One of the biggest mistakes people make when they would like to change their life is not being clear about what they want in relation to setting and achieving goals.
Maybe you are unhappy about a situation in your life and all you think about is how you can’t stand this thing going on and how you want it to stop happening.
That is all very well but what you may find is that nothing much changes except that you get more and more unhappy with the situation and you don’t know what you have to do to change things. You have to decide what you want to move towards as well as what you want to move away from. One without the other won’t work as effectively.
For example, if you can’t bear the long hours at work you may leave your job completely which would solve the problem to some extent but may bring you other challenges if you don’t have any income.
You might have solved the problem by knowing what you wanted instead such as requesting if you could work fewer hours or more flexibly perhaps working from home for some of the time.
What I’ve learned about changing something is as follows:
You must define what it is you want :
What tends to motivate people is getting away from a painful situation and that is very laudable. However if you don’t know what you want instead then you may be getting away from one bad situation and moving into another which is equally unpleasant for you.
It helps to visualise what life will be like when you achieve your desired goal:
If you spend a bit of time each day just imagining in your mind’s eye what life would be like when you have changed it to be the way you would like. Doing this re-enforces your subconscious mind and you will move more easily to that to become your reality.
Keep aiming to achieve more:
Once you achieve what you want don’t stop. Every few months re-assess the situation and re-consider what else you could do to make your life even better. Get all those things which have irritated you for years sorted and dealt with; improve your health and well-being; do things you haven’t had time for years; have fun and enjoy yourself.
These are some of the lessons I’ve learned about setting and achieving goals.
Goal setting in positive terms rather than avoidance / escape
Is clearly important.
Sometimes though the vision is difficult to clarify. I like though the idea of
A little every day.
I sense and indeed know that Susan herself has thought well out of the
Box and indeed achieved much if not all of her vision.
I tend to like force field diagrams – although I am quite sure they fit into
Susan`s view of these matters. It is though a realistic way of assessing
Factors helping and those hindering change.
What I learn though from Susan is that there is no substitute for
Having developed a vision towards which you are pointing. The force
Field diagram may show these factors for and many factors against but
Nevertheless the vision remains.