Happy New Year!
So how are you doing with your new year’s resolutions? I spent 3 hours over the Christmas holiday working out what I would like to focus on over the next 5 years and did some visioning and goal setting.
Some of you may remember me telling you about one of the last visions I set. This was the picture I drew in 2007 of the house I wanted us to live in, followed by the house we moved into 16 months ago:
Spooky ay? It wasn’t until we’d been living in our new house a couple of months that I realised that our vision had been realised.
Vision statements don’t work for me personally, although I do work with many businesses that like to use them. I have been reading a great book by Brian Mayne called Goal Mapping. One of his gems was about how it is important to not only write your goals / vision, but draw them too. When we draw, it engages and influences our unconscious mind – think of it as unconscious mind programming! You don’t have to be a great artist; child-like drawings and stick men will do just fine. Here’s my Vision so far:
Here are some simple steps / tips I use with clients to set goals / vision:
- Engage the left- brain by writing down what you want to:
a. Be
b. Do
c. Have - Take a large piece of paper, (I like A1) and split it into the 3 headings above; you chose how you do this. Trust your instincts and go with the flow.
- Now comes the fun part, to engage (and unconsciously programme) the right- brain, draw your Vision; things that represent what you’ve written in (1.) above. You may find that this generates additional ideas. Also, you could do this exercise in reverse, i.e. draw first and then write down what you want to be / do / have.
- The next step is to capture some goals. Ensure that:
a. You identify WHAT you want to achieve
b. You establish some ideas about HOW you’re going to get it. When you’re dealing with long term goals / visions, it can be tricky to identify all the specific steps to get you there. Focus on things you can do in the next 12 – 18 months. Even better, identify something you can do within the next 24 hours to get you off the starting blocks.
c. State your goals positively, i.e. focusing on what you do want, not what you don’t. For example, “I don’t want to be stressed” might become, “I want to be calm”.
d. Score your goal as it stands today: 10 = goal complete. This can be useful when measuring feelings too. Again, trust your instincts and pick the first number that comes into your head. - Finally, if you are trying to make behavioural changes as part of your goals i.e. stop / start doing something, exercise your yes / no muscle. For example, I have really overindulged during Christmas. Loose fitting clothing is the order of the day for the next few weeks! I’d got into a habit of saying yes to everything tasty and no to physical activity. When I catch myself craving naughty but nice things, I simply say ‘No’ in my head. Keeping a metal tally is strengthening my will, motivation and sense of achievement. Yesterday I got up to 18 in a couple of hours!! Equally, when I catch myself considering not exercising, I do the opposite and nip the thought in the bud, by saying ‘Yes’ to exercise. This technique will help you to take charge of your autopilot.
You can access Bryan Mayne’s great Goal Mapping Template, here.
