Setting Outcomes

The response to my previous articles about separating goals from outcomes has hit a nerve among our readers because we have received a few questions about it already. So here are a few more tips on how to prepare your brain for the most wonderful journey you will ever take.

“Be careful what outcomes you set – because you may achieve them.”

That statement was made in the context of setting a target to increase your personal wealth. A target like that is incomplete because it does not state by how much. If it were to be extended to: I wish to increase my personal wealth by ten million (or a hundred million) dollars. It becomes complete and your brain will continue to make the necessary links to achieve it.

If your target is merely to increase your personal wealth you may pick up a coin and that’s it! Your personal wealth has increased by the value of the coin you just picked up and there is no longer any need for your brain to keep seeking the links - it has completed that task by the value of the coin you just picked up.

Put simply; the computer that is your brain must be fed information for it to make the necessary links. The big picture information are the outcomes that you seek. After you have set the big picture program a series of small picture programs must be installed. These small picture programs are commonly called goals. They are simply achievable steps towards your declared objective. That is why a goal that is set to: ‘Make a million dollars’ is rarely achieved. It is too big for a single step; it should be an outcome and the first goal to achieving that would possibly be to decide what I will use to achieve my target. It may be: I am going to sell computer hardware at a profit to make a million dollars. Now your brain can start making links to find the right kind of hardware at the right buy price. This is a simple and achievable goal. Your next goal may be: To research the market and find the right marketing method to sell computer hardware to make a million dollars. Can you see that each goal is an achievable, logical step on the road to your big picture objective. So far we haven’t set a monetary goal because we set a monetary target to make a million dollars by selling computer hardware. There is no purpose setting monetary goals when your outcome is monetary. You cannot start making money until you create a vehicle to do it so your goals should all be aimed at creating the vehicle. Only when you have found your market and penetrated it can you start setting monetary goals like: This month I will sell fifty thousand dollars of hardware at a retained profit of five thousand dollars. So please be careful how you set your outcomes because your brain can only follow the information you feed to it. There is a common saying in IT circles: “Garbage in, garbage out.” Feed you mind inaccurate data and it cannot help you achieve your true position in life.

Imagine walking past a coin on the ground and not picking it up. Your mind has registered that coin as money and you have made a decision not to pick it up, naturally this program’s your mind that money is unimportant to you and all money gathering links within your brain will break. You just told your brain money isn’t important to you and to your brain ten cents and ten million dollars is the same – its all just money.

The moral is be careful what you feed to your brain because it will give you back exactly what you ask for. Outcome planning for is critical to your future. If you set it too low your brain will make links for a that same low expectation. If you set it to aquire personal wealth of 100 million dollars it will put the same effort into achieving that target. Just imagine if it falls short by 50%. You are still worth 50 million dollars and that isn't a bad lifetime achievement. Had you told your brain to increase personal wealth by one million dollars and you fall short by 50% then you are not so happy. Your outcomes should be set high or you are not giving that wonderful brain the opportunity to show you just how clever it is.

Article one of this series is here.

Understand outcomes and see your life change for the better. Ignore them and you are depriving yourself of self-knowledge.