Your ability to create visions and set goals is essential to your personal and professional lives. Visions allow you to see yourself at some point in the future, while goals offer a road map to reach these visions. There is nothing more rewarding than having visions, setting goals to reach these visions, and focusing on the visions become reality.
Goal-setting
Goal-setting is a powerful process of becoming clear about your ideal future, designing an action plan to get you there, launching into action, and persisting until you reach your destination. The key to goal-setting is your ability to turn this vision into reality.
The art of goal-setting is understood and appreciated by top athletes, entertainers, and successful people from all walks of life. A person who learns how to set goals lives each day with a sense of clarity, confidence, purpose, and passion.
The art of goal-setting will enable you to:
- Decide what is important in your life.
- Determine what you want to achieve.
- Separate what is important from what is irrelevant.
- Be motivated.
- Facilitate your ability to benchmark progress.
- Gain self-confidence as your goals become reality.
Think of goal-setting as your navigation system. Goal-setting allows you to identify what is important in your life and turn your thoughts and ideas into specific, actionable, and measurable goals. Importantly, your goals will protect you from becoming distracted by other people’s agendas and expectations. In designing your goal-setting navigation system and charting your own course, you will have control over your destination.
Research on goal-setting and peak performance substantiate that most successful people are goal-oriented. They have learned how to turn their vision into action. They have a knack for bringing the future into the present so they can take action now. Greg Norman, the legendary golfer stated that “setting goals for your game is an art. The trick is setting them at the right level, neither too low nor too high. A good goal should be lofty enough to inspire hard work yet realistic enough to provide solid hope of attainment.”
Visioning
Visioning is frequently used by athletes and entertainers to enhance their performance. It is the technique of using your imagination to visualize specific behaviors or events that you want to occur in your life.
Your performance will be greatly enhanced when you practice visioning as part of your personal development plan. Vision as if you’ve already achieved your goal. Remember, success begins within.
You may find the following five visioning exercises of great value.
- Internalization: Close your eyes. See the goal in your mind’s eye. Practice “seeing” your goal repeatedly until it’s clear in your mind. For example, a golfer may visualize the perfect stroke over and over again to mentally train muscle memory.
- Externalization: Imagine the situation when you’ve attained your goal, this time with your eyes open. Actor Jim Carrey wrote himself a check for $10 million in 1987. He dated it in the future, “Thanksgiving 1995,” and added the notation, “for acting services rendered.” He visualized success for years and, in 1994, received $10 million for his role in Dumb and Dumber.
- Anticipation: Play out a whole scenario in your mind. Imagine how people are behaving toward you. Michael Jordan stated that he shot many more baskets in his mind than he ever did on the court. He mentally rehearsed what he intended to do…in his mind.
- Emotionalization: Anticipate positive emotions when you achieve a goal. Sports psychologists say that visualization boosts athletes’ confidence by forcing them to picture themselves winning. It also helps them concentrate on their physical moves and how they feel when they win.
- Verbalization: Picture your goals and rehearse the scenario you painted during your forecasting exercise. Say out loud what the scenario is that you see. Then write it down. Look at your goals again at the end of the six months.
Once you determine specific outcomes, visualize them over and over again with all of your senses:
- What do you see? (images and pictures)
- What do you hear? (the roar of the crowd)
- What do you feel? (kinesthetically how your body responds and feels)
Visioning and Goal-setting…essential skills for your success. The process will ignite your passion for the future!