A Simple Tip to Achieve Wild Success in Everything!

“Your vision of where or what you want to be is the greatest asset you have!” – Paul Arden

We have many goals over the course of our life. Some we achieve with perfection.

Some fall from the bandwagon along the way, losing their importance and some stay elusive for myriad justifiable reasons. It doesn’t matter which country you hail from or the kind of work you do, it is likely that your goals tally has a lot more ‘misses’ than ‘hits’!

And you know what, ‘It is perfectly normal!’ We all know what it feels like to get stuck, to lose motivation and to go chasing the next ‘shiny’ object.

In fact, when planning and discipline do not go hand in hand and execution of an idea seems difficult, we find solace in greener pastures and tell ourselves, ‘It is for the best!’

But…GTD® teaches us, normal is not necessary natural. We humans are master planners and as such we should be able reach our desired destination quite easily.

The stumbling block is the fact that more often than not, we are not clear about the destination itself. “I want to go south!” is a good idea.

But it is NOT a goal.

How far south? With whom? Where to stay? What to do down there?

These are all pertinent questions that must be answered before starting the journey. Otherwise you end up lost and decide that west is a better option. And the vicious circle continues.

If you want to court triumph in all your endeavors and achieve the majority of the goals you set yourself, you must master the useful skill of ‘defining and clarifying an End Vision of Success!’

End Vision of Success & Why You Need It:

An end vision of success is best described as a detailed ‘mind movie’ of what success will look like for a particular goal, when it is hit to your satisfaction.

So if the goal is to ‘Lose Weight’, the End Vision of Success may be you admiring yourself in a form fitting dress (that you can’t even dare to look at right now) to a stream of praises from the people who surround you.

The more detailed and nuanced the better! Experts actually advise that involving emotions in an end vision is a great way to inspire motivation and to feel accountable for the goal.

What this exercise does is:

• It clarifies the actual goal in very visual terms. It is no longer a vague statement. It is a living, breathing mass of emotions, aspirations and hopes and this way it is harder to lose motivation.

• It allows the subconscious, the master planner to discreetly go into ‘planning mode’ and start thinking of ways and means to achieve what has been visualized. It needs this ‘kick to the posterior’ to take notice and get to work.

Resources:

An End Vision of Success makes success a reality. It is the ultimate way to hit goals and stay on track with life and career progress. But not all of us are blessed with strong active imaginations.

In fact when we conduct our GTD workshops, many trainees complain that getting this ‘mind movie’ started is extremely difficult. These resources and tips should make the process easier!

SMART Goals

SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound! A goal worth dedicating time and energy to shouldn’t be vague, it should be easily quantifiable (so what is the progress like, have you actually hit it and so on) and should stand for rewards you are interested in. And obviously attainable – because if you know it is a lost case, why try? A good way to use SMART goal setting is to leverage it to give life to the End Vision of Success. It helps break things down and allows you to put together the critical components of your mind movie. With SMART goal setting you can be absolutely sure that you are focused on something worthwhile that is within your grasp and can get excited about it and make it a part of your daily life.

This is a very handy template that can help you not only set SMART goals but also phrase a goal statement that is positive and uplifting. And upon which you can easily base your end vision of success.

Vision Boards

Vision boards take SMART Goal setting a step further. They allow you to curate or collect inspiring and attractive images that stand for the achievement of your goal so that imagining your end vision of success is easier than ever. If you are to derive focus and clarity from this vision, it should be PERFECT. Vision boards help you reach that perfection.

This is a free community and app that can help you put together your personal vision boards.

You don’t need a plethora of resources to start the practice of conjuring up End Visions of Success – just the right ones will do.

Your Take on End Vision of Success:

So what do you think of the concept of End Vision of Success? Have you ever used it – deliberately or unintentionally? Do you think you will be able to find more motivation and thus discipline within yourself if you know exactly what you are aiming for and the stakes involved?

Reflect on what you have learnt here and start to implement it in your life. The changes you see will be miraculous.

Action Items:

• Pick a desire that you have and distill a SMART goal from it. You may use the template we have linked to.
• Now imagine an ‘End Vision of Success’
•  Once the vision is clear and strong, ask yourself ‘What is the very next step I must take to start the process of achieving my goal?’

PS – Not acquainted with ‘Next Action Thinking?’? Sign up for our 5 part email series on “Boosting Your Productivity” and learn the basics of David Allen’s life changing methodology.

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