NEVER Set a Goal For Money

Take a close look at that coin or paper bill in your hand. What do you see? Paper and metal?

What if you found yourself deep in the jungles of the Amazon, amid the population of a village that might still be in the Dark Ages, and you handed that coin or paper bill to the village ‘king’ as a gift, what do you think he would do with it?
Well, he might use the paper bill to assist him in lighting his fire. He may wear the coin around his neck as a trinket. Otherwise, it’s of no other use to him, right?

The point is money in its tangible form is fairly useless. It’s only what you can trade it for that has value to you and everyone’s values are different. Anyone can set a goal for $100,000. It isn’t the $100,000 that excites you it is what you will trade it for.

Try this: Sit yourself down in a comfy chair with a pad of paper and pen. Close your eyes (no peeking!). Visualize yourself with $100,000 in your bank account and what you want to trade it for. Think of material items, charitable donations, travel, with who you would share it, and anything else that you consider important. As you visualize (did you know your mind thinks in pictures, not words?), allow the feelings of being, doing and having these things to surface and just indulge yourself in those feelings. n
Now open your eyes, put pen to paper and write this: “What I am doing with my $100,000 is…….” Write for 5 minutes NON-STOP without lifting the pen off the paper. Set a timer so you don’t have to be conce
ed about the clock. It matters more that you don’t stop writing than the actual words you write. Don’t judge what you are writing, the words may describe what seems impossible, but ignore that part of your brain and go for it.

When the five minutes is up, stop writing and read aloud what you wrote. Most people are amazed, even astounded at what they wrote. Because your ‘thinking’ mind (your judgement) is bypassed, your ‘feeling’ mind is allowed to flourish.

It is your emotions which work as a magnet using the Law of Attraction to draw your goals toward you!

A coin or a paper bill has no emotion on its own. Only when you think of things they can bring into your life do they begin to have purpose.

Which of the following sentences illicit more emotion:
1) I now have $100,000 in my bank account
2) I am so excited now that I have booked my two week vacation in sunny Italy where I will bask on the Mediterranean sands, sip Italian wine and polish off ripe olives from the trees!
Which one stimulates more imagination? Which one brings better pictures to your mind?

Go back to your 5 minute writing sheet and look through it for anything that you will recognize as possible goals. Now add them to your goal list remembering to:

1) be very descriptive
2) put them in the present tense (no “will” or “want” or “going to” words)
3) be specific
When you write a goal for an amount of income, instead of a number, break it down into what that income is going to do for you/bring to you. ie:

1) I am earning $100,000 income per yea
2) My income has placed in my driveway my dream car: a brand new shining silver convertible, black leather interior, top of the line sound system, environmentally friendly hybrid operation, full safety package, satellite phone, 2 door 4 seater, automatic top, spacious trunk, standard transmission and 5 year warranty!

Can you see now that setting a goal for an amount of money just isn’t as attractive and exciting as the things you can do with the money?

Yes, it does require money to accomplish many of your goals, especially for material items and charitable donations, but there are also many goals that to be reachable don’t require money. Improving relationships with partner or children or family, changing your perspectives, more time for self, volunteering, etc.

So it isn’t that we have to be mercenary in order to set goals, but we do have to be realistic, imaginative, clever and trusting. It isn’t money that is “the root of all evil”, it is the LOVE of money, the HORDING of money, and the CHEATING with money, the POWER STRUGGLE with money that causes the most grief. You, who only want to enjoy your life and help others to enjoy life do deserve to be, do and have the time, the possessions and the ability to self improve that will make it so. n
Concentrate on these as you write your goal list daily and forget the numbers with the dollar signsnn© Clear Goals Coaching, Lynn Moore 2008