My mum had recurring cancer. It came and went but returned again. Sadly we reached the point when the hospital gave her the inevitable news and said “where would you like to die, here or at home?” and Mum replied “Home”. The hospital staff was amazing; they got her home and settled before taking me to one side to tell me that her health was deteriorating and to prepare the family for the worst in the next 7 to 10 days.
At this particular time, it was growing close to my youngest daughter’s first birthday and mum said “I would like to see my granddaughter’s first birthday before I move on”. Against the odds, she survived and stayed alive another month. At this point, Christmas was almost upon us and mum then set herself another goal of wanting to see her grandchildren at Christmas time.
I don’t know how she did it, but we had an extra two unexpected and memorable months with my mum. It was between Christmas Day and the New Year that she peacefully moved on.
I think you will agree, it’s quite incredible to know that the unconscious mind can keep you alive to achieve a focused goal. This may not happen every time, yet around the world, you will find similar stories.
We are goal-centric beings
Have you noticed that if someone has a period of unemployment, they often discover that they suddenly have the time to read the books they always want to and to exercise? Unfortunately, the study goes by the wayside. They tend to go into hibernation mode and start to sleep longer and do less. Yet, conversely, somebody who is busy tends to be able to do more.
Let’s take a particular scenario where you’ve been assigned a special project at work. This is a challenging opportunity that you are excited about and want to focus on to succeed. You tell your partner that they will not see much of you for the next six months, including weekends and evenings and that you need them to support you throughout this time.
“What about us?” they ask and you reassure them by saying “We will go on holiday and spend some quality time together at the end of the six months”. But they respond by saying “Are you sure?” and you reiterate, “oh yes, go ahead and book the holiday”.
The project gets underway and you’re up regularly at 6 am, you also start to exercise, work late, people around you are coming down with colds and you have no sympathy for them. You think to yourself “Look how hard I’m working, all the others are mere weaklings and have got no stamina.”
Then 6 months pass, the project is successfully completed and you can go on holiday. During the very first week of the holiday you have the worst case of flu going and you are bedridden. You get no sympathy from your family because they say, “Typical…..you always do this”.
But how did we arrive at this outcome? Well, in this scenario it’s because the unconscious mind has been given a clear direction to follow to complete the project. It’s therefore saying “OK, you need all your energy and motivation for the next 6 months ahead in order to work on the project. Only once it’s done are we going to catch up with all the colds and flu around, no problem”.
So how can we tap into this powerful ability that the unconscious mind has to be motivated with goals?
How to tap into this amazing process
The answer is quite simply goal setting. You are a goal-centric being. When you know what you want and have a clear way of achieving it, you will trigger and harness the formidable capacity and resources of your unconscious mind. The bigger and more scary the goal, the greatest the energy will be in resonating throughout your being to create noticeable motivation and happiness.
Have you ever wondered why this should be?
Another way of thinking of goals is that they are solutions to problems. From an evolutionary point of view, the more successful you are at problem-solving, the more likely you are to survive. So when you have a solution your unconscious mind injects energy into your system and you will feel fully alive.
The steps to a life of happiness and to be motivated with goals
Consider what do you want to be, to do or to have? What will you see, feel and hear when you have achieved your goal? Write out a detailed plan, follow the plan and take action each and every day on the component parts of that plan.
The 7 keys to stay motivated with goals:
- Action
- Action
- Action
- Action
- Action
- Action
- Action
Now, you may say I have set goals before and not achieved them. It’s true, not every goal triggers the motivation and this could be attributable to many reasons, such as:
- It’s not your goal; it’s someone else’s or one your think you should be working on. If the goal has been imposed on you then it’s not going to inspire you, so think again about what you ache for or what you can’t live without.
- You’ve not taken any action. Step one is to know what you want, step two is to take action. Why? Because you are taking an intangible goal out of your head and placing it firmly in the world. Writing your goal down is an action, writing your plan out is an action, making a phone call is an action. There are no small actions so do what you can with the resources you have at the time. Even those initial small actions and steps will bring your thoughts to life and give you encouragement and motivation to continue moving forward.
So you can see that right until the end of her life, my mum was still teaching me lessons. Knowing what you want in life is powerful. Goals are essential for life, now my question to you is ..…” What do you want?”
Next Step for Goal-Centric thinking:
To help you further I would like to send a special Goal-Setting Kit called Motivated with goals. This comprises a range of carefully chosen questions for you to carefully consider and answer. They have been modelled by successful people who have consistently achieved their goals. The Kit also includes a goal-setting poster and a goal-setting card to complete and keep in a prominent place to serve as a visible daily reminder. Just drop me an email requesting this Kit and let me know your postal address.
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Article written by John “goal-centric” Cassidy-Rice
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