A Technique to Program Your Mind For Goal Achievement

In my effort to provide useful  information to the readers of this blog, let me give you an exercise that I have been using for many years to increase my motivation and to keep me on track to achieve my goals. This is but one example of the kind of tools I give to my clients to help them program their minds for success. Like I said, I use this myself and it really works.

It’s very simple and involves affirmations. Now before you start going on about the Stuart Smalley character on Saturday Night Live, let me assure you that there are many ways to do affirmations and some are more effective than others.

First, pick a goal that you want to achieve and decide what  the actions are that you need to be taking now to achieve the goal. For example, say you like to ride road bikes and you want to do your first century (100 miles) event. Of course, you need to be realistic. If you have not ridden more than 5 miles ever and the event is 30 days away, well, sorry but, it ain’t gonna happen.

Next, what are the things you need to be doing daily to achieve your goal of riding in your first 100 mile ride in a time that gets you to the finish line before dark? Well, obviously, you need to  be riding everyday or almost every day. What you want to do is to craft an affirmation that is specific and relevant. “I’m riding my bike every day” would not be as good as “I am riding my bike at least 30 miles daily and at least 60 miles on the weekends. Then, come up with two or three more that support your goal. How about “I am eating the right foods that give me energy and stamina when I train.” or I’m enjoying the feeling of getting stronger and more conditioned each time I ride.” You get the picture.

This is what you do next. Write the affirmations down so that you have them exactly how you like them. Then, within half an hour before bed time and within half an hour of waking up, hand-write them once each. It must be handwriting.It doesn’t matter how crappy your handwriting looks, printing is not near as effective.  Now say the affirmation out loud while reading it so that you involve the sense of sight and hearing in addition to the physical (kinesthetic) process of writing them. Then picture in your mind, for just a few seconds, yourself doing the behavior you want to do.

Do the affirmations at night and in the morning for 30 days before you change them. Make sure you frame the affirmations in the positive as opposed to the negative. You don’t want  “I am not sitting in front of the TV eating Cheetos when I should be training on my bike.” Start with “I am..” or “I am becoming..” or “I have… etc.

Why handwriting? Why the half hour before bedtime? You can get the answer by watching this video,  (which I highly recommend) or you can wait until my next post.

Have an awesome week,

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Tman