My personal experience has taught me that the first thing you should do when you set a goal is to ask; why don’t I already have that goal?

If you answer this question honestly then you will help yourself increase both the likelihood and the speed of getting that goal.

Why does asking this question help you?

Your life is the reflection of the inner you. Whatever you have or don’t have, whatever you have achieved or failed to achieve, whether you are happy, unhappy, or indifferent are all created first in your mind. This creation may be a conscious process or it may be subconscious but either way the life you live is a projection of who you are.

If you want to change something in your life then you need to change something in yourself first. One of the most difficult questions for most people to answer is; what exactly do I need to change? The easiest way to discover what needs to be changed is by examining why you don’t already have the target of your goal.

Because the inner you is resistant to change you may find yourself answering this question by giving a string of external reasons. This is perfectly natural but it is of little use to you. You may not have control over external situations but you do have control over yourself. For this reason all your answers need to be in terms of you and your role.

Telling yourself that you don’t have what you want because you don’t have the money to buy it may be true but it doesn’t bring you any closer to getting your goal. Take that “external” answer and reformulate it into an “internal” answer.

For example you may rephrase “I don’t have enough money to …” into “I am not managing my money effectively”. Or perhaps it could be “I am not taking the steps required to increase my income to the level I would like it to be.”

Notice that these are two very different rephrasings of the same external statement. When you state your situation from an internal perspective you are forced to look at the internal “why” that is specific to you.

Also, by rephrasing to an internal perspective you are pointed toward the actions that you need to take in order to achieve the goal. In the first rephrasing the action needed is to improve your money management habits. In the second rephrasing the action required is to make yourself more valuable to an employer or customer.

The question “why don’t I already have it?” works just as well for non-material goals.

Let’s imagine that you have set a goal to be promoted to a particular position in your company. When you ask why you don’t already have the position you will discover what you need to change in yourself in order to win that position. Let’s look at some example responses.

“The management doesn’t appreciate my value to the company.”

This is an external answer so let’s rephrase it into an internal response. Again there will be different rephrasing for different people but here are some possibilities for honest rephrasing”.

• “I am not promoting myself effectively to management.”

• “I am not demonstrating my skill set.”

• “I actually need to increase my value to the company”

• “I need to increase my people skills”

And of course there may be any number of other reasons.

Now let’s make it a little more personal to you.

Take a sheet of paper and write a list of the reasons you don’t already have your current goal. Read the list and if any of those reasons are phrased in the external mode then rephrase them to an honest, internal reason.

Now you will have a valuable list of things that you can get to work on to make your goal a reality.