Goal setting training
The target audience: teenagers, young men, adults.
Target: teach the basics of productive goal setting.
Tasks:
Definition of the concepts goal and goal setting.
Learning how to set goals correctly.
Visualization and awareness of the goal using the “Ladder of Achievement” technique.
Determining the main life goals and values, setting priorities.
Equipment: stickers, A4 sheets according to the number of participants, markers, felt-tip pens.
Stages
Time
Note
Org.
moment
Good afternoon. Today we will touch on one of the aspects of our life, the side that is aimed at the future - these are our goals. I am sure that everyone has certain goals in life. But do we always achieve them? Why is this happening?
Today we will begin to understand and set our goals.
I warn you that the training is aimed at awareness and immersion rather than being entertaining.
1 min
2. Identification of basic concepts
But to work, we need to become more familiar with such concepts as “goal and goal setting.” In order to clearly understand what a “goal” is, let’s look at two more related concepts – “desire” and “dream”.
Group 1 discusses and prepares to answer the question: “What is desire?”
Group 2: “What is a dream.”
And group 3: “What is the goal?”
(discussion)
That. we have determined that the lowest level is desire, something momentary, attraction, desire to realize something. Then comes the dream, something more isolated, global, but we do not necessarily take steps to realize it. And the highest concept - goal - is an anticipation of a specific result, which is isolated in time; to achieve the goal, we take specific actions.
What influences the achievement of the goal? What factors?
They can be divided into external . What reasons may prevent you from achieving your goal:
AND internal . What reasons may lie within the person himself?
Which factor do you think is decisive: internal or external? I'll give you time, and you think and make up a formula in percentage: to what percentage does achieving a goal depend on the person himself, and how much on external environment?
10 min
Dividing participants into groups
Group responses
3. Exercise – warm-up, diagnostics
Each of you has stickers. Write your name on a sticker and stick it anywhere on the floor.
Now stand up and join hands. You can freely move around the room without releasing your hands. Your task is to step on your leaf at least once within 2 minutes. Once is the minimum.
Are there those who have never been able to step on their sticker? Why did this happen?
So, are there people who managed to step on their leaf more than 2 times?
How did you achieve these results?
Who found it easier to manage people? In what ways have you managed people? Who was easier to follow?
This simple and straightforward exercise has a diagnostic effect, i.e. You have now perfectly demonstrated your behavior in achieving any goals. Stepping on the sticker was kind of a small goal. Someone stuck a sticker near their place, someone decided to take a chance and stuck it far away. Thus, we can see that some people set small goals for themselves, this comes either from self-doubt, unpreparedness for long and intense work, or it is easier for such people to set small goals and slowly achieve the desired result. And people who have not put stickers on them are not afraid to set global, long-term goals. I don't think one of the options is better and the other is worse, it's better when you choose a strategy. Whichever suits you. Think about it: maybe it’s in vain that you set such distant goals or, on the contrary, so small, what if you can do much more?
9 min
Sticker distribution
Division into 2 groups
Setting a goal
And now we will try to formulate one goal, which we will work on throughout the training. Think about what goal you would like to achieve, preferably to be achieved within one year.
Before writing it down, let’s go over the basic rules for setting a goal.
Correct goal setting is the foundation of our structure called “Achieve the Goal.” The foundation will be strong, so it will consist of bricks.
Brick No. 1. Positive affirmative language. For example, instead of “I don’t want to live with my parents,” I should say “I want to live separately from my parents.” The mind does not perceive stated goals negatively. Psychologists have long noticed that our brain does not perceive the particle “Not”.
Brick No. 2. The goal must be specific and measurable. Specify your goal so that the desired result is clear and understandable not only to you, but also to those around you. How will you know that the goal has been achieved? What exactly is the result? What does he look like?
Brick No. 3. The goal must have specific date completion. We tend to get everything at once. Goals with such unrealistic deadlines are usually not achieved. The deadline must be specific, i.e. not “in 5 years”, but “January 1, 2016”.
Brick No. 4. Environmental friendliness and consequences must be taken into account. What could be Negative consequences for you if you achieve this goal? Let's say you set yourself a goal of saving 10 thousand by September 2014 for a tablet. To do this you need to get a job. But achieving this goal may interfere with your other goals e.g., study well or help mom more. Set your priorities. Is a tablet worth your poor academic performance?
Brick #5: Purpose is aligned with values and beliefs. Goals that are aligned with values are achieved much easier and faster. You can only make changes to the wording of the goal, and it will be a completely different goal, which will be achieved much more effectively.
Brick No. 6. The goal must be achievable. Make sure the goal is achievable, at least theoretically. If you feel that the goal is too difficult, but you still want it, just set the deadline for achieving it a little longer. Or look for other, real resources that can be used to achieve the goal within the time frame that you have set.
Now, following these rules, formulate your goal and write it down on a piece of paper.
5 minutes
“Bricks” with inscriptions are hung on the wall.
Visualization and awareness of the goal
"Ladder of Achievement"
Now let's move on to visualizing our goal. Visualize is to present our goal on a sheet of paper in a drawing or graphic version.
Draw a staircase consisting of 6 steps. The bottom step indicates a state when your goal is absolutely not achieved. Upper – when it is fully implemented.
Write down 2-3 signs on the first step, indicating the features of the situation when your goal is not achieved. Now, write on the top step 2-3 signs by which you can determine and judge that the goal has been fully achieved.
Think about what level of achievement you are at now. Label this position and write down 2-3 of its main characteristics. It is important to write down not what you are doing to achieve the goal, but what you have already done specifically.
And now main question: What exactly do you need to do to move up a notch and higher? Write it down. These will be your tasks to achieve your goal.
When exactly each of you will do something to move one step closer to the goal.
Did this technique help you clarify your purpose? Did you see the goal with new eyes?
Are there those who looked at what needs to be done, what you will need to do it, and decided that the goal is not worth the expense?
Is there anyone who would like to tell us what goal they have set and what actions they have planned to achieve it?
10 min
Psychologist draws a staircase
The story of the training participants
Exercise “To the line”
So, I put this item on the floor. Your goal is to move 5 meters away from this object and, with your eyes closed, move towards this object and stop when, from your point of view, you are as close as possible to the object, but in no case will you step over it. I suggest completing the task with 2 people at a time.
Discussion: What guided you when deciding at what point to stop?
Cautious people who stop early have little chance of winning, and those who go far act on the principle of “either win or lose.” In what situations is it appropriate to use one of the two principles?
10 min
Psychologist puts an object on the floor
Exercise
"You only have to live"
Imagine that you have 20 years left to live and write what you want to do during this time - start a family, give birth to two children, visit 33 countries, learn English via Skype, get a second higher education, etc. Goals must be specific.
Now look at this list and answer the question: “What would I do if I had 15 years to live?” Most likely, you will have to cross something off the list - do it.
And finally, you have 5 years left - what will you do? Maybe these are a few items from the original list, or maybe something completely different?
Discussion: Through this exercise, you will be able to more clearly define your goals and time frames for achieving them, especially in the long term.
10 min
Leaflets are being distributed
Exercise “In three years”
Each of us has problems in life, some require immediate solutions, others we put off and only make worse. I offer you one exercise that will allow you to look at unresolved matters differently, more broadly. And also determine what is really important to you.
So, make a list of the most important things to do in this period lives that you are currently working on (3-5 points).
And now I ask you to divide into pairs. It’s better if your date is someone you don’t know well.
Now imagine that you have become 3 years older. Think about these problems in hindsight, as if 3 years had already passed.
What exactly can you remember about this problem?
How does it affect your life now, 3 years later?
If such a problem confronted you now, how would you solve it?
Discussion: Do you look at problems differently if you fast forward 3 years? What conclusion did you draw after the exercise and conversation with your partner?
So, psychologists have found that we achieve 80% of success by spending 20% of effort on all this, and the remaining 80% of effort provides only 20% of achievements. A mental “look from the future” helps us understand which of our affairs are the most important, ensuring 80% of success in life.
10 min
Participants are given leaflets
Reflection
How do such exercises help in goal setting? Understanding what is most important to you in life, what you want to do at all costs, you learn to cut off what is unnecessary and prioritize what is most significant to you. You will not set goals for yourself that do not directly or indirectly lead you to the big goals you see in your future. It is very important to periodically (at least once a year) check yourself again to see if your goals have changed, because a person is a process in which changes constantly occur.
Look at the picture, it shows Euler circles. Think and evaluate the completed training according to 3 criteria, which are written inside the circle. The “Interest” criterion means that you found it interesting during the training. Is not boring. The “Awareness” criterion means that you have a new vision of your goals, your life and what you generally want to realize. The “Result” criterion means how useful the training has become for you, whether you consider such exercises effective and necessary, and whether they will help you in your future life.
Place a plus at the intersection of those criteria that you believe have been achieved by you personally. If the training did not produce any of the results, then put a plus outside the circles.
Thank you for your work and rating!
5 minutes
A visual display is displayed depicting Euler circles with the inscription “Interest”, “Awareness”, “Result”.
Exercises about goals are important and in demand not only in goal setting training, but also in success training, sales and negotiation training, and training for managers. After all competent staging Goals are the basis for success in any area of life.
What are goal exercises? These are the exercises that teach set goals correctly. And exercises that clearly demonstrate that Now the goals are not formulated correctly. And exercises that help participants achieve their goals in life faster, increase internal motivation.
High-quality, interesting, memorable exercises about goals will help your training participants work competently with goals and increase their success.
The experts of the professional portal for trainers have selected the site for you 7 best exercises about goals, which can be found in open access. Let these exercises help you create effective training sessions.
Exercise “A Little Better”
Target
Time: 5-7 minutes
Band size: Any
We are calling for one volunteer. Please go to the wall of the room, raise your hands and reach as high as possible. We mark the place he reached, and then ask him to try again. We mark again (as a rule, this time it always turns out higher).
You can invite several volunteers at once. This will make the exercise even clearer.
Results:
- How does this exercise relate to planning and goal setting?
- What conclusions can we draw from this exercise?
The main conclusion in this exercise might sound like this: “When there is an obvious bar, we are always capable of more. Goals are bars. They allow you to achieve more in life!”
Exercise "Goldfish"
An excellent exercise for setting goals from an expert on the portal site of a professor of psychology
N. I. Kozlova.
Target: The exercise teaches participants to correctly formulate their goals
Time: 15 minutes
Band size: Any
Any volunteer is called (or the presenter himself calls). Start speaking faster so that there is a moment of confusion. Plus, throw a phrase into the audience: “Look more carefully at what will happen now.”
You caught a goldfish. You have 15 seconds to make three wishes for her.
Next, the coach counts down or bends his fingers in seconds. Silent? I wished for it, but didn’t say it. If you haven't expressed your wishes, how will they guess? If they are spoken, the presenter repeats them exactly as they were said.
- A house, a lot of money, a car...
The coach draws a house.
- What's this?
— House. Get it!
Or: Okay, I have next year there will be a home. You didn’t say who you wished for a house for, did you?
- A lot of money.
Chip in a ruble! Get it.
- I want to be happy!
— Definitely: next month you will be happy, even several times. Or you will be happy forever, starting in 2050.
- Beloved woman?
— In 150 years you will have it.
- I won’t live long enough!
— And these are your problems.
You can call more participants...
Coach: “I can bet any amount of money that even now none of you can handle this!”
Results: 
- What was happening now?
- How was it necessary to make wishes so that they would be fulfilled?
The trainer guides the participants to set goals for:
- Specific - specific
- Measurable - measurable
- Agreed - coordinated (with goals more high level)
- Realistic - realistic
- Timed - defined in time
Another exercise option:
all participants imagine what they caught Goldfish, which will fulfill three desires - one personal (for example, I want a new car), and two working ones (for example, I want to work less, etc.). Participants write down their wishes on pieces of paper. The leaves are collected, and the trainer does the same work with them.
Often, after the first desires “fulfilled” in this way, participants themselves come up with some SMART.
You can read more about SMART technology in our section on the portal.
Exercise “Map of the Future”
Target: Exercise allows you to more clearly understand your goals
Time: 30 min. plus discussion of the exercise - 3-5 minutes. for each participant.
Band size: Any
Draw a map of your future. Yours global goals designate as points of the area where you would like to be. Also identify intermediate large and small goals on the way to them. Come up with and write names for the “goal points” that you strive for in your personal and professional life. Also draw the streets and roads you will walk along.
- How will you get to your goals? The shortest way or the roundabout way?
- What obstacles do you have to overcome?
- What kind of help can you expect?
- What areas will you have to cross on your way: flowering and fertile lands, deserts, remote and abandoned places?
- Will you be blazing roads and trails alone or with someone?
Discussion of the results of the exercise:
- Where are the most important goals?
- How do they fit together?
- Where are your dangers?
- Where will you get the strength to achieve what you want?
- How does this picture make you feel?
Presenting their future in the form of a map of the area will allow participants to more clearly understand their goals. Metaphorical expression of goals in the form of points on a map, and ways to achieve them in the form of streets and roads helps participants create a visual picture of their future in their imagination. After creating such a map, everyone will be able to correlate the goals with each other and understand how they fit together, what obstacles are encountered on the way to them, what new opportunities open up.
With up to 12 participants, you can do and discuss this exercise in a general circle. If there is a larger number, I recommend dividing the participants into micro groups for more confidential communication and time saving.
Exercise “Crumpled Paper”
Target: This exercise clearly demonstrates the importance of goal setting.
Time: 10 minutes
Band size: Any
For this exercise you will need A4 paper and a waste paper basket.
Using this exercise as an example, it is very convenient to show the results of goal setting. We call a volunteer for this exercise. We ask him to stand two meters from the basket and throw as much paper into it as possible. After a minute we stop it and count the paper. For example, it turned out to be 20 sheets.
Now we call the next volunteer. His task is to throw more than 20 sheets. As a rule, he gets more - 25-30 sheets.
Now it was the turn of the third volunteer. We call him and give him an introduction: “You saw what results the previous participants achieved. What do you think you will achieve?
Results:
- Do you think we can relate this exercise to goal setting?
- In your opinion, when the participants achieved best results- when they simply threw paper, or when they were faced with a specific task?
- When was this goal set? someone or by themselves?
Exercise “Milestones of my future”
Target: Exercise allows you to more clearly understand your goals, set priorities and outline a sequence.
Time: 20 minutes. plus discussion - 3-5 minutes. for each participant.
Band size: Any
In this exercise, participants make a list of things they would like to do in the future to organize their goals. The advantage of this way of working is that it enhances the sense of direction and continuity of life.
Decide how far into the future you want to look. Maybe you are interested in seeing your life in a year or two, or maybe in ten years?
Now think about what you want to achieve during this time. What do you want to create? What to learn? Who to become? What would you like to give up or free yourself from?
Imagine that each important goal of this period of life is a milestone on the path of life along which you are walking. When you reach the next milestone, you can say to yourself: “I’ve already done that!” Choose only goals that are positive for you and worth striving for. Moreover, there should be no more than six to eight of them. Arrange them in the desired time sequence and identify each milestone with a few keywords.
Discussion of the results:
- How do you feel after doing this exercise?
- How do you feel about your goals now?
Exercise “Life Path”
Target: Exercise allows you to more clearly understand your goals, set priorities and outline a sequence.
Time: 40 min. plus discussion - 4-5 minutes. for each participant.
Band size: up to 12 participants
Participants begin making a collage on the following topic: “My life path.” They are asked the following questions: “You are walking along the road whose name is Life... Where are you coming from and where? Do you have any major achievements? What gives you strength to follow the path of life, and vice versa, what hinders you? What objects are around you? And what is the end goal? ...
The collage is created by the participants to demonstrate their life path, taking into account various plans, environments and achievements. This exercise should be performed independently and individually, but at the request of the people participating in it, it can also take place in separate groups.
About 40 minutes are allotted to create collages, then the participants make a presentation, as a short excursion, where they all, in turn, become guides demonstrating to the group own work. It is recommended to allocate approximately 4-5 minutes for each participant.
The point of this exercise is to develop the ability to plan your life path. This activity allows you to reflect on the importance of certain events, striving for your goals and solving difficulties.
Discussion of the results:
After completing the exercise, participants begin discussing it. They are asked the following questions:
- What impressions and emotions appear when looking at your own collage?
- Did you manage to notice new details of your life?
- Is the future depicted in the collage real?
- How can you try to achieve it?
For this exercise you will need large sheets papers according to the number of participants, many magazines for cutting images.
Exercise “In three years”
Target: Exercise allows you to more clearly set priorities in your current life and start working more on important goals.
Time: 30 min.
Band size: Any
Participants are given the task of making a small list and writing on it the most important things that occupy them in a given period of life, and the most big problems currently, no more than 5 points.
After making the list, participants try to imagine themselves three years older, and then think about these problems and matters as if three years later.
When thinking about this task, you should answer the following questions.
- What can you remember about this problem?
- What happened to her and how does she affect her life now, after three years?
- If this problem appeared in front of you right now, would you find a solution to it? What would it be like?
This exercise is performed in separate groups of 3-4 people; Each participant tells the others items from their own list and answers specific questions. You can also allow those who wish to work independently, without group discussion, as a result, the exercise is completed by the participant in writing, and all notes remain with him.
The point of this exercise is to analyze all life problems in accordance with your future. It allows all participants to think about important activities. Thus, psychologists have officially established that about 80% of success can be achieved through just 20% of our efforts, and the remaining percentage of efforts helps ensure 20% of our achievements. Analysis from the “future” allows you to understand the degree of importance of certain matters.
After completing the exercise, there is a discussion about it. Participants ask themselves the following questions:
- Which activities appear to be more important through this view and which activities do not?
- Does this opinion completely coincide with the position of the present time?
- What impression does the fact that in 3 years from now you will not remember a single problem or matter that you solve today?
Each participant must draw certain conclusions only for himself.
I also recommend that you draw the attention of the training participants to whether their attitude towards the current problems that they have identified has changed?Typically, this technique helps to reduce the significance of current problems and shift the participants’ attention to the future.
We have presented to your attention 7 high-quality exercises about goals that are freely available. We hope that they will become a worthy addition to your trainings.
Since these exercises are taken from free sources, you need to consider that they:
- Available to many trainers and may already be known to your training participants. It is worth clarifying this before carrying out the exercises.
- They do not contain detailed instructions for performing the exercise. And it’s no secret that just knowing an exercise and knowing exactly how to do it are two very different things. Usually in practice it takes 2-3 times to do the exercise to understand how to do it best.
When you will need:
- Exclusive Exercises, known only to a small circle of professional trainers
- Exercises with detailed instructions coaching methodology for conducting them, which reveals the entire “underwater part” of coaching work and explains exactly how to carry out the exercise and summarize the exercise in order to achieve the best result
Then you can always choose such exercises for.
This portal grew on the basis of the largest training center "Sinton". Over more than 30 years of work as a center, Sinton has probably collected largest database best games and exercises for business trainings and personal trainings.
And when we realized that coaches are constantly faced with the problem of shortage quality material for trainings, we have assembled a team of professional trainers who:
- they only select the best, brightest and effective exercises on a variety of coaching topics
- describe professionally and in detail hidden methodology for carrying them out!
It's nice that now you can purchase our training manuals for exercises according to the most affordable prices In chapter
The exercise is aimed at developing a meaningful attitude among training participants towards the goals they set for themselves. One of the objectives of the exercise is to find those inspiring goals that a person will truly joyfully implement, and to separate these goals from artificial, imposed goals or intermediate goals.
If a person has an inspiring goal, idea, mission, then any, even the most difficult work can be done with joy and pleasure.
Powerful exercise for goal achievement training or negotiation training. The exercise clearly demonstrates to training participants their usual patterns of behavior when achieving goals or, if necessary, negotiating. Helps to reveal negative attitudes and beliefs that prevent them from easily achieving their goals or negotiating. Provides training participants with new resources.
Exclusive exercise - developed by professor of psychology N.I. Kozlov. The trainer's manual for the exercise contains a lot of unique recommendations, tips and coaching tricks that allow you to carry out the exercise with maximum results. You won't find this anywhere else!
Unique proprietary technology from psychology professor N.I. Kozlov.
A strong and deep exercise, during which the training participants clearly see how satisfied they are various areas own life, choose your priority goals And set specific tasks for a certain period of time.
"Wheel of Life" is one of the best technologies , helping to consciously organize your life, determine your life goals and development priorities for the near, medium and long term.
Energetic and strong exercise, which allows, through metaphor, to allow training participants to feel the strength of their own internal resistance on the path to the chosen goal.
Participants will be able to a short time experience your resistance vividly, fully, deeply and receive motivation for change. As a result of this exercise, training participants develop a strong emotional demand to find solutions, and their internal motivation to achieve increases.
A very good and effective exercise in determination, providing training participants with the opportunity to work through their doubts and possible obstacles on the path to their goal. Increases the energy and motivation of the group for further learning.
Suitable for any training related to the topic of achieving goals. First of all, these are, of course, goal-setting trainings, self-confidence trainings, motivational trainings, as well as trainings personal growth and stress resistance.
The trainer has the opportunity to clearly demonstrate to participants how minor obstacles that arise can interfere with the achievement of goals, and how to easily overcome them simply by having the proper determination.
We recommend unique coaching techniques for the best exercises for training:
- Director's presentation
A universal and effective exercise, which can significantly expand the knowledge of training participants about self-presentation, assess their ability to make a first impression, work with confidence, verbal and non-verbal methods of communication, and at the same time speed up the process of assigning roles, put the group into a “working state” and bring it to the stage of active work.The exercise is suitable for all trainings that cover the topic of communications and presentations. “With a bang” goes through confidence and leadership training. It may be useful and effective in management training.
The exercise can energize the group and motivate them to work hard.
The training exercise was recommended by professional trainer D. Shvetsov, author of the book “Strengthening Personality.” - "Sell" your weakness
Simple and effective exercisefor personal growth training, confidence training or emotion management. Uexercise can quickly change the participants’ attitude towards their shortcomings, raise self-esteem, increase self-confidence and open up a world of positive thinking.One of the best of its kind. Exercisesignificantly increases the energy and involvement of the group, creates a positive atmosphere and activates the creative potential of training participants.
Exclusive recommendations from professionals! This is not just an exercise for training, it is a unique coaching method, including detailed instructions carrying out exercises, analysis difficult situations and objectionsrecommendations, advice andtips from expert trainers. You won't find this anywhere else!
Volume of the training manual for the exercise: 8 pages.
Bonuses! A detailed theory block and 6 different variations of this exercise are included! - Break out of the circle!
Extremely powerful in its effectiveness a challenging exercise that, in the shortest possible time, clearly explains the difference between a constructive and non-constructive approach to conflict resolution and sets up training participants for intensive learning.This exercise will be a great “challenge” for the group. As a result of its implementation, the group may become confident that the task is impossible, but upon reflection they will see a completely different approach to resolving the situation, which will cause "revolution" in thinking and will serve as an excellent start to understanding the basic theory.
The exercise is suitable for most trainings somehow touching on the topic of communications. After all, “a conflict is a clash of interests,” and it is present almost everywhere. It will be very indicative at sales trainings, negotiations, communication trainings, trainings family relations. The topic of “conflictlessness” will be a welcome addition to personal growth training. In team building trainings, this exercise will promote unity and harmonious cooperation, and in business building and management trainings, it will open up a new approach to resolving contradictions.
The proposed program is based on psychotechniques borrowed from various sources*. It is no coincidence that most of these sources are of American origin. This is understandable, given the central value for Americans - achieving success, the enormous importance of the subjective sense of one’s own power over life, over one’s destiny.
We live in another country - and not only “to the east”, under the influence of another religion, culture, tradition, but also after decades of a totalitarian regime, in which the ability to independently set one’s own goals was one of the most unnecessary. And yet, we also need such an ability, and many of our compatriots - especially young people - would also like to feel like masters of their own destiny, they also strive for success, for a certain level of achievement. This is evidenced by sociological research conducted in recent years.
The proposed program uses psychotechnics that are not directly related to the content of goals and values; they are aimed at helping a person realize what he is striving for and giving these goals real motivating force.
Program for the development of time perspective.
The proposed program can be used as a guide for the self-development of boys and girls. And then the psychologist will act as an instructor, consultant, advisor, who, depending on the general context of the activity, can either sequentially introduce individual fragments of the program, or give them at once, and then, as necessary, discuss with young people individual exercises, emerging questions, and difficulties. But a collective form of work is also possible, both deployed over time (for example, classes can be held once a week), and in the form of a “marathon”, i.e. intensive multi-hour training, designed for one to two days.
An essential element of all the psychotechniques described below is recording on paper what is somehow played out internally - usually these are some kind of notes, sometimes drawings that high school students should make. Decades ago, there was a whole culture of keeping diaries. Essentially, the psychology of adolescence at the beginning of the century originated in the study of these diary entries. But when analyzing their content, attention was not always paid to the important psychological significance of this activity.
*Moltz M. “I am Me, or How to become happy.” 1994; Rainwater D. “It’s in our power,” 1992.
But it was precisely the recording of thoughts, fantasies, and plans for the future on paper that gave this activity enormous developmental power. Now the culture of keeping diaries has practically disappeared, but perhaps special psychological training can to some extent fill the gap.
At the first, preliminary, stage of work, the psychologist needs to create appropriate motivation in boys and girls for subsequent activities. As experience shows, short story the importance of goal setting and time perspective is not always sufficient. Often young people, especially boys, for whom such training is more important than for girls, are initially very skeptical about the need to spend time on such work.
The duration and specificity of this stage depends, on the one hand, on the psychologist himself, his personal techniques, capabilities and abilities to convince the youth audience, and on the other hand, on the context of what broader activity this training will take place. It will be part of systematic psychology classes, such as school lessons or a circle, or fragments of some psychotherapeutic - individual or group - sessions. However, in any case, at first it is useful to simply give high school students some information about what important role In a person’s life, in the development of his personality, formations that at first glance seem ephemeral, such as life goals, ideas about the future, etc., play a role.
Similar information is contained, for example, in Maxuel Moltz’s book “I am Me, or How to Be Happy” (M..I994). Moltz’s famous “psychocybernetics” is based on the following thesis: “The human brain and all nervous system acts purposefully, in accordance with the principle of achieving personal goals. They function as a magnificent, “goal-oriented mechanism”, as a kind of internal automatic system guidance that works for you as a “success mechanism” or a “failure mechanism.” depending on how YOU, the operator, manage it and what goals you set for it” (p. 21). Striving for a positive goal is the key to happy life. “Man is a creature that always strives for some goal; he lives normally and naturally when he is focused on a specific goal. The state of happiness is a sign of normal, natural life activity. When a person acts purposefully, he usually feels relatively happy” (p.98).
Why does M. Moltz’s concept seem especially attractive for working with high school students? The fact is that there is a persistent stereotype that associates the words “goal”, “plan” with boring, uninteresting and often fruitless work to achieve them, when, having gathered all your will and pushing aside everything that is pleasant and interesting to you in life, you must work hard to implement this plan or goal. Moltz insists on the exact opposite, on the fact that in reality you can achieve your goal only by relaxing, forgetting about volitional efforts, which only harm. If the goal is clear and strong, it will act on its own.
We can offer such a physical metaphor. Ask the boys and girls to stand with their feet shoulder-width apart and their arms extended forward parallel to the floor. Then turn your whole body back and fix your gaze on the place on the wall to which you managed to turn. Return to starting position. Close eyes. Imagine that next time you will be able to turn your body much further. And then, opening your eyes, try to turn around again. By comparing the place in space in which you now find yourself with a mental mark on the wall that recorded your previous turn, you can clearly see the real impact of the goal you have set for yourself.
So, the task of the first stage of work is to show high school students the extreme importance of defining their own life goals, to convince them that the upcoming training will give them such psychological “tools” that will allow them to become not losers in life, but winners, and will teach them how to use all their the best strengths in order to achieve these goals.
The second stage of the program includes a series of tasks, psychotechnics, which are aimed at helping young men and women answer perhaps the most important and most difficult question, “What do I want?”, teach them to formulate their goals, and make them effective.
So, let's turn directly to the tasks that need to be completed sequentially.
1. The instructions for the first task are as follows:
Take a pencil and paper. Sit back, where you feel most comfortable. Now try, without setting yourself any(!) restrictions, to draw your future life - the way you would like it to turn out, with the roads you would like to travel, with the peaks you would like to climb .
Start with a list of what
What are you dreaming about,
who do you want to become
what you want to become
Where to live,
what to do,
what to have.
Concentrate and make your pencil work continuously for 10-15 minutes. Wherever possible, shorten the words and move on to the next desire. Feel like a king, give free rein to your imagination, throw away limitations. If any doubts or restrictions still come to your mind, imagine mentally that you are taking them out of the field, removing them from the ring.
When writing down what you would like to achieve as a result, follow these rules:
1) formulate your dreams in positive terms, do not write what you would not want, but only what you strive for;
2) be extremely specific: try to clearly imagine what it looks like, smells, sounds like, feels like; the more sensory rich your description, the more it engages your brain to achieve the goal;
3) try to get a clear idea of the result: what exactly will happen when you achieve your goal, what you will feel then, what and who will surround you, what it will look like, how to even know that you have achieved what you were striving for;
4) it is important to formulate goals, the achievement of which, in principle, depends on you; you don’t have to count on someone to do something and then everything will be fine; what you strive for must belong to you, come from you, be yours;
5) having projected the consequences of your current goals into the future, think about whether they will harm other people; your results should benefit both you and others.
These five rules will need to be remembered and taken into account in future work.
At this stage it is possible to use - as an additional - such effective reception, like a drawing. A psychologist can ask high school students to imagine their entire future life as a feature film in which each of them plays main role, being at the same time a screenwriter, a director, and a director of the film. Everyone is free to choose what this film will be about, what characters will act in it, where the events will take place. You should start working on this film by drawing on paper a portrait of the hero of the future film, or, in other words, a self-portrait. But this should not be a portrait of yourself today, but a portrait of the person you would like to become. Such a sketch for a film can also be made using the collage technique, using white and colored paper, old newspapers and magazines, etc. The advantage of drawing is not only that it directly engages the sensory system, but also that for most high school students, drawing is far from a familiar routine activity (some admit that they haven’t drawn since childhood), but an emotionally contagious action that knocks down habitual stereotypes, allowing maximum “let loose”, remove barriers, give free rein to your imagination.
2.At the next stage
you should look through the list compiled earlier and, based on the drawn portrait, determine in which time grid each training participant works.
Do you want to have everything you wrote about tomorrow or, on the contrary, do your goals relate to the very distant future? Accordingly, in the first case, think about the future perspective, and in the second - about immediate goals, plans, steps. It is important to have a clear understanding of both the first step and the last.
3.Now out of everything
Based on what you wrote, choose the four most important goals for this year. Choose what, if realized, achieves your goal, will give you the greatest pleasure, what excites you most. Write down these four goals. And then write why you are sure that this is so important to you. The fact is that you can achieve anything, anything, if you have serious internal reasons for this, confidence in the need to achieve a certain goal, result. These grounds distinguish simply interest from subjective necessity, the obligation to achieve this. If you know exactly why something is so important to you, then you will find how to get there. In this sense, the “why” is much more important than the “how.”
4. When a list of four main, key goals has been compiled,
it is necessary to review them again through the prism of the rules formulated above, in other words, to clarify
1) is each goal formulated in positive terms, - (is this formulation specific,
3) is there a clear idea of the result,
4) is the achievement of this goal within your personal control and, finally,
5) to what extent the formulated goal satisfies ethical criteria. If there is a need to correct something, these corrections must be made.
5. Purpose of this exercise
- make a list of resources necessary to achieve goals that each training participant already possesses.
Describe what you already have - it could be some
character traits,
friends who will support you and help you,
financial resources,
your level of education,
your energy is finally
the time you have, etc.
After all, before every constructive work - whether you are going to build a house or make dumplings, you need to know exactly what materials and tools are available. Likewise, in order to construct a vision of the future that will fill you with strength and energy, you must have a clear understanding of what you have.
6. When you have done this,
Try to remember those times in your life when you felt absolutely successful. Which of the above resources did you use most effectively then? It doesn't have to be very an important event. This could be anything from a good answer in class to an evening spent with friends. Remember 3-5 such cases. Write it down, record on paper what you did when you achieved success, what qualities, capabilities, and resources you used. What kind of situation was it in which you felt successful?
7. And now
describe what kind of person you would have to be to achieve your goals. Maybe you should be more collected, disciplined, or maybe, on the contrary, more relaxed, spontaneous. Maybe you would like to learn how to manage your time better or improve your self-esteem and think highly of yourself. Think and fill at least one page with such entries about your personality.
8. Formulate in several theses,
what prevents you from having everything you dream of and strive for right now.
What exactly is stopping you?
What limits you?
Perhaps you don't know how to manage your time. Or there is a plan, but you just can’t begin to implement it.
Maybe you do too many things at once, or maybe, on the contrary, you are overly focused on one thing and miss out on the rest?
Maybe you're just afraid that you won't succeed?
Remember, has it ever happened before in your life that you initially imagined the worst outcome of some matter and that’s why you didn’t take it on at all.
Probably, every person has ways of setting limitations for himself, his own personal, favorite strategies that lead to defeat, but if we realize this, we can get rid of these limitations.
9. At this stage
For each of the four selected goals, you need to draw up a draft step-by-step plan to achieve it.
Start with the end result, and then plan step by step all the way up to what you can do according to this plan today. In the end, as D. Carnegie says, everything that in principle you can do in life, you can only do today. You can start with this: after thinking about the goal, decide what is the very first thing I should do to achieve it? In any case, you must make step by step plan achievement of this goal, which would include today.
If you are not sure what this plan should be, ask yourself again what is stopping you from having everything you want today (see previous exercise). Perhaps the answer to this question will be something that you can work on now to change it. By solving such an intermediate task, you can move closer to achieving your main goal.
So the first one is very important step made. With the help of the above tasks, everyone was able to determine what they want. Each described both the end result and the first steps towards achieving the desired goal; it was determined which aspects of the personality of a particular person help and which prevent him from achieving his cherished goal.
The task of the next step is to develop the actual strategy for achieving success. At this stage, you can use some of the ideas of neurolinguistic programming by J. Grinder and R. Bandler, namely, try to simulate someone who has already achieved the desired goal.
10. The psychologist suggests
everyone imagines a person who personifies that level of achievement, that area in which he would like to succeed. Models can be either well-known people or simply famous people who have achieved extraordinary success.
Write down the names of 3-5 people who have already achieved what you are striving for. In a few words, describe their personality traits and behaviors that led to their success.
After that, close your eyes and imagine that each of these three or five is going to give you advice on how best to achieve your goal. Write down the main idea of what they will say. Maybe it's about avoiding the wrong path, maybe it's about freeing yourself from your own limitations. Write the first thing that comes to your mind. Even if you don't know these people, they can be excellent advisors.
Now do the following useful exercise.
Remember a time in your life when you experienced some kind of absolute success. Close your eyes and imagine this very clearly. Pay attention to where this picture is placed: left, right, top, bottom, middle. Pay also attention to the size, accuracy and quality of this picture, to the movements, sounds, experiences that create it. Now think about the goals you wrote down. Create an internal picture of what will happen if you achieve this result. Mentally place this picture in the same place as the previous one, and make it the same size, brightness, and coloring. Try to do this as best as possible. Notice how this makes you feel. Most likely, you will already feel differently, more confident in success, than you did when you first formulated your goal.
This exercise should be repeated as often as possible so that the brain can create a picture of future success even more easily than the previous one. Having a clear inner picture and experiencing the “needed future” is extremely important.
11. During this exercise you should
Imagine your ideal day in as much detail and vividly as possible. This is useful because a time perspective that simply consists of a collection of many different goals is much less powerful in achieving those goals than a time perspective that includes some holistic view of what all those goals together mean.
To create such complete picture Training participants should be asked to draw their ideal day. Everyone should think and clearly imagine who is next to him on this wonderful (desired, ideal) day, what the participants in this picture are doing. It is necessary to imagine this day in the smallest detail, starting from the moment of awakening and ending with what happens, what experiences take place in the evening, just before sleep. Imagining all this, everyone should, taking a pencil and paper, either describe the imaginary ideal day in words or simply draw the corresponding picture or pictures.
12. In this last exercise you must
describe your ideal environment. Emphasize the meaning of the place without setting any restrictions on yourself.
Feel like a king: where you are
in the forest,
on the shore of the lake,
in a luxurious office or
in your apartment?
What's at hand -
computer,
piano,
cup of coffee?
What kind of people surround you?
It is useful to be constantly reminded that a clear, clear, focused signal is required for the automatic targeting mechanism to work. This explains the effectiveness of the above exercises.
Experience shows that at first it is quite difficult to perform all these exercises, but then it becomes not only easier, but also more entertaining.
Of course, it is easier to just live than to create, to consciously design your life, but you must understand that in life, every success is the result of hard work. You must also be aware that if you do not set your own programs for achieving the results you strive for, then someone else will do it for you, include you in their plan. And here everyone is free to choose. It is useful for every person to regularly review - again with pencil and paper - their life goals and change them if something in life or in themselves has changed.
Sometimes you need to stop and think whether this is what I am really striving for today. It would be nice, of course, to have a special notebook for this and look into it at least once every six months.