Setting Your Goals – A Picture Says A Thousand Words
Posted on 7th June 2021
Are you thinking about your ideal future?
Are you struggling to motivate yourself to turn your vision into reality?
Goal setting is a powerful process that can help you achieve your dreams.
Why you need goals
Wherever you are in your life journey there’s always room to make changes. You can choose where you want to go in life and where you are now isn’t where you must remain.
When you know what you want to achieve you can concentrate your efforts on the things that will make a difference. Setting milestones along the way will also help you to identify any barriers that could get in your way.
We call it a ‘vision’ for a reason
While written goal setting is an important part of the process it’s easy to become over-analytical.
The emotional part of the process is the most important because it will be your commitment to your goals that will carry you forward.
A visual component to goal setting can significantly change your outcomes. So, as you are writing down your goals for this year, take some time to think about how it will feel and what it will look like when you achieve each milestone.
Powerful pictures
We all understand the power of imagery when it comes to marketing. Books with dull covers are less appealing and advertisements without images are less attractive.
We think about pictures, sounds, and emotions before we put our thoughts into words. We are designed to respond to images and more than half of our brain deals with visual processing. Many people find it easier to uncover their personal goals by attaching images to them.
Setting your goals
The first step towards setting your personal goals is to think about what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least by a certain date or age).
Taking this long-term perspective will help you to shape all the other aspects of your decision making and planning.
Take a complete view of your life and your priorities, looking at different areas in turn, such as:
education – is there knowledge or a skill that you want or need to achieve your ultimate goals?
family – are you already a parent or do you want to be? How important is family life for you and what do you need to do to be a good parent? What commitments will you make to your partner or members of your extended family?
creativity – do you have a creative talent or do you want to develop your creative skills? For example, do you want to play a musical instrument or learn to dance?
personal development – is your mind-set holding you back? Do you have any phobias of fixed behaviours that are upsetting or discouraging you? Do you want or need to overcome these barriers?
physical – do you have any sporting or athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you simply want to stay in good health for as long as possible? How do you plan to do this?
leisure – what activities do you enjoy? Are there things you would like to try and places you want to go?
Be SMART
To make your goals into realities you need to make sure they are achievable. Goals are more powerful if they are SMART, which means they are:
S – specific (or significant)
M – measurable (or meaningful)
A – attainable (or action-orientated)
R – relevant (or rewarding)
T – time-bound (or trackable).
If you would like to set some personal goals, please get in touch to discuss a Personal Goals coaching session.
Until next time ...
Tagged as: Personal Goals
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