PowerGoals / Chapter 4: The Process of Setting Your PowerGoal?

How to Set and Achieve Goals / That Turn Your Dreams into Reality.

by Dr. Hannes Dreyer (Ph.D.) with Elzet Blaauw.

Chapter 4: The Process of Setting Your PowerGoal?

Now that you know the purpose of goals and what makes a PowerGoal? so powerful, it is time to get practical. It is time for you to set your PowerGoal?.

This chapter explains the process step by step.

Open?your?PowerGoal??Workbook

If?you?have?not?yet?downloaded?or?used?yours,?now?is?the?time?to?do?so.?Use?it?with?this?chapter?for?the?best?results.

Step?one:?Create?your?list.

I have great news for you – you have already completed this step in the previous chapters. (If not, go back and complete Questions 1.1 and 3.1 in the PowerGoal? Workbook.)

This step is simply about listing all the things that you want. It is a raw, unfiltered material.

Do not only write down those things which you think can become a PowerGoal?. Sometimes there are other goals that can become milestones toward your PowerGoal?, or which will become future PowerGoals?. The process also sometimes surprises you. You might start thinking that a particular goal will be your PowerGoal? and end up discovering your PowerGoal? should be something else.

To prepare for the rest of the steps, transfer all your wants to an Excel spreadsheet. You can download the PowerGoal? Calculator or create your own. You can use paper too, but the process will be a bit more cumbersome.

Workbook?Q4.1:?Transfer?your?list?of?wants?to?a?spreadsheet/the?PowerGoal??Calculator.

See?detailed?instructions?in?the?PowerGoal??Workbook.

After transferring your list of wants, ask yourself if those wants cover all the different areas of life. Use the seven areas of wealth that we discussed in Chapter 3 as a guideline.

Step?2:?Assign?desirability?ratings.

Once you have a complete list of wants, give each item a desirability rating. The desirability rating quantifies how much you want that thing. There is no right or wrong here. You simply decide how much you want something.

Use a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is not desirable at all and 10 is extremely desirable.

Remember that desirability is not about what other people want for you or what you?should?be wanting. It is personal, and it is emotional.?You?must want it, and you must want it powerfully on an emotional level. During this step, you want to switch off your analytical mind and connect with your emotions.

Start by going down the list of items and giving each one the first rating that comes to you. Because desirability is an emotional rating, the last thing you want to do is overthink it. Go with your gut. Tap into your emotions.

You might know that you?should?want something, but if you are honest with yourself, you do not truly?feel?that want. Save yourself much effort by connecting with the things on your list that have some powerful emotions behind them, even if you do not even understand those emotions or know what they are. Those things can come later. But if you end up with a PowerGoal? that is a chore to you with no powerful emotions behind it, this entire exercise will be a waste of your time.

Once you have assigned a desirability rating for each want, arrange the items from highest to lowest desirability, in other words, with all the 10s at the top and the 1s (or the smallest number you used) at the bottom. The PowerGoal? Calculator helps you to do it with a click of a button, as explained in the PowerGoal? Workbook.

Work through the sorted list and check whether you agree with your ratings. You might find that you gave one item a 6 and another a 7, but you want the one with the 6 more than the one with the 7. Change the ratings and keep on sorting until you are happy with the rating for each item.

A quick note: you can have more than one item with the same rating. It means that the desirability level for those two items are the same or, in other words, that you want those two things equally.

Remember that this list is entirely subjective. As I said already, there is no right or wrong here. It is about how much you (and no one else) want each of those items. It is your list of wants after all.

Workbook?Q4.2:?Give?each?item?a?desirability?rating.

Step?3:?Assign?difficulty?ratings.

After desirability, assign a difficulty rating for each of your wants. Use a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is very easy with your current skills and experience and 10 is impossible unless you become the person with the skills to achieve that thing.

As with step 2, go down the list of wants and assign a number for each item. After assigning a number for each item, sort the list from most difficult (10) to least difficult (1 or the highest number you used). Review the list in this order. Make changes and sort the list again until you are happy with the difficulty ratings that you assigned.

For this step, do not pay any attention to the desirability rating of an item. You can even hide that column for the time being if it will distract you.

The difficulty rating you give each item is just as subjective as the desirability rating. This rating is based on your current skills and experience as well as which skills you see as difficult or easy to learn. If I have learned other languages in my life before, learning a new one might be a 7 or an 8 for me. However, if I have never learned a new language since I was a baby and I think of myself as someone who is “bad” with language, I might rate learning a new language as a 9 or even a 10. It is your difficulty rating based on the person that you are now.

Workbook?Q4.3:?Give?each?item?a?difficulty?rating.

Step?4:?Assign?goal?types.

Now that you have the desirability and difficulty for each item, you can class them into one of four types of goals: list, goal, PowerGoal?, and dream. The PowerGoal? cheatsheet gives a summary of the difference between these four types of goals.

Download?your?FREE?PowerGoal?Cheatsheet?if?you?have?not?yet?done?so.

A list is anything that you want that you wrote down. Some people would call such a list a list of goals. However, if the desirability and/or the difficulty rating is 5/10 or less, I do not classify it as a goal.

A goal is a want that is written down (as you have done already) with desirability and a difficulty rating of 6 or higher.

A PowerGoal? is the highest level of goal. It has desirability and a difficulty rating of 10/10. As I explained in the previous chapter, it must be difficult enough and you must want it enough that you are captured and moved to transform by this type of goal.

A dream has desirability of 10/10. You really want it. However, its difficulty rating is not only a 10/10, it is beyond that – 10+/10. It is so difficult that you cannot imagine becoming the person with the necessary skills to achieve it in the next three to five years. In other words, anything which will take longer than five years to achieve is a dream.

For such a difficult item, you can’t set a clear, measurable target with a clear timeframe that is within your control. Because a dream is so vague, very few people can write theirs down. Even if they do, it remains vague. Because the target is vague, you do not know and cannot even start imagining who the person must be who can achieve this thing.

You don’t have to discount your dreams. In time, they become your next PowerGoals?, often much sooner than you think. But it is important to distinguish between a dream and a PowerGoal?. If you think you are setting a PowerGoal? but it is actually a dream, you will not be able to take powerful action towards it.

Workbook?Q4.4:?Determine?the?goal?type?of?each?item.

On step 4, you might have several potential PowerGoals? on your list, or you may have none. Do not worry about it at this stage. Just follow the process.

Step?5:?Choose?and?refine?your?PowerGoal?

After you have assigned the goal type of each item, it is time to identify and refine your one PowerGoal?. It is possible to have more than one PowerGoal?, but I will not recommend it unless you have years of experience. For this exercise, definitely only stick with one.

The shortened definition of a PowerGoal? is the one goal that will make all or most of your other goals come true if you achieve it. This definition makes it clear why PowerGoals? are often financial. Because money is an enabler, it can make many of your other goals come true. Tanja and I wanted to go on a 4x4 trip to Russia. The key enabler for making such a trip was money. But your PowerGoal? does not have to be about money. It must only adhere to all the requirements of a PowerGoal? that we discussed in Chapter 3.

If you have several potential PowerGoals? at this stage, run each of them through the questions below (also on the PowerGoal? Calculator). One of them might clearly be your PowerGoal?.

If you have no potential PowerGoals?, or if these questions disqualified all your potential PowerGoals?, remember that your dreams and your goals with the ratings closest to a PowerGoal? are also potential PowerGoals?. Go through each one and try to rewrite it so that it adheres to as many of the questions below as possible.

A true PowerGoal? must pass the test of each of the following questions:

? Do I really want this?

? Is this in conflict with any of my other goals?

? Is this goal in conflict with my personal beliefs or situation?

? Do I have full control over it happening?

? Is the goal stated positively (as opposed to negatively)?

? Is it specific and expressed in detail?

? Is it good for me, good for others, and good for the greater good?

? Is it measurable? (Open up possibilities – use "or more/less".)

? Does it have a clear deadline? (Open up possibilities – use?"before x".)

? Will I know if/when I achieved it? (How?)

? Is it related to timeframes?

Many times you can turn a dream or a goal into a PowerGoal? by changing the timeframe or the specific target. You might want a passive income of $10,000, which you cannot imagine achieving in five years or less. What if you change it to $5,000 or even $1,000? Maybe you can then imagine doing it in a shorter period.

The converse is also true. Maybe you have a goal to buy your first investment property. It is not a PowerGoal? because you can imagine doing it in the next year. But if you were to change it to buy five properties that meet specific criteria? Or property to the value of a certain amount? That would change the timeframe and the difficulty.

Work on your potential PowerGoals? until you find the one that meets all the requirements. When you find the right one, you will feel that it is right. If you find that one and it does not meet all the criteria, keep on rewording it until it does.

If you get stuck at this step, take a break. Go for a walk. Do something else. Sometimes you need a night’s rest to wake up with the breakthrough.

Do not give up until you have your PowerGoal?.

Workbook?Q4.5:?Choose?and?refine?your?PowerGoal?.

Step?6:?Select?supporting?goals.

You have set your PowerGoal?! Congratulations!

But what about those other goals? It is useful to select supporting goals that will help move you closer to your PowerGoal?. In Chapter 7, I explain the 91 Perfect Day Challenge and how you can use a 91-day cycle to move towards your PowerGoal? every day. Your list of goals can inform it. It is useful to set goals for shorter periods, like 91 days but also a year.

To use the property example again: if your PowerGoal? is $10,000 passive income before 31 December 2022 (that would be about three years from the time of writing this book), your 91-day goal might be to make an offer on a property that meets your investment criteria (be specific!), and your one-year goal might be to buy a property that meets your investment criteria.

These supporting goals are not cast in stone. They are there to help you along the way, as I discuss in more detail when I talk about the 91 Perfect Day Challenge in Chapter 7.

Workbook?Q4.6:?Select?supporting?goals?from?your?list.

Step?7:?Make?it?visible.

Now that you have a PowerGoal? and supporting goals, it is time to move from the spreadsheet to real life. You have a written PowerGoal?, but you want to make that goal visible in your daily life. You want to see it every day.

If you journal, which I highly recommend, write your PowerGoal? out at the start and end of every day or journal session. Stick your PowerGoal? on your fridge, behind the door of the bathroom, or put it up on your bedroom wall.

You want to make it impossible for yourself to go through any day without being reminded of your PowerGoal?. You want to activate your brain to consciously and subconsciously find new paths to that goal.

In my Powermorphing? course, one of the things I teach my students is how to come up with a subconscious symbol that is linked to their PowerGoal? and to entangle that symbol with their subconscious.

Powermorphing? is the process of consciously programming your subconscious to unconsciously give you whatever t you consciously want. In this course, I teach my students how to use their subconscious to realize their PowerGoals? much faster and with less effort.

The Powermorphing? process is the topic of an entire book by itself, and you need a firm foundation in the theory and practice of PowerGoals? before you can get there. I cannot go into that depth here. However, if you have a powerful emotional connection with your PowerGoal? and if you have worked and reworked your PowerGoal? wording until it feels 100% correct, you can start tapping into the power of your subconscious by reminding yourself of the words of your PowerGoal? as often as possible.

Some people even go so far as finding pictures that represent their PowerGoal? and using them as backgrounds on their computers or putting it up in places where they can see them.

Let me be clear: that picture of a Ferrari is not what is going to give you the Ferrari. You need to follow the right process to determine whether that Ferrari is your PowerGoal?, and you need to follow the right process to go from where you are to where you are the person who can buy that Ferrari cash.

The wording of your PowerGoal? and any symbols or pictures which you attach to it are the beacons that guide you along the process.

Workbook?Q4.7:?Make?your?PowerGoal??visible.

For more information on the Powergoal method;