No doubt about it.... the world is filled with choices & limit- less possibilities for goal achievement in all areas of life. most of us, however, live in the land of self-limitation & lack. Because we spend our day on auto-pilot, we rarely do more than mentally window shop & simply wish we could have this or that. In addition, the combination of stress chemical production & poor inner organization keeps us treading water, instead of swimming forward.

This article will help you move in the direction of high level goal performance. Achieving goals is not an accident or a matter of luck. It is a matter of knowing what to do & then doing it. A good place to begin is by learning how to properly dissect goal choices. You can apply these techniques to all areas of your life including your work, as well as your own self-development & self-care.

Choose Well! You have many choices & opportunities in all areas of your life. Engage in limitless wishing. Pretend you have a genie in a bottle who is willing to give you whatever you want. Spend some time thinking about what you really do want. Take time with this exercise. Most of us tend to be "goal-less" & spin our wheels unproductively for most of our hours. It is time to break this habit. In addition, many of us choose things we don't really want & so we set the scene for failure even before beginning.

Choose one, or at the most two goals in each area! Most goals at the top our lists are old goals. Some have been difficult for us in the past & often have "failure-codes" assigned to them. Set yourself up for success by not over-burdening yourself with too many goals in each area. Certainly don't back away from these previous goals, but keep in mind that your work will include diminishing those "failure-codes" & replacing them with new success images. This is time-consuming work, but as you practice more & more assistance will be given by the sub- conscious mind. Do make certain, however, to have goals in each area of your life. Goals keep us on track & moving forward. Each area will energize the other areas.

Try the goal on for size! When choosing goals it is a good idea to work subconsciously. This is quite easy & most of us are pretty good at doing this already. In the beginning it is best to do this work alone & with quiet. Turn off the phones, radio, TV & ask not to be disturbed for a bit. Once you gain experience with these skills, you can utilize them any time and at any place. Once you've secured your quiet, allow your body to become deeply relaxed & heavy in the chair. Now tilt your eyes up about twenty degrees just as if you were sitting in the second row of a movie theater. On the screen place one of your possible goals. See yourself AS IF it were already in your possession. Observe it for a bit from all angles & make certain this is what you really want.

Evaluate other choices!

Try on some of the other goal possibilities. Sometimes we find that we want one of these more than the other that came up first. Allow yourself to explore the goal details. See your- self in all possible scenarios, acting AS IF the goal were al- ready in hand. What does the goal offer you? What does the goal take away? How do the parts of you feel about this? All of this is very important information offered by your subconscious mind. You will be utilizing it later in your goal work.

Go ahead and take a goal that IS NOT ON YOUR LIST. Try this on for size. What does it feel like to have this goal? This powerful exercise allows you to set up a goal continuum, experiencing both ends.

Do it for you! Remember, this is your goal. This is something you are doing for yourself, even though others may benefit from it. This is especially important when designing work related or relationship- related goals. Back to the theater in your mind. Observe the goal playing out with this current theme. How would you rate it on the "for you scale?" If the scale comes up with low numbers, call over the subconscious librarian & ask for suggestions about enhancing it "for you." Those suggestions will either come in the moment, or a bit later. When they come, be certain to try them on, noticing if they enhance the goal value for you. The subconscious mind works in what may be considered "strange ways", but do know that every suggestion has value.

Gain cooperation of others beforehand! If your goal will affect the lives of others, check if changes need to be made, or their cooperation gleaned in some way. For instance, if you want to join a health club & the money needs to be taken from other family activities, discuss this ahead of time with those involved. You might take a visit to the theater of the mind be- forehand & see the cooperation that you want AS IF you already had it. You might notice that you are "handing out refreshments to the others. The subconscious librarian will assist you in locating these "refreshments." As you share with others you will find they will often share with you in return. Working with positive imagery is a very valuable tool & helps us to move past roadblocks with less effort than before.

Image the goal in doable steps! In hypnosis we always see the goal AS IF we already have it, but this does not mean that we don't observe the steps leading to the goal. As we see these steps, we can utilize the subconscious mind in a variety of ways to help us move along with less effort.

I like to work with the theater as well as with a journal exercise for this. Go back to the theater and see your goal as completed. Open your eyes & spend some time detailing the goal on paper. Be as specific as you can, as if you were describing it to someone else. Now, back to the theater, notice the steps leading up to the achieved goal & the time-frames attached. Open your eyes & draw the steps on your paper, of course including the times or deadlines for achieving each one. If you do not know, make an educated guess. You can always perfect this later on. Remember all of our goal work is work in progress. Your levels of success will be enhanced as you work with the theater & the pen.

Do a self-check ! Once again, back to the theater. It is time to meet with all parts of yourself. If there is any inner-self opposition to your goal choice, it is best to clarify it early on in the planning stages & work to diminish any large negativity. Even small ones can be enough to take away from effort- less success, so awareness is key. For example, if you really want to quit smoking for your health, make certain the part of you that enjoys smoking socially is willing to support the project. If not, you can learn techniques to bring this into a better self-balance, thereby enhancing your chances of success.

Mind-Opening Questions

Take some quiet time for yourself & relax deeply before exploring the questions. If you hurry or strive, you will not be accessing your subconscious mind librarian.

1. Divide your life into separate areas. With this list in hand which areas could benefit from some goal revision?

2. Choose any goal to work the steps above. How did you go about choosing this goal?

3. What is another goal that competed with this one? What criteria did you utilize to differentiate the winning goal?

4. How do you motivate yourself to achieve goals? What could you enhance?

5. How do you view failure in yourself? How about in others? What would you change in your own self-development to make this area work better for you & your outcomes?

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