Goal Setting: Your Mind & Your Attitude

In the first few blogs of this New Year, I addressed the didactic aspects of goal setting. Remember that five step process: 1. write the goal, 2. design a plan of action, 3. determine who needs to do what—including yourself, 4. time frames for parts and all of each goal, and 5. evaluation.

Now, let’s look at the most important part of goal accomplishment: your mind and your attitude.

Henry Ford said that “whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are right.” Buddha said “What you think you become. What you feel you attract. What you imagine you create.” From Proverbs 23.7, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so he is.” And on and on. Every great thinker, leader, coach, and spiritual guide has expressed this truth—that our thoughts direct our actions and our results. Take a good hard look—an inside look—at how you think. Listen to your own “self talk”—about yourself, your team or colleagues, your clients, your family, etc. If you continuously think negatively, you will attract negative to yourself. If you find that you are drowning in destructive thinking, make effort to alter that.

What can you do to “shift” to a more positive mindset—one that will being you closer to your desired goals?

  1. Become aware of negative thoughts and words that you speak
  2. When you recognize that you are in a negative space, conscientiously stop and “pivot”: think or speak in a different way—a more constructive way.
  3. Read positive material.
  4. Listen to positive music
  5. Surround yourself with positive people and be careful not to pour your own negativity on them. Why would you pollute the mind and heart of someone you care about?

You limit your own success—and your joy—by what Zig Ziglar called “stinkin’thinkin’”. Start now—in this New Year—to focus on thinking and expressing the things you do want rather than the things you don’t want. Know that 95% of your ability to reach goals begins between your ears.