Goal setting does not work for me!!-

Do you focus on your goals everyday yet fail to accomplish what you aspire to! Lets uncover this.

There is focus on manifestation practices these days with the availability of manifestation Trainers. In these rituals, activities that bring more and more attention to goals and experiencing accomplishment of those goals are practiced. Yet, people seldom achieve what they want only with these or fall into the trap of doing just that.

The main part of the goal accomplishment puzzle is the journey to accomplishment of the goal or the follow through action. Krishna says in Bhagavadgeeta- Focus on the karma, without expecting results. This statement tells us the significance of focusing on the process like a Karmayogi. The end result is just a by-product of the process and not an independent element in itself. What happens when we focus on the follow through or just the process, is we not only have an end in mind, we are mapping the milestones and the whole journey itself for us to walk the path. And the more you are engaged in the process rather than the results, the less frustrating the ups and downs of accomplishing the goals become. Propelling you to move forward even after the falls and stay grounded even after the wins along the process. So if goal is the metric or the destination, the follow through or the plan execution is the vehicle which will take you there.

Focusing on end experience alone can just put you in a dream zone as if you are already there. The culprit here is the brain which can't distinguish between the reality and imagination. So if you re going to see yourself having achieved the goal already, then the chances are, you are already satisfied with this imagined state and the drive to walk the journey is no more there. Obviously, the end result is more entertaining than the actions that demand personal involvement.

The second biggest obstacle in achieving the goal is the choice we have to make not between priorities and non-priorities, but between high priorities and lesser priorities. When you choose the activities which are of lesser priority, you hardly realize that there is opportunity cost in doing so, in that, you are channelizing the resources on low priorities at the cost of higher priority activities. This is where it gets tricky and challenges our judgment. The good news is with this awareness, one can become more adept at saying 'no' to things that don't seem to steal your time in a significant way but actually do.

The third part is utilizing the power of the psychology of unfinished tasks. Psychologist Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, found that humans are more likely to recall unfinished tasks than those that are completed. This means that when we do not feel like engaging in action plan towards the goal, we could allow ourselves leeway of just touching that activity and leaving it. One, you are not running away from that activity. Two, there is acceptance and appreciation for just showing up for that activity. The beauty of this is since the activity is started with low expectation of leaving it midway or only expected to be completed in parts, the memory of that is fresh and persuades the person to doing more and progressing towards completion without him realizing it. The cherry on the cake is you are not beating up yourself but doing the activity with a sense of appreciation and low expectations, it counter intuitively gives more gains.

Now, coming to the manifestation part or looking at the end goals everyday- this is a great way to bring attention to the destination one has set for himself. Yet, it is incomplete if the focus and attention are not practiced repeatedly for the milestones. One has to imagine and associate even with the steps leading up to destination and not just the end goals. So practicing achieving milestones or walking the path to the destination are equally important to bring awareness to the fact that one is in the process and its an unfinished task yet. Better still, by the same power of imagination of the brain that I shared above, we look at the possibility of achieving mile stone after mile stone as a reality, which propels us to approach the next milestone positively and hence moving us to follow through the plan to the goal. That moves us to becoming karmayogis with the focus on the process rather than being dreamy with the end goal.?

Are there any roadblocks which are contributing to drifting away from your intentions? Are there any practices that are helping you to move forward? Do share.

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