“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible”
Tony Robbins
What I love about this is that it sounds like a magic trick. There’s nothing in the box, tap tap with your wand, ‘abracadabra’ and hey presto – the box is filled with whatever it is that you desire. How marvellous.
Setting goals IS a magic trick, and the great thing about it is that you don’t have to join a secret society or inner circle, enrol at Hogwarts or own a magic wand to do it. Setting goals is easy and free and absolutely for everybody.
Here’s how it’s done:
GET YOUR EMPTY BOX
This is the really fun bit. You can actually get a real box if it helps, or a sheet of paper, or an empty Pinterest board, whatever works best for you. Now dream. Think about what you would like your life to be like, how you would like your days to be, what you’d like your business to be like. Write, draw, cut out pictures and grab your glue, pin pins, do whatever it takes to create a vision for yourself of what you WANT. That empty box is now covered with ideas of what you want. It’s filled with your dreams.
TAP, TAP
Pick a goal, it doesn’t matter which one – it’s up to you. Think about that goal – what do you need to do to make it happen?
- make bullet points – be detailed.
- work backwards, what do you need to do before you get to the next step?
- who do you need to help you get there?
- in what ways can you use your brand to help you get there?
- when will each step be completed by? Having a timescale in place can be really motivating, but it also means that you know what’s meant to be happening when so you can be realistic about it.
- what do you need to get there?
When you’ve finished you should have a step by step detailed plan. How does that feel?
“ABRACADABRA!”
Now you have a plan you just need to follow it. Focus on your goal, remember that end result, and it will be easier. Maybe take your empty box (or equivalent) and put it somewhere obvious so you can focus on it everyday and be motivated by what you’re working for. Have a picture of it in your purse, on the inside of the kitchen cupboard you open the most, next to your mirror, on your phone background, on your computer screensaver, keep reminders in many places to help you remember what you’re up to and to keep on track. You could even set our your actions in a planner, on a spreadsheet or on a Trello board so you know what you need to accomplish each week. You could add tick boxes to your plan so you can tick things off. Chip away at your plan, bit by bit.
‘HEY PRESTO!’
If you work carefully through your list and make sure you retain focus on the end result, you’ll reach your goal. That invisible thing will become visible, tangible, real. You’ve just performed magic – didn’t it feel good?
What invisible goal do you want to make visible?