“Have you set your goals yet?”
“What are they?”
“How are they coming along?”
“Why don’t you set bigger goals?”
Any of this sound familiar?
If you’ve done any personal development work, you know the routine.
You set goals.
You achieve some of them (you hardly acknowledge it).
You don’t achieve others (you beat yourself up…).
Then, you set the same goal (or some version of it) again.
This is the typical way.
And, it works…. kinda.
Today I want to give you the inside track on setting and achieving goals.
It’s the ins and outs of making sure you actually get what you want.
Here’s what you need to know:
Goals tend to be “fix it” in nature. “I am going to make this much money, so I don’t have to _________” (fill in thing you want to avoid).
Or, they tend to be “when I get that then________” (fill in thing you want) in nature.
But HERE’S THE DEAL.
Most likely you are setting goals that are ‘in order to.’
In order to look good, I have to lose X pounds.
In order to feel safe, I have to make X dollars.
You get the idea.
So, you set your goals around benchmarks that you think will produce the result you want.
And that’s the problem.
You want more freedom. So, you set a big income goal.
Then you dominate yourself with work, obligations and responsibilities that strip your freedom, all in an effort to make more money and be free.
Uh.
Are you seeing the problem here?
Goals become the prison that keeps you from actually having the thing you think the goal will deliver.
So, how do we unravel this mess?
Simple.
Set intentions.
Intentions are what you actually want… the experience you want to have.
It’s like this: I have an intention to drive X car, live in X house, etc.
But really, all those things do is make me feel a certain way.
When I align my thoughts with the feelings… the experience of life that these things provide… then my income naturally goes up, or I start to eat healthier, or I take whatever action promotes the intention I have set.
Suddenly, new opportunities coming that are aligned with those intentions.
That’s when things start to get really fun.
I know it seems like we are splitting hairs. But stay with me here.
When you intend for something to happen, you are not attached. (THIS IS THE SECRET SAUCE!)
You are interested and curious about that thing happening, but you aren’t in a pushing, grinding, forcing mode.
And that’s key.
Because when you are forcing and pushing for your goals to happen, you actually kill off the energy that attracts them to you.
I know it sounds weird. But I have an extreme level of mastery around this process, and I really want you to as well.
So, today consider reworking your goals… and creating intentions instead.
The more you focus on the kinds of experiences you want, the more flexible you are about how they come about.
And in the end, you get everything you really want.
Let’s do this.
Author
Matthew Ferry