You might not know this but humans are goal-seeking animals. It’s innate in us to have something to aim at. And when we don’t, well ‘bad’ things happen.
At this time of the year, the usual articles will tell us resolutions set at new years will have failed by now. People set themselves impossible goals and failed at the first hurdle.
I want to dig into that today. One reason they failed is that the goal they set, “I won’t drink this year”, is vague and not tied to a bigger goal. For example, “By 1st December 2022, my cholesterol is less than 5.5.”
When you set a goal like that your mind starts to figure out how it can make this happen. You can speed it up by asking yourself, “How can I make this happen?”. The answers will come. And those answers are the habits and changes you need to make to become the person you want to become and achieve your goal.
And, it doesn’t matter what your goal is. A Ferrari, a European holiday, a new boat or walking the Andes. It can be a material thing. We are great at aiming at ‘things’. Do not let people put you off by telling you you’re materialistic by wanting things.
Whatever works for you is what your goals should be.
The fact is that on the way to getting those goals you will become a new person. You have to!
Because if you’re setting big goals you are changing habits and behaviours and becoming the person who achieves those goals.
The goals need to be big though. Some need to be laughable to others. That tells you a lot if people laugh at your goals. They’re big enough then.
Bruce Lee said, “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”
So aim at something big. To help me achieve my big goals this year I’m going back to vision boards. It turns out they work. I stopped using visual cues a few years ago and it really showed. I did achieve some but not having the ‘thing’ in front of me every day made me less likely to achieve it.
This year I’m putting a corkboard in front of my desk and I’m going to stick pictures of what I want to achieve on it. This idea goes back to the fact we are goal-seeking animals. To hunt something we needed to keep focused on it and only it. We picked out the animal from the herd we wanted to kill and ran it down until we got it.
That’s what having vision boards helps you do. It keeps what you are aiming out in front of you until you run it down and achieve it.
This week sit down and answer the following question, This year 2021 will be the best year of my life because?.
Let your imagination run free and put them under the headings of Work, Workout, Personal and Places to visit.
Work is your income and career goals. Workout is your fitness and health. Personal is a new skill you want to learn, a habit you want to change or things you want to do around the house. Places to visit is somewhere you haven’t been before or want to go to again.
Goals only happen if you write them down too. This is a great exercise to do so drop the adult lense and go nuts. Once you’ve done that you can decide what you’re going to focus on this year, get the pictures on a wall and get started towards them.
Happy goal setting 🙂
Glenn from Spike
Quote for the week
“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”
– Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee picture credited to brucelee.com