Do you want to achieve your life’s goals and dreams?  Below is a prescription to get your life quickly headed in that direction in a more surefooted way?  I am so confident that this advice will revolutionize your life, I am not going to waste anymore time trying to explain how it works, because it works. It works because there is nothing wrong with you.  You are a perfectly imperfect human being that is capable of so much more than you believe.  As you go through the following exercises try to be aware of thoughts that come up.  Don’t add any additional thoughts to them, just acknowledge every positive or negative thought you have, and then gently go back to taking each step.  

Step 1 – Write Down Your Goals

Make a list of your top three goals.  These are the big ones that will have a huge impact on your current life.  Just write down what you want to achieve.  Don’t worry about making them specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, or time bound at this point.

Step 2 – Visualize What The Goals Would Mean For Your Life

Imagine that you have already achieved these goals, and imagine what a whole day might look like after achieving these goals. Play out the day in your mind.  During this process continue to notice any positive or negative thoughts or reactions about these goals.  Just acknowledge whatever thoughts come, but don’t add any additional thoughts to them. 

Step 3 – Write Down The First Five Tasks

Pick your most important life changing goal, and write down five specific tasks that you know will have to be done to achieve that goal.  These first few tasks should be simple tasks that have a clear start and end point, and shouldn’t encompass more than a single activity for each.

Step 4 – The Practice

Have you ever thought about why we call a Law or Doctor’s office a practice?  As much as we would like to think that our doctors and lawyers are 100% qualified, the fact is that they are practicing just like we are. In this step you will take your first five tasks and start practicing them. It is very important that while you are performing these tasks, that you pay attention to whatever positive or negative thoughts come up about the task.  Just as before when you have thoughts, just acknowledge them, don’t push them down, or add anymore thoughts to them.  Then just go back to focusing on the tasks.  This is the secret sauce, look at these tasks as you are practicing them, getting better at them, and paying attention to every step. Enjoy the journey and learning.  Don’t take this too seriously, just do the work, and have fun.  

Keep following through on each task, and when you finish or go as far as you can on these five tasks, write down five more tasks and then rinse and repeat.  This is where you will spend ninety percent of your time during this process.  The reason that it is so important that you pay attention to the thoughts that come up about these tasks, is that you will notice all the messages your brain tries to send, that you didn’t ask for.  Some of these thoughts will be negative.  They may be thoughts about something you tried in the past and failed, or thoughts about how unlikely it is that you can achieve the task or your main goal.  They may also be positive, like OMG, it will be so great when I achieve this.  Either way it leads to the same thing.  That is you being distracted by your thoughts.  If you pay attention long enough you will also see that these thoughts are not you, they are just what the human brain does naturally. They don’t say a thing about who you are or what you are capable of, unless you give them the power to do that.  The best thing to do is not to fight the thoughts, and just put your attention on the task like it has something to tell you, because indeed it does have something to tell you.  Mine every bit of wonder out of each task, paying close attention to each step.

Step 5 – Weekly Regroup

Every five to seven days plan an hour to reflect on what you accomplished and acknowledge any thoughts or obstacles that came up in the prior days.  The purpose of this exercise is to make you more self-aware with regard to your thought tendencies, and also to acknowledge the progress you have made.  Whether you made significant progress, or very little progress it is fine at this point. What makes most people quit on their goals, are the thoughts that come up and discourage them, or encourage them into thinking they have arrived. Either way the result is the same, progress slows dramatically or stops.  Right now you are “practicing” which is no different than what anyone else is doing in achieving their goals, you are just being up front about the fact that you are practicing, and producing the same results as those who are in denial.  When you have discouraging thoughts, you are just acknowledging them, learning about your brain, and getting back to work instead of quitting.  Others who aren’t practicing are statistically most likely quitting.

Step 6 – Get S.M.A.R.T

Practice steps 4 and 5 as long as you want to, because the truth is you will be making progress towards your goals.  If you have been effectively noticing the thoughts that rise as you go through this process, you will also be more confident, and happier.  You will see progress without putting unnecessary time or other pressure on yourself. You will be enjoying the process, because you are paying attention to the journey instead of your thoughts about the journey.  Life will be better overall.  You may choose to continue repeating steps 4 and 5, but if you want to set specific timeframes to your goals, and begin to work on others you will know that you are ready.  At this point go back to step 1 and restate your goals, except this time your goals are going to be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time Bound   

You will also list all of your goals, not just the top three.  You will be more specific about what you want to accomplish, in what areas of your life.  It is valuable to keep in mind that many people set one goal, and then end up in some place completely different, because of new understanding and opportunities.  Achieving SMART goals allows you to take more control over the process. Two things to remember as you move forward.  Keep noticing the thoughts that come up, and always pay attention to and enjoy the journey.

Summary

I am sharing this post, because over the last three years my own life has improved dramatically.  I make more money than I ever have, my discipline and attention have improved dramatically, and I live a mostly happy and contented life.  I am still repeating Steps 4 and 5, because I am enjoying the process, and have everything I need and most of what I want, and life is still improving.  As you go through this process you will still struggle with things, and negative things outside your control will still happen from time to time, but once you are able to separate yourself from all the thoughts that just come up, they won’t be so hard to deal with, and you will learn to just acknowledge them and get back to enjoying the journey.  

Good luck on your journey and feel free to reach out anytime.