I was teaching at a camp in 1984, giving a “mativational” talk to a group of wrestlers. At the and I asked for questions:

“What are your goals?” one of the boys shouted from the pack.

“None of your business. Next.”

The crowd laughed.

A year later, after giving an updated talk at the same camp of nearly 300, I began yet another Q n A segment.

“What are your goals?” a boy asked.

“You were here last year, weren’t you?” I replied.

The boy nodded.

“And you asked the same question last year, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did,” the boy sheepishly grunted.

“Well then, what was my answer a year ago?

He remembered: “You said it was none of my business.”

“Very good,” I smiled. “You have an excellent memory.”

The laughed that year, too, as I proceeded to the next question.

The above brings me to an explanation of yet another motivational self-help myth – and that is the idea that you MUST “announce your goals publicly.”

The idea that making your goals public will help you is almost always false.

Most of the time it’s a sorry will power manipulation methodology and forced “show how much you’re committed” scheme, whereby, in order to avoid embarrassment, you feel forced to take “massive action” to accomplish your goal.

Once again, this strategy works for some people, so I’m not against it, (even though I do delight in poking fun of it).

What I am FOR, however, is elevating the 95% or so of the people for whom this tactic does NOT work.

There are many valid reasons that the will-power manipulation scheme of announcing your goals, doesn’t work.

Here are a few:

1. The announcement of the goal applies pressure to the individual – and often times this pressure amalgamates the brain –
causing a fight or flight response. This fear response then causes the person to be paralyzed with fear. Instead of now being compelled to take action, the person takes minimal or no action – and feels as though he or she is a failure.

2. Oftentimes, when a person announces a goal, especially to a crowd, it results in phony applause and contrived congratulations. or just as bad, an amalgamation of doubters who unintentionally hurl disbelieving energy at you.

If you feel good with the applause, your brain can interpret this as sufficient. There is no need to achieve the goal – after all,
you’ve already gotten the praise you so desired from the announcement alone.

Unwittingly, this trains the brain to announce goals, not to accomplish them – because the love and appreciation come from coughing up ideas, not from making the ideas become reality.

Conversely, if you haven’t yet established a solid foundation of confidence, and you announce your goal, which is followed by upturned sideways lips and doubting glares, you have just been energetically assaulted by what might just as well be a cadre of professional doubting Thomases.

In order to be unaffected or empowered by doubting Thomases or glad-hand congratulators – a high degree of proven performance and mental momentum must be established. Otherwise, the fawning praise, the “thank you for sharing” reflex-responders and the nasty naysayers will cause all your hard won enthusiasm to be diffused.

You’ll take a seat and wonder why all the positivity you felt before you made your announcemnet is now nowhere to be found.

In most cases, the only person you are wise to announce your goal to is a coach who has your best interests at heart – who has
experienced success in many arenas (not just writing a book about it) – and who will flat out tell you if your cart is before
the horse.

Many of the goals people set are not “user-friendly” to their brain and nervous system.

Which is even more reason I place the idea of announcing your goals publicly to be just as unhelpful as the other self-help myths I’ve been writing about.

Matt Furey

P.S. If you’re looking for a coach to guide you through the maze of misinformation, go here and tell me more. Yes, there will be a question about your goals – but you’re neither announcing it to the world – or going to hear false praise or “thank you for sharing” from me.

Yesterday morning one of my Facebook followers wrote to wish me a Happy 2018, then remarked how he’s going to put 2017 behind him (it wasn’t good) and focus on making this year a great one.

Many others resounded the same theme via email and text messages. A few told me about their resolutions for 2018 and how they’re going to finally achieve their goals.

My thoughts about this way of thinking is as follows:

“If tackling a year at a time didn’t work for you last year, why you doing it again?

How about living in the present moment, at least once per day, for a minute or two.

Perhaps part of the reason that the previous years wern’t as good as you wanted is because you tried to mentally tackle the entire year, at the onset, and a one-year chunk is too big of a bite for you to swallow.

You can whip yourself into an excited state before you go to bed, but the next morning you’re going to wake up fearful and ultimately frustrated. That’s what tends to happen, most of the time, when you attempt to live life LARGE.

You cannot live your life in the future or in the past, even if your mind is stuck there. You can only utilize the present moment as best as you know how at this time.

‘But, but, but, but, but, but… I have this goal to make a fortune this year,’ you say.

That’s great. Now put that goal on the back burner and forget about it because your chances of achieving it will be far greater if you focus on the front burner.

Take care of today. Take care of NOW. Take care of each and every breath you take. Take care of your next step – not your next 1,000,000.

If you’re going to set goals, set goals you want to work on because you believe you can achieve them.

Set “today goals.” Or “half-day” goals. Or morning goals. Or “during today’s practice” goals.

Make it simple.

When you simplify your focus, you no longer need to sit around pondering what your negative beliefs and thoughts are and how you can change them.

Your negatives will fly out the window because when you’re creatively alive in the present, there’s no way you can simultaneously ponder all the negatives.

Today is January 1, 2018.

Live today, TODAY.

Live today, NOW.

Forget about the entire year for now and focus on what you can do, a bit at a time, on this day, at this time.

Make it easy for yourself to win.

Win the day. Win the moment..

Rinse, repeat.

After doing this for a day, do it for another day, and then another.

A year later, if you’re so inclined, you can look back upon the past 365 days in absolute shock, thinking, “Did I really get that much done?”

Yes, you did.

Matt Furey

P.S. Instead of “motivational” musing or tips, I’ve decided to have some fun and call them by their namesake, “mativational” – i.e. written by Matt, minus one “t.”

P.P.S. Interested in coaching from me, then go to here.

P.P.P.S. You can also follow these musing on Facebook by looking for me under @mativationaltips

We’ve been told that there’s magic in thinking big.

I agree.

At the same time I believe there’s even more magic in small thinking.

By small thinking I don’t mean negative thinking, or thinking that you’re not worthy, of no value, or anything of the sort.

My meaning is that we tend to scare ourselves when we think TOO BIG.

We set goals that are big – and we feel a burst of excitement, even enthusiasm.

Then we open our eyes the next morning and we are frightened, even terrified.

Fear causes stagnation. Fear causes paralysis. So it makes no sense to set goals that “scare you.”

If we set goals that scare us, we tend to sit and ponder why we’re not moving, why we’re not taking action, why we’re procrastinating.

The ballplayer who focuses on hitting homeruns, who tries to hit them, who “muscles up” to hit them – will, in almost all circumstances, be profoundly disappointed.

Yet, the player who focuses on putting a good swing on the ball, who dives deep into the tiny parts and particles of his swing, will probably amaze himself and others at how good he becomes.

He will have a much greater opportunity to become a homerun hitter then the player who is desperately trying to become one.

By adjusting your focus to the small, easy-to-overlook details that no one else is paying attention to, your results grow tall, amazing one and all.

This means you can achieve bigger results by thinking smaller and taking smaller actions.

Thinking small puts you into the present moment, helps rid you of fear and frustration – or what we tend to call “anxiety.”

Call it fear – call it what it is – and you’ll conquer it, now, in the present moment.

And if you employ this same type of focus tomorrow, you’ll conquer it again.

Matt Furey

OOOH – by the way, I had a huge response to my email about opening the door to a few more private coaching clients. If you want to be considered, take a small step and simply write me an email to express your interest.

“Your suggestions (ideal goals) must be made without effort if they are to be effective.” – Emile Coue

Consider the quote shown above while taking a deep breath.

So many times we think we can get where we want by straining and striving.

Yet, the secret you’ll see in all the top professionals is they make what they do look easy and effortless.

There’s no strain or stress on their faces when they are at their best. They are calm, relaxed and in control.

And so it is with the use of imagination when picturing or thinking about goals.

If your face is tense, if your eyes are straining, if your muscles are stressed, this means you’re probably in a state of fear, doubt or worry – and you aren’t “attracting” what you want.

Imagination is play – not work.

You’re mentally pretending.

You’re wondering or supposing.

You’re definitely not straining.

Question: In what simple way can I use the principle of Effortless Effort today?

Matt Furey