The Power Tool of Goal Setting: B-RAM
The last couple posts I talked about some of the essential components to success including taking action and writing out your goal. Without them you can’t even get started. But what will keep you going once you do get started? All the best intentions are not going to help you when things get really challenging.
Take dieting, as an example. You go out to eat and you’re sitting there with your Caesar salad while your companions chow down prime rib and pizza and your mouth is salivating nonstop. You begin to wonder why in the world are you are dieting when you could just be enjoying yourself. But, the next day, a glance at yourself in the mirror makes you smile or you end up out playing ball with the kids for an hour instead of just ten minutes. That’s when it’s easy to remember why you’re changing the way you eat and, in those moments, you can honestly say you don’t miss those Grande mochas with whipped cream in the morning. Until your co-worker walks in with one and, again, you forget why you’re dieting. It’s then that you need a true will power tool.
That tool is something I call B-RAM. You can read about it in Chapter 7 of my book, How to Ignite Your Passion for Living. B-RAM stands for Benefits, Reasons, and Motivations. It’s a list of the real end goals you’re after. Losing weight isn’t just about looking good—it’s about feeling better, getting off medication, reducing your risk of disease, and increasing your energy so you can do more for yourself and your family. You know this is why you do it but in those really trying moments, they are just hard to remember.
With a B-RAM list though, all you do is pull the list out and read it over. You keep that list as handy as possible. Maybe you put it on your phone, on an index card in your wallet, or on sticky notes posted on your glove compartment and bathroom mirror. The important thing about your B-RAM list is that it must list every single benefit, reason, and motivation that will make this goal worth working so hard for. The longer the list, the easier it will be to keep on track. And if you can do that, just keep yourself going, soon you won’t have to wonder why you work so hard. Because you’ll be living with those benefits, not just reading about them.
The Surefire Way to Stick with Every Goal
Many don’t muster the discipline and the necessary, consistent behavior and actions to get the job completely done. Do you start a project or set a specific goal only to give up before you’ve completed it? Well guess what? You’re pretty darn normal. Funny thing is that we all start out with such great hopes and enthusiasm and we think we’re doing all the right things and we’re going to “stick with it†this time. But many times we don’t. What’s missing? Is there some magic or secret to sticking to every goal you’ve ever set? As a matter of fact, there is something you can do that is almost magic and works almost all of the time. What is it? It’s one fairly simple step that you can take that will dramatically increase your chances of achieving your ONE BIG GOAL (and most of your small goals too), and you’ll do it right on your time schedule. What is that step or the secret that will help you make a quantum leap in your ability to see your dreams through to reality? You’re about to find out.