subject: How Routine And Ritual Can Lead To Riches [print this page] Have you ever worked extremely hard to get something? How did it feel to get it? Do you still have it? Would you like another one? Could you get another one? If not, is there something else you really want that is like that other something?
For instance, I was really, really excited when I got my first car(actually it was a van). I worked a lot of hours and lost touch with friends for a while. It felt like an amazing burst of freedom when I got it. I dont have it anymore but I would like another new one. I could get one but I would rather have a different model(a car this time I mean). A top of the range version.
The car I will decide on will become my Treat. If I now link the feeling I got when I got my first car to one of my goals, so each time I read that goal, I visualise getting that car, and feel again the excitement I felt when I got my first car. So now when I do reach that GOAL, I will go out and buy the CAR I decided on.
And now Im excited! And that in itself will encourage persistance and hard work.
Just slogging away to reach a goal that will only be some numbers on a bank statement is pretty good when you're skint, but it's not motivation enough over the long haul. You need something you can FEEL. Something that you can remember feels GOOD!
So when you begin to plan out your goals, you need to add The Treat to your goal setting routine.
Decide whats going to be your Treat first. If you're just setting out it dosen't have to be a car (actually, at no point does it have to be a car). It could be something quite small,like an ipod for instance, or maybe a new laptop. If techy stuff's not really your thing, what about something for your garden, or that new sofa you've been thinking of getting, or even a holliday. The choices are endless, but make that decision.
Each time you read your goal, close your eyes and FEEL what it would be like to attain your Treat. Read them out every morning BEFORE the alarm goes off(more about
that in a moment). Think about how youre going to achieve the biggest one (This will come easier the more you read them). Feel how it will feel to get your Treat.
Then just get on with your day!
Another question. Do you know how to set your alarm clock to wake you up in the morning?
I don't mean to sound patronising, but if you can answer yes then that's very exciting because if you can do that then you can also set and achieve any goal you wish!
Two more questions
Does your alarm clock have a snooze function? And do you use it?
If you answered oh yes to both those questions then I am going to share with you a simple little trick you can use to increase your goal achieving power. After I show you that trick, I am then going to give you the most powerful goal setting ritual you have ever known.
You can build into that ritual some specific goals that will make your life change magically.
So, what do I mean by a ritual? Well, simply put, a ritual, in this context, is something you do every time before you read your goals. You have to be in a certain state before you read your goals and a ritual is the perfect way to create that state.
The state you need to be in is one where your mind is not thinking about anything. If youre not thinking about anything, you will not feel anything but peace. This peacefulness is the perfect state for reading your goals.
If youre not in a peaceful state when you read your goals, if your mind is thinking about something else when you read them, it will not take them in or if it does, it will take them in and associate them with what you were thinking about at the time you read them.
(You should re-read that last sentence)
So Now The Ritual...
Its very simple, but you must perfect this ritual for goal setting. All you need to do is to snap or click your fingers quite loudly (or something similar).
Well talk about the ritual more in a moment, but first the trick
You need to get into the habit of setting your alarm to wake you up in the morning and IMMEDIATELY GETTING UP. Dont you go using that snooze button. Get right out of your pit as soon as it goes bee,' and dont even let it get to beep. If you are prone to getting dizzy when you get up too quick, just sit on the edge of your bed.
Make sure you do not dally OR use that snooze button.
What youre doing here is training your mind to respond to your will. After a few days of this, you will start getting up before the alarm goes off. Once this
starts happening, youre ready to start practising this ritual. Write yourself down some goals youd like to achieve. Just a few things youd like to happen. Nothing major to start with. Just little things like visiting a friend or buying a book or anything easy like something youve been putting off.
Now, when you automatically get out of bed, go into a room where you will not be disturbed. Stand holding your list of goals with your eyes closed. Allow all your thoughts to be there and you need to actually see them in your minds eye as if theyre like balloons. Visualise your thoughts as balloons floating around.
The thing about balloons is that theyre round. And if you place four balloons together, you end up with a bit of space in between them. No matter how hard you try to push four balloons together you always end up with some space in the middle. )~( See?
Now find that space in between your thoughts and zoom in on that space. Go right in there like youre turning up the power on a microscope. Focus on that space. And do this for about 10 seconds.
Raise a hand to your ear and snap loudly and keep focusing on that space for a few more seconds and then snap again. Now open your eyes, read your goals out load, and think about them happening from where you are now to when theyre achieved.
After a week or so you should be getting up automatically BEFORE your alarm goes off and you should also have achieved some small goals. And once that's happened, you should be ready to design some specific and life enhancing goals, and that's the next step. And now it becomes more serious.
THINGS YOU NEED TO DO/CHANGE WILL KEEP POPPING INTO YOUR HEAD.
When you set goals, your mind starts to notice the things around you that are NOT helping you to achieve them.
So now you must start doing/changing those things to create the perfect circumstances needed for you to easily achieve your goal.
This is one of the reasons that people dont see much progress at first. Because you are preparing the environment.
The upshot of this is that you will need to start carrying around with you some way of recording your thoughts so you can act on them later.
Jot everything down as it comes to you.
Your mind will start working at a faster rate and people will notice this.
Youll be more optimistic. And people will DEFINITELY notice that! Your close friends in particular.
You should now be able to see that you seem to be making SOME progress towards your goals, although the journey towards your goals will NOT be a linear one.
You will very likely take a wibbly wobbly route. Youll do some strange things that dont seem to be relevant to your goal. Youll do SOME things that are not even close to anything to do with your goals. But when you look back youll say
something like Everything happens for a reason.
WITH OR WITHOUT FEELING?
You set a goal to make 1,000 in profit in 1 month. Each day you read it out. Each day you take steps to make it happen. Every step you take reveals the next. The
fact that you are reading your goal each day makes those next steps the right steps towards that goal. BUT! After 1 month, you find that you only made 200 and you become disillusioned with goal setting.
Back in 1980 I came across my first instance of goal setting. I saw an ad in the paper for a book by a guy named 'Joe Karbo.' You may have heard of him. My Dad thought I was mad, (even though he liked the title.) It was the first time I'd ever heard of the concept of setting goals, and I followed it religeously... For about a month. Nothing changed and so I gave it up and went back to my working life. I didn't believe.
I feel pretty stupid about that now.
You set a goal to make 1,000 in profit in 1 month. Each day you read it out AND you recall a feeling of achieving something similar. Each day you take steps to make it happen. Every step you take reveals the next. The fact that you are reading your goal each day makes those next steps the right steps towards the goal. After 1 month, you find that you only made 800. You become excited at the potential of goal setting.
When youve finished reading them, thats it! Do this every day for a few weeks, and put a little effort into achieving your list of goals. Just a little bit of will power. Nothing too heavy, and see where it moves you too.
Okay, when that's done and achieved and it's time to move up a step, try something a little more ambitious.
I will generate at least 500,000 as fast as possible
Whoa there! Hold up! (I did say ambitious.)
You must set this kind of goal without any thought to how youre going to do it. If you read it out every single day then heres what will happen.
1.After a week or two, youll think of a way to do it. (A method)
2.After a month or two, youll have put a full plan of action together.
3.After about 3 months, youll have created the means to do it. (A great idea/s)
4.After about 5 months, youll be able to see exactly how youre going to do it.
5.After about 8 months, youll know that you will easily get it.
6.After 1 year, youll be somewhere near it depending on how you persist and how often you read it.
Thats the way it works out.
Can you see why people give up and go back to their work a day life?
But it can be done, but only if you stick to the routine.
