There is a specific way to express a goal, in order for your subconscious mind to be able to process and help you work towards that goal. This dramatically increases the chances of you hitting that goal.
The SMART Formula ensures that you cover all the important factors while goal setting to avoid falling short of your dream.
Using the formula, also add the rules that you clarified in the Achievement Accelerator in last month’s magazine.
Next to your written goals, write the list of rules. Ie:
Be persistent – (I’m going to carry on even when I don’t feel like it)
Be courageous – (don’t listen to the negative self-talk)
Be determined – (I remember when I set this goal and I know how important it is. I am not going to quit)
Specific & Simple
Goals cannot be too specific.
The more specific you can make a goal, the better chance you have of achieving it.
The mind is more likely to hold specific detail than a vague goal.
As well as being specific, it must be simple to understand, but expressed as if you were telling them to a 7 year old.
Vague Goal Example: Goal: I want to make £50,000 this year.
Is that £50,000 turnover or profit?
Is that gross profit or Net Profit?
Is that this financial year or calendar year?
Using the phrase “I want” would also be better if replaced by expressing the goal in present tense.
(Your subconscious mind will give you exactly what you want, so be careful how you ask!)
For example, if you say, “I want to have more money”. You’ll constantly be in a place where you “want” that money, therefore never “have” it, just “want” it!
Your subconscious mind does not work with future events in this way.
So when expressing your goals, a better way might be,“ I have more money than I need”.
You have been specific, in the present tense, your subconscious mind sees you with the money and gets to work in the background moving you towards your goal.
90% of all mental power comes from your subconscious mind. Make sure you program it correctly!
Specific Goal example: I’ve made £50,000 clear net profit between 1st April 2018 and 31st March 2019 – I have more money than I need.
The more specific you can make a goal, the better chance you have of achieving it
Measureable & Meaningful:
How will you measure you have achieved the goal?
If you can’t find a way to measure, then it isn’t specific enough.
If your goal is set over a period of 12 months, what key milestones do you need to plan in? What new skills or tools do you need to enable this to happen?
How long will it take to get started properly on your mission, (if you have to get some training or attend a course before you have the skills to hit your goal, plan this into the beginning of your timeline then split the rest of the goal over the remaining time. Will you make a consistent £5000 per month for 10 months? Will you make £1000 the first month, £2000 the second, £4000 the third and then hit a consistent amount that will feed your goal over the remaining term?
This must be meaningful to you. Is it your goal? (Not a goal for pleasing others, or what you think others would want you to achieve).
There might be other people that benefit from that goal, but it must be for you.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself in achievement of the goal and imagine how you now feel.
Is it what you hoped and expected it to be? How do you feel now you have achieved it?
Achieving the goal for £50,000 clear Net Profit just to find that in 12 months you have alienated all the people you wanted to share it with is probably not a great strategy!
As if now, All areas of life, Achievable.
As if Now: Express your goals in the present tense, as if you are already in achievement of the goal.
Goals set in the future tense do not work.
I will earn £50,000 this year (Will never arrives, it’s always in the future).
I am, is the most powerful command you can give your subconscious mind.
Eg: I am 12 stone 9 lb, my take home pay is £4,000 per month after tax
All Areas of Life:
Set goals in all areas, business/career, finance, relationship, health & fitness, self-development, spirituality, – This brings balance.
Achievable:
Do not set unachievable goals. If you set a goal to become a world class athlete and you are over 40, that’s not going to happen!
If you are currently turning over £300,000 per year, achieving £2,000,000 next year may not be very likely. (although not totally impossible…) Be reasonably sensible.
Do you have a limiting belief that could stop you achieving your target?
Once upon a time, the entire planet believed that it was impossible for the human body to run a 4-minute mile.
Roger Bannister decided to not believe that, and was the first person to run a mile in less than 4 minutes.
Very quickly, many others soon ran a mile in less than the “impossible” 4 minutes.
It was once believed that if the human body travelled more than 25 miles per hour, it would disintegrate!
What limiting beliefs do you have that are holding you back?
Realistic & Responsible
Is it realistic for us personally?
What degree of certainty do you have that YOU CAN make this happen? If the goal is realistic, the answer will be that it is 100% possible.
What’s the reality of your current position? Is your goal and timeframe realistic?
If you don’t have 100% certainty, you either have a limiting belief, or the goal is not realistic.
You can then either change the limiting belief or re-assess the goal.
Responsible:
Does your goal include other people that you haven’t discussed this goal with?
Planning something that includes someone else working toward your goal without their knowledge is not responsible.
What are the consequences of your goal? Does it have a positive or negative impact on other areas of your life?
A responsible goal should have no negative impact on either yourself or others.
Responsible can also be planetary, does it have any negative or positive impact on the planet or the environment?
Responsible goals are the easiest to achieve, you will get support.
If your goal is responsible towards others, you will get support from those people.
Timed:
A precise timescale is required – day, date, month, year.
The more specific you can make it, the better.
Next week or next year is not definite and will always be a date in the future. It never arrives.
Set a date that you want to have reached this by.
Using your current reality, work out what the steps are that you need to achieve on the way to the final goal.
Big goals always seem so far out of reach, so make it easy on yourself by breaking it down into timed chunks.
The small chunks might not seem as awesome as the idea of having the final outcome, but not achieving the goal because it was too far out of reach is not awesome either.
Did your time get taken up somewhere else because you saw easy quick-fixes on other less meaningful achievements?
Put the smaller steps into a timescale AND STICK TO IT! – You will not thank yourself in a year for taking the easy option and getting side tracked with the little achievements with no real meaning.
Achieving steps 1 and 2 may not feel like you’ve achieved much, but on a 5-step goal, when you start to approach step 4, you’re about to succeed! (remember the rules from last month’s exercise – was persistence one of them?)
Next Step: Taking Action
So, by now we have made a specific set of goals with important criteria.
Behave, think and believe in a way that your goal has already been achieved. This will enable your subconscious mind to steer you towards the successful outcome of your goals.
Think about the famous footballer who spends his entire childhood practicing his skills, pretending he is that world renowned sportsman that he idolises.
The idea of not becoming that successful player never entered his mind. He pretends to be Ronaldo EVERY time he plays football.
It’s not guaranteed to happen for every child who dreams of becoming Ronaldo, but none of those highly paid and revered stars ever got to where they are without first dreaming of the success, and 100% believing that they would be there one day too.
What your mind can believe, the mind can achieve – NAPOLEAN HILL
