Welcome

This short session is to help with goal setting...to help you set better goals.  The technique is very simple, but research has shown it to be very effective.  We're going to explore Goal Visualisation and then we will walk through the exercise together.

The goal of this tool is to promote goal-directed behaviour by increasing your expectation for success, enhancing motivation and emotional involvement, and initiating planning and problem-solving actions.

Let's take a moment to understand Goal Visualisation before I guide you through a practice.

Mental imagery of future events is a technique that helps people “envision possibilities and develop plans for bringing those possibilities about”.  Such an exercise has been shown to promote goal-directed behaviour by, 1, increasing your expectation for success, 2, enhancing motivation and emotional involvement, and 3, initiating planning and problem-solving actions.

Mental imagery can be outcome-focused, where images of the outcomes or goals are generated. Or Mental imagery can be process-focused, where images of the steps leading to outcomes and goals are generated.

Outcome-focused imagery can help you to envision the desired outcome in some detail, which can help you to focus and this start identifying specific, concrete plans.

Process-focused imagery guides you to visualise the process through which a goal will be attained and in turn form action plans for goal pursuit.

Research has examined the beneficial effects of imagining future events. For instance, mental imagery of possible selves (for example, where you generate images of what you could become) has been shown to enhance motivation by helping people to identify goals and develop goal-directed behaviour, and improved performance through imagining one’s future success. Further to this, research has found that mental imagery of future events actually increases the likelihood that those events will occur.

Let's just consider that point again.   Research has found that imagining your desired future, actually increases the likelihood of it happening.