Setting Goals: 3 Steps to Getting Things done
Tips come from Jake Krueger in his most recent newsletter.
The following are tips that Jake Krueger created to show his writing students how to move from stuck to unstuck. I think they can easily be converted for any goal you are working towards, so with his permission I’m posting them for you. Just insert the goal you have for the goal of writing.
The exercise is designed to replace the negative or scary feelings about writing, with positive feelings of excitement and success.
By creating new positive feelings you’ll not only find yourself writing more consistently. You’ll also discover that you feel better about yourself and the role of writing in your life.
STEP 1
Set an achievable goal for your writing this week. Something you absolutely KNOW you can EASILY accomplish. 2 pages a day. 10 minutes a day. One page a week. Whatever you know you can make work within your busy lifestyle.
NOTE: For this exercise to work, your goal must be quantifiable. In other words, there must be an objective way of determining whether or not you achieved it.
For example “write every day” is not necessarily a quantifiable goal, because it’s not clear how much writing makes this successful. Write for 7 minutes every day or writing one page a day is, because when you complete your 7 minutes or one page, you know you have achieved your goal.
Similarly “write a good scene” is not a quantifiable goal because you would have to subjectively judge whether the scene was good or not, and opinions might vary. “Write three versions of the scene I am currently struggling with” is a quantifiable goal, because regardless of subjective opinion, you can know for certain when you have achieved it.
Small Changes Make Big Differences
Have you found yourself procrastinating on things you want to do? If so, you are actually using your creativity, unfortunately in the negative direction. A creative mind can come up with all sorts of reasons and examples of: scary outcomes, why it won’t work, or how it isn’t the right time, or how it won’t be good enough.
However, have you noticed that once you finally get yourself to take some action, that things start flowing? It seems that when you make the choice to sit down and take even the smallest step, something magical happens. The negative voice gets quieter, and you find yourself settling into the task. When days or weeks later the task is done, you feel great. If you were to look back to the first action step, you’d see that it gave you momentum with each small step. Accomplishing something in the right direction moves you toward your goal.
Over the next months we spend together, you’ll be getting many different tools to put into your stress relief toolbox. I believe if you take the small steps I am giving, you will surprise yourself at the results. If you want to speed up the process, the next series of online coaching workshops coming up soon. Contact me for more information if you have interest in becoming a part of this amazing group of people.
Today we continue with your next Action Step.
STEP 2: Your Personal Journal
1. This is another very simple action step. Find a journal and a pen to use for this work. Something you enjoy writing in, something that looks good and you enjoy picking up when you feel like writing about your feelings, or tips you like or anything you want to remember about the process we are doing. Keep this just for this work on using your mind in a new powerful way.
2. Pick out a pen that flows smoothly and that you enjoy holding in your hand. Seems simple yet it is kind of a metaphor for your own smooth sailing towards calm and serenity in your life.
3. It’s your mind so you might as well learn to use it in the most positive, life enhancing way.
4. Use the journal to keep notes of your progress. Use it to jot down tips and insights, to write questions and thoughts. Use this journal to keep a list of your success as well as areas where you get stuck or frustrated. The journal is just for you, as you keep notes and monitor your progress you will be forming a blueprint for success. The notes you keep will be a reminder of which stress relief techniques work best for you.
5. Use the journal to answer the following questions: Some of the questions are similar to what we did in Action Step One. Now it’s time to write down your answers in your journal reserved for this exercise. And if you sit down with it in the space you’ve dedicated to practice you are already cueing your mind that you are serious about getting relief from stress, panic, fear, worry or whatever you have decided to work on.
Questions to answer: Write the answers in your journal.
a. What might you be doing if panic, fear or worry wasn’t getting in your way?
b. How it will be for you to be able to generate a calm, resourceful state of being?
c. Please, take a moment to visualize a few different areas of your life where things will be so much better when anxiety, panic, worry or fear do not block you.
- Think about where you want to have the changes.
- What has been happening that you would like to change or do differently?
- Where are you when stress or issue you are dealing with hits?
- What thoughts go through your mind?
- What triggers are you aware of?
d. The answers to these questions will give you important clues, ones we will use in later exercises. So please make sure you jot down some answers to the questions.
STEP 3
Now follow your schedule throughout the week. Remember, when you achieve that goal, you are DONE. You can choose to continue if you wish. But you can also choose to close down your laptop, and feel that sense of accomplishment of a full writing day (even if your goal was only a few minutes or a quarter page of writing).
Accomplishing and CELEBRATING achievable goals is one of the most powerful things you can do to integrate writing into your life. So do something nice for yourself after each successful writing day, just like you’d hope a boss or a co-worker would do after a big meeting. Compliment yourself. Treat yourself to something. Remember, the reward should be equally great whether you simply meet your goal or end up exceeding it.
If there is a day when you do not meet your goal, accept it and MOVE ON. Don’t increase your goal for the next day. Don’t punish yourself. Don’t beat yourself up. Just remind yourself that you will do better on your next writing day, and concentrate on meeting the goal you originally set out for yourself on the day you scheduled to do so.
Who will benefit from the skills and tools from the Transformation System?
1. If you have not yet been able to get relief from anxiety, worry, a mind racing, or procrastination, I believe you will benefit from the reports.
2. If you would like a variety of tools to put into your toolbox of stress relief skills.
3. If you want to have tools you can use immediately to bring down stress.
4. If you want to learn to combine the stress relief tools to make them even more effective.
5. If you are willing to open your mind to the new way of thinking, you’ll find many creative ways to change reactions you don’t want.
How were to techniques developed and tested for use?
The post are excerpts are from articles, books and reports I’ve written during my 28+ years of research and practice, with private clients and online coaching students. They will give you a way to learn to use your own creative mind to generate calm, to gain focus, and to discharge negative emotions. Because you are learning these without the personal contact with one of our hypnotherapists I’ve broken them down into easiest to follow parts, ones that can be done with the greatest success on your own.
To receive Jake’s newsletter each month just email him at writingclassesnyc@gmail.com.