The Secret to Setting Powerful Goals

Do you set goals or make resolutions at the beginning of each year? With 2009 upon us now is the time to whip out a pen and paper or your Blackberry and make some plans before another digitally enhanced year speeds by!

Want to know the secret to setting goals that you will achieve? It's all to do with your unconscious mind and the way you frame your goals. You see when you talk about accomplishing something in the future, it will stay in the future in your mind.

For example here are some typical goals:

"I aim to increase my profits per client by 50%."

"I plan to delegate more and take more holidays in 2009."

Instead write them in the following manner:

"I increased profits per client by 50%."

"I outsourced all the administrative and operational functions of my business and took 6 weeks of holidays to travel."

See the difference? When you write your goals as accomplishments, you trick your subconscious mind into believing they've already happened. Instead of thinking about all the obstacles between now and reaching your goals, visualize yourself already where you want to be. This minor shift in language will make a huge shift in setting up the mindset you need for success.

If you want 2009 to be more successful than 2008, you need to think differently and plan differently. You may need fresh ideas and different skills; to find new partners or associates, better ways to organize your business and even a coach or mentor.

Make a list of your accomplishments for this coming year. The act of writing them down and sharing them tricks your brain into making a commitment to reach them. Define what you'll have achieved 12 months from now written in the past tense, as if you'd already achieved them.

My secret weapon in ensuring my goals are powerful is to write them in the form of a gratitude letter. So each year I write my goals down in the form of a Gratitude Letter because as an author and communicator I find this narrative, descriptive form most powerful as it makes it tangible and gets my creative juices flowing.

I recommend you review your goals and plans regularly, daily if not weekly so as you reread them you can track your progress. It's easy to make resolutions. But it's hard to make them come true.

No wonder so many people make the same resolutions every year, without ever achieving them. Don't let yourself fall into this trap. This year 2009, right now, resolve to put your goals onto paper and, if you need to, hire a coach or find an accountability buddy to keep you on the track to success!