In our last blog we explored the idea of reclaiming our futures - the first step of which was understanding our thinking patterns. The gist was that if our thinking files are corrupted, we need to switch off, wait at least three seconds and reboot.

This is especially important before attempting this second step of the quest: Know What You Want. Goal-setting springs to mind when we think about what we'd like to happen, hence our urge to publish a blasphemous headline..

SMART goals are rubbish!

And before you smash your palms to your forehead in total disbelief, let’s try to qualify that statement. In fact, let’s backtrack - SMART goals aren’t totally rubbish. They’re useful in terms of helping you clarify tasks and straightforward objectives. But meh - how does the A for Achievable help our dreams come true?

We’re talking about reclaiming your future here so anything has to be possible. Because as we know, if you think it’s possible, or you think it isn’t - you’re absolutely right. When it comes to bigger picture thinking, maybe stale acrostics could be relegated down your list of useful business tools?

There simply isn’t time to be walking around like wet blankets vetoing dreams that excite us just because they seem ridiculous. Self-imposed puddles of doubt aren’t justified at this early stage. Instead you could decide to open yourself up to ambitious/insane possibilities. Possibilities that ultimately, with the right amount of enthusiasm, support or luck could come to fruition.

how to seize your power

Albert Bandura said we all have the power to control our lives through purposeful thought. And he should know, he’s currently 95. He’s also cited as one of the world’s greatest living psychologists.

There is a catch however. To allow ourselves to find our purpose means thinking big - it necessitates temporarily unplugging our rational brain and silencing our logic, it requires us to dream while we’re awake.

Some people say if you can picture something it’s already real - so it’s useful to try to colour in the specifics of whatever your swirling future fantasy looks like - trying to see yourself there as real, noticing how it feels.

If this sounds a silly idea, it really isn’t. Every ideal future started with an ideal imagined. One that felt so good to the mind that conceived it, they made it happen. An imagined seed - that germinated into a commitment - that led to an action - that made it materialise – that began with committing to giving this dreaming lark a try.

If you do decide to give it a go, make notes on your vision. Draw it, talk about it, stay with it, revisit it, water and nourish it – and who knows?

And if you don’t find time? Is it because you’re doing more important things instead? Like being active, maybe in a kind of round and round motion? It’s far too easy to be a hamster.

take your time to mull and ponder

Guy Claxton speaks of other animals in his brilliant book, ‘Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind’. Look it up, or find him speaking elsewhere  amongst our blog posts. He says we race around so much that we don’t have time for the slow thinking that fuels our best ideas – which includes thinking about where we want to go.

Slow thinking is useful when you’re trying to decide what you want, as when you slow down you can really focus on how certain goals or ideas make you feel - which ones inspire or energise you and which make you feel burdened or heavy before you’ve even begun.

If you find it too hard to think about what you want, pointing yourself in the right general direction is a start as is identifying where you definitely don’t want to stay or end up. 

Cheery stuff, but to quote the sentiments of a dodgy poster on someone’s wall at university – ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else’. At the very least, we owe it to ourselves that somewhere else is a deliberate choice.

Of course, some of us might still prefer to start planning for the future by writing our goals after large capital letters, starting with S for specific – which is totally fine too as long as you don’t get stuck on the third letter.

In any case, let’s go back to the experts. Almost 20 years ago, Professors Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, or Ed and Gazza to us, summarised their 35 years of academic research into goal setting. One of their key findings was that making a public announcement about our goals strongly enhances our commitment to them.

So, in homage to them and to your future – once you’ve given some thought to what you actually want for yourself - why not get on Amazon sharpish and buy yourself the biggest megaphone you can lay your hands on?