Choosing goals isn’t an easy process.
As much as we’d like to believe, it’s not as simple as looking in the mirror and saying something like, “you know, I think I’m going to lose a few pounds.”
In NLP there’s a step by step system to choose your goals.
And once chosen, they’re sometimes referred to as a “well formed goal.”
In order to be a well formed goal, they’ve got to meet several criteria.
Like, how soon you’ll reach your goal. (When will you have lost weight?)
How you’ll know specifically when you’ve achieved your goal.
Now, these are actually pretty easy. They just take a little effort to put some specifics on that vague desire.
The trickiest part?
Is choosing a goal that’s important to you.
Not your boss, not your mom, not your local priest or pastor, or even your God.
But you.
See, there’s a huge tragedy that’s not often discussed. It goes like this. Somebody chooses a goal. Gets really specific about what it is, and when they’re going to achieve it.
They may even hire a life coach to check in with once a week to make sure they’re progressing nicely along.
Six months or a year later, they achieve their goal. That’s when the shocking realization hits.
That goal wasn’t really for them. It was for somebody else. Only they didn’t know it until they achieved it.
As you can imagine, this can do untold damage to your self confidence and self esteem.
So when you set out to set and achieve goals, don’t skip the most important step.
Answer this question: Who’s goal is it?
If you were single (or married) would you have the same goal?
If you were rich, would you have the same goal?
If you lived in a city where you didn’t know anybody, and nobody knew you, would you have the same goal?
If you knew you could get laid, get rich, become famous, whether or not you achieved your goal, would you still have the same goal?
Like they say, measure twice cut once.