“…. Imagine yourself strolling on the beautiful sea shore. A clear blue sky is above you, with just a few white fluffy clouds. Trees sway gently in a warm summer breeze, waves ripple softly against the shoreline and you feel the texture of the wet sand as it squishes up between your toes….As you walk along this safe and relaxing shore, your attention is drawn suddenly to a small blue bottle poking slightly from the sand. When you pick up the bottle the top comes open, and to your amazement there appears in front of you a large blue shining eyed genie. The genie says, “Your wish is my command. Any “thing” that you truly desire I will obey. Any “thought” that you hold in your heart I will help you achieve.”
This, in fact, is our subconscious mind which will obey any wish from us (the conscious mind) as a command!
“The most important thing about goals is having one.” –GEOFFRY F. ABERT
Goal Mapping, by Brian Mayne focuses on the first step towards achieving success; setting goals then mapping them to our actions and achieving them. It introduces the reader with the inner self and gives a refreshing insight from the otherwise chaotic lifestyle of a common man. Be it any economic, social, cultural status, every living human today has his own share of stress. The ultimate combination of ancient wisdom, extensive research and study has been elaborately explained for effective goal mapping. While the traditional goal setting focuses on the left brain by words and continuous repetition of words, to force the goals into our sub conscious ‘genie’ brain, the Goal mapping technique triggers both the left and right brain and directly stimulates the subconscious brain to concentrate on and achieve the goals more quickly through combination of words, pictures and symbols.
Simple yet a sure shot key to realizing our most latent thoughts, this book gives us various tips and facts to improvise our life instantly. For e.g. an excerpt from the book says; “There are three main aspects that make any given thought stronger and a 'dominant command'. They are: repetition, duration and emotion.” The author proves it through several examples that the longer the duration of time that we hold the belief, the stronger it grows and when we add majority of our emotions to it, it becomes a sure shot success.
The book is an instruction manual for achievement and explains a universal philosophy of success that is based on natural law and motivational psychology; the foundations on which the Goal Mapping is built. Gradually we realize that the ideas and techniques in this book are not artificial shortcuts but very natural ways that have been used by all achievers in the world history. It also answers the cause behind the fact that most of the scientists and greatest men were not formally educated but still had the envisioning capacity to achieve. The reason is their Goal Mapping nature.
Conscious (master) and subconscious (the ‘genie’)brain are the captain and the crew.
A Picture is worth a Thousand Words. The left brain and words have a much weaker connection which is why a goal that is communicated only in words must be re-written hundreds of times to achieve the same power as one created through pictures or symbols. Right brain stimulants: music, images, colour. We all think in pictures. To achieve a positive mental balance you must lead from the right and manage from the left.
The seven steps of goal mapping have been designed as a complete and self contained system for achieving success but have been designed to work in alignment with natural and universal laws of manifestation.
The seven principles of LIFT (Life, Information, For Transcendence, an organization started by the author) are strategies for personal empowerment or suggested ways of being.
- Raise your awareness: Know where you stand
- Develop Possibility Consciousness: Be open to the world
- Find Balance: Don’t overdo anything.
- Be on Purpose: Don’t allow your mind to get diverted
- Become Fully Response- Able- The response that we show to life is what matters.
- Maintain a Positive Focus- Even a negative thought can ruin our goals.
- Involve to Evolve
Seven natural Laws of manifestation:
- Have belief in yourself and your goal
- Balance your goals
- Live in the moment
- State your goals in present tense
- State your goals in positive tense. Always be positive in your thoughts and even words. When you say that you can’t, your subconscious mind believes in it and follows it literally. Change all your negative statements to positive supporting statements. Positive thinking is a strategy
- State your goals in personal tense
- Allow for lag time: It is perfectly OK if the goal gets delayed to become a truth. It is important that we achieve it.
DRIVE, ATTITUDE AND CONFIDENCE : THE DAC FACTOR
The greatest unexplored territory in the world is the space between our ears – BILL O’BRIEN
The book displays the method of fast track transformation of the inner person by no shortcuts but by a smart way of identifying the right goal and concentrating and time managing to achieve it.
This one step, choosing a goal and sticking to it, changes everything. – Scott Reed
Short term, medium and long term goals should be achieved in days, weeks or months, and years respectively.
If it be for my highest good and the highest good of all, then
Let me be an instrument of goodness spiritually and personally and reach the highest peak professionally
If you think you can, you can If you think you can’t, you can’t
And either way, you’ll prove yourself right!
Takeaways for freshers, managers, leaders and goal setters:
With real life examples from his workshops and practical exercises to realize one’s long term, short term and medium term goals, this book enables a virtual picture of your goal to float all over the mind and gives tremendous urge to fulfill it.
One example about a angry young woman altered my professional life and my personal attitude significantly. The lady apparently was unhappy and burst out during one of the workshops held by the author saying, “I hate my job, but I’ve got to do it to pay my bills. How can you stand there telling me that I should feel good about it? You just don’t know what you’re talking about.” Those words that I have heard at least more than a dozen times from different people at different times, triggered the inner thoughts in me and I realized that we might or might not enjoy our work and the environment, but it is those dominant thoughts about hating it, more than the work itself, that cause the feelings of bitterness and anger.
Acceptance or at least being ‘OK’ about the situation can help us take control, clear the mental chaos and provide numerous other alternatives which are not visible otherwise. Obviously within a week’s time, I got more responsibility, hardly felt annoyed with my job and started living life with more enthusiasm and jest, looking forward to the numerous other things that I used to do. I started working for the NGO that I was part of before joining my current job; I started studying for a certification and of course wrote this book review. Trying it on me has been the most rewarding experience for my self as a whole. Ideal time taken to read such a book is a calm weekend. I took around a week to study and absorb it as it is a task oriented book which keeps the reader active throughout with not a page of boredom.
The best highlight of the book is that it is full of useful proverbs and sayings throughout, with relevance to each chapter. My favorite one in the book is; 'Do everything whole heartedly and you will succeed; there is so little competition'. I have written them all, spiral bound them and kept on my desk at work. Every morning, I start my day with a new proverb that constantly reminds me a part of my chosen goal. Yes, this goal chosen needs to be multidimensional and should be able to accommodate wisdom, said in so many ways that it reinforces and strengthens the urge to reach the said goals.
