Goal setting or setting goals?
- Oct 16, 2025
- 7 min read
Does it really matter which way you say this? I'll suggest that it's not really important which way around you say them but what matters is how you go about bringing them into reality. Reality is of course, the actualisation of goals being achieved but that is just one point in time, it has a definite end date - that moment in which it becomes real - you've achieved it.
But that's in the future and people often give up on this because they're always focussed on the end result. They lose motivation when the result is too far away and their efforts appear to be wasted because they didn't have the right attitude in the first place.
They had the right intention - but the wrong tools for the job. What if you can achieve your goal the moment you set one - well you can and this is how...
The moment you create a goal in your mind it's already been achieved. Yes it's a thought but you've got it already intellectually (consciously). What you haven't got yet is the physical reality, but you've achieved it in thought - this is the definition of success that most people overlook.
"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Napoleon Hill.
Think of a goal you want based on your passions and desires, visualise yourself having achieved this goal by imagining, in great detail, you already in possession of the goal you have set and repeat this visualisation until it becomes charged with feeling.
Then create a definite plan for the actions that lead you towards this goal being achieved and start right away. The plan doesn't have to include how you will do absolutely everything, you need only a basic starting point and you will discover the rest as you move towards it.
Now that sounds ridiculously easy doesn't it, maybe even a bit too easy, possibly even a fluffy childlike way of going about achieving adult goals. Maybe it's fair to say that most people are turned off by the visualisation aspect - sounds like day dreaming to some right!
At the moment of setting goals, your beliefs will automatically help you move closer to achieving or further away from it. As Bob says, it's the conditioning we've had up to that point of setting goals that will affect our ability to move forwards, so what's one thing that controls this - FAITH.
"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right." Henry Ford
Mr Ford is referring to your belief system, you either have faith that you can or lack faith so you cannot therefore, how does one develop faith in something, yourself or whatever?
By repetition of the above simple process and by understanding the bigger picture. The bigger picture is the governing universal laws that operate this earthly experience and if one doesn't understand the working of the universal laws, how will one ever create that which one desires?
I must stop using the word, 'one' - this after all isn't the film, The Matrix or is it!
When Bob mentions ignorance he's referring to a lack of knowledge - specifically about how the mind is shaped from childhood and solidified into adulthood. Most of us didn't have access to certain types of information through schooling, especially that which relates to the operation of our own minds.
If anything, we were taught to think only using the 5 senses of the physical world and imagination is a higher faculty which was taught to us as children but then taught out of us as we matured. Imagination is the workshop of the mind and this faculty is responsible for all matter we have in the world around us.
Everything that's man-made was first thought of in the minds of men & women, then visualised into detail with passion for it's creation, followed by faith that it can be achieved because we've intellectually seen it already which then sprouts into plans for it's physical achievement, often with trial and error at the centre.
This is a fully formed creative process which aligns man/woman of mind, body & soul. Why? Because it's the universal laws in action and first we must understand the laws if we are too go from ignorance to understanding - by the way of knowledge.
Now, I won't go through them all right now but you can read about them in a different post at a later date but for now, lets go back to the basics.
WHAT SUPPORTS GOAL SETTING? WHAT DO WE NEED?
There are many things but the essentials are persistence & discipline. The basics.
Persistence: the fact of continuing in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition
Discipline: the self-control that is gained by requiring, that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult
Both of these relate to essentially following through on our actions or in this case our goals, to the point of achievement when it's hard. Difficultly is part of the journey but just because something might be hard, it doesn't mean it won't be without reward.
Most people, myself especially in the past, are guilty of giving up when the going gets tough.
A snippet from Billy Ocean there with the iconic 80'z smash hit, 'When the going gets tough'.
Why is this relevant to goal setting? Because we often quit when things might not be going favourably for us. Despite the fact we're passionate about achieving our goals and we've visualised and planned and taken the action, done all the affirmations, read out all the positive mantras, we still give up - WHY?
It's not weakness of character, it's not will power, its that we lack ultimate faith in the attainment of our goals and we let the old negative thinking and feelings come back into our dominant attention of mind which is expressed through the body as doubt, worry, fear & anxiety.
What do we do about this?
We go back and we start again - not right from the start in a negative way but with a new perspective of self-awareness because now you're aware of what happened that brought about the giving up.
You're not a loser or failure because you gave up and had to restart, you're courageous, wise, persistent & disciplined. WHY? Because your goals are still what you want, you're determined to succeed and so you make the goal your focus yet again but with the awareness of self that you let negativity, lack of belief, limitations, discomfort or whatever it was take over.
Failure only occurs when you stop trying!
Chris Evans with a sure way to get the elevator to yourself but also this...
The cast of 'Glee', which I'm not a fan of but the message is relevant which is: like the cast of Glee and so many that have remixed, mashed up or spiced up something originally famous by the band Journey, they made it their own.
This is what you do when you go back to the drawing board, you make it your own. Each time you have a set back you have an opportunity for growth, to step forwards, not backwards. To adjust your vision by enhancing your perspective, not to turn around and go the other way.
To gain perspective we often have to step backwards in order to see something that wasn't in the frame before. Now you have a greater perspective, you can move forwards once more with awareness of that which haltered your progress.
By purposefully educating yourself with knowledge related to setting goals, you begin to build up a picture in your mind of the way in which the universal laws operate. Starting first with understanding your own mind. Once you understand this, you keep adding layer upon layer of knowledge, until it has been understood and has become belief, which you then turn into faith by repetition - supported by persistence & discipline - inspired by passion & desired goals, driven by definiteness of purpose & organised with a definite plan of action.
Goal setting is all about clarity of purpose achieved through specificity of thought, emotional involvement through creative & detailed imagination, and repetition of that process until you feel it as certainty of outcome. The whole point - to feel your goal of your future in the now of your being.
It's not easy and it takes practice. With practice comes failure but they are only lessons for growth, not reasons for doubt. So don't worry about that which you can't control - you are always in control. Sometimes life makes us feel as if we are blindly sailing a ship into unknown waters but when you have a clear definite goal, one which is imagined and visualised upon, with a blueprint of the currents of the ocean, you can trust that you will arrive at your destination.
Faith is not blind especially if you are aware of its origins - gain knowledge of yourself first then follow the process. Learn and study as much material as you can about your chosen pathway, passion or goal. This way, you will never be ignorant to life.
You might not get the results you want at first but ultimately, if you commit to your goals and to developing an understanding of the universal laws of nature, you will get to where you desire. Embrace it, enjoy it and practice.
Remember after step 1, follow the imagination/visualisation aspect. This is the creative aspect so really sit down and get involved with it. Go to a quiet place or get out in nature, preferably somewhere you won't be interrupted. Really let your mind create your vision.
Thanks for checking in today, remember to never checkout on your goals - keep your vision clear & believe that you have already achieved your goal once you think of it. Follow the process, learn, practice, review, go again!
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