I love playing golf. I get to be outside and get some exercise. I also get to beat out all my frustrations on a little white ball until I get it in the cup 18 times. What fun!
And what’s even better is that the target I’m aiming at on each hole never moves. There’s a flag stick showing me exactly where to aim, and regardless of where I might hit my shot – the target doesn’t change. My angle, distance and perspective change often, but not the actual target.
Plus, the ball only moves when I hit it, so I would seemingly have complete control over the game.
What I’m getting at is: my goal never moves – whether it’s the ball that I’m hitting, or the hole I’m aiming for. That’s great, because if the ball and the hole moved, golf would be impossible!
However, when it comes to goal setting, so many people aim at moving targets. And when you keep changing the goal, you can confuse your unconscious mind and cause it to lose interest. I suggest you don’t do that since it’s the most powerful goal getting asset you have. Let me explain….
Have you ever wanted and tried to lose weight? If you’re like most people, your goal sounded something like, “I want to lose 25 pounds.” Sounds good, right? Problem is, after you lose a couple pounds, your goal changes to “I want to lose 23 pounds”, and then “I want to lose 20 pounds”, etc.
Three bad things can happen. First, if the target keeps changing every day, your unconscious mind can get confused. Logically, that doesn’t make sense. But your unconscious mind does not operate on logic. Remember, it only understands images and action words that create emotion.
Second, you lose any momentum you’ve built up when you change the target. Imagine that same heat seeking missile is locked on to a target, and then the target is changed. Now it has to redirect its focus, find the new target, and redirect its energy. Your mind is the same way.
Third, if you use ‘count-down’ motivation, such as “only 10 more pounds, only 5 more pounds, only 3 more pounds…” you’re operating on what I call survival motivation. You’re telling yourself you want to just barely reach your goal, and that’s it.
This ‘count-down’ motivation inherently feels like once you get the goal, you’re done. But once you lose those last 2 pounds, are you finished? I hope not. If you don’t focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you’ll be right back where you were in no time flat. That’s why most people have experienced the yo-yo dieting phenomenon. It’s all a focus issue!
So, a better plan would be to focus on what your target weight is, and how it will make you feel. Then your mind will do whatever it can to get you there, and KEEP you there when you’ve attained it. What a concept!!!
