Graduate Call Notes 11-18-14: Goal Setting and Letting Go

Goal setting is part of the creation process. Having goals gives our mind a specific intention to work towards. The power of having specific written goals was brought out in a study at Harvard Business School. Students were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all. Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.

The process of having goals that really excite you, finding the real why of having the goal, and tapping into the emotion is how we can stay motivated throughout the process of reaching our goals.

It works best to work your goal backwards. We need a time line to do this. If I want to accomplish the goal within one year, I ask myself where I need to be in 9 months to reach the 12 month goal. Then, where do I need to be in 6 months to reach the 9 month goal. I continue working this backwards until I have weekly goals with daily action steps. This accomplishes a couple of things. First it lets me see exactly what it is going to take to accomplish the goal so I can decide if it will be worth it to me. Second, it makes what might seem overwhelming and out of reach, much more doable and believable.

A great process to come up with exciting goals is to start with a dream list. Write a dream list of absolutely anything that you could possibly want to have, be, or do with no limits. Then visualize each thing on the list using the process we talked about in last week’s call making it as real as possible. The ones that stir the strongest emotion are the ones you write goals for. The dreams that stir that strong of emotion do so for a reason. I have found that this is where the guidance comes from. This is also where the motivation comes from. Once we have the goal we then work the process we talked about in last week’s call using the tools of creation.

When we talk about letting go, we are referring to letting go of the how. I have to trust that if I am doing my part which is having the goal, having the vision, and feeding what I want, the how will take care of itself. Trying to control the how opens the door to doubt which can lead to frustration. We then are feeding what we don’t want. We want to work the process which helps creating the mindset of allowing.