Ideas to Kick-Start Your Goals
Committing Yourself to the goal
We are already three days into the New Year and the goals that we have set should be clear in our minds – are your Goals clear?
Goal setting is important. They are the rudder on our boat and steer us towards the desired object.
After thinking clearly and setting your goals, you must commit to them. You can only really do this if the goals represent the objectives that you really desire and need in your life. If the goal is clear, you will know that it is a real goal. If it is real – that is a goal that suits you and your life – then you can commit to it.
Committment is the first step in building the necessary motivation which will ensure that you continue with the actions necessary to complete the goal. Always remember that a good goal will create motivation. Motivation gives you the platform needed to go into action and feel freed-up to carry out the necessary tasks to accomplish your goals.
Being committed is to be in a state of belief. With doubts eliminated and the motors oiled to stay in action persistently, you have the basic mind set for successful achievement of your goals.
Self-Confidence
When you begin to work on your goals it can be a little daunting and frightening to realise that you are committed to an objective that requires persistence, tenacity,motivation and continuous effort. Don’t worry about this. Apply your self-confidence. People who achieve their objectives always display a lot of self-confidence in their actions. The first key to being confident is to act confidently.
If you act with confidence you will discover that your mind begins to follow suit very quickly. The characteristics of a self-confident person are a happy, smiling , relaxed person who’s mind is focussed on the task at hand. They don’t allow the weight of their goal to scare them into a state of fear. They will put their energy into the task at hand because they already know that the accomplishment of this task means another step forwards to achieving the final objective.
To be confident you must act with confidence. The simple act of throwing yourself into a task will invoke confidence. Confidence builds more confidence. You can’t be confident and worry at the same time. Your mind will naturally become clearer and enthusiastic when you work with confidence. Confidence is an act of faith.
Take the step of faith and work in an enthusiastic,happy manner and you will soon be full of confidence and belief about your goals.
Practice Awareness of Your Goals and Actions.
Awareness of your goals is simply the opposite of mindlessness. Habitual actions can be described as mindless. To be aware of our every action is a powerful tool that requires a little understanding.
Many people go through life and never become fully aware of their actions or the consequences of their actions. They then wonder why the have to experience failure so often. If they would just slow down and take time to consider the course of action before executing the task, they would discover that less effort was required and the results would meet their goal.
Awareness is often taken for granted as a natural function of the mind. We do experience basic awareness everyday at most times of the day but we need to realise that we can increase and raise the ability of our awareness. Being aware about an action is to be focussed and therefore to be able to concentrate energy into the task at hand.
The practice of awareness is a skill to develop. It is closely related to the practice of meditation or concentration techniques. You can find a lot of very useful information about the Art of Awareness in books and articles related to meditational techniques.
When you are carrying out tasks related to your goals, make sure that you consider the task before beginning. This can mean making a breakdown- list related to the components of the task. Continue by beginning a job with a focussed mind. Don’t allow other ideas to enter your mind – a difficult thing to do at first, practice will develop your abilities here – the more concentrated you are when beginning, the more your mind will be engaged in the work. The results will become obvious when you realise that you could work more efficiently and the job was finished successfully.
Being aware of your actions is a powerful tool that will serve you well throughout life. It isn’t complicated, the key is in the practice of it. With continual practice of being aware of your actions, your mind will become accustomed to the idea and you will soon discover that it is quite natural to concentrate in a spatial manner when working.
Concentration vs Awareness
Concentration on an object is often missunderstood. Many people believe in the stereo typed idea that to concentrate has something to do with gritting your teeth, breaking into a sweat and focussing somehow on the object or task at hand. This is in fact the absolute opposite of concentration.
Awareness is a component of concentration. When you become aware of something, your mind is concentrating or focussing on the matter at hand. There is no need for physical effort or breaking into a sweat about it. As the Masters tell us, concentration preceeds Meditation. There is no meditation without the ability to concentrate. To learn concentration is to learn total awareness of the object being observed and worked on. Your Goals are objects to be concentrated on and achieved. The achievement is also a path of concentrated effort that you must follow to the final result is realised.
The very nature of concentrated effort is one of relaxed awareness, of being clear in your minds eye about what it is that you are seeking and moving towards – your goals.
Learn to concentrate your mind on your goals with a relaxed but alert posture of the mind. Always remember that you can only achieve so and so much today. Never over exhert your mind, believing it puts more strength into the effort. Over exhertion of the mind will just be a waste of energy – much better to have patience, knowing that you have set your goals and that you are committed to them. You are happy that it will take a certain amount of time to achieve them. This could be days, months or years, You feel relaxed with that time frame and you can work on daily basis , step by step, accomplishing your goals.
