How to Get What You Want!

Vishen Lakhiani is the founder of Mindvalley, the education company behind many of the world's top apps, festivals, events, courses and more, in the field of human transformation and personal growth.

In 1990, Dr. Edwin Locke and Dr. Gary Latham published their first goal setting theory book, titled, “A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance.” Boring title...I agree. So I am going to break it down for you. They outlined five principles for successful goal setting so people can achieve their dreams.  

• Set Clear Goals - "I will run 1 mile every day for the next 30 days", instead of "This year I want to be fit".

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• The Goals must Challenge not Exhaust you - Set up your goals in a way that they excite not overwhelm you. You can actually taste the exhilaration you will experience when you achieve them. Break loftier goals into appropriately timed sub-goals. 

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• Commit to your Goals - Set up a vision board of pictures and/or memes. Carve out a time each morning before touching your cell-phone to visualize achieving the goal. Get a buddy to check in on you or join a common goal group board in real-time or online. Get an app or mark an X on a calendar on the wall. If it is a team goal, get everybody involved in a friendly competition. 

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• Periodically Measure your Progress - Get an app that measures your goal achievement with a progress bar or check how you feel about your goal so far (I use GoalsOnTrack - a paid software around $6/month - but so worth it!).  Post team achievements on a board. Reward progress.

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• Don't Stress out and Keep Going - Keep going especially when stressed. Readjust or set smaller achievable targets if you find yourself getting frustrated or falling behind too often. One day at a time.

Yes. You've heard it all before. What's new..yawn.

The video above is! Vishen has an innovative approach to goal setting. He says many people find themselves disillusioned because they are setting "means" goals. Goals that society thinks you need to have in place to be happy. We need to set "end" or "life" goals. Goals that appeal uniquely to each one of us. All life goals fall into three buckets:

1. What experiences would I like to have before I cease to exist?
2. How do I want to grow?
3. How do I want to contribute to the planet?

You can download the PDF for the video exercise here. You need a timer. 90 secs per question. The timer shuts down your logical brain and allows the answers to flow from your creative brain. Your inner self. Try it.

It changed my view of goal settting. I can tell you I have been goal setting for a long time and am pretty successful at it. This time though, I felt the beauty and the passion of the goals. I could see them clearly in my mind's eye and am excited to rework my current means goals into those end or life goal categories.

I wish you the same passion! If you need my help you know where to find me.

Smiles, Cheryl!