Vision For Your Goals

[Ed from PA]

I float in & out of here, but I actually do a lot of goal work on my own.

Recently, I was asked about goals on another thread and I gave quite a long answer about planning & scheduling goal work and not just having this "pie-in-the-sky" goal out there. The example that I used was losing weight. I said that it's important to not only say, "I will weight 180 pounds by XXXX", but to have a solid plan for doing it. For example:

1. I will work out with a personal trainer on Mondays, Wednesday, & Fridays from 6:00 a.m - 7:00 a.m.

2. I will run on Sundays, Tuesdays & Thursdays from 5:30 - 6:30 a.m.

3. I will drink 4 liters of water a day

And so on.

However, I was asked if I had a "vision" for how my life will be different when I lose the weight. And honestly, I don't. Not one out of my heart. Honestly, I can't imagine what my life will be like once I've lost the weight (it's a pretty significant amount).

So, my question to everyone here is this: How do you develop a true vision for something that you've never experienced? To me, it's still something that I want, but without experiencing it, it makes it incredibly difficult to imagine.

Any ideas, suggestions or thoughts?

Thanks!
Ed

[z1freeride]

I do agree that visualizing your goal is very important. I like to imagine that I already accomplished the goal and I try to feel an emotion of satisfaction, excitement, happiness while doing so. Attaching an emotion makes it feel more real.

For me, I try to use examples of other successful people and use that as a basis for my visualizations. I will then modify it to fit my own needs.

For example, it is a life-long goal of mine to become a great guitarist. Led Zeppelin is my favorite band and I often imagine myself as Jimmy Page rockin some sweet solos in front of huge crowds. However, I do not necessarily expect to achieve that level, it's just the emotional image of that thought that keeps me going and practicing everyday. Because of that image, I love to practice. It's become part of me instead of some external goal.

[Alison Jenkins]

I think about what I really want so for example I wanted to work but also be home for my children, so I decided that a good solution would be to work from home on a flexible basis. Then I broke that down into looking into different options and chose to do something very pioneering. As I've reached different stages I have reassessed and altered my vision accordingly.

The one place that a vision doesn't work for me is with weight loss. I use the vision in a negative way and start "beating myself up" for not achieving that vision immediately. The honest reason as to why it doesn't work is it triggers binge eating, so that is one vision I no longer hold on to. But for every other area of my life it works.

Alison

[KennethFoo]

This is true, goal is what keep me going and going everyday. I can't explain how powerful it is but it's just like a turbo charge for your life.

Life without goal are like walking in blindness, you don't know where are you going to or what do you really want in life.

It only takes me ten minutes to start realize what my goals are, it's then when I caught the momentum and came out with a list of goals that I want to achieve. I'm glad that I do that.