The Art Of Setting Truly Inspiring Goals

Have you ever set yourself a goal only to give up on it or forget about it a few weeks or month later?

Well, first of all, congratulations!

You clearly have the desire to do better and achieve more and, just by setting that goal (especially if you wrote it down), you have done more than most people ever do. You’re already one step ahead.

And don’t get disheartened, its fairly usual for people to give up on their goals before completion and that’s usually because they haven’t set the right sort of goals to begin with and are, therefore, doomed to failure.

Dr Maxwell Maltz explains in his best-selling book Psycho Cybernetics that everything in nature is a goal seeking organism.

For plants and animals their goal is to survive and procreate and they are programmed to do that.

But we are more than that.

Humans, alone of all the creatures on Earth, have the imagination, intellect and ability to set our own goals beyond basic survival and procreation.

And, if we do not set meaningful goals, we will become discontented and unhappy. We will not be fulfilling our purpose which is to learn and grow. In fact, as nothing in the Universe can stay still - everything is in a constant state of vibration: an ‘ocean of motion’ as my mentor Bob Proctor likes to say, you have to be going in one direction or the other. If you are not growing, you’re disintegrating. That is a Universal law and a scientific fact.

Now to deal with the question of why most people fail to accomplish their goals:

There are essentially two types of goals End Goals and Means Goals.

Bob breaks them down further into three different types of goals

A-type, B-type and C-type goals.

A-Type Goals: these are something you have already done and know how to do. They are means goals not proper end goals.

So, for example, let’s say, three years ago you bought a new BMW. You decide it’s time for a new one so you set yourself a goal of buying one.

Now, that’s fine, nothing wrong with that per se.

But it’s not a real goal. Because, you already know how to do it.

The real purpose of a goal is not to acquire more stuff (that’s a nice by-product) it’s to help you learn and grow as a person... to develop the potential that lies within you.

B-Type Goals – these are something that you know you can achieve by doing certain things and following a plan.

For example, a company setting a goal to make incremental improvements to increase its revenue by 5 or 10% p.a.

They know it can be done - they just have to do certain things to achieve it.

And whilst these B-type goals may play a role as milestones in your journey, they are not really powerful.

And it’s because when most people set goals, they set A or B type goals and they are not truly motivated to reach them. And, as soon as the going gets tough, their goals fall by the wayside as they opt for the easier path.

To be really inspiring to have the motivation to stretch yourself and really grow as a person you must set a C-type goal.

C-Type Goals – these are fantasy goals, something you’d really love but have NO idea how you would achieve. It’s C-type goals that can really inspire you and motivate.

They are what Earl Nightingale called ‘a worthy ideal’.

So, how do you set a proper C-Type goal.

First, ask yourself

• Are my current goals making me excited and energized?
• Do my goals belong to me or do they belong to somebody else?
• What do I really, really want?

Now when you set a C type goal.  You won’t know how you will achieve it, you just have to really want it, be able to imagine it vividly, hold it in your mind and be willing and able to do what it takes to achieve it.

Remember it’s the journey that’s important – it’s how you will grow as a person as you move towards your goal that counts. 

If you have a defined purpose and are moving towards it then you are already a success even if you haven’t achieved it yet. Once you are working towards your goal you are already successful

You know where you’re going. You will feel happy and fulfilled – and that will put you on the right frequency to start attracting more and more of the good you desire into your life.

Emotional desire will give you the willingness to decide to pay the price needed and when you make that decision your wishes turn into a goal. It will help you get over the hurdles you will invevitably face along the way.

Emotional involvement will change your behaviour, your behaviour will change your results and better results will lead to you accomplishing your goal.

The laws of the universe dictate that it is guaranteed to happen

So, set yourself a C-type goal now. Whatever it is that you really want with no thought as to what you think is possible and don’t give a second’s thought to how you will achieve it, because at this point you just don’t know. 

As Steve Jobs said:

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever you can only ever connect the dots afterwards.

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