Mastering Reverse Goal Setting

For many of us, the advice to “set goals” can feel impossible—we simply don’t know what we want. That’s why I use reverse goal setting. Instead of starting with what you want, begin with what you don’t want. Sit down with paper and write a list of the things you never want to experience in your career, health, relationships, finances, or spiritual life. 

When I tried this, my list looked like this: 

• Physical: I did not want to be overweight, out of shape, or too tired to travel.

• Emotional: After a failed marriage, I knew I didn’t want to be an unequal partner, forced to hide my true feelings, or feel unattractive.

• Material: I didn’t want a life stingy with fear, haunted by my relatives’ Depression-era mentality of scarcity.

• Spiritual: I didn’t want to feel estranged from God or alienated by rigid religious ideas.

Something remarkable happens when you create such a list: clarity. You begin to see what you actually do want. 

Read the rest of the post here at LinkedIn