Hi everyone

About a year ago i put together a dream board. Now if you haven’t used a dream board before then in essence, it is something like a pinboard where you place pictures of all the things you would like to bring into reality. That all sounds lovely and positive but its not as easy as just cutting out a few pictures and putting them on your wall.

There are a few parameters that you must adhere to:

1. Spend some quality time each day for a couple of weeks looking for pictures that resemble what you would like – don’t hold back, if you want it cut it out and put it aside for now. They can be a picture of anything – don’t limit yourself, its important to choose things that bring up positive emotion when you see these images. Focus on what makes you happy not what others think will make you happy

2. Cut out some photos of yourself and your loved ones. They could be photos of family or friends, just as long as they are people that you love and you want to associate them with your goals and dreams.

3. Go and buy a good size piece of corflute or pinboard that is about 700mm x 500mm Most Officeworks kind of places have them for about $10. I buy the green ones since this color enhances your imagination – the most powerful asset you have – more on this in another post

4. Allocate a couple of hours in your favorite chill out area and go through all the pictures and photos that you prepared. Arrange them in whatever fashion that you like and glue or pin them to your dream board. Ensure that the pictures of your loved ones are there with your goals

5. Once this is done stand back and take a look at all of those awesome pictures you have put together and start to evoke the feelings in you that made you choose them in the first place.

6. This is the most important part: spend 15 mins every day looking at your dream board and associating a lot of positive emotion while looking at it.  Do this for 45 days in a row. If you miss a day start again.  I know that is tough but it is important to commit.

Remember to not make this a chore; enjoy the process. If you associate any negativity with it then the dream board wont work.

This might all sound a little airy fairy and in no way does it replace setting your goals and taking action on every one of them. By building the dream board you set your mind on a path and once your subconscious locks onto that path it wont let it go until you get there. That’s why its important to put pictures of yourself with loved ones on it so when you reach your goal everyone is there (including you) to enjoy the moment!

Let me say i was a little skeptical when i was told about this strategy but i can tell you now that exactly one year after creating the board i moved into my dream house, exactly as it is on the dream board.

Check it out for yourself – its a little hard to see but in the first image at the top left of the dream board is my dream house set in a rainforest that is 15mins to the beach. In the second image is the actual house that is literally set on 1.5 acres of rainforest and 15mins to the beach!

Enjoy making your dream board and dont hold back. You have all the resources, knowledge and ability to create whatever you want right now

Hi everyone

We are still rocking through January so i thought before the year gets away from us all, i should mention something about being consistent.

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “anything worth doing is worth doing properly”? Well i want to change this a little and say that anything worth doing is worth doing consistently.

Now considering we are starting a new year and a new decade, its a great opportunity to set some goals and start sticking to them; the best way i have found to achieve goals is to do something every day that takes you one step closer to that goal, hence the title of this blog, Consistent Daily Improvement.

If you decided to walk from Perth to Sydney (for those that don’t know Australia, that’s a really long way – 4000km!) then you would have to continually adjust your direction so that you took the shortest route. If every step was not heading towards Sydney, sooner or later you are going to be way off track.

So its really important to firstly set a goal and a time frame and then take daily action to get towards that goal. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t take massive steps everyday, they can be baby steps just as long as they are all heading towards your goal.

If you are just 1% closer to achieving your goal every day then imagine where you will be in 365days!

Good luck and feel free to let me know how you are going with you consistent daily improvement

Cheers,

Matt

Hi everyone.

Happy New Year! Its been a couple of weeks since my last post but i am refreshed and ready to go for another year!

We are still in the first month of a new decade so don’t waste any more time in setting your goals for the year (or the decade!) What do you want to get out of the next 12 months? Take the time now to sit quietly and have a think about it.

To make it a bit easier i use this acronym to help me set goals:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time related

Whenever you set a new goal its important to adhere to these 5 rules of goal setting – they are all as important as each other. Lets go through each one quickly:

Specific – make sure you have plenty of clarity about what you want your outcome to be. Get emotional about it because that’s what will drive you to achieving your goal. The more clear and connected you are with your goal the more likely you will achieve it. For example don’t just say i want to earn more money by the end of the year, say how much and by when and what it will buy you.

Measurable – You have to know that you have actually achieved your goal and this is partly to do with being specific about it. What i mean by measurable is that there must be a way for you to write down in your own words what will have happened when you achieve your goal. For example if it was to earn another $10ooo  this year then write how happy you are to see this money in your bank account statement.

Achievable – This is a big one for me because sometimes i aim too high. This isn’t always a bad thing but its important that you believe that you can achieve your goal. The ideal aim would be to go after something that is just out of your reach.

Realistic – This follows on well from achievable; your goal must be something that is reasonable. In other words if you earn $50k per year and you set the goal of earning $500k this year then you might be setting yourself up for failure. Don’t aim to low but just make it realistic

Time Related – Last but definitely not least. Every goal must have an end point, a time frame that you are striving for. Never give up on your goal as you don’t know how close you are. Magic happens in the final moments of your goal deadline.

To finish off make sure you right all your goals in the present tense, like you have already achieved them. The subconscious mind cannot decipher between now and the future so it will just keep striving for the goal until you attain it. Also its important to write your goal with positive language – no don’ts or cant’s etc

Here is a great exampleof a goal, i have used finance because it is easier to display what i mean:

It is now Dec 31st 2010 and i am so happy and grateful to be looking at my yearly bank statement and see that the closing balance says i have $100k in my account. I am off to the travel agent to book my overseas holiday… woohoo!

Happy goal setting everyone – be sure to let me know what your 2010 goal is

Cheers,

Matt