All About Goals - Going for the Gold!

Aug. 22, 2012 - PRLog -- JB’s Column

There is a saying that if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.  I think it is more accurate to say if you fail to have a goal and a plan to reach that goal, you are like a ship on the sea with no one at the helm.  You’ll be taken where ever the winds and currents take you with no control over your destination.  Get a clear objective in mind and chart a course to get there so that you can take charge of your own destiny.

Success is a journey, not a destination.  Even as you reach goals you have been working toward for a while, new ones take their place.  We are evolving, creative beings constantly generating new wants and desires that spring forth from the experiences that fill our days.  The only thing that can hold us back is fear.  Fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of lack, fear of sickness, fear of death.  Fear holds you back because it saps your ability to believe in a positive outcome.  

This is more of a challenge than you may think it is.  If you are faced with a disease, fear of the worst can keep your body from healing.  When you are faced with too much debt, fear of financial disaster can cut you off from inspiration and opportunity.  The simplest example of this line of thinking can be found in sports.  The athletes that fear they are going to make a critical mistake very often will do exactly that.  What do the top athletes do?  They rehearse not mistakes but great performances in their mind over and over again.  They “see” the outcome they want in advance; they “feel” what it is like to experience the goal before it has actually happened.  They “know” how it is going to work out.

Think back to various experiences in your life.  Can you think of a time when you “knew” something was going to work out a certain way?  For better or worse, that’s probably how it worked out.  The thing to remember is that it is a choice.  You have far more ability to control outcomes than you may be willing to take responsibility for.  Do you rehearse in your mind victories and great successes or tragedies and failures?  Whatever you are rehearsing in your mind is the actual goal you are setting for yourself whether it is the one you think you want or not.  Strive to be like the top athletes, always rehearsing the great performance in their mind and seeing themselves accepting the gold medal on the podium.  The one that is most confident of that end result will be the one that gets it.
“To boldly go where no one has gone before” – this line from StarTrek encapsulates a great concept to live by.  Think BIG and go for your heart’s desires.  Take time to appreciate each success along the way.  Boldly create a vision of who and what you are going to be and how it will feel when you get there and just watch things fall into place to make it a reality.