#1 Not sharing your goals with anyone
Fulfilling your dreams and achieving your goals is essential to feel happy and accomplished. Unfortunately, our society teaches us not to talk much about our aspirations. How so? From an early age, we learn that when you blow your candles on your birthday cake, you should make a wish, but you should keep it to yourself; otherwise, it will not come true. When you see a falling star, you should make a wish, but guess what you should not talk about it to anyone, not even say it loudly to yourself.
Are we afraid of getting jinxed? Keeping your exciting goals to yourself is like believing in some orthodox superstitions: touch wood, spit three times over your left shoulder. Contrary to the common fear of failure, if you share your goals with your family, friends, anyone, you will gain two benefits: your audience will keep you accountable for your actions. And, if you succeed, you have an audience with who you can celebrate your personal victory.
#2 Not having a vision board
A goals vision board will propel you to achieving your aspirations sooner. Studies show that pictorial communication is far superior to words. The mechanism is not fully understood. The brain read a visual message through the eyes and cortex and store it as long-term memory in the hippocampus. The process of receiving repeated information helps to develop this long-term memory better. The vision board will create a visual reminder, aka repeated information, and help you accomplish your goals sooner. You can display anything: a pictorial representation of skills you want to acquire, or your dream home, or destinations you aspire to visit one day. You can add meaningful phrases and even some inspiring quotes.
#3 Not changing images on your vision board regularly
So you have your beautiful board set up, and you feel excited. Over time, this board may become a lovely addition to your interior but stop inspire you. I made this mistake myself. When I purchased a digital piano, I place a photo of it on the board. The goal was to start practising as I had not touched the piano keys since I was 14. Then I noticed that over time I was able to find less and less free time to play. First, the practice sessions were down to weekends instead of my original grandeur plan to practice every second day. Then I stopped playing on weekends. The piano picture was still pinned to my board, but it was no longer working. Why? The image was depicting a journey, not a destination. When your goal is to master a skill or be the best at it, you need to frame your destination measurably. For example, I replaced my piano photo with a photo of a pianist applauded by the audience.
Do you have a visual board? What are your life goals?
