Goal Setting Guidelines - 3 Easy Ways To Keep Your New Year's Resolution

Well here we are, at the end of 2008 & standing on the edge of 2009. This is the time people start making their new years resolutions. Ever ask yourself why people rarely keep those promises they make to themselves? Perhaps it's because they don't have a realistic set of goal setting guidelines to see them through to success.

Recently Tom "Big Al" Schreiter conducted a training session about setting goals. Tom pointed out there are a lot of really good goals out there just going to waste. One reason most folks don't achieve their goal is they're working against their subconscious mind.

Here's the puzzle.

The subconscious mind is the freight train that drives us to achievement. It serves to protect us from harm by reminding us of failures, unpleasant experiences, & events that were hazardous. We need our subconscious mind to survive.

All of us need sleep, but our subconscious minds don't. On the other hand, our subconscious minds work on our challenges 24/7/365. That means the subconscious leads the way in effecting change in our lives. Finally, our subconscious throws a stick into the spokes of anything it sees as "a threatening move toward change"

So, we need our subconscious minds to reach our goals, but convincing it to go against its better judgment is a recipe for failure. So what do we do? How do we achieve our resolutions?

Harness this awesome power with "Big Al's" 3-step system!

1. Write it down - A written goal that is reviewed often works on the subconscious, but make it attainable. There's no surer path to failure than picking something your subconcious believes you can't achieve.
2. Lose the carrot - Your subconscious wants to protect you from the unpleasant … even though you consciously want to make a good change. Instead, pick a penalty that you would never think of doing for any reason as punishment for failure. This harnesses your subconscious minds need to protect you from the unpleasant.
3. Advertise - Where's the risk if you just do #1 & #2, but you don't tell anyone about it. This gives you others to be accountable to. Accountability to others is another way of keeping the goal in front of your security-minded subconscious.

Whether you're making a New Year's resolution to lose weight, or you've decided to tackle that big project you've been putting off until Spring Break, you need a realistic plan. When you have a plan backed up by a set of realistic goal setting guidelines you can harness the unstoppable power of your subconscious mind to attain any goal you desire.

I appreciate you,

Bill Tessore