One of the key principles of goal setting is that after you write down your goals, you should find a way to keep them fresh in your mind on a regular basis. Most people write a list of goals and then hide the list in a journal, in a diary, or in a filing cabinet and rarely look at them again. Your greatest success in achieving your goals will come from your ability to visualize them every day. Here are some strategies you can use to keep your goals in front of you as a part of your everyday life.
5 Principles of Goal Setting That Will Help You Achieve Your Goals Faster
1. Create a “Dream Board”. This is based on one of the key principles of goal setting to “make your goal visual”. This is simply a piece of posterboard with pictures of the results you want to see in your life. Find pictures of the things, the people, and the activities you want in your life, print them out, and paste or tape them to the posterboard. It will take you a little bit of time to find pictures and attach them, but the time invested in this simple activity actually helps you to visualize the goals even more clearly. After you have created a finished product, simply post it where you will see it every day. I have done this for many years and achieved great results from this technique alone. At one time, I had a Dream Board posted next to the television in my living room. Every time I sat down to watch TV, I saw the board, and it inspired me to turn off the TV and work on my goals.
2. If you’re technically inclined, create an “dream board start page” for your internet browser. Again, find pictures of the results you seek for your life in electronic form. Then, using some basic web design HTML, you can create a web page with a table of a few rows and columns of pictures. Save the page to your computer, and then make it the page you see every time you start up your browser. If that process seems like it might be too complex, head over to Weebly.com and create a free website using their really easy drag-and-drop interface.
3. Post-It your way to success. Write a one-sentence description of your goals on separate Post-It notes. For example, “New Jaguar sports car”, or “100 team members” or “Daily Exercise”. Post these notes in your bathroom where you will see them first thing every morning, and last thing at night while getting ready for bed. If your spouse or partner won’t let you do this, simply put your Post-Its on the wall above your dresser, or even on your car dashboard.
4. Make an audio recording of your goals. This follows one of the key principles of goal setting which is to “talk to yourself like a success.” Simply record yourself reading your goals out loud. Make sure you read the goals as if they have occurred in the present tense. For example, “I have written my bills for the month, and I am looking at a balance of five thousand dollars in my checking account. Or, “I am standing on the lanai of my beach house in Maui, Hawaii, overlooking the Pacific Ocean on a bright and sunny day.” After making the recording, load them onto your MP3 player, or burn them to a CD and listen to them every day in your car. I have a 10-minute “goal recording” I listen to every day on my MP3 player.
5. Create a video slideshow using any of the free video slideshow programs on the internet such as Animoto. Find pictures of your goals and desired results, upload them and create a video you can watch on your SmartPhone or whenever you’re at an internet connection.
What Happens if You Follow These Principles of Goal Setting?
The quick answer is you will achieve the goals you are seeking faster than you ever thought possible. By keeping your goals visible every day, you will activate the part of your subconcious called the “reticular activating system”. The reticular activating system acts as a filter for what your brain should be paying attention to while you’re awake. You’ve seen this in action whenever you have bought a new car, and suddenly see the same car model you just bought “all over the place” while you are out and about.
In conclusion, when you implement all five of these strategies, you will find yourself easily attracting the success you seek into your life faster than you ever thought possible. Even if you implement just one, you will be reinforcing the principles of goal setting to keep your goals “top of mind” in your conciousness every day.