Keys to Achievable Outcomes
In the NLP SMART Goals post, I mentioned the Keys to Achievable Outcomes, which are critical when formulating goals. This framework is designed to gather the necessary information before you finalize and refine your goal using the NLP SMART framework. It serves as the foundation for goal creation, ensuring that your goals are clear, aligned with your values, and realistic.
Achieving success in personal and professional life requires more than just setting a goal. It’s about crafting goals that are clear, aligned with your values, realistic, and actionable. The Keys to Achievable Outcomes framework provides a structured approach to help you set and achieve your goals with precision and purpose. This method goes beyond traditional goal-setting by focusing on clarity, alignment, and ecology, ensuring your goals are attainable and sustainable.
Why Is This Important?
Often, people set goals without fully understanding what it will take to achieve them or whether the goals are truly aligned with their life’s values. The Keys to Achievable Outcomes guide you through a systematic process, ensuring that your goals are clear, realistic, and aligned with your deeper values. This framework breaks down each aspect of goal-setting into manageable steps, allowing you to achieve your objectives while maintaining harmony in all areas of your life.
Understanding Dissociation vs. Association
Before diving into the steps, it’s essential to understand the difference between a dissociated state and an associated state. These terms refer to how we experience situations, either from an external viewpoint (dissociated) or from within the experience, feeling everything firsthand (associated).
Dissociated State: In a dissociated state, you view yourself and a situation from an external perspective, as if you are an observer. It’s like watching yourself in a movie or looking at a photograph of yourself. This state allows you to evaluate things more objectively without being caught up in the emotions of the moment. You can assess situations with a sense of detachment, which can help with clarity and decision-making.
Associated State: In an associated state, you are fully immersed in the experience, seeing and feeling everything through your own eyes. You are directly connected to the emotions, sensations, and thoughts in the moment. This state helps you engage deeply with your feelings and motivations, giving you a firsthand experience of whatever is happening.
Why is this important? When you associate into the completion of your goal, your mind may interpret it as already achieved, which can reduce the urgency to take action. By visualizing the completion of your goal from a dissociated state, you maintain the motivation to strive toward it. Using an associated state when evaluating your current reality helps you experience the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, driving you to take the necessary steps to move forward.
The Keys to Achievable Outcomes
Clearly Specify Your Outcome (Dissociated State)
The first step in setting any goal is to make sure your outcome is clearly defined. A vague goal leads to vague results. By specifying your outcome in detail, you create a compelling vision that draws you toward success.
Ask: What will I see, hear, and feel when I have it?
When specifying your outcome, imagine yourself in a dissociated state. See yourself having achieved your goal from an external viewpoint as if you’re watching yourself in a movie. This allows you to evaluate the outcome more objectively and clearly visualize what success looks like without getting overly attached to the emotions.
Future Pace Your Goal: Visualize yourself in the future, having already achieved your goal. Again, do this from a dissociated perspective. Write the goal using present and past tense verbs. For example, say, “It is December 3, 2025, and I am [insert desired outcome].” Writing your goal this way helps you step back, evaluate it clearly, and envision it without being overwhelmed by emotions.
State Your Outcome in the Positive
Goals should be framed positively. Focus on what you want to achieve rather than what you want to avoid. This shift in mindset helps direct your energy toward positive action and fosters a sense of motivation.
Ask: What specifically do I want? Avoid framing goals as something you don’t want to happen. For example, instead of saying, “I don’t want to be unhealthy,” say, “I want to live a healthy lifestyle.”
Specify the Present Situation (Associated State)
While you viewed the desired outcome from a dissociated state, now it’s time to connect deeply with your current reality from an associated state. This step helps you feel what it’s like to be in your present situation so that you understand the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.
Ask: Where am I now in relation to my outcome? What do I see, feel, and experience as I live in this current reality? Being associated allows you to deeply understand the emotions and sensations surrounding your current situation, giving you clarity on the next steps to move forward.
Get the First Step
Knowing where to begin is essential. Breaking down your goal into actionable steps ensures that you have a clear starting point and makes the process manageable.
Ask: If I had nothing else to do but achieve this goal, what is the very next action I would take? Identifying the next immediate step helps you move forward.
Uncover the Evidence Procedure
How will you know when you’ve you’ve reached your goal? Establish clear criteria for measuring your success.
Ask: How will I know when I have achieved this goal? This could be quantitative, such as reaching a specific milestone, or qualitative, such as feeling a sense of fulfillment or satisfaction.
Is It Congruently Desirable?
Ensure that your goal is something you genuinely want. Sometimes, goals are set based on external pressures or expectations rather than personal desires.
Ask: What will this outcome get me or allow me to do? Am I sure I want it?
This step ensures that your goal aligns with your true desires and values.
Is It Self-Initiated and Self-Maintained?
For a goal to be truly achievable, you need to be in control of the process. If your goal depends on someone else’s actions, emotions, or decisions, it may not be fully attainable. For example, a goal like “make this person happy” is outside your control because you cannot directly influence someone else’s emotions. You can only control your actions, not how others respond to them.
Ask: Is it only for me? Am I the only person in charge of my results?
This ensures that your goal is within your sphere of influence and that you have the power to make it happen without relying on external factors.
Is It Appropriately Contextualized?
Make sure your goal fits within the appropriate contexts of your life.
Ask: Where, when, how, and with whom do I want it? Are there any drawbacks in any of these contexts?
This helps you avoid setting goals that may conflict with other areas of your life.
Establish Resources
Understanding what resources you have and what you need is crucial for success. This includes internal resources (skills, knowledge) and external ones (support, tools).
Ask: What personal resources do I have that will assist me in achieving this goal? Have I ever had or done this before? If yes, how did I do it? Do I know anyone else who has achieved it? If yes, what resources did they have, and what can I learn from them? Imagine you have already achieved your goal. What resources did you use to get there?
This step ensures that you have everything in place to succeed or know where to find what you need.
Is the Goal Ecological?
In NLP, ecology refers to the impact of your goals on yourself, others, and the broader environment. Make sure that your goal is beneficial for you and also for those around you.
Ask: Is it good for me, others, and the planet? For what purpose do I want this? What will I gain or lose if I have it?
This ensures that your goals are sustainable and their achievement will not negatively affect you or others.
Cartesian Logic
Cartesian Logic is a powerful tool for evaluating the impact of your goals from multiple perspectives. This four-part questioning method helps you examine the potential outcomes and consequences of achieving or not achieving your goal.
Ask:
What will happen if I get it?
What won’t happen if I get it?
What will happen if I don’t get it?
What won’t happen if I don’t get it?
By asking these questions, you can uncover hidden benefits or drawbacks, ensuring that your goal aligns entirely with your desires and values.
How Can You Apply This?
The Keys to Achievable Outcomes framework is designed to guide you through a thoughtful and strategic process when setting goals. By addressing each of the 11 keys, you are creating achievable, meaningful, and sustainable goals.
Here’s how you can apply this process:
Clearly define your goal (from a dissociated state): Be specific about what you want and frame it positively.
Assess your current situation (from an associated state): Understand where you are now to better plan your next steps.
Break your goal into actionable steps: Focus on what you can do immediately to move forward.
Ensure congruence: Make sure your goal aligns with your values and is something you genuinely want.
Evaluate resources and ecology: Understand what resources you need and ensure your goal benefits you and others.
Practical Exercise:
Take a current goal you’re working on and apply the Keys to Achievable Outcomes framework. Start by clearly specifying the goal, then move through each of the steps outlined above. As you go through this process, adjust your goal where necessary to ensure it is clear, actionable, and congruent with your values.
Consider This:
As you review your current goals, how might using the Keys to Achievable Outcomes shift your approach? Could it help you fine-tune your steps or identify resources you hadn’t considered? Take a moment to apply these keys and see how your goals align with what you truly desire.
Final Thoughts
Setting goals is essential to personal and professional growth, and not all goals are created equal. The Keys to Achievable Outcomes framework ensures that your goals are clear, aligned with your values, and realistically achievable. By using this process before applying the NLP SMART Goals framework, you’re setting a solid foundation that ensures your goals are well-structured and congruent with your broader life mission.
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