Unit 3: Setting A Goal

The first step of the creative visualization process is setting a goal. As you can imagine, this is a very important step because the goal you set now is what you will experience in the future! Goal setting helps you to focus on specifics and provides some structure for your creative energy. Remember, what you “ask for” through creative visualization is what you are going to get. And how you ask for what you want is also important! If you ask for something vaguely, you’ll get it—vaguely! Similarly, if you ask for something clearly, you will clearly get it. For these reasons, it’s worth taking whatever time you need to decide upon your goal. In this unit, you will be guided to select an exciting goal to work toward while learning the creative visualization process.

The goal you select for your first creative visualization project should meet the following four criteria:

1. The goal should not be too easy or too difficult. Choose a goal that will give you some challenge to achieve, but not so much challenge that you could feel defeated from the start.

2. You need to care about the goal. If you only feel half-hearted about the goal, you won’t put the necessary time and energy into accomplishing it. Passion is important because it works like a magnet to draw your goal to you!

3. You goal should be simple. The more complicated your goal, the more scattered your energy will become when you are working to achieve it. When possible, break down a complicated goal into several simpler components or stages of achievement.

4. Your goal should be something you can accomplish or make steps toward accomplishing in the next few months. Right now you are learning a skill, and seeing results in the early stages will help keep the project alive and exciting for you.

Deciding Upon A Goal

Some people find it easy to decide upon a goal. Others find this somewhat difficult to do. It is my experience that people tend to follow one of the following three general patterns when it comes to setting goals. These patterns are goal clear, goal frustrated and goal vague.

¨ Goal Clear—You are goal clear if you know what you want most of the time. Your problem is not figuring out what you want, just how to go about getting it.

¨ Goal frustrated—You are goal frustrated if you have an abundance of goals. You may have as many as eight goals vying for your attention! It can be a challenge for you to settle on one goal and stay with it.

¨ Goal Vague—You are goal vague if you find it difficult to come up with a goal. While you know there are always new things you could be doing, you have difficulty coming up with something that really excites and motivates you.

If you recognize yourself as being goal clear, that’s terrific! You are ready to get started. However, if you think you might be goal frustrated or goal vague, don’t worry. You, too, can be goal clear with a little extra effort and determination. Below you’ll find an exercise designed to help you get more clear about what you really want and then declare a specific goal.

For our purposes, goals come in two basic categories: object goals and experience goals. Object goals are things you want to have such as a new car or home. Experience goals are less tangible. They include things like a new job, romance or greater balance in life. All goals, whether object or experience, are valid goals. It doesn’t matter what you want as long as accomplishing your goal will in some way enrich your life.

Possible Goals Exercise

Write down goals that you might like to achieve in each of the following areas:

Health: What health goals are the most important to you right now?

1. ____________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________

Relationship: What relationship goals are you interested in accomplishing right now?

1. ____________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________

Job/Career: What job or career goals have been on your mind lately?

1. ____________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________

Finances: What financial goals sound really good to you right now?

1. ____________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________

Spiritual: What spiritual goals can you think of that would be rewarding for you to accomplish?

1. ____________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________

Personality Development: Can you think of any personal growth areas you’ve thought about developing?

1. ____________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________

Other: Are there goals in other areas that you know you would like to accomplish?

1. ____________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________

Declaring Your Goal

Think about the goals you have just identified in the exercise above. Which one would you be the most excited about achieving right now? Write it on the line below.

Checklist: Does it meet the four criteria identified at the beginning of this unit?

____1. It’s not too easy or too difficult.

____2. You care about it.

____3. It’s a simple, clear goal.

____4. You can make steps toward accomplishing it in the next six weeks or so.

If you’ve checked all four criteria, then you have the perfect candidate for the goal to work toward as you take this course. If not, look to see if there are changes you can make in your goal which will help it to meet all criteria. If that doesn’t help, then look for the goal that is next most exciting to you and see if it meets or can be modified to meet the four criteria. If necessary, continue this process until you believe you have the right goal to work toward as you take this course.

Additional Suggestions

1. Don’t pin your goal down too tightly.

For example, rather than identifying your goal to be "to marry Bob,” make your goal more open, such as “to have a wonderful marriage to a man perfectly suited for me and me for him.” If Bob is the best person to create that wonderful marriage with, he’ll be the one to propose. But there might be things you don’t know about Bob that would make him a poor marriage partner for you, so you want to be open to the possibility of a Jack or Anthony or Fred entering the scene! You can, however, use Bob and what you believe to be true about him as a symbol for the perfect marriage partner when you are actually visualizing yourself accomplishing your goal.

Another example of a goal that is pinned down too tightly is “to get a job with IBM (or any specific business or company).” Do be clear about the kind of job you want, but don’t limit where it might be. Again, there may be things about a particular company that you don’t know which would make it an inappropriate place for you to fulfill your career goals. So focus on the career experience you want and be open to whatever company might be able to offer it to you.

Don’t limit the form—that’s the key. Your goal may be accomplished in many different ways, some you haven’t even thought of, so be open to the creativity of the Universe!

2. Edit your goal for greatest power.

How you say what you want can effect the clarity of your goal. For example, be sure to use the words I and me. (We aren’t creating this for someone else, are we?) And write it in positive terms. That is to say, identify what you want—not what you don’t want.

Finalizing Your Goal

When you have decided upon your goal, write it out clearly and simply below. Be sure you are clear about this goal before you “finalize it,” because you are going to be spending a lot of time with it for the next six weeks! You may even want to sleep on it and wait until tomorrow to decide.

My goal is to _______________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Unit Follow-up Activities

1. Continue to practice progressive relaxation as instructed in Unit 2.

2. Continue to keep a journal of the thoughts, ideas and experiences that come to you which are related to the relaxation exercises, your goal, creative visualization, or your learning process.

Go to Unit Four