Get Clear, Get What You Want

Until you commit your goals to paper, you have intentions that are seeds without soil. – Anonymous

The mind loves clarity.

Without clarity the mind – actually, our emotions – reverts to safety.

Safety, for our emotional brain (the limbic system), is habit and routines and whatever has been shown to contribute to our survival (even if such things, don’t actually serve our best selves/lives (in the modern world)).

Committing our goals to paper allows us to see the difference between what we (say) we want and what we’re creating.

Without some measure of clarity we continue to do what is safe, what is predictable – that which doesn’t kill us. (Honestly, our emotional brain is all about patterns . . . . )

What is it that you want?

In each area of your life – Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual – what do you want? Finances? Relationships? Leisure and Recreation?

Perhaps it’s hard for you to imagine what you really want. This is a common thing for many people.

Try this: allow yourself the luxury of naming what you don’t want.*

Then imagine the best version of the opposite.

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Once you’ve got the hang of naming what is it you do want. Continue by naming it all.

Sit down with a pad of paper and write down anything and everything you want.

See what comes us when you do this. If you feel guilt, or shame, or that you don’t deserve something, make a note and keep writing.

Once you’ve got your list – I recommend doing the writing-everything-you-want exercise at least three times – you can begin to prioritize.

Prioritize based on time frames that make sense. I would recommend some version of the following: near-term, intermediate-term and long-term. (For me, that would be 90 Days, One Year and Five Years).

Happy Goal-Setting!

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* Whatever we focus on expands. Thus, we need to be careful about spending any time thinking about what we don’t want. Of course, thinking about it and dwelling on it are two very different things.