Lots of people fight shy of setting goals. That’s perfectly normal but it’s well worth putting a bit of time aside to work on your goals. You’ll find the focus it gives you has a good – positive – impact on your life.
But one of the questions I’m often asked is about the size of goals to set.
Some people like to set small, realistic, goals.
Others (myself included) like to set what a friend of mine refers to as “big fat hairy goals”.
Why are big goals my preferred strategy?
It’s all to do with the results these goals get.
If you set a small, achievable goal, one of two things will probably happen:
You’ll hit it or maybe even beat it slightly
Your subconscious will instinctively think it’s not worth bothering with and will effectively ignore the goal completely
Either way, you’re not going to stretch yourself much.
With big goals – so long as you actually start them – it’s a completely different scenario.
There’s actually a chance you won’t hit or beat the goal (but that chance is quite low)
It will push you further and faster than you ever thought possible
The litmus test with this kind of goal is the reaction of other people.
If they say something along the lines of “Oh, that’s nice” then the chances are the goal is way too realistic.
If, on the other hand, they try to dissuade you from the goal then they are trying to protect you from failure. This is the kind of goal you should actually be going for!
Once you’ve homed in on a goal, take out a pad or open up your word processor.
Then write a complete description as though you’d achieved the goal.
Go into lots of detail – you want this description to be as realistic as a good movie.
If writing it in the present tense is too awkward for you (which can happen the first couple of times you go down this route) then it’s OK to write it as a future story. So long as you add in a time line – give it a date in the not too distant future!
What this does is puts your subconscious “on notice” that you’re serious and intend to follow through on your goal.
Next, you’ll need to flesh out your goal and cut it into lots small steps. We’ll cover that on another page.
