Programming Your Goals

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Programming Your Goals
Maximising Your Potential
MTL Course Topics
MAXIMISING YOUR
POTENTIAL

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MTL Course Topics
The Course Topics series from Manage Train Learn is a large collection of topics that will help you as a learner
to quickly and easily master a range of skills in your everyday working life and life outside work. If you are a
trainer, they are perfect for adding to your classroom courses and online learning plans.
COURSE TOPICS FROM MTL
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MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
Setting goals is a relatively easy step in the process of self-
development. After all, many people set goals on a regular
basis, perhaps in New Year resolutions, or when they want
to change unwanted habits. But to make progress towards
our goals requires something more. It requires
programming. Programming enables us to get acquainted
with our goals and what things will be like when we have
accomplished them. Using positive thinking and the power
of our imaginations, we can actually see what things will be
like. Programming galvanises us into action like a rocket
focused on a target. It tells us when we are going wrong and
when we are going right. It tells us why reaching the goal is
worthwhile. It makes the journey exciting and motivating.

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MTL Course Topics
WHAT IS PROGRAMMING?
Programming is a computer term that aptly describes what
happens when we feed a goal into the circuits of our brains.
When we feed in a goal by affirmation, visualisation,
repetition or one of the other techniques, we let our brain
know what it has to achieve. We set up a problem for it to
solve. The brain, needing to restore its equilibrium, then
sets about finding ways that will lead to the goals. It works
like a locked-on missile, teleologically.
The important thing to remember about a programmed goal
is that, given time, the brain will find ways to achieve the
right result. It does this by filtering information from the
outside world so that only relevant information gets through
to you. Moreover, the brain is a self-directing mechanism
and needs to be left to get on with its work alone.

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MTL Course Topics
PROGRAMMING YOUR GOAL
There are seven ways to programme your brains to set
course and achieve your goals:
1. Affirmations, that state your goals as if they were already
achieved
2. Visualisations, that see your goals being achieved in your
mind's eye
3. Motivation, that provides reasons why you should
achieve your goals
4. "As-if" practice, allowing you to rehearse the goal
achievement before it happens
5. Positive suggestion, telling you that you are getting closer
to your goals each day
6. Leave-it-alone, meaning that you allow your brain to
work out the best route to your goals without interference
7. Prayer, by which you direct all your thoughts towards the
goal and give thanks for each step you make towards it.

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MTL Course Topics
AFFIRMATIONS
Affirmations are written or spoken declarations of your
goals used to keep your target in front of your eyes. They
can be your own personal reminder of your goal and are
valuable when you feel dejected or need a boost to your
self-confidence.
To bring affirmations to life, they should be:
1. realistic and balanced
2. personal: you can't write affirmations for others
3. exciting: use words like "I love to..."; "I enjoy..."
4. positive: positive affirmations paint the picture of what
goals you're going for
5. described in the present tense. Even though your goal
may not be achieved until some point in the future, you
need to find a present link, eg My goal is to become fit.
My affirmation: I am a person who feels great each day
as I see myself bounding with health and energy.

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USING AFFIRMATIONS
The simplest use of affirmations is to affirm your self-image:
"I am the greatest!" (Muhammed Ali)
"L’état, c'est moi" (Louis XIV).
Another way to use affirmations is when you have a self-
doubt or an attitude that is difficult to change...
eg If you feel: "I'm never going to make it", simply verbalise
the complete opposite, ie "I'm making it. Every day I'm
making progress.“
Affirmations can be made for teams or even whole
organisations:
1. "We are proud of our workforce."
2. "We enjoy maintaining and improving our high
standards of work."
3. "We thrive on the feedback we get from our customers
as a way of knowing how well we are doing."

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MTL Course Topics
VISUALISATION
The power of the imagination allows us to reach our goals
mentally before we reach them physically. We do this
through acts of visualisation, either as part of a programme
of relaxation exercises or simply as odd glimpses of how
things will turn out.
One of the benefits of visualising goals is that it gets us used
to a new set of circumstances. We can actually explore the
new "us" in the new situation without the actual risk.
Entrepreneurs might do this when they imagine what a new
business might be like.
Visualisation works because it feeds your goal to your
subconscious brain. The doubt about how you'll end up is
now over. You know the final score. The pressure is off and
you can enjoy the process of getting there.

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PRACTISING VISUALISATIONS
Visualisation is a close cousin to day-dreaming. Since we can
daydream any time anywhere, we can likewise visualise
when we want as well. In a more planned approach to
visualisation, we might focus our thinking on:
1. ourselves performing our goals
2. what our ideal day might be like
3. what our perfect work surroundings might be like
4. what might happen in a process we want to change.
If we want to incorporate goal visualisation into a relaxation
exercise we could learn the following:
"Sit quietly, close your eyes and imagine you are in a dark
cinema. The lights go down and when you look at the screen
you see the title "My Ideal Day" plus your name. The film
then runs and you see yourself in your desired location
doing what you dream of doing."

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SEEING YOURSELF SUCCEED
There are many examples of how mental visualisation can
aid actual performance, especially in the sports world.
One example is Air Force Colonel George Hall, who was
captured in the Vietnam War and held in prison for 7 years.
Each day, Hall played a full game of golf in his imagination.
One week after his release, he entered the Greater New
Orleans Open and shot a round of 76.
Another example comes from the Moscow Olympics of
1980. The Russian team split some of their athletes into 4
groups and gave them different levels of practical and
mental training:
1. group A spent 100% of their time in practice
2. group B spent 75% in practice and 25% on mental
training
3. group C spent 50% on each
4. group D spent 75% on mental training and 25% in
practice.
Group D won the most medals.

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MENTAL CINEMA
The phrase "Mental Cinema" is another expression for
creative visualisation. It allows us to view the image of
ourselves succeeding so vividly in the present that it creates
a magnetic power in drawing us to the goal.
The key to making mental cinema work is to believe the
desire we have in mind is already attained. The 18th century
poet Goethe used just such a trick before going to sleep at
night. No matter how good or bad his day had been, he
always imagined a friend walking towards him saying: "I
congratulate you".
Ray Kroc, founder of food chain McDonalds, had a similar
bedtime routine. Before falling asleep, he would imagine a
blackboard on which were written all the day's problems.
One by one he would imagine them being solved. This
technique allowed him to sleep like a log.

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MOTIVATION
The likelihood that we will reach our goals depends on our
level of motivation. The word "motivation" comes from the
Latin verb "movere", to move. Motivation is a drive that
causes movement or a reason to move.
Gestalt therapy argues that when we are content, with our
needs satisfied and no goals to achieve, we are whole:
"Gestalt" is German for "the whole structure". We are in a
static state but going nowhere. When we present a new
goal to our subconscious brain, we move out of the static
state into a state of positive discontent. This state provides
us with the motivation to move towards the goal.
Traditionally, motivation in our organisations has been
based on fear and rewards, these being supplied by others.
When we set our own goals, we replace external motivators
with internal goal-driven ones.

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MTL Course Topics
PUSHING AND PULLING
Carrot and stick forms of motivation are also known as
"push and pull".
Push and pull are a matched pair. While pushing is shooting
with a high-velocity rifle, pulling is fishing with a tempting
bait. With pushing you create repulsion and fear; with
pulling you create desire and attraction.
Pushing is more difficult than pulling but it is ultimately
more effective. When you push, you're like a sheepdog
telling a flock of sheep where to go; sometimes they scatter
in all different directions. When you pull, you're like a
shepherd calling the flock towards you; they know there's
only one place to go.
The best motivation is a mix of push and pull. You push to
break people away from their current stupor; and you pull
to see them come home to where you want them to be.

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MTL Course Topics
PLEASURE AND PAIN
The reason why fear and reward are used so much by
people in authority is because of their association with
pleasure and pain. Motivators either use threats of
punishment to evoke pain or promises of rewards to evoke
pleasure. Either way, we are motivated to action in order to
avoid threatened pain and pursue promised pleasure.
In the same way, when we set our own goals, we can
increase our motivation level by associating thoughts of
pleasure with goal attainment and thoughts of pain with
missing the goal. Such motivating devices will help to see us
through short-term discomforts, setbacks, failures and
hardships.
"I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains
be the consequence; and pains to be coveted that will
terminate in greater pleasure." (Montaigne)

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AS-IF PRACTICE
"As-if" practices sessions are rehearsals, no-hit batting
practice, dry runs. They are like fire drills which we run
through regularly to prepare us for the real thing.
1. an entrepreneur who dreamt of owning a big house
when he was struggling drove to the gates of his dream
house each day as if he already lived there
2. a supervisor who sought promotion to his boss's job
when his boss retired, dressed like the boss, studied
problems like the boss and treated staff like her boss did
3. an apprentice aiming to qualify as an engineer practiced
daily the steps that he had observed the qualified men
doing when stripping down machines.

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POSITIVE SUGGESTION
"Positive suggestion" is a form of self-talk which, by
repeating our goal affirmations, tells us we are making
progress towards our goals.
Emile Coué, a French pharmacist made the discovery of
Positive Suggestion in the early part of this century. He
came upon it by accident. A man came into his pharmacy
one day looking for medication which required a doctor's
prescription. The man did not have one. Coué recognized
that, although the man's illness was not serious, his need for
some form of medicine was. Coué gave him sugar pills.
A short time later the man returned totally cured. Coué
realised that it was the man's belief in the efficacy of the
medicine that changed his thinking. Coué later replaced
placebo medicines with phrases and self-talk to create the
same effect. His most renowned phrase was: "Every day in
every way I'm getting better and better."

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LEAVE-IT-ALONE
When we set goals, by writing them down or affirming
aloud, our conscious brains that see or hear the words feed
our subconscious brains that come up with the answers of
how to get there. Once we've fed our goals in, we need to
leave the sub-conscious brain to get on with its job.
The conscious brain is like the machine operator that runs
the machine, while the sub-conscious brain is the machine
itself. We need to oil it and maintain it, but after that leave it
alone.
Interference from the conscious brain throws the sub-
conscious brain off-course. It is like the penalty shooter who
starts worrying about how he should hit the ball, which way
the goalkeeper might move, what the crowd might think if
he misses. Inevitably, his worry makes him take his eye off
the goal and he misses the target.

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MTL Course Topics
PRAYER
One of the pioneers of self-development in America is
Norman Vincent Peale. Dr Peale's special contribution is to
link personal development with religious traditions, in
particular prayer. For Peale, affirmations and visualisations
of goals are another form of prayer.
Four quotes taken from the New Testament serve as
powerful prayer-like affirmations:
1. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans
8:31)
2. "All things are possible to him that believeth." (Mark 4:
23)
3. "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe
that ye receive them and ye shall have them." (Matthew
11:24)
4. "If ye have faith, nothing shall be impossible unto you."
(Matthew 17:20).

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EFFECTIVE PRAYERS
Prayer is one of the common acts of all established religions
such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. Prayer
can express our hopes and wishes, our gratitude and thanks,
our deepest beliefs.
Norman Vincent Peale suggests we pray as follows:
1. set aside a few minutes each day just to think about God
2. pray out loud in your own words
3. pray as you go about your business
4. don't pray to "ask and get"; pray to be thankful
5. pray with belief
6. when you pray, only use positive beliefs
7. be willing to accept what God offers, not what you want
8. practice putting everything in God's hands. Take no care
for the outcome yourself.
9. pray for people you don't like
10. pray for others.

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THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn

Programming Your Goals

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