Congratulations on setting goals! Now, you have a list of short term and long term goals for the different areas of your life.
What’s next?
Sometimes, we experience a dilemma. We excitedly set goals, especially at the beginning of the year. But, as time goes by, we end up staring at the same list of goals without progress. Then, before we know it, the new year starts and we go through the same cycle again.
How can we push ourselves out of that cycle?
I’d like to share with you two exercises that will give us that push to go after our goals.
#1. AFFIRMATION
Create an AFFIRMATION STATEMENT. Write it down and say it out loud.
An affirmation statement begins with “I am” and contains a verb ending in “-ing.” For example…
If the goal is to travel to Korea by December 2022, the affirmation statement can be, “I am happy and grateful seeing the cherry blossoms and palaces.”
If the goal is to get a promotion by June 15, 2022, the affirmation statement can be, “I’m excited to be reading my promotion letter with the corresponding salary increase.”
It’s as if we’ve fast forwarded and our goals are happening right at this moment.
The purpose of this exercise is to tap into our emotions. How do we feel when we see or say our affirmation statement? Let’s use these emotions to motivate ourselves to take action towards achieving our goals.
An affirmation statement puts us in a positive and energized state. We become excited to do something. It’s like brainwashing our minds for motivation. The more we read our affirmation statement, the more we become motivated to take action.
#2. VISUALIZATION
This converts our goals into images.
It can be a simple mental exercise. Close your eyes and visualize LIVING your goals, as if they are already happening right now.
In my workshops, we often do simple exercises to let participants experience firsthand the power of visualization. In one exercise, I have them close their eyes and visualize a plate of peeled and sliced green mango in front of them. I let them imagine picking up a slice and dipping it into their favorite bagoong (fish sauce) or salt with chili. In another exercise, I have them visualize walking to the edge of a skyscraper’s rooftop. Both exercises trigger strong physical reactions from the participants.
Imagine how our minds and bodies will respond if we visualize something greater than a green mango or a building rooftop? What will we trigger when we visualize our goals?
We can also use visualization tools. One of my favorites is the Vision Board. It’s a graphic and creative representation of our goals. We find pictures that represent our goals and put them on a board or in a binder. (For an expanded Vision Board exercise, watch out for our Newsletter on the third week this October.)
These two exercises are designed to MOTIVATE. When properly used together, we can obtain the strong push to consistently take action towards what we want in life.
Let’s stop staring at our lists—AFFIRM and VISUALIZE our goals!
