We’re very pleased that Daniel Wood has written an article for us today! Daniel found Life,for instance in its early days and has become a valued member of the community.  (See what Daniel is up to here!)

Setting goals for yourself makes a big difference in your life. The added focus and clarity will increase your motivation and start activating your subconscious to work on and find solutions to your problems.

Goal Setting
Before delving deeper into how you can increase the focus on your goals I suggest you sit down and set goals for yourself. If you do it in writing, set a deadline and write it in the positive present tense (as if you have already completed your goals) the following exercises will be a lot more effective.

To make it easier you can ask yourself the following questions:
“What is my dream job?”
“How do I envision my financial situation in 5 years?”
“If I had the perfect family situation, how would that look?”
“What could I do if I was in perfect shape?”
“By what dates do I want to have accomplished the above goals?”

The day I set my first goal
When I was in my first sales job my employer sat us down and had us set our long term goals. It was meant to be a motivational tool to make us work harder, but it back-fired. All my goals showed me that I couldn’t get what I truly wanted from the job I was in now.

I started at the list and felt my heart starting to beat faster and faster, it was an incredible feeling, I knew exactly what I wanted! The first thing I did was quit my job and look for one that was more in line with my goals. Since then my motivation has gone up and down but as long as I focus on my goals and keep working towards them my motivation is at its peak. The feeling is incredible and has really changed my life.

Goal setting activates the subconscious
Your subconscious mind is like a 24 hour computer. It works all day, every day on the goals you feed it. It doesn’t matter if you feed it a positive or a negative goal. It will work day and night until it has come up with a solution to your problem.

What makes the subconscious computer so powerful is that it is immune to outside distractions and it stores everything that has ever happened to you. Since it has so much information at its disposal and can work without distractions you can imagine the results your subconscious can get. It can calculate events more precisely than you can believe and get you great results.

Read your goals every morning and evening
The problem is getting the right goals into your subconscious. Your subconscious is great at prioritizing; it works on what it thinks you care most about first, always. It decides what you care about by listening to your thoughts. The things you dwell upon most of the time are what it will care the most about. Reading and visualizing your goals every day will give them a more prominent role in your mind and in your subconscious.

What do you do to keep your goals in mind? Do you have any methods to keep your focus sharp?

photo credit: 7 Bits Of Truth