Remember all those goals you set back in 2022? The plans you developed and the projects you started? So how’d that work out for you? 

Luckily, some of those goals got met, and some of your projects panned out. But chances are, you fell short of the mark on other purposes. So let’s save ourselves the pain and aggravation in 2023. Before we commit to a goal, we need to ask ourselves a simple and revealing question and be completely honest in our answers.  

Why do we care about the goal? What we need first and foremost is what author Murphy calls a HARD goal. That’s an acronym for a heartfelt, animated, required and complex goal. “Implementing a goal gets easier when that goal is HARD,” says Murphy. 

If your goal is powerful enough, implementation won’t be such a big problem. Executing a goal you don’t care about that doesn’t stimulate your heart or mind requires a superhuman effort. Heartfelt is about developing a deep-seated attachment to your goal on intrinsic, personal and extrinsic levels.

As Murphy points out, if you don’t care about your goal, what will motivate you to try and achieve them and soldier on in the face of adversity. You’ll be far more motivated by doing something you love or something for someone you care about.

Animated is about knowing precisely what you’ll see, hear and feel when you achieve your goal. That future state is a movie constantly playing in your head in technicolour and surround sound. To reach your goals, you must be able to picture how successfully completing that goal will change your life. Jobs was able to do this when he envisioned happy customers using the iPad for video watching and reading on the Internet.

People are visual. They need to see things to believe them. A picture is worth a thousand words; people remember 65% more information when they learn by seeing something than if they read about it. Are you a busy person with a lot going on in your mind? To make your goals stand out from all the noise, you should vividly picture what it would be like to achieve them. 

To achieve your goals, picture yourself in the future when you’ve earned them. Visualise what that will look like and how you’ll feel. Use drawings or other visual aids to help you imagine that goal. Place these reminders where they can do their best, so you’re constantly reminded of them.

Your image doesn’t have to be dramatic. Imagine how you will feel when you achieve your goal. Make that image as vivid as possible by seeing it in your mind’s eye. And while pictures are better than words, writing down what you see will help clarify the concept.

It’s the start of the new year, and we encourage you to get the complete book and read it even as we make goals and plans towards the rest of the year. 

Happy reading!