Pursuing and achieving major long-term
goals is a big part of proper self-actualization and realization of a
successful life. Life is change and it will change no matter what you
try to do. Having some control over that change and developing
yourself in a positive direction will certainly have a positive
impact on your perceived level of happiness and well-being. No matter
how enlightened you are, if you are living in a modern society you
will always care about your direct experience. And your experience is
largely shaped by how you develop your mental and physical
capabilities, health and skills. And lastly for most people, a
positive life-experience also involves some degree material
achievements.
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| Writing down your desired state of self is the first step of this technique |
I assume that you have some major life-goals. You have been studying self-development, you have been reading my blog or other self-improvement resources and you have therefore a vision for your future self. You have also understood, that it takes practice and continuous work to achieve certain out of the ordinary goals.
But, if you are like me, you have
already attempted to achieve many goals and failed almost as often.
Why is that? Why do we set goals for ourselves and are not able to
live them in the long term. We work on them in the short term,
motivation drops and we quit. We want results quickly with little
effort. Or we do not enjoy the process and have chosen the wrong
goals for us. Whatever the reason, we often fail to achieve our
goals.
In reality all those reasons are only
symptoms and not the true source of our failure. Here is the absolute
reason why you are not achieving your goals:
“Your subconscious mind works against
your imagined future, because it holds an image of yourself which
does not embody that goal.”
Or said differently, your subconscious
mind will influence your actions in sneaky ways so that the long-term
outcomes will bring you back to that internal picture you have of
yourself in regards to that goal.
Let’s say for example you have been
growing up in a poor family and community. For years the way the
people lived around you has programmed you to imagine yourself living
that way as well. Now you want to achieve a rich life for yourself.
If you do not correct that self-image first, it will be a hard battle
to achieve that goal. Your poor self-image influences your actions
and motivation to became or stay true to that self-image.
So how do you change your self-image?
Through repeated emotional imagination of the desired self-image.
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| Carry the goalcard with you and regularly visualize the goal |
One way to accomplish that is to make a
Goalcard. You always carry that goalcard around with you. You make it
a habit to look at it several times day. You imagine your future self
as vividly and emotionally engaging as possible.
This is how you write your goalcard:
- The specifics of the goal: When and what you want to achieve?
- The way to achieve the goal: What do you need to do now? How to you want to achieve it?
- How you embody the goal: What does your life look like if you achieve the goal?
- What are your motivations: Why do you want to achieve the goal?
Write all the answers to those
questions down on the card and make the card durable, because this
process of osmosis can take a long time. Depending on how big of a
change to your self-image your goal requires. You want to become a
millionaire? Better expect this process to take a few years, if you
are not already rich. Embodying what it takes to earn a million
probably requires drastic changes to your personality. That’s not
going to happen overnight. But carrying that goal card with you for a
couple of years will be well worth it. It will constantly remind you
to work on that goal and create that self-image.