You may have come across a process called “Goals Setting”, which involves the development of an action plan designed to motivate and guide a person or group toward a goal. Today goal setting is a major tool of the personal-development and entrepreneurial space, used by many life and business coaches.
Despite the obvious traction, I am here to tell you that, “Most Goals Setting Does Not Work”.
Specifically, it is not that the process itself does not work. The real problem is that most people, especially entrepreneurs, set the wrong goals in life, thinking that is their goal. These are the very same people who struggle to stay motivated in their daily life, assuming that there may be something wrong with them.
“Why can’t I stay motivated in taking consistent action towards my goals?!”
If you’ve ever asked yourself this question or a similar one to this, then you, my friend, have fallen for the most common, yet not so obvious, deadliest trap that your ego has set for you. You have fallen for a false goal, or what I call, a Negative Vision.
Here is what I have learned over the years of mastering my craft as a Clarity Coach and from years of study in personal development, human psychology, entrepreneurship, leadership, self-awareness and high-level creative functions. If you’ve read my book “Journey Through The 5 Stages of Life”, or if you’ve watched our YouTube videos, or have been to one of our seminars or workshops in London, then you will be familiar with one of the premises that we teach regarding Negative Vision.
So what is a Negative Vision? Well, I want you to imagine this:
You are a runner in a race, and a hungry lion has escaped from the zoo and is chasing you. Do you think you will be able to run faster by staying focused on what obstacles lay in front of you, or by constantly looking behind you to see where the lion is? It is an obvious answer.
If you keep looking back behind you, then you are not paying attention to what lies ahead. You may even trip up or hurt yourself. You will also slow down because you cannot focus on building up speed and momentum. Therefore, the key is to focus on what lies ahead and keep running as fast as you can.
So now imagine that you are now running backwards, with all your attention focused at nothing else but the lion. Now, do you think you can outrun the lion or your competitors this time?
Do you think you can avoid the obstacles ahead smoothly?
Do you even think that you’re going to reach the finish line at all?
No. And even if you do, it’s going to be a struggle and involve lots of hard work. This is what a negative vision is.
Negative Visions are goals that we set for ourselves that are born from what we don’t want in life and what we are trying to avoid. For example, many people are chasing financial freedom or financial independence. This is often a negative vision. Why? Because what they really want is not the financial success, but the freedom or independence. Some might want the security of not worrying about paying bills anymore (which is driven by insecurity). For others, they want the freedom of not needing to work for someone else (their motivation is trying to avoid being stuck).
All these people have one thing in common: they are focused on what they are trying to avoid and what they don’t want. In other words, a negative vision is born whenever we chase after something that is not directly related to our end result.
In contrast to limiting beliefs, which are what we consciously tell our mind, negative visions are ego based – what we unconsciously think we need – and not obvious to the untrained or uninitiated. Whenever we aim for a negative vision, we are telling our subconscious mind, ‘I need this first, before I can have what I truly want…’
Our true vision then becomes buried in our heart, whispering to you daily, forever seeking expression in the world.
“Sometimes a dream almost whispers. The hardest thing to listen to—your instincts, your human personal intuition—always whispers; it never shouts. And if you can listen to the whisper, and if it tickles your heart, and it’s something you think you want to do for the rest of your life, then that is going to be what you do for the rest of your life, and we will benefit from everything you do.” [ Steven Spielberg ]
This is why negative visions are not as obvious as they may seem. Most of the time, people set goals in their life thinking that it is what they want, not knowing the difference between negative visions and true visions. And the reality is, most people set goals that don’t even belong to them. The goals might have originally come from their parents or friends and family. A typical example is an Asian kid aiming to be a doctor, in order to make his parents proud. It wasn’t even true for them to begin with.
So following on from what I have said so far, what I am about to share with you might come as a shock –
“Our goals in life are a distraction.”
No doubt you are now thinking, “ assuming that is true, if not Goals, then what?”
Inspired Entrepreneurship Secret #1:
Don’t aim for goals. Instead, aim for end results; outcomes that are inspired by what you love.
Your first job to become truly successful and fulfilled in life and in business is to discover what your True Vision is and go for what your heart truly wants, regardless of your circumstances. It doesn’t matter what happens in the economy. It doesn’t matter if you lose everything tomorrow because you know you can always make it back, and you will still be going for what you love.
That is true confidence. That is true freedom. That is true joy and fulfillment. You are not relying on external circumstances to be perfect in order to create what you want.
It never ceases to amaze me how most people think they can succeed by just copying someone successful. Yes, we should always try to model success: there is a saying, “don’t try to reinvent the wheel”. Where most people go wrong here is that they think they can just create the very same wheel, with the exact same size, the same materials and even the same designs. That is copying and stealing, not modelling. That is also the formula for failure, not success.
People who try to mimic the success of others without understanding the entire strategy and structure behind their success will more than likely create negative visions, which will eventually lead to failure.
How do I know this to be true? Because I was guilty of this too. I remember back in the year 2011, when I was just starting out as an entrepreneur wannabe, I was a sucker for every personal development and business success programme that I could find. Looking back now I was what I would call a “Business Opportunity Junkie”.
I bought into every course and programme that professed to teach how to become wealthy and create financial freedom. I did everything under the sun. I was hungry for success, but I was also very naïve: I went from having £10K of life savings in my bank account to being £30K in personal debt.
Buying and Investing in Properties? – I’ve done it.
Forex Trading? – I’ve done it.
Internet and Online Marketing? – I’ve done it.
Running online banner ads? – I’ve done it.
MLM and Network Marketing? – I’ve done it.
I even attempted three different businesses: A property deals sourcing business, a musical entertainment and events promotion business, and a Dating Coaching business for nice guys.
The first two businesses were a failure and I filed for both companies to be struck off from the UK Register of Companies. And although I didn’t fail, I gave up on the coaching business as a dating coach the moment I met my fiancé, who is now the love of my life, as it was no longer true for me to continue with that business.
Most successful people will tell you that, “Failure is your best teacher”. In this case, I had a lot of great teachers that’s for sure. I have failed more times than most people have even dared tried!
That is when I realised how important it is that if anyone were going to create a business, then it must be an actual business that you are truly passionate about; a business that you know you will commit fully and never give up on. This is because it is not just a business that you are creating, it is a legacy. That is also the moment when I realised, if you want to be successful, then you must become successful in your own authentic way.
Now, it wasn’t until I joined forces with my business partner, Jono Poon, to create Limit Break Lifestyle a couple of years later that I discovered the secret to creating a truly unique, inspiring, and successful Lifestyle Business. That is when I had an epiphany: I did not have a name for this until much later on in my life when I discovered the power of the Lifestyle Business Cycle.
If you want to learn more about the Lifestyle Business Cycle, then click here to watch my Free Webinar Now: http://bit.ly/InspiredEntrepreneurship
I’ll see you in the Webinar.
Ich Loc
Co-founder of Limit Break Lifestyle