Creative Goal Setting III

Based on the work you have been doing, it's now time to put your ideas and intentions into time frames. Look over at your goals and get the sense of which you may want to attain in a period of, let's say, twenty or more years; which you want to attain in ten years or seven years; which you want to attain in five years or three years; and which you want to attain within one year. In the exercise from last week, we determined that we have physical, emotional, and mental-creative goals. In this exercise, we want to place these different physical, emotional and mental-creative goals in different time frames. Therefore set your goals in time frames according to whether they are physical, emotional or mental. You may discover that your goals in one catagory become more important to you than your goals in another in one or another period of time. That is natural and OK. What you want to do is get a sense of maping out your course so that you give yourself the best chance to bring out all of your potentialities in life.


Active Imagination

In doing this kind of maping you may want to work with active imagination as described in last week's notes. In doing active imagination in relation to setting goals in time, write down a specific goal or a set of ideas having to do with goals or ideas about goals that you want to make more conscious and begin a dialogue with different parts of yourself. For example, you may give voice to your physical self, your emotional self and your mental-creative self. If you do this you will see what needs attention now, what wants attention in the nearer future, and what wants attention in the more distant time projection. In doing active imagination, you also can access the innermost wisdom aspect of yourself simply by beginning to write as that aspect of yourself. It will come to the fore and give you a lot of insight that will help you to determine what exactly it is you want to do and when you want to do it. When doing active imagination this way, you may also become more aware of how the world around you is giving you messages in a sincronous way. The Unconscious works in surprising ways at times. You may get important answers from out of the blue. Trust your imagination.

The Will

This is an important step in goal setting. You have to develop a firm will in order to get where you want to go.

Consider these questions:

Are you easily influenced by other people so that you doubt yourself?
Does the will of other people override your own decisions?
Are your decisions influenced and put aside because of feelings of depression, fear or anger?
Do you procrastinate?
Do you give in to habits?
Are you easily distracted?
Do you entertain paralyzing doubts?

Exercises for Developing Will Power

To intensify and discover your will, use it. Activate it in everyday situations in your life. Do what you decide to do and don't waver. Do this as an exercise. Start out with things you will have no problem doing. Don't try to act willfully too much or the Will will rebel. One step at a time.

Here are some possible exercises. You can invent others at will.

Decide to do something you never did before and do it.

Do something that takes courage.

Make a plan and follow it through to the end without stopping. Whatever it is, do it everyday until it is completed.

Do whatever you are doing more slowly and for more time than usual.

Say "no" when it is right for you to say "no" even though it is easier to say "yes."

Do what is most important to do first. Make a list of things to do every day and do them without putting something in the way. Say "no" to intrusions.

When facing a minor choice, choose without hesitation.

Act contrary to your routine. Re-organize your routine.

Do what you want, not what other people say.

Refrain from saying anything when you feel the impulse to say something.

Postpone something you want to do now; and start something now that you want to postpone.

Decisively eliminate something from your life that you don't want.

Decisively break a habit you don't want anymore.

Do something that makes you feel insecure.

Carry out an action with complete concentration as if it were the last action you will ever do in your life.

If you do these kinds of acts of Will you will greatly strengthen your will power and make it far easier for yourself to attain your chosen goals.

Raphael Simons
www.creativehypnotherapy.org