Developing a Goal Achieving Mindset

What this episode covers

In this conversation mental strength expert, author and founder of Warrior Mind Coach, Gregg Swanson talks about the goals and how to develop a goal achieveing mindset.. The key to reaching goals is to develop a goal achieving mindset. We’ve all done this: You set a goal with the best intention to reach it and about four-to six-weeks into your quest, you start to falter, lose momentum and eventually fall off the path completely. Why? Were you lying to yourself about your commitment to reach your goal? Well, in a way you were, though not intentionally. While your conscious mind was making the commitment, your unconscious mind had its fingers crossed – so to speak. You see, reaching a goal such as getting in shape or getting out of debt requires you to alter what you normally do; to change your behavior. The challenge is your unconscious mind, whose job it is to automate behaviors to ensure that you not only physically survive but emotionally thrive, does not like change. A goal achieving mindset can only be developed by altering the thoughts and beliefs that make up the unconscious mind. Your unconscious mind drives your behavior. So, as Gregg point out in our conversation, while goals are set by the conscious mind, they are achieved by the unconscious mind. No matter what the conscious mind sets out to do, if the thoughts, beliefs, and learned programming of the unconscious mind are not altered you will snap back to old behavior patterns and fall short of your goal. So, making the changes in behavior that are necessary to achieve your goal, requires the cooperation of the unconscious mind. How do you gain the cooperation of your unconscious mind to get into a goal achieving mindset? You need to consciously choose a realistic goal and set an action plan to achieve it. As you work your plan, stay mindful and present to the thoughts and excuses that arises and the emotions and behaviors that result from them. Be diligent and document this resistance and explore the thoughts, beliefs, past experiences, and societal norms that support it. For example, you have set a goal to get out of debt and created an action plan. As you follow your plan, you should pay attention to thoughts like: “Ugg, I’ve been working so hard I deserve a new pair of shoes” or “I’ve been so stressed out I need to take a cruise and get away”. These thoughts bubble up from your unconscious mind, which in this case is ensuring that you emotionally thrive, and cause you to act in a way that is counter to your goal. In order to reach your goal, you need convince your unconscious mind that the new behaviors required to achieve your goal are beneficial to your physical and emotional survival. Paying attention to and altering thoughts is essential to developing a goal achieving mindset. In our chat, Gregg outlines several ways to do this including mental rehearsal and associating a value to the goal.

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