Don't Just Set Goals - Visualise Them!

There’s no question we need to set goals. However, here’s something that’s much more important than goal setting - visualising that goal - imagining yourself with that lifestyle, job, holiday, house etc.
I often ask audiences ‘Who loves cars?’ Loads of people in the audience put up their hands and say ‘I love cars’, so I say ‘What car do you love? Tell us the car that’s the ultimate.’ And people say maybe ‘Porsche’ so we’d put Porsche in the middle of a goals diagram. I ask them what colour they want ‘black’ and I say ‘What interior?’ and so I get them to visualise the goal. So we’ve got ‘black Porsche 911’ with a black interior. And I say ‘Would you like that car?’ and they say ‘Yeah.’So I say ‘Okay, here’s the trick: In an hours’ time, we’re going to give you the car. And you’ve earned it. What four emotions are you going to feel as soon as you have this car?’So people say to me ‘I’m going to have fun. So as soon as I get the Porsche, I’m going to feel fun in my heart. I’m going to feel excited.’ They may say ‘Once I get my dream car, I’m going to get excited’ and then people say ‘I’m going to feel powerful’. And if there’s a girl in the audience, often she will say ‘I’m going to feel sexy’.Okay so they have these four emotions - now I want to ask you a question, providing you love cars and you have your car and you’re driving down the road, what are the emotions you’re going to feel? Excited, powerful, sexy, fun - there’s your goal. But here’s the catch (isn't there always one?!) - in the next hour every human being on earth disappears. There are no gorgeous guys, no gorgeous girls, no mates, no friends, no family – we’ve all disappeared, gone to live in a bubble above the earth.The only thing that’s left on earth now is you, the car, and a load of petrol. So you can drive as long as you want, as far as you want, as fast as you like. And yet there’s no one to share it with. If you had nobody to share your goal with, would you feel excited? No. So the excitement’s gone. With nobody to share it with, would you feel powerful? Even though you’ve got a Porsche, would you feel powerful after two days, would you feel powerful with no one to share it with? No. Would you feel sexy? With nobody else to look at you – nobody to share it with, nobody to feel with – sexy’s gone. Would you feel fun? No fun without anybody else.So under those conditions, I asked audiences ‘Do you want the car?’ and they said ‘No, of course not.’So the difficulty is unless you understand exactly what you want, unless you know why you’re setting the goals, you’re not going to feel anything when you achieve it. When you set goals, understand something much more important than the goal setting itself is ‘Why do I want it?’You want motivation in your life. It comes from feelings. The easiest way to succeed in life is have a deep reason why you want it. Work out the feelings, not just the goals.

Have a great day!

Warmest wishes

Craig

Craig Goldblatt works with thousands of top executives each year to advise how best to get the most out of their lives and their teams, if you would like him to work with your organisation, email him at craig@craiggoldblatt.com