Use all effective and proven methods you can to achieve a change in behaviour. Visualization helps to program the mind to act in a way contrary to your habitual behaviour.
In recent series of articles and videos I have explained a detailed process for using goal setting, including affirmations to modify a behaviour contrary to your type. This also includes tracking yourself daily to measure your progress.
I know this is hard work as I have been using myself as an example and some days I forget to track myself or just don’t feel like doing it. But slowly I am increasing my self-awareness and seeing progress.
When I speak about changing a behaviour relative to a tendency of our type, I am referring to a deeply engrained habitual behaviour that is not merely learned, but something we are born with. To understand this further look into the book CrazYZoo Know Thyself Made Easy by Fritz Glaus.
Visualization
To practice visualization, you must bring up an image of yourself or something that makes you instantly recall the change you want to have. You also need to associate a positive emotion with this image. To do that, think of a time or event when you felt the way you want to from achieving your behavioural change. This must be a pleasant emotion.
Example
My goal is to be more patient and diplomatic with people and my image is of this bird flying high above it all. It reminds me of the importance of being detached and calm. The image of the bird brings me back to where I was when I took the picture, on a quiet beach on a hot summer day. I felt free and relaxed and had plenty of patience at that moment.
Technique
Combining affirmation with visualization is very effective to affirm the new behavioural goal. This can be done throughout your day when you recall your affirmation and visualize your image at the same time. However, the best approach is to find time to relax and close your eyes to bring up your visualization image and feel the associated emotion. This should be done everyday, preferably three times a day.
Repetition
It takes awareness and conscious effort to change a habit, especially one that is deeply engrained. Repetition is the key and practicing affirmation and visualization will raise awareness and create a new way of thinking that will incite the desired change. The proof is in advertising. As we are repeatedly exposed to a message, we slowly begin to accept it and change our belief about the product or service. When we shop and come across the advertised product, we automatically have an awareness and greater acceptance of it than the brands we know less. There might be better products on the shelf but we have been conditioned to accept the brand name due to their repetitive messages.
Goal achievement is like mountain climbing in that there are always obstacles on the path and should be expected. The key is to know how to overcome the obstacles and not just give up on the journey. That is why writing a goal is so important because it forces you to plan and think through the solutions to roadblocks and challenges.
In my last article and video, I explained the process of goal setting in detail to change a behaviour relative to your human type. You can also download my new goal planning worksheet and example and use that to follow along and set your own goal. If you have not done so already I highly recommend doing it now and coming back to this article later.
In the last article and video, I covered up to writing a S.M.A.R.T. goal and the outcome measure. The next step is to write down the benefits to you personally, your organization and your team. You should be able to list at least five key benefits.
The Follow-up step (how will I measure progress made?) is next and this is crucial to do daily in order to develop a new habit by making sure you are actually making the effort required. Many people fail in achieving their goals simply because they do not write them down and track their activities or actions. Tracking a behavioural change goal can be done using a spreadsheet or with an app on a smartphone. I like using a spreadsheet so I can write the number of opportunities I had to practice my new behaviour and the result. I also like to add a note. Some apps let you do this as well.
Next is to list any roadblocks and challenges that come to mind. These could be both external and internal obstacles. In the case of behaviour change most challenges are internal. For example, in my goal relative to my type the behaviour I want to change is becoming impatient and overly controlling if things are not moving fast enough or being done the way I think is best. My goal is to be patient and diplomatic with others when expressing myself.
My main challenge is habit and stress. My solutions are to track my progress daily, get reminders from my partner and assistant and plan my time better to reduce stress. Being conscious of myself is also crucial and applies to everyone working on a behaviour modification.
Once you work out the solutions they become actions. If you keep up this process daily, you will create the change you want.
In the next article and video, I will cover affirmations and visualisation to support achieving the goal and to help be aware and conscious.
In this video and blog post I will explain the key elements to achieving a highly important goal. Without these elements as part of your goal setting, you might be doomed to fail.
Focusing on achieving one very high priority goal has great benefits because if you choose the right goal, you will achieve many sub goals as well. I will cover this in detail in this blog and video along with a step by step explanation of how to achieve it.
For the last several years I have published a Year in Review Goal Planning Guide. In that guide you are shown how to set several important goals after a review of your previous year.
My experience tells me that most of us set too many goals or resolutions that we quickly lose focus on and forget. I find it is much easier and productive to focus on one highly important goal and progressively take action to achieve it one step at a time.
What usually happens is that as we take action to achieve the goal, we realize many sub-goals along the way. This provides fast results and rewards and keeps us motivated.
For this to work properly, you need to have the right goal. That is why I suggest going through my Year in Review video and downloading the PowerPoint so that you can fill it in. I’ll walk you through a summary of each component of setting this goal.
The first step is to write down your goal using the S.M.A.R.T. method. This stands for specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and timed. For example rather than saying I want to lose 15 lbs, you would say I want to go from 200 lbs to 185 lbs over the next 6 months. Some experts say you should write your goal in the present tense as if you already accomplished it, so it becomes an affirmation. In that case you would say, It feels great to weigh 185lbs. Another method is to say I no longer weight 200 lbs. It feels great being at my ideal weight of 185 lbs.
Whatever way you choose to write it make sure it meets the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. You would write the target date and today’s date of in the boxes provided on the worksheet or on a blank paper if that’s what you are using. This makes the goal specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and timed. Acceptable is important because you don’t want to take unhealthy means to achieve your goal. Some people use the word actionable or achievable for the letter A, but all goals must be actionable. As for achievable, this should be covered by it being realistic. The goal must also be written so you can refer back to it and track your progress. The way the example goal is stated makes it measurable because you have a starting point of what you weigh now and your target for 6 months, which seems very realistic.
Most people do not even write down their goals, never mind making them SMART. But this is a crucial step before proceeding with the rest.
The next step is to write down the benefits of achieving the goal. It is important to have at least 5 benefits, otherwise you might not have enough reasons and motivation to do what is required. Some benefit examples for this goal are feel better, be healthier, have more energy, look better and get more dates.
The next step is crucial to having success in achieving your goal and I have not seen this covered in any tutorials of this type. It is to brainstorm the obstacles. Write down all the obstacles you can think of before thinking of solutions. Some possible obstacles for this goal would be bad eating habits, motivation to exercise properly, time, laziness, etc..
Next is to come up with solutions to each obstacle. For poor eating habits the solution could be to consult a dietician to develop a meeting plan or do research yourself online. One thing about developing solutions is that it is very personal and the better you know yourself the more realistic will be your solutions. As in the previous example there is more than one solution for each obstacle so choosing the right one for you is very important, and be honest with yourself.
The solutions listed now make it easy to set action steps. These should be specific and have a target date so you can track your progress. The first step could be to weigh yourself and write it down. Next could be to research on better food choices or set a meeting with a dietician.
The next step is to establish your measurement and tracking method. For this goal it could be to keep a log of what you eat daily and weigh yourself every Sunday morning.
To finalize your goal and make it official there are 3 questions you need to answer. First is it worth your time and money to reach your goal, yes or no? Do you have the ability to achieve the goal and are you willing to do what it takes? Again you need to be honest with yourself. If you answered yes to all 3 then you are are on way to achieve your goal. Nothing should stop you. If you run into unforeseen obstacles, this is normal. Just treat them as you did the other obstacles and come up with new solutions.
The last box is for affirmations and visualization a. Some people find that repeating an affirmation or looking at a visual reminder of the goal is a good motivator and helps to stay on track. Affirmations should be written in the present tense and for visualization you could find pictures of yourself when you were at your ideal wright. An affirmation for this goal could be, I look and feel great now that I have lost weight. Hey, it even rhymes.
Setting and achieving a worthwhile goal that requires new habits is usually a stretch and not easy. Otherwise, we would all be our ideal weight. That is why many people decide to hire a coach, whether it be for a life change or for professional development. A good coach could help you be accountable to your goal and make it easier to stay on track.
Good goal planning and please leave your comments below and hit the subscribe button to get the latest blog articles and videos.
My goal is to be more patient and diplomatic with people and my image is of this bird flying high above it all. It reminds me of the importance of being detached and calm. The image of the bird brings me back to where I was when I took the picture, on a quiet beach on a hot summer day. I felt free and relaxed and had plenty of patience at that moment.
