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SMART Goals and Well Formed Outcomes
Now that you've brainstormed your goals you are going to mould the descriptions of them into something psychologically more powerful that your subconscious is going to understand. The way that you mentally represent something and how you focus your mind will have an enormous impact on your success.
Your subconscious is immensely powerful but you have to communicate with it in the right way.
Various systems have been described to explain this point, including S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timeable) and NLP's 'Well Formed Outcomes'. This is a synthesis of these ideas and based on my knowledge of how the sunconscious mind works from my work as a hypnotherapist.
1. Your goals must be positive as the subconscious cannot work with negatives. You would not say "I don't want to be overweight" you would have to re-phrase this as "I will be slim".
2. Make the process of achieving the goal as attractive and as inspiring as possible. Ask yourself how you can make it as enjoyable as possible.
3. Make your goal as specific as possible. Describe it in a real sensory way, in terms of how it looks, feels, sounds, tastes and smells. These are concrete things that your subconscious understands. Build a good strong image of achieving it using all your senses.
4. Don't use weak words to describe it. It has to be strong and definite. Don't write "I would like to be a bit fitter and perhaps a little stronger too". You would rephrase this as "I will be very fit and strong". Don't use vocabulary like 'want' or 'wish'. If I say 'I want to be stronger', then fine, job done. I can go on wanting to be stronger all my life, goal accomplished. You have to state it as if it is a certainty at some point in the future.
5. State exactly when you will achieve it. It's no use just saying 'I will write a novel.' No rush there, we have all our life to get around to that one. You need to include a measure of time; 'I will write a novel and finish it by the end of the year.' Also, this will be essential when it comes to planning because you will need to divide the remaining weeks into building a structure, writing the chapters, completing a first draft and scheduling rewrites.
6. There may well be other people that will contribute to your chances of success. You must understand that having a goal and the motivation to achieve it is a very internal process. Your subconscious has no control over external objects like people. When you describe it, concentrate on your personal feelings and thoughts. It is perfectly acceptable however to imagine the actual moment of success with other people around you, it helps reinforce social motivation and make the imagined future goal more vivid.
7. You should have a clear idea how you are going to achieve your goal without going into in-depth planning. You need to identify what you will need to learn, who you will need to help you and the main tasks involved. It has to be realistic and achievable and not a flight of fantasy. 'Winning the lottery' would not constitute a very sound goal.
8. Make sure you really want it. Do what is termed an 'Ecology Check'. You should know by now what you will gain from achieving the goal but you need to check the following three questions
If you get it, what will you lose?
If you don’t get it, what will you lose?
If you don’t get it, what will you gain?
Sometimes hidden downsides present themselves. For example, people who are suddenly very rich may find that there is an awkwardness with old friends.
Another useful question to ask is: 'If you only had one year to live, would you still want to do it? If not, what would you do instead?
Return to Motivation page from SMART Goals page
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