How to achieve the goal
How to achieve the goal you set. This is the second part of the book “Master your workday now” by Michael Linenberger. He describes here 4 steps you can follow –which I find are powerful- to achieve your goals.
Chapter 1: Vision: the missing component of workplace goals
Incorporating vision into your goals reenergizes lifeless “paper goals”—goals you write down but never get anywhere with—and it serves as the basis for the next steps to achieving all your goals Michael Linenberger, author of master your workday now presents 4 steps to turn goals into reality.Adding vision to your goals
According to the author, vision is the main missing component of most goals. Vision includes an appreciation of the reasons for the goal, the Why of the goal. Vision, to Michael, implies a depth of purpose associated with the goal. It provides a positive overlay to the activities taken to reach the goal. Vision is the missing Create-layer component of goals. With a vision in place, if it is strong enough, goals can be achieved much more easily. Adding vision “correctly” is the secret Create-layer tool to achieving your goalHow to achieve the goal: Vision defined
Vision, at its simplest, is a passionate image of an outcome. At its best, it is a multisensory image of an inspired outcome. It is a mental image usually mixed with a personal emotional connection to the outcome. The multisensory image gives the vision its form, and the emotion gives it its power. Form and power together are what lead to creation of the vision’s goal.Vision goal
A Vision Goal is a goal that is written in such a way as to emphasize the vision. It does so in a way that describes the outcome, conveys a sense of how the new outcome transcends the status quo, and engenders inspiration for action. In other words, it allows you to picture the goal and get excited about it. The key to creating Vision Goals is to focus on the reason for the desired outcome. Write text that captures the Why of the goal, as opposed to the How or merely the What. Try to represent the excitement, the inspiration, the passion of the goal in that text. It’s easy to do, and I have a simple formula for writing Vision Goals.Formula for a well-written vision goal
As you create your vision goal, you want to create very emotive statements. An emotive statement is required. Just make sure to include all the following qualities—they are ones that help elicit an emotional experience during goal activation. Those qualities are: A) Appropriate length B) Descriptive text C) Emotive text D) Always positive E) Written in the present tense
How to achieve the goal Chapter 2: Merging vision goals and target goals to create now goals
Target Goals are numeric or specific measures and statements that help give focus and clarity to a vision. They typically answer the question, “How can I measure this outcome?” Target Goals often also answer the question, “How can I clarify this outcome?” Adding Target Goals to a Vision Goal, to create a Now Goal, is Step 2 of the full 4-step Now Goal creation process. Now Goals are goals that are written in such a way that they include a powerful Vision Goal and include applicable Target Goals that help clarify the vision. Now Goals are the next evolution of personal and workplace goal setting, improving greatly on the previous standard of SMART goalsChapter 3: Activating now-goals – the key to goal success
This is probably the most important step in the 4-step goal creation process Michael suggests. If you want to learn how to achieve the goal you set for yourself, read on.What is goal activation?
Activation is simply taking a few steps each day to embrace and internalize the vision portion of your goal. It is very easy and surprisingly powerful. The author first observes that we all get minor thoughts spinning over and over again in our heads. It for example happens when a song gets “stuck” in your head. It seems to spin over and over again, often in the background of your mind. Often such thoughts are spinning in your subconscious mind, just below the surface level. Sometimes they pop to the surface and you even stop and consider them. In either case, most of you also know how strongly such background thoughts—self-talk—can influence your attitudes and your success at work, especially when a thought spins consistently.Seed the spinning thoughts
What Michael proposes is that you will actually “seed” those spinning thoughts with a short segment of purposeful focus on your goals each day. In general it means reviewing—reading and picturing—your Now Goal statement each day, and getting your vision of the goal activated in your subconscious mind. By doing this, your habits of background thought start to be more and more in support of your goals. You’ll need to activate your goals because it makes achieving them much easier—and ultimately, you will never achieve some of your harder goals without it. It does this by activating the power of your subconscious mind to find solutions that may not be obvious. While some willpower is certainly necessary, the author says the magic of getting goals completed goes well beyond the application of willpower. Activating the goal can provide that missing element.How to activate your goals
Activation should be applied to the vision portion of the Now Goal because the subconscious reacts best to emotions and feelings, not numbers; you cannot activate the goal without the Vision Goal in place. The first step is to create that Vision Goal portion of the Now Goal statement. You want it written with vivid sensory description and emotive language, according to the formula in Chapter 1.Reading and Picturing the Now Goal Statement
Once you have created the Now Goal statement, one containing a strong Vision Goal, you will then “spin it up” daily by reading it. While reading, you will picture the Vision Goal outcome using your imagination. You want to get, even if only for a brief moment, a clear and passionate picture of the outcome. You should picture the goal as if it were already accomplished and already active in your Workday Now (your immediate now, and a few weeks out). Try to experience, in your imagination, the positive feeling of the goal already being accomplished. Just for a moment, live it, breathe it, and feel it. See it as being established in your work life, both right now and in the week or two ahead from now. While reading your goal during goal activation, mentally put yourself in your new reality. Doing so will have a profound effect later in helping you achieve your goal.Goal spinning
Your habits of thought in your subconscious are like spinning wheels. Once you get a consistent habit of thought going in the subconscious, it will give direction and power to your thinking, and keep you in a somewhat consistent stance, thought- and attitude-wise. This can be good if the habit of thought is a good one. Once you get a thought spinning deeply in your subconscious, it takes on a life of its own, and directs your future thoughts and actions, often in an unseen way and as an unseen force. This explains many habits of behavior you see in other people and yourself, both positive and negative. So naturally, you want the ideas spinning in your subconscious to be ones that support your positive work goals, goals such as getting the raise, making the promotion, creating the new product, reaching high sales numbers, and so on.Most of us need to purposely do this
For most of us, the positive vision is rarely in sight in our full-time work. We very quickly lose sight of the positive vision that brought us to our daily routine. Working a plan is not enough; you need to constantly remind yourself of the vision you want to achieve, and do it in a positive and emotive way. Most workday activities just don’t do that. Finally, perhaps the Vision Goal you are pursuing has nothing to do with your full-time job; perhaps it is a personal vision that you do not have time to focus on in the course of the workday. So in all of these cases, you will need to find time to activate the Now Goal every day yourself. Make it a specific daily task, to ensure it gets done. Do this formal goal spinning every day. Michael has a routine of doing it every morning with his coffee.