The Paradox of Goal Setting
The Paradox of Goal Setting
The Paradox of Goal Setting
Every major success, regardless of the industry or path taken, stresses the importance of having clear and precise goals. Goals are very important in the fulfillment of your truest potential in life and in business. For years, I have been setting goals for myself. To my amazement, the simple act of writing down a goal made it's achievement that much easier. This simple action has caused me to ponder and ponder and ponder some more on what dynamic takes place when you write down a goal. After thinking about it for years, I feel that I have finally come up with the answer. The reason why goal setting is such a vital activity to achieve success is because the act of getting clear on what you want and writing it down activates the law of attraction in your life.
Anybody who has been working with clients for awhile knows that very few people actually know what they want. They think do, but more often than not my clients come in speaking in terms of all the things they don't want. For instance, I often hear things like, "I don't want to smoke," "I don't want panic attacks anymore," "I'm sick of being overweight and feeling bad about myself." These three simple examples demonstrate why the majority of people stay stuck in a rut due to always thinking in terms of what they don't want in their lives. Much of my time during the intake is spent helping my clients to reframe their thinking and start thinking of what they do want to achieve. This is the very essence of why goal setting works.
In life, we get back what we send out, and the very act of writing out clearly defined goals allows the law of attraction to work in our lives. When we take the time to think and write down what we desire to achieve, manifest, and do in life, we force our minds to think about what we actually want and quit focusing on the problem or the things we need to overcome. The law of attraction states that at a subconscious level our minds cannot discern the difference between a positive or negative connation. As our goals are defined, we emit a new frequency that is sent out into the world and attracts back to us the right situations and people all at the right time so that we can manifest what we want. Goals force us to think in these terms and are the exact same thing that needs to take place for the law of attraction to work in our lives.
Many people are unaware that if goals are not used properly they can actually cause a great amount of unhappiness in a person's world. I have studied goal setting for years and in all the things I've read and heard in regards to goal setting I have yet to hear anybody express the paradox of goal setting. The problem I'm talking about is the anxiety, frustration, and negativity goal setting can create if a person locks themselves into constant future-oriented thinking as well as consistently thinking of the things they haven't achieved yet. Many people get caught a vicious trap when they set goals. Some people focus so much on their goals, and since they haven't achieved it yet, it creates unhappiness and anxiety. This anxiety and trying force your goals into manifestation, actually inhibit the law of attraction from working and just creates more frustration and discontentment.
The other trap of goal setting is so many people think that when achieve a specific goal then and only then will they be happy. This leads to a tremendous amount of unhappiness because they miss out on the joy that the present moment provides. With this mindset, once a person reaches their goal they are often disappointed because the end result didn't provide the fulfillment they were looking for. They end up thinking things like "is this all there is?" Since there is always something bigger than what they just achieved, they assume they must achieve the next thing to make themselves happy. This cycle always leads to unhappiness.
In order to overcome these traps and succeed with goal setting, a person must do two things. First, a person must learn to detach from the things they desire most. Detachment is a spiritual law of success and a component of the law of attraction. Once you get clear on what you want, you must release it and let the universe do its' part manifesting it in your life. This frees your mind of anxiety and force and allows creativity and inspired action to flow through you.
The second thing needed avoid this trap is to find enjoyment in the process not just the end result. Somewhere along my journey as a life-long learner I heard a metaphor that illustrates this point perfectly. If you have ever gone bowling, you know the ultimate goal is to bowl a perfect game or score a 300. With this in mind, why don't people go to the bowling alley and just write down 300 on their scorecard? The reason is the enjoyment doesn't come just from the end result; the enjoyment comes from playing the game. We must learn to enjoy the process of achieving our goals so we don't miss out on the beautiful things of life. When we are happy, it is always easier to achieve the things we desire.
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