Your Best Mantra for the New Year

If you were to ask me what one thing the vast majority of the thousands of clients I’ve seen in my clinical psychology practice over the last 38 years have had in common, the answer might shock you. Almost without exception, what brings people to my office is what turns out to be a disconnect between the life they are living and the life they could be living if only they were empowered by their own choices.
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3 Steps Toward Making Your Dream a Reality

Do you have many dreams you’d like to make come true? If there’s so much you want to do but in reality, so little time to do it, the feeling of overwhelm itself can actually hold you back from accomplishing any of your major goals. If this increasingly prevalent state of mind speaks to you, here’s a simple strategy to help you see results materialize in the shortest time possible!

STEP ONE- Take a moment to think about one or more goals that you may have set for yourself and reached, in the past.  As you’re thinking about these successes, try to re-experience the feeling that resulted, as you were able to effectively reach your goal—especially if it was a particularly challenging one.  In that triumphant state of mind, look at each goal you are now working on, and answer these “W” questions:

• What is the goal?

• When do you want it accomplished by?

• Who is or can be involved with it besides you? (Or who can help you achieve it?)

• Where is it to take place?

• And perhaps most importantly…Why do you want to achieve this goal anyway?

STEP TWO- Is to plan and prioritize them.  To do that, ask yourself these questions and again, make note of the answers:

• What needs to be done first?

• Is the order or priority your choice, or is this the way it has to be done for some logistical reason?

• Are you reacting to someone else’s priorities or your own?

• What logistics or other arrangements need to be taken into consideration in order for you to accomplish this goal?

• Are there any potential obstacles or new issues you may not have previously recognized, that might have come up as a result of asking yourself these specific questions?

STEP THREE-Visualize the end result.  Close your eyes and imagine your goal having been fully met.  See the sights, hear the sounds, smell the smells, and feel the sensations of your goal—no matter what it is—actually being met.  Take as much time as you need to do this.  Take note of how you feel about the prospect of having reached your goal (notice, I put it in the past tense).  Now notice if this goal is still as important to you as it was just before this visualization.  If not, you may want to rethink it.  On the other hand, you may even wish to make it a higher priority, because you’ve have just used your senses and emotions to give yourself a preview of how reaching this goal will affect you once it actually is accomplished.  When visualizing a goal being met, always imagine yourself succeeding in the best possible light; and think of your vision of success as a rehearsal for the real thing.  Practically every major achievement throughout history was a result of someone’s vision.  So remember to consciously visualize the endpoint of any goal you are striving to reach.  If you do, it will probably become a habit you cherish.

After completing these three steps, you should have a clearer vision of how to begin to take on almost any challenge that’s important  to you.  For more suggestions on how to live the life you visualize for yourself, check out my latest book Stage Climbing: The Shortest Path to Your Highest Potential.  And remember: the clearer your vision, the closer you are to making that vision a reality!