An Amazing Exercise for Reaching Your Goals

Every person has inner dreams and desires. You do too. You may feel there are many things you were born to do and to accomplish in this lifetime. You have natural talents and skills, things that come easily to you and activities you enjoy doing. There are numerous parts of life that bring you happiness and joy. Take these steps to reach your desires and make your dreams come true.

Step 1: Take some time for quiet thought and contemplation. Think about what’s important to you and what you would like to accomplish in your lifetime. Reflect on what you really want, what resonates deep within yourself. Don’t think you have to do something just because your parents, spouse or boss want you to do it. Don’t create a goal that looks good to other people but doesn’t come from your inner self. Think about what gets you excited, what motivates you that you’re eager to do.

Step 2: Reflect on your own personal values. What are the most worthy things you want to accomplish? What will help you become a better person? What can you do to make the world a better place? What things can you do to benefit yourself and others?

Step 3: You may want to think about big goals that take several years to achieve, or you may want to identify goals that are shorter term and will take a few months or less to achieve.

Step 4: Think about the personal benefits each of your goals will give you and why you want to achieve this goal.

Step 5: Now write down your goals in the following areas of your life:

 Physical body and health
 Artistic
 Recreational
 Family relationships and home
 Emotional attitudes
 Social interactions and friendships
 Mental growth and educational
 Career and finances
 Spiritual growth
 Public service

As you write your goals, put them in the positive instead of the negative. Put in your mind what you want, not what you don’t want. And state your goal in the present tense. For example, write, “I am playing the piano well” instead of “I want to stop making so many mistakes when I play the piano.”

Step 6: Think about each goal and imagine it in great detail. What does it look like? Look all around you. What do you see? Who do you see? What are they doing and saying? What else do you hear? What do you smell? What colors are there? How do you feel?

Visualize everything as completely as you can. Visualize your goal as if it were already complete. Picture yourself in different scenarios enjoying the results of reaching your goals. You are giving your inner self a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give your inner self, the more easily your inner self can manifest that.

Step 7: Now look backwards. For each goal, think about what the last thing you’ll have to do to achieve that outcome. “In order to…, I need to…” Then think about what you need to do before that step, and before that step, all the way to the very first step.

Step 8: What can you work on in the next few months, the next few weeks, and the next few days to make those dreams a reality? At the early stage, you may want to read books or gain knowledge in some other way in order to know more specifically what the best ways are to accomplish your goals. Next to each step, put a timeline and/or specific amounts with your goals. List these in chronological order with target dates and what is to be accomplished. Things will happen more quickly if you do this. You can take satisfaction in accomplishing your goals as you measure them and see them materializing.

Step 9: Analyze your current situation. What are your strengths in reaching each goal? Your weaknesses? Who can you include in your goal who can help you reach it? What people, groups and organizations can play a specific role in reaching your goal?

What do you have to give to achieve this goal in terms of additional knowledge you need to acquire, time, money, energy and sacrifices you will have to make? Write all these down so you can see the entire picture.

Step 10: Finally, make a to-do list of things you can do today to work towards your goals.

When you’ve finished this exercise, you’re ready to start taking action to attain your goals. Make sure you think about your goals every day, noting what you need to do this very day to carry your goals forward. If you do this step-by-step, soon you’ll see progress and you’ll be that much closer to achieving your goals.