This morning I was reading that most New Year’s Resolutions fail by February, because people just can’t sustain the momentum coming out of the energy of the new year. That makes me sad, because if you know me at all, you know that I am crazy about goal setting.
In my NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) course, I learned a great new hack for when you are setting your SMART Goals.
There is another acronym for A - As if now.
That means, similarly to when you state your intentions for using the Law of Attraction, you want to state your goals in the present tense. This allows you to hack your unconscious mind and make you think about the goal as if it has already taken place.
Your unconscious can either be a powerful foe or a powerful ally. So much of our behavior is unconscious that we do things in the way we have always done them without thinking consciously about the reason for our actions. We just do things out of habit.
Now, habits can be good, like brushing your teeth before bed. Or, they can be bad, like picking up a pizza with a dessert every Friday on the way home from work.
You can try to hack your habits a little by getting a pizza with a salad instead, or you can do something different and go home from work on a route that doesn’t pass the pizza place, forcing you to do something healthier instead.
Taking a different route forces your brain out of habit mode, and into conscious thinking. Then, you can make a healthier decision with your conscious mind, instead of relying on unconscious habits.
The more you do something, it then becomes a new habit. This is how we replace our old, unhealthy habits with new healthier ones. It is by tapping into the power of the unconscious mind.
So, let me know what you think in the comments! Also, what progress have you made on your goals this week?
If you didn’t make any, don’t let it get you down. Give yourself some grace, and make a plan this weekend to get back on track in the coming week!