Achieve Goals the Smart Way
How One Client Made Her Dreams Come True
Take One Minute to Create Your Future
Take one minute to do a very simple exercise. Consider just one goal that you would like to achieve in your life. It might be simple or grand, whatever resonates with you. Quite often it will be the first thought that pops into your mind.
Got your goal? Now grab some paper and a pen. Yes, get out of your chair and grab a piece of paper, an index card, the phone book - anything will do! Now write your goal down in past tense as if it has already occurred. Make it very specific. Include a date that you want to accomplish your goal. Finished?
Okay, now put it where you can easily see it.
Read further to learn about a real-life story of one of my clients and how she accomplished her dream through an idea generated during one of her coaching sessions.
How One Client Did it, and How You Can Too
During a coaching session a while back I asked one of my clients, “What’s the lesson you need to learn about money?”
She considered the question for a moment and replied, “I feel like I need to learn that money is more than just paying the bills.”
“That’s great!” I said, “If money were to be more than just paying the bills for you, what would that be?”
She was quiet. I anticipated that she would say something to the effect of, “I’d like to open a savings account so I could have extra money to buy clothes.”
However, she surprised me with her response. She revealed to me that she would like to purchase the property adjacent to her business. She was very excited about her idea, but then quickly digressed into listing many reasons why she could never achieve this goal.
“ I don’t get along with the current owner – he’d never sell it to me.”
“I don’t know anything about purchasing business property.”
“It isn’t for sale.”
Determined not to let her initial inspiration pass, I gently interrupted her “I think you have a fantastic idea! Would you be willing to play a game with me?”
She agreed.
“Hang up the phone, call me back, and pretend that it’s two months later and you just purchased the property and are calling to tell me about it.
We hung up. After a few minutes she called me back and said, “Well, Leslie you’re not going to believe this…”
She then went on to provide vivid details about how she had purchased the property. Pretty impressive for someone who had originally said she had no idea how to go about purchasing property! I asked her to write down our conversation in her personal journal and to put a date on it.
One month later, my client called me during our regular session and said, “The property next door just came up for sale!”
She was nervous and uncertain once again about how all this would come to pass. Because she is a very “visual” person, I asked her to take a photograph of the building and to paste a picture of herself on top of the photo, and to place the photo on a silver platter (because she had stated during our initial role playing session that it happened so easily, “as if the property was being handed to me on a silver platter.”
My client purchased and closed on her new property five days ago.
Use This Story to Inspire Results in Your Life
My point is to inspire you to think about creative ways that you can make your goals a reality RIGHT NOW. Get excited about your goal, write out your goal, create a visual picture of it and get whatever support you need. The mind sees in pictures, so the more visual the image, the more effective the mental imprint.
About the Author
Leslie Cunningham is a Certified Professional Life Coach
with over 17 years of experience in the human services field.
She works with entrepreneurs who are ready
to turn their lifestyle and financial stress into inspired
action to create more time, money and ease. To learn more
about her coaching services and for more tips like these visit her site at www.springwindcoaching.com
© 2006 Leslie D. Cunningham
Spring Wind Coaching | 7781 Nez Perce Dr. | Bozeman, MT 59715 | Phone 406-586-5561
www.springwindcoaching.com |
