Why and How to Set Clear Goals
Setting a clear, authentic goal can be a formidable task. While it’s natural to be influenced by what others pursue, remember that your goals are as unique as you are. The anxiety that often accompanies the process of clarifying your objectives can immobilize your progress.
Introducing our seven-step tool, designed to help you banish uncertainty and self-doubt, shed the weight of heavy emotions, and establish a crystal-clear goal. With this newfound clarity, you’ll be equipped with a mindset that empowers you to take effective actions and navigate your path towards your desired outcomes.
This tool harnesses the power of The Four Things You Can Control™, enabling you to confront challenges with resilience and maintain a steady course towards your goals.
Stop and Get Clear: An Important First Step
“When the going gets tough, the wise stop and get focused on solutions.”
Many of us have encountered the old adage, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” a saying best applied in moderation. If your goal remains unclear or your actions fail to yield results, it’s wise to pause, reassess, and ensure your objective is not only clear but also aligns with your genuine aspirations.
Give Your Tension Attention
Your mindset is the engine behind your actions and the magnet that draws results. Consider this example, if your mindset is filled with thoughts like, “Driving is dangerous. I am not a good driver,” you will feel nervousness and self-doubt. This mindset and subsequent tension will hinder your ability to respond confidently to road obstacles. Initially, it may not pose an immediate problem, but over time, it can affect the comfort of your passengers, amplify your self-doubt and diminish your experience in the car.
Shape Your Mindset
Your current mindset isn’t anyones fault; sometimes, it simply takes shape by default, especially during life’s busier moments when we aren’t actively steering our thoughts and emotions towards the solutions we truly desire. Yet, it can also be formed deliberately, and the following tool will demonstrate how!
It begins with a close examination of your current mindset or your habitual responses to life’s challenges. This step is like examining an old building to create a new, updated one. Often, we construct the new structure using the best elements of the old, discarding the outdated ones, and choosing modern materials.
Skillfully Navigate Four Things You Can Control
To build a new mindset, it’s crucial to skillfully control the four aspects within your domain of control: your breath, your response, your focus, and your imagination. The following Clear Inner Focus Table (C.I.F.T.) is a transformative tool that begins by harnessing the power of your breath to heighten your awareness of your existing mindset. With instruction and intention, you will be able to respond to your prevailing thoughts and emotions with acceptance.
Consciously breathing and responding to your current thoughts and feelings with acceptance will enhance your capacity to perceive all the facets of your present mindset and your habitual responses to inner thoughts and emotions. As you jot down your current thoughts and emotions, you will decelerate their momentum, affording you a clear view. Seeing them through the lens of acceptance enables them to release their grip on the preset pattern of automatic thinking.
This paves the way for your ability to construct a new mindset, a clear goal that aligns your with your authentic goals and aspirations.
Create Like a Builder: Return to Your Plan
Just like builders start construction with a blueprint and understand the importance of referring back to it or making modifications to ensure everything aligns, confident creators and achievers begin their journey with a clear goal in mind. This means they don’t get caught up in the details of how to achieve the goal or fixate on obstacles along the way. Instead, they stay focused on their goal, taking consistent steps forward and adjusting their approach only when necessary and aligning any adjustments with the broader project’s vision.
Begin Building A Clear Goal & Set Your Mind with
The Clear Inner Focus Table (C.I.F.T)
We appreciate the tool’s acronym: The C.I.F.T.
Within the table provided, you will effectively sift through and liberate your unclear or conflicted current thoughts and feelings. This process allows you to access your innovative and authentic solutions, ultimately leading you towards a goal that resonates with your core values and other goals in life.
Don't Hesitate to Seek Support
Don’t let fear hold you back. In the initial stages of learning new tools, it’s perfectly okay to seek help, as this can significantly compress the learning curve and make the process far more manageable. While this tool may be straightforward, it’s not always easy to maintain focus on self-awareness with acceptance.
When you first recognize old or undesirable patterns, it’s common to begin and then falter, avoiding delving deeper into those unwelcome thoughts, emotions, or memories. Your numerous mindsets interact with one another, which can make the process feel overwhelming.
Consider explaining this process to a friend and enlisting their guidance, or you may choose to hire a coach. If financial concerns are a barrier to seeking help, we offer coaches-in-training who can walk you through this process at no cost or for a minimal fee.
