Lessons from Darren Hardy: How Goal Setting Actually Works - The Mystery ‘Secret’ Revealed

Excerpt from “The Compound Effect”

You only see, experience, and get what you look for.  If you don’t know what to look for, you certainly won’t get it.  By our very nature, we are goal-seeking creatures.  Our brain is always trying to align our outer world with what we’re seeing and expecting in our inner world.  So, when you instruct your brain to look for the things you want, you will begin to see them. In fact, the object of your desire has probably always existed around you, but your mind and eyes weren’t open to “seeing” it.

In reality, this is how the Law of Attraction really works.  It is not the mysterious, esoteric voodoo it sometimes sounds like.  It’s far simpler and more practical than that.

We are bombarded with billions of sensory (visual, audio, physical) bites of information each day.  To keep ourselves from going insane, we ignore 99.9 percent of them, only really seeing, hearing, or experiencing those upon which our mind focuses.  This is why, when you “think” something, it appears that you are miraculously drawing it into your life. In reality, you’re now just seeing what was already there.  You are truly “attracting” it into your life. It wasn’t there before or accessible to you until your thoughts focused and directed your mind to see it.

Make sense?  This isn’t mysterious at all; it’s, in fact, quite logical. Now, with this new perception, whatever your mind is thinking internally is what it will focus on and all of a sudden “see” within that 99.9 percent of remaining space.

Here’s a well-worn example (because it’s so true!): In shopping for or buying a new car, you suddenly start to see that model and make everywhere, right?  It seems like there are tons of them on the streets all of a sudden when they weren’t there yesterday.  But is that realistic?  Of course not.  They were there all along, but you weren’t paying attention to them.  Thus, they didn’t really “exist” to you until you gave them your attention.

When you define your goals, you give your brain something new to look for and focus on.  It’s as if you’re giving your mind a new set of eyes from which to see all the people, circumstances, conversations, resources, ideas, and creativity surrounding you.  With this new perspective (an inner itinerary), your mind proceeds to match up on the outside what you want most on the inside- your goal.  It’s that simple.  The difference in how you experience the world and draw ideas, people, and opportunities into your life after you have clearly defined your goals is profound.

In one of my interviews with Brian Tracy, he put it this way: “Top people have very clear goals. They know who they are and they know what they want.  They write it down and they make plans for its accomplishment.  Unsuccessful people carry their goals around in their head like marbles rattling around in a can, and we say a goal that is not in writing is merely a fantasy.  And everybody has fantasies, but those fantasies are like bullets with no powder in the cartridge.  People go through life shooting blanks without written goals- and that’s the starting point.”

I suggest that you take some time today to make a list of your most important goals.  I recommend considering goals in all aspects of your life, not just your business or finances.  Be wary of the high price of putting too much focus on any single aspect of your life, to the exclusion of everything else.  Go for whole-life success - balance in all the aspects of life that are important to you: business, finances, health and well-being, spirituality, family and relationships, and lifestyle.

Read some simple steps on DESIGNING GOALS, from the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.