A Goal Setting Technique
That Seems to Work

Goal setting can be difficult because it is difficult for people to think about what they would do with excess money. You have struggled so long and so hard without money, that thinking about what you would do with more is beyond your radar.

You are good at getting by. You are an expert in making do. Your normal pattern of life is to struggle, to scrimp and to save. You think it is only right that you continually deny yourself. You think you don't deserve to have good things.

It is so difficult to think about that the excess money does not materialize or manifest for whatever reasons.

You are so used to not thinking about excess money because that has not been your reality for so long, maybe your entire life.

Instead of getting raises and promotions at work with additional benefits, you get short and long term layoffs, cutbacks in benefits, additional health care costs and cuts in pay. Plus, whatever bonuses you used to get now you don't. Any extra pay you used to get for overtime work, now the overtime is not there.

That is the reality for too many people.

What you want to do is change your reality. Your reality needs to be shifted to whatever it is that you want rather than what you are experiencing right now which is what you don't want.

You move toward what you want. You have to think about what you want.

You cannot think in terms of what you don't want in goal setting. You may think this is the same thing, but it isn't. It is critical to think of what you want all the time, every day, constantly. We become what we think about all the time. So if you are thinking of what you do not want, you will get more of what you do not want.

So, how do you do that?

You have probably read about or heard about manifesting your desires, creating vision boards, mind movies and goal setting methods of listing out your goals.

These are all good things.

But, if you are new to this, as I am, you just seem to have such a hard time getting your mind to actually think this way.

You are at a lower point. You have lived so long not thinking this way that just trying to shift a little bit is extremely difficult.

I kept listing what I wanted. I wrote it all down. I created vision boards. I thought about my goals. I collected pictures of my desires. But I did not really believe any of this because nothing happened.

Instead of doing better at work, I did worse. Instead of opportunities showing themselves to me I experienced setbacks and frustrations.

This is all so frustrating.

I think by starting even smaller you will gain more success. You try to accomplish tiny goals and little desires.

The positive energy of little frustrations and annoyances that you take action to overcome will help you to move past these problems into eventually thinking bigger.

You will gain some momentum by solving small problems.

This solving of your own problems with patience, persistence and action will carry over because

you will see and feel that you can do it.

What I recommend is taking massive action on something small and getting rid of that irritation that is bothering you and slowing you down.

If you can, put some of those things behind you.

I know the experts say to concentrate on the big things. Put the big rocks in the container before you put in the little rocks, but that does not help if you cannot do it.

What they do not say is that you may not even know what the big rock to work on is. You may have so many small rocks that are in the way you cannot even get to the big rocks.

Like how can you go back to school if your car is in need of repair?

How can you start a business if you are living in a chaotic way?

How do you actually start to think about doing better.

I have been practicing a mind altering strategy to actually feel what extra money would be like. I call it the checkbook exercise.

Goal Setting with a checkbook

I use an empty checkbook register and visualize what bills I am going to pay and what I am going to buy and what I am going to spend my money on and where the source of my money is by writing this out in a checkbook register.

I put check numbers, the date, who the check is written to and the amount. I write this out like I am recording this in a real checkbook. I put in money that I am receiving and the source and the date.

If you are making a lot more money and spending a lot more money you will still be tracking it in your checkbook like you normally do. You will still be spending time doing this, just with more money.

I have found this exercise to be extremely fulfilling and fun. It is not just about cars and trips, it is about what lifestyle changes you will make and what lifestyle you want to remain the same.

It takes time to pay bills and buy things. I write out lists of what I would do if I needed to spend a lot of money in a hurry. It takes time to write out the checks and go to the store and buy things online. By using the checkbook technique you get your mind thinking that having all this extra money starts to seem normal. After all, you are just writing out checks, recording debit card transactions and going shopping online and in person.

It is just a real exercise in goal setting that helps me to feel how more money would be.

These ideas are explained very well in the The Secret of Deliberate Creation I have recently purchased. You can learn more by clicking on the link in the left hand column.

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