Are You Locking
Your Goals in the Future?
One of the biggest goal setting mistakes many of
us make is to focus on something I call “future
goals”. Focusing on the future may sound like a
great idea – because we should know where we
want to go, right? But the problem is that your
brain doesn’t understand future tense – it only
understands images and action words in the
present. Watch how dangerous this can be…
If you tell yourself, “In 3 months, I’ll be a
Director”, your mind says ‘OK’. You wake up
tomorrow, and you say “In 3 months, I’ll be a
Director”, and your mind says, ‘OK’. A week
later…“In 3 months, I’ll be a Director”. Your
mind – ‘OK’. A month later…“In 3 months, I’ll
be a Director”. ‘OK’. 3 months from now…“In 3
months, I’ll be a Director”. ‘OK’.
No! It’s not OK!!! It’s like the little rabbit
with a carrot attached to the end of a stick –
no matter how far you stretch and how much you
strive, you’ll never attain it if it’s a ‘future
goal.’
And it doesn’t matter all that much how your
goals are actually worded. What truly matters when it comes to
‘future goals’ is how you think and feel about
the goal internally – whether you truly believe
100% that it will happen.
Think about it. How many “next year” goals have
you set, and never achieved? How many thousands
of women just got back from Seminar, swearing
that next year, they’ll be in that
brand new car, or that new purple suit, or that
production club? Chances are, this was the
exact same thing they said to themselves this
same time last year. How long will the pattern
go on?
A little more food for thought…there are two
positions in Mary Kay that even have the word
“future” in them! Now this isn’t a HUGE deal on
the surface, but you do have to be a little
careful. If you really identify with being a “Future
Sales Director” or a “Future Executive”,
(or any other position for that matter) you
might find yourself stuck there for a lot longer
than you’d like if the next level of achievement
always resides in the future, according to your
belief system.
When I realized that I’ve been setting myself up
for failure for the past 20 years by continually
chasing future goals, coupled with a mental
disease you may have heard of – “perfectionism”
(I promise I will write an article on that
soon), I was sick to my stomach.
However, the moment I learned how to properly
enroll my unconscious mind, in November of 2005,
I finally started achieving my goals. (What a
concept!) And once you experience the same
thing, you’ll know why I say traditional goal
setting methods are useless. It’s because the
unconscious mind – the most powerful achievement
mechanism we have – isn’t usually invited to
play along.
Your unconscious mind will not be fully engaged
until you speak its language. And future tense
doesn’t cut it. If you want to truly engage
your unconscious mind, you must have present
tense vision statements that are compelling
enough to make you want to act now.
And also understand, the very things most of us
are striving for (money, Directorship, Cadillac,
NSD) aren’t all that important anyway. The only
reason to set and achieve your goals is for who
you become in the process of going after them.
Getting the actual award isn’t anywhere near as
important as how you feel inside for having
accomplished it – in other words, the personal
growth along the way.
Don’t believe me? Ask any National you can find
which she would keep, if she could only keep one
– the person she’s become along the journey to
NSD, or the title & income. I guarantee she
tells you the money and title are not that big
of a deal compared to the personal growth.
Oops, I got on a little rabbit trail there (I do
that often). Back to the vision statements –
instead of pretending you want to become a top
Director, ask yourself what type of person you’d
have to become in order to be in that position.
You might get answers like “strong leader” or
“positive influence” or “someone who helps other
women achieve their dreams”.
Those are great! And, you don’t have to be a
Director to do and be those things, do you? So
instead of telling yourself you’ll be a Director
in 3 months, as if that’s when you’ll finally be
successful, affirm those characteristics you
have right now. Write them on note cards and
read them to yourself daily. That way, you can
learn to enjoy the journey a lot more, even
though you’re not a Director yet.
And obviously, the same goes for National, Pink
Caddie, unit clubs, etc. Plus, and this is
HUGE, when you take your focus off the
results, you achieve them much easier. How
cool is that!!! That’s right, you’ll get your
goals much faster once you stop beating yourself
up or freaking yourself out for not having them
yet.
So please make sure you’re not equating success
in Mary Kay, or success in life, with achieving
a certain level or selling a certain amount of
product. If those things are important to you,
great – make a game plan and go after those
goals with passion. But your accomplishments
will never define you as a person. Your
character will.
So if you don’t achieve the goals you have in
the time frame you want, that’s fine. Tweak the
recipe and keep moving forward. Your tombstone
will not have the level you ultimately reached
in Mary Kay.
Enjoy the Journey!!!
SS
"Overcoming
Overwhelm:
