to tense up" and "more modest to play it safe." The choice depends on your experience and previous successes. If you are used to achieving the main thing easily or you are a little bored, then choose a more daring goal. If this is your first time doing this, then you should choose a more modest goal.

4 . Even if it's obvious, I'll emphasize that goals need to be written down. You will be doing both yourself and me a disservice if you read all this and do nothing. I didn't say "think about what you want to achieve in the next 90 days," I said "write it down." I assure you that the coordinated work of the eyes, hands and the brain raises the choice and design of goals to a qualitatively new level. So, write down the goals with pen on paper, not just in your head.

five . You will regularly review what you are writing now, so be honest with yourself and create goals that will be interesting for you to achieve. Once you've laid the groundwork, we'll develop an entire plan for reporting to ourselves and the coding elements, so keep in mind that you will be interacting with these goals.

Enough descriptions - time to work! Take a pen, paper, and write down your 5-6 most important goals for the next 90-100 days. Take as long as you need to do this and then return to reading.

Define a key goal

Now you need to determine which of these goals is key for you. You may ask, "What is a key goal?" And that's great, because you've probably never considered your goals that way before. Your core goal is one that seriously supports most of your other goals. Looking at your shortlist, you will probably notice that there are connections between many goals; you may even find that some are in competition with each other. But I have found that in almost all cases, there is one goal that persistently pursuing is likely to help achieve the desired results in all areas. I don't want to overcomplicate. You may already know which of your goals fits this description.

Often, when a person reaches this stage, one of the goals he has written down catches his eye and as if shouts: “Hey! Make me come true! " If you have already found this goal, just mark it in the list and only then continue reading. If the key target isn't immediately visible, that's okay too. I myself often had to figure out which of my goals was the key, where to direct the main efforts. You want the one that is most likely to help reach the rest.

There are several options. Sometimes the achievement of a key goal indirectly causes the implementation of the rest, almost automatically. It happens that a key goal requires the achievement of others as a milestone or auxiliary tool. And sometimes a key goal can affect your life in such a way that you gain the strength, confidence, and energy to crush any wall you come across. Here's an example. Recently, I began to figure out what I want to achieve in the remaining 100 days of the year, and output the following:

1 . Personal sales.

2. Personal income.

3. Pay the debt off.

4 . Run 355 km and do 35 strength training.

five . Meditate at least 50 times.

6. Take 14 days of guilt-free vacation, disconnected from everything.

These were the most important goals. Please note that they are all specific and measurable. I knew I had to reduce them to one and get serious about it. Strictly speaking, there is no correct answer; none of them was better or worse than the rest. It was entirely up to me to decide where the main effort would bring the most impact. Guess which target I have chosen? Sales. The figure itself would not tell you anything, but I will describe my line of reasoning. Having fulfilled the sales plan, I would thus receive income and ensure the repayment of the debt. Achieving my goals would also allow me to find time for vacation. What is the connection with training and meditation? I knew that maintaining physical, mental and spiritual health would give me the energy I needed. So all these goals are interconnected.

If the main effort is directed towards a key goal, the subconscious mind actually accepts all these goals and the likelihood of achieving them increases significantly. Do you understand? Your next step is to do this with your goals: determine which one is the key to the rest. If you haven't selected it yet, then choose slowly. Make sure you are confident in your key goal before moving on.

Confirm the reason

Now that you have one goal to focus on, it's time to answer the most important question: why? Why is it important for you to achieve it? The answer may come from intuition. Sometimes the stars fold in such a way that it dawns on you. You say to yourself, “I don’t need unnecessary reasoning. I have never felt such enthusiasm, I am eager to fight! " If so, great! Just write down your thoughts as a guide. If the insight doesn't happen, try to stimulate your thinking with these questions:

Why do I want to achieve this?

What will achieve this goal for me?

How will it feel to make this goal a reality? Self-confidence? Delight? Pacification? Inspiration? Strength?

How will achieving this goal help me become better or stronger? What do I need to grow in?

What else can I do with this result?

There are no wrong answers to the “why” question, and the more you have, the better.

Visualize goals

To focus and "tune" your mind, you need to visualize goals. So far, all your actions have been associated with making plans. Most don't even get to this stage when they think about their goals, so you've already taken the lead. But there is still a lot you can do to speed up the process. Your subconscious mind is billions of times more powerful than your conscious mind. It thinks and works in many ways. As we said, one important key to the subconscious is to understand that it operates with images. Consciousness controls coherent, linear thoughts that go one after another (which even sound like sentences in your mind), and the subconscious, in fact, just sees pictures and persistently strives for them.

Take advantage of this: let your brain have something to see! Give him images to work with. Sometimes I suggest clients store images in a notepad or folder. Sometimes it's to create a dream board and hang it in your workplace to see all the images at once. Many of my clients post pictures of their goals on cards along with affirmations. There are many ways to visualize your goals. Experiment and choose what works best for you.

Create auxiliary rituals

You don't have to sing hymns or sacrifice a lamb. To create a ritual, you will deliberately build some kind of automatic behavior that will become anchorage to your goals. This is not just a trick I made up. Here are three books that have convincingly proven its benefits to me:

The first two books helped me understand the science behind habits, and the third helped me create a step-by-step program that now benefits me and my clients immensely. Do you know that most of your thoughts have become a habit? Dr. Deepak Chopra claims that over 99% of the thoughts we have today are a repetition of yesterday's, and 99% of tomorrows will be a repetition of today's. Actions are determined by thoughts, and many of them - at work, health, finances - are performed by force of habit. They are brought to automatism. Think about what you do in the morning, from the moment you wake up to going to work: how often is one morning like another? You put your feet on the floor, stand uncertainly, brush your teeth, shower, drink coffee, get dressed, have breakfast (maybe), drink coffee again, check your email, drink coffee again, wake the children up, make them breakfast, drink coffee again, and leave ...

Track your morning activities for several days, and it may come as a surprise to you how similar one day is to another. So, you already have automatic behaviors; I advise you to do them consciously for a while, and then replace them with new ones. There are two periods during the day when this will need to be done.

The first is as soon as you wake up in the morning. The first hour - more precisely, the first few minutes - is a very good time to program your brain for success. At this time, it goes from sleep to wakefulness, and its waves have such a configuration that your subconscious mind is extremely receptive to the "seeds of thoughts" that you sow. Have you noticed how the first minutes after waking up can set the tone for an entire day? Have you ever got up on the wrong foot? Pay attention and you will begin to see practical connections between getting an effective start in the morning and your results throughout the day.

Most people miss this opportunity: in the morning we are either nervous for various reasons, or we move as in a fog, not fully understanding what is happening. And many successful people purposefully use the beginning of the day to tune their minds to focus on their dreams and goals.

The second period when you need to program yourself is the last few minutes of your day. They are important for much the same reason as the first waking hour: this is a transitional phase for the brain. During the last hour before bed, find an opportunity to visualize your goals and some affirmations, and then express gratitude for all the good things that happened during the day.