Decide who you want to be

What are the goals you have set for yourself? (You do set goals don't you?) The goals you've set might be things like owning a house, having a certain income or getting into a certain position with your career. Your goals might be focused on your relationships, your health or your contribution. You have made decisions about exactly what you want to have in your life.

If you are setting clear objective goals with deadlines then you already know the role clarity plays in getting the results you want. As Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you are going you might not get there." Deciding what you want is critically important to achieving anything. Most people don't even do that and end up becoming as Zig Ziglar says, "wandering generalities instead of meaningful specifics."

More important than goals

There is a decision you need to make that is more important than the goals you set for defining what you want to have in your life. These are the decisions you make for defining who you want to be. Who you are will decide your life far more than the environment you try to create around you. Of the few that set clear goals for there life, few of them really ask the question, "Who do I want to be?"

Deciding who you want to be transcends the personal goals you set for yourself. Setting a goal to improve your fitness or wealth is just another "to have" goal instead of a "to be" goal. Making this decision doesn't have anything to do with goals at all. The question of who you want to be ultimately reflects your attitudes and beliefs about life itself.

The decision of who you want to be will make a far bigger impact on your goals, your success and your happiness than anything else. In my research of what makes people happy and successful the same answer kept coming up, it doesn't matter what you have but what you are. Success comes to successful people. Seems painfully obvious, but it makes a lot more sense than some of the ignorant assumptions that success comes from resources, education or support. Who you are manifests your world more than any other factor.

I used to feel that who you were was a constant. I used to subscribe to the notion that setting a "to be" goal was ridiculous because my genetics and parental upbringing made that decision for me. Instead, I felt, the best you could do was to expect results within the framework this decision had set for you. As a fairly shy and introverted kid I felt that was just a character trait that I would just shape my life around.

Finally I realized that this whole concept was complete garbage. I was the one who decided who I became in my life. Nobody else. I'm not going to listen to some questionnaire, government study or friends and family who try to tell me who I am and who I am going to be. Seeing as I just finished my second Toastmasters speech and I took home Toastmaster of the Evening award, I think I have plenty of evidence to say that we have control over this decision.

Visualise it clearly

Every day I visualize clearly about the person I want to be. I make this visualization vivid and precise. How does this person talk? How does this person dress? How does this person solve problems? How does it feel to be this person? Ask yourself these questions as you visualize your ideal self. Think hard about whether you are congruent with who you want to be.

Source: www.scotthyoung.com