Nothing is unachievable – even if you’re a dancer with $100 in your account, wanting to open a Pilates studio. Visualisation, bloody hard work and not taking no for an answer is the key!

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DEFINE YOUR GOALS

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To start, you need to ask yourself the following questions; What does success look like to you? What does it mean? What will essentially make you happy?

 

OK, time to get creative. Take a piece of paper and scribble words about who you want to be, goals you may have and words that you’d like other people to describe you with. Anything. Whatever will build you the happy life you desire, write it down.

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Write/include goals that will affect as many or as few as the following aspects of your life:

- Financial

- Intellectual

- Professional/Career

- Health and Fitness

- Relationship

- Psychological

- Experiential

- Personal

 

Now, start to refine that page and circle the things that matter most to you. These are your main goals. Make sure to choose 5 or fewer; you can’t do everything at once.

 

Write the main goals you have chosen on a new page. Check and make sure they are S-M-A-R-T – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound.

 

For example, having a goal of “getting a promotion” isn’t specific enough. You need to identify what you want your new role to be and when you want to get it by.

 

If you don’t put an exact address into a GPS system, it won’t get you where you need to go. You need to be clear with each of your goals.

 

Under each goal heading, write another 5 progressive goals underneath. These are the little steps you need to take to achieve your main goal.

 

Like with building a house, you need a foundation, a shape, a layout, materials. Write down everything you think you’ll need to achieve your goal.

 

HOW TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS

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Visualisation is a powerful tool used by everyone from professional athletes to entrepreneurs to achieve their goals.

 

Here are the 5 steps of visualisation:

 

1. Write what you want, and make it clear. This statement/goal needs to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

 

2. Close your eyes, picture yourself having achieved your goal. How do you feel? Use all of your 5 senses during this step, now write it down in as much detail as possible. You're going to repeat this step twice a day.

 

3. Take action, daily. Every day, you need to do something to help build your goal. You might need to save more money for it, find more materials or lay more bricks. Whatever you’re doing needs to head in the right direction. This is an important step to avoid spiralling out of control and losing focus of your goal.

 

An important part of this step is understanding that there are going to be setbacks. Life is going to continue and you want to take a balanced approach to achieving your goals. For example, taking a day off will be good to rest your body. For example, if your goal is weight loss and you have a piece of cake at your niece's birthday, this does not mean you’ve ruined all of your hard work. Enjoy your cake or your day off. But be balanced. Don’t eat the whole cake! 

 

Write down 3 activities that you need to do daily to achieve your goal.

 

4. Lock in any experts, books, trainers, sessions or research that you need to get to attain your goal. Do you need private sessions to learn how to achieve a head stand? Yes. Do you need to reach out to a mentor to help you achieve your career goal? That’s for you to decide.

 

5. Repeat step 2, twice per day. You might want to set your alarm 5 minutes early and do it first thing in the morning and then again when you go to bed. It’s recommended to set aside 10mins per day. This is not negotiable and crucial for you to achieve your goals. 

 

When visualising, it is important to gauge how you feel. Your feelings are going to show you how aligned you currently are with your goal. If you feel like your goal is ridiculous, or you are taking the mickey with your visualisation, you are not aligned with your goal and the technique will not work. So it's time to adjust the visualisation to something that seems more realistic for you in the space you’re in right now.

 

For example: Your dream is to be a Pilot. You’re visualising yourself flying international for Virgin. As soon as this pops into your head your inner monologue says to you “that’s never going to happen” or your feelings toward that visual are negative or jovial. That means you are not aligned with that visualisation and you need to adjust it for now.

 

Instead, visualise yourself taking a Cessna out for a spin. Picture yourself in a flight lesson with a trainer, and nailing it. When the emotion you feel is positive, you are aligned with this goal, and you can achieve it. Then gradually you will keep adding to your visualisation, it gets bigger and is heading in the direction of your main goal. Only regress when the emotions that you feel are negative. 

 

Apply the 5 steps to your goals one at a time, in order of importance to you.

 

You deserve to be successful, and you deserve to achieve what you want in life. You are worth spending that 10 minutes per day on, focusing on what you want to build for yourself and where you want to be. So go for it! Let’s start goal setting!