You never know what’s around the corner.
It could be everything Or it could be nothing.
You keep putting one foot in front of the other,
and then one day you look back
and you’ve climbed a mountain.”
―
Goals in life are what makes life exciting, the people who haven’t set a worthy goal in their life about their life, always lives a boring and unproductive life, they never really get to understand what is the meaning and purpose of their lives, they always pay attention to people and circumstances and made their decisions based on that, and in the end when they die they realize that they have never really lived.
On the other hand, the people who have set worthy goals in their life about who they are going to become in this life, always lives an exciting and productive life, by achieving their goals one by one they get to understand the meaning and purpose of their life, they don’t pay much attention to people and circumstances rather their attention is fixed on the goals that they want to achieve and they make their decisions based on that
.
So, in this article, I would like to talk about goals, goal settings, and how to achieve them, and what are the most important things in life when you are pursuing a goal.
Types of goals
The goals that we set as individual human beings depend upon the level of consciousness that we have gained in our life.
For example- a farmer’s goal would be related to his production and how much harvest he wants to get, he set that goal because that’s the level of consciousness he has developed. A space scientist’s goal would be related to the exploration of space because that’s the level of consciousness he has developed. A teacher’s goal would be related to becoming a better teacher, a seller’s goal would be related to better selling, etc.
Now, the goals according to the level of consciousness of the person who set them can be set in so many ways, as there are infinite levels of consciousness available for every human being, there can be infinite possible goals for a person to set if he keeps raising his level of consciousness.
But, all of those goals that can be set in infinite possible ways always fall under one of the three categories. If you are familiar with Bob Proctor’s work then you must have heard him talking about three types of goals that people set, which are-
A – TYPE GOAL
This is the first category of goals, where people set a goal about getting or doing the things that they already know how to do. In this type of goals people play it safe where they calculate everything, and only take the actions and set the goals where the chances of failing are very little, where they don’t have to move out of their comfort zone.
B- TYPE GOAL
This is the second category of goals, where people set goals about getting or doing something that they think they can do. These types of goals are where people want to achieve or do things that they haven’t done yet, but they have seen others doing it and they understand how they can do it. They have a plan, and they believe that if they follow through with the plan, they should be able to achieve their goal.
C- TYPE GOAL
This is the third category of goals, where people set goals about something that they have no idea how they are going to achieve. In this type of goals people have a vision, they don’t know how they would be able to do that, but they have an understanding that the universe works in perfect order according to the universal laws, and if they can align themselves with these laws the way to achieve their goals would be revealed to them.
Now, when you set a goal and then work towards it and achieve it, you grow, because in the process of achieving your goal you raise your level of consciousness, as your level of consciousness grows you grow into a more confident person, and a desire for a greater goal emerged within you.
You have to understand that you are not just a body; rather you have a body through which you are expressing and experiencing your life from the infinite potential that the creator has put within you.
So, this infinite potential within you seeks expression with and through you but it cannot express itself as long as you live at the same level of consciousness, as your level of consciousness rise, it gets a broader channel to express itself in greater ways, and as a result, the experiences you have in your life starts to become better.
Think of it like this- the infinite potential within you can be considered as a big river that has a dam on it, and the consciousness can be considered a doorway through which the water flows and move to the other side of the dam, how much of that water would be able to move to the other side would depend upon how much the door is open, which can be considered as the level of consciousness, the more the door would be open the more the water would be able to flow through that.
In the same manner, the infinite potential of your soul flows through the doorway of your consciousness, your level of consciousness determines how much of that potential would be able to flow in your life.
As you raise your level of consciousness you make a bigger doorway for that potential to flow into your life and express itself, as a result of that the expression and experience of your life become better.
Goals in alignment with a vision
In order to give the greatest expression to the potential that’s within you, you must set your goals in alignment with a vision.
Here, the difference between goal and vision is that the vision is like a destination where you want to reach, and goals are like the landmarks that you have to cross in order to get there.
Think of it this way- let’s say you had to go to a city hundred miles away from your home, you started from your home in your car and started driving towards that city, between your home and that city there are some specific landmarks (places) that you have to go through, as you cross the first landmark you would know that you have made progress towards your destination, and it would be an indication or confirmation that you are on the right path towards your destination, as you cross the second landmark you made more progress towards your destination, if you keep crossing all the landmarks that you have to cross one by one, you will ultimately arrive at your destination.
In the same manner, your vision is what you want to achieve or who you want to become in your life, your goals are like the milestones that you have to cross in order to make progress towards your vision.
For example– let’s say an employee of a company decided that one day he is going to have a company like the company he works for, now that’s the purpose or vision he is going to work for, his first goal would be to have the initial amount of money that he needs to start his company, then the next goal would be to find an office place, next he would hire some staff member, next, he would expand his staff and workplace, and eventually, he would achieve his vision of having his own company.
Now, the thing to understand here is that once he achieves his first goal, his level of consciousness would rise and he would become more confident, it would give him the energy and self-esteem to work better for his next goal, as he would achieve his next goal, his level of consciousness would rise again, which would give rise to his energy, which would give him more self-confidence.
After achieving his first goal he would know that he is on the right path and has made progress towards his vision, as long as he doesn’t lose sight of his vision, and he keeps working on his goals one at a time he would achieve his vision and grow into whoever he wants to be.
Now, the problem here would be that most people don’t really have a vision, and if you don’t have a vision about who you want to become or what you want to achieve in your life, it’s okay, you don’t have to stress over it because you can still have goals without having a real vision in your life.
For example- if a person is struggling for the necessities of survival, he wouldn’t care about having a vision, he would only care about his basic survival needs. He would want more money; so he would set a goal to earn a certain amount of money in a certain period of time.
Now, this goal is not a goal in alignment with a greater vision, but this goal can itself be treated as a vision, and then it can be broken into different steps through which he could achieve his goals. So this goal can be considered as a vision, and the steps that have to be taken to achieve it can be considered as goals in alignment with this vision.
For example- his first goal would be to find a job where he would be able to earn enough money to fulfill his basic needs, his second goal would be to save a certain amount of money, his third goal would be to make an investment where he can get a good return on that money, and finally, his last goal would be to make the amount that he decided to achieve.
Once he would fulfill this goal, a desire to achieve more would emerge in him, and eventually, he would raise his level of consciousness to a degree where he would have a vision for what he wants to do with his life.
How to build a vision of a new future
Most people have some goals in their mind that they want to achieve, but they don’t believe that they can achieve their goals, so they don’t work on their goals rather they work on something that they don’t want to do, they don’t enjoy doing it, and they are never happy about what they do.
Other people have goals, they give it a try, and when they meet a couple of failures they build a belief that they can’t do it, and give up on their goal.
Relatively, a very short number of people have a vision or a purpose in their life, they know what they have to do with their lives, they set goals in alignment with their vision, when they work on their goals they meet many temporary failures but those failures don’t make them discourage because they understand that the path to success always goes through failures.
Now, in order to have a vision or purpose, you have to understand yourself better. The first thing you have to understand is that your soul is a unique expression of the divine consciousness, and that uniqueness of you seeks expression with and through you.
In order to get an understanding of what your uniqueness is, you have to pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. You got to figure out what are the things and works that you are naturally drawn to, what are the things that give you peace of mind when you do them, what are the things that inspire you, what are your strength and weaknesses.
Once you spent enough time with yourself you would begin to sense what expressions your soul seeks with and through you. When you begin to understand your true self you would get a sense of the direction you should take in your life.
Now, when you have some understanding of your true self, then the act of building your vision begins.
Think of this– if you had all the money that you would ever need, the time to do whatever you want to do, and the resources to do everything you want to do, then how would you be living your life.
Think about the person you would become if every limitation were removed from your life, how would you live then, how would you care, how would you love, and how would you serve humanity.
Now, sit in a relaxed state and close your eyes, and see yourself as you already are that person, imagine yourself living in that life as that greater version of you.
When you have that image clear in your mind, take a pen and write it down in as much details as you can, this would be the purpose or vision that you are going to accomplish in your life.
So, when you have your vision in your mind, and you want to achieve it, then you have your vision in your conscious mind. However, to bring that vision from your mind into reality you have to install this vision in your subconscious mind.
A Paradigm Shift is required for change
In order to install your vision in your subconscious mind, you have to go against the programming of your subconscious mind which is known as the paradigm, this paradigm will try to convince you to give up your vision and return back to your old ways of doing things.
So, what is a Paradigm?
A paradigm is basically a collection of habits that you have acquired throughout your life.
Think of it this way- when you get up in the morning, you automatically do all the necessary things that you need to do before going to work, you don’t have to consciously think about doing any of the routine things that you do every day, like- you don’t have to think about how to brush your teeth, how to take a shower, how to eat breakfast because it’s all stored as programming in your subconscious mind and it does those things for you without needing much conscious attention from you.
However, if you take a pen and start writing with your non-dominant hand, you would have to pay very close attention to the process of writing and you would still not be able to get it done properly, because that’s not in your programming (Your Paradigm).
So, a paradigm is the programming of our subconscious mind that has almost exclusive control over our habitual behaviors, and almost all of our behaviors that we demonstrate every day are habitual.
Now, in order to get your vision installed in your subconscious mind, you have to change your paradigm, and there are only two ways to change a paradigm- one is having a high emotional impact through an experience in your environment, it usually happens when a person goes through a traumatic experience. The other way to change a paradigm is the constant repetition of new ideas.
In order to change your paradigm and install your vision in your subconscious mind, you have to give your vision to your subconscious mind over and over again every day, every day you gotta rehearse in your mind being the person you want to be.
When you get up in the morning, you should take some alone time where you won’t be disturbed, then sit in a relaxed state, close your eyes, and see yourself, in your mind, living the life you would be living once your vision is achieved, see yourself as you’ve already accomplished your vision, see yourself already in possession of everything you want, and then try to feel as you would feel when that reality becomes your life, and finally try to bring as much of that feeling as you can in your body.
When you would do that your subconscious mind would take it as you are really living in that life because the subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between something that’s happening in your life and something that you are creating in your mind by thoughts alone, to the subconscious both events are real.
It will then begin to change the programming of your mind, which will change your feelings and behaviors, and if you keep doing it over and over again those new feelings and behaviors would become automatic.
Once you have the new feelings of your new future in your brain and body, and you demonstrate new behaviors that are associated with your new future, crazy and unusual things will begin to happen in your life, there would be synchronicities and serendipities that would come into your life in ways that you would have never expected, and in a relatively short period of time you will achieve all the goals you set and you would accomplish your vision or purpose.
Four Stages of change
When you begin the process of creating a new life, you would go through four stages of change, when you will move through those stages a strong will is required to move from one stage to the others.
Stage 1
The beginning of the process happens when you have a definite aim or goal to achieve, it begins when you know what you really want to accomplish. You build an image, in your mind, of the person you want to be and the life you wants to live, it’s the first stage of the process of change, in this stage, you start imagining yourself living in that life, and you have a clear target to shoot at.
This mental image that you have built of yourself is in your conscious mind at this stage, but the behaviors that you demonstrate, 95% of them comes from the subconscious mind.
Imagine it this way- there is a mind of you and there is a mind of your body, you build a vision in your mind, but your actions and behaviors comes from the mind of your body (subconscious mind), and the mind of the body works with the universal intelligence of the field. So in order to give your vision to the universal intelligence of the field to bring it into your reality, you have to install that vision in the mind of your body.
Stage 2
When you would keep thinking about your vision and get emotionally involved with it, you start impressing that vision upon the mind of your body, as your vision begin to impress upon the mind of your body, it would be an unknown energy for the body, which would cause the survival centers of the body turned on, and you would begin hearing voices in your head like – you are never gonna change, this isn’t gonna work for you, it’s too hard, start tomorrow, it doesn’t feel right, etc.
If you react to those voices as if they are true, it would feel so uncomfortable that you would just want to feel better, it would take you back into the familiar energy of your body and when you get there you would say it feels better, and you would give up on your vision.
Stage 3
When you try again, and it again felt uncomfortable and you again return back to the familiar mind of the body, and it happened over and over again, then one day with a firm intention you made a decision that no matter how uncomfortable it feels, I won’t give up, I will keep going, and then you disciplined your self, you bring forth behaviors equal to your intention and actions equal to your thoughts.
It will feel uncomfortable and your body would want to return back to familiar feelings, but you refuse to go back, you decided no retreat this time, and you give it everything you’ve got, that’s when the body begins to accept command from the new level of mind that you have created, and then it becomes fun, it becomes easy to be the new you, even without any physical evidence of it in your physical reality.
Stage 4
When you become the person, you envisioned yourself to be, in your mind, and in your body’s mind, and your feelings, behaviors, and actions are in harmony with your vision then some very unusual things would begin to happen in your life, the changes will come in ways that you will be filled with joy and love, and before you would realize you would be living the life that you had created in your mind.
The cool thing is that once a goal or a vision is accomplished, you would be inspired for a greater vision because you are part of an infinite power that wants you to grow into the greatest expression of yourself.
So, goal-setting in alignment with a vision is basically a practical way to accomplish your vision and grow into a greater level of consciousness.
As your level of consciousness grows the infinite potential within you would have a better channel to express through, which would create greater experiences in your life for you to grow more, and become even a greater version of yourself.
Thank you very much for your time.
-Parvez Alam