ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Positive Thinking and Goal Setting

Updated on May 17, 2017

Insipration and Motivation

Ideas, Passions, Goals, Positive Thinking
Ideas, Passions, Goals, Positive Thinking | Source

Birth To Adult Searching for Identity

As soon as a human is born, surrounding adults begin pushing and prodding to get the infant to react, respond, communicate and evolve. Most are taught over time to feed at specific times of day, and hopefully to sleep during the times the adults need slumber. Then the individual is coaxed to crawl, sit up independently, stand, walk, and work on turning gurgles and babbles into coherent words.

As a famous comedian once said, "We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve to sit down and shut up" (Phyllis Diller, 1917-2014). God rest her soul, she said a mouthful about the beginning of common confusion.

When I was a child, I was told, "Speak only when spoken to", or, "Don't talk unless you have something to say". What kind of a statement is that? A child takes things literally, so that last statement leaves the wonderment of; if you're saying something, isn't that talking? So, that must mean I'm not supposed to talk, because I don't have anything to say...right? That's the way I took it, and did very little talking for most of my life for fear I really had nothing to say. See how confusing that can be? As a teenager, I deduced that my Father meant I was not to speak unless I had something important to say, but that lead into the question, "What if something is important to me, but not to him, will he still listen?" The answer was "no", he wouldn't, so many things were held back, hidden, taken inward. I developed a sense of unworthiness, low self esteem, and self condemnation, believing that I never had anything important to say, categorized by his idea of what was important or not. It really came down to a problem with my own perception based on what I 'thought' he meant.

Many individuals encountered similar circumstances in childhood, and early adulthood, that clouded the search, and striving for where the best fit in life exists. Many have found their niche' but many individuals still struggle to determine what he or she wants out of life, or even what passions, or talents to apply. Here is a suggestion; look back at your childhood and determine what likes or interests you had that maintained over the years into adulthood. It's like being on a long path, and looking back to see the path already traveled to determine the forward destination.

Looking back, one might discover he or she had interest in helping others overcome emotional obstacles, which could tie in with psychology. Helping others overcome physical obstacles could tie to physical trainer, or physical therapist; standing up for others rights may look into law enforcement, legal justice, maybe become a judge. An individual who had passion and interest in art of one form or another may become a famous artist, or interest in cars become a race car driver, mechanic or designer. These are just a few examples.

Goals can be set in place to achieve small steps of self improvement, and steps toward interests, hobbies or career paths. The very first step is making a determination, or solid decision to actively apply steps for self improvement, and advancement. That becomes a strong positive thought that motivates the action. No one else can do it for you, it is up to you to make the decision and carry it through.

Ideas and Goals

Ideas = Goals Step 1. Make the decision to do something and get motivated. Step 2. Make a list of short term goals.
Ideas = Goals Step 1. Make the decision to do something and get motivated. Step 2. Make a list of short term goals. | Source

Ideas and Goals

The previous image indicates suggested steps to help achieve life potential.

Ideas = Goals.

Step 1. Make the decision to do something and get motivated.

A goal is something that an individual would like to reach for, or accomplish, such as learning a trade, utilizing talents for income, pursuing higher education, or something as simple as purchasing a desired item.

Having a plan how to reach that goal helps navigate toward making the achievement possible. This can be done by setting the long term goal (example - long term goal: Certification as a Life Coach.)

Getting motivated is just the desire to take action in a direction to obtain a desired goal.

Step 2. Make a list of short term goals.

Short term goals; Employment that funds classes for certification; Or financing to obtain certification training; Determining which establishment offers recognized certification, and support; Choose specific establishment to attend classes.

Along with these short term goals an individual also includes daily goals of study times, and practice times without interruption. Weekly goals insures progress continually pressing toward the ultimate long term goal. Always leave room for change, because life happens. If something comes up, such as sickness, accident, family matters, or other unexpected events, short term and long term goals can wane. Even in the times of events, make it priority to do some small something toward the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or ultimate goal. Even small actions count toward an accomplishment, but if an individual stops entirely the goals can be difficult to pick up again.

Positive Thinking with Goals

Positive thinking with goal setting is essential to be realistic, and motivated. When looking back over life events, only focus on actions or interests that inspired, or felt exciting. Feelings of fulfillment, achievement, and continued over time to the present.

When I looked back, I realized that my interest was mostly with writing, art, music, and helping others think better of themselves. Boiling down everything in my life left these four interests that would shape my future. I took courses in writing until I achieved a certification in writing short stories and novels. Then art courses helped determine what type of art would be most fulfilling. Music classes helped develop skills in playing instruments like the flute, guitar, keyboard, and drums (which turned out to be enjoyment and release). A Master of Science Degree in Psychology was achieved to help others.

Of course my experiences are just examples of what can be achieved by looking at positive things in one's own life, and determining the positive points and interests. Hopefully my examples will help someone find their passion, and find positive thoughts and ways to pursue his or her passions in an orderly way to easily acquire enjoyment, and success in life.

Strive not for perfection, because everything can always be improved. Rather continually strive for excellence in all application, whether at home with family, friends, employment, or general life. No one is perfect, but an individual can achieve a high level of excellence, and still learn and improve without disappointment or feelings of failure. No one fails, unless he or she stops learning and striving to overcome shortcomings to improve.

Goal setting is easier to fulfill if the individual approaches with a positive outlook such as, "I can do this", or, "Reaching this one goal will lead me one step closer to my ultimate goal and achievement." The stage is set for motivated action. The human neurological, and physiological make up is designed to do and believe according to what the brain is told. An individual can convince their own brain, and self, of positive things, not only by thinking positive thoughts, but also speaking those statements aloud, to the image in the mirror. The individual is looking at themselves, making a positive statement that is going into the hearing canals, and activating neurons in the brain. The messaging system then carries out the necessary processes to activate excitement, motivation, and desire. I personally looked at this and thought, "Well, what do I have to lose. If I do nothing, I will not achieve anything I would like to do. If I try this, maybe it will work and I will at least achieve something!" Much to my surprise, I have achieved expansion of my passions, and still activating those skills learned in different areas. Believe me, any individual has nothing to lose by trying the simple steps!

There are many ways to inspire motivation through positive thinking with visuals, reading, audio, attending seminars (live or on the web), and more. The following YouTube video published January 29, 2013 by Natalie Ledwell provides a few ideas. Check it out!

Goals and Positive Thinking

Positive Thinking On The Job!

It has been discovered that an individual can either make or break his or her position in any work environment. When stress increases positive thinking helps to focus on what is important, along with taking care of details that are causing the stress. Through observation, employees tend to fall into two categories, negative and positive, at various levels, but still two categories.

Those who have tendencies toward negativity usually are on a downward spiral and show lack of luster, lack of interest, slow or falling performance levels, negative attitudes or emotions, and complain a lot without offering solutions.

Those employees who have tendencies toward the positive continually increase in skill, performance, attitude and success on the job, regardless of what is happening in his or her surrounding. Team work increases and the workplace seems brighter when people are positive, and solutions are sought to benefit everyone.

Positive thinking helps move toward the positive, and the outcome is finding solutions that increase our purpose in life along with performance that can get us there. Even during unsavory situations, one has the power to choose between pessimism or optimism. Of course when a person consistently thinks of the worst things, the higher the probability it will come to pass. Thinking with optimism gives ample room to discover multiple solutions, or alternatives to the situation, and keeps the individual calm for better thought processes.

Which do you think?

What helps to accomplish goals?

See results

Summary

Positive thinking and goal setting provides

  • Inspiration to identify passions
  • Motivation and action
  • Steps to achievement
  • Success

Even when life seems to deal a different turn, there is still that spark of hope called "maybe" that can find another way to reach a goal and have a better outcome with success. An article in Psychology Today, The Gift of Maybe, Positive Thinking for the New Year, the author states, "The essence of “Maybe” or “what may be” contains the hope within uncertainty" (Carman, A., 2014).

When setting goals for the coming New Year, be sure to stay reasonable, set short term goals to proceed continually toward the long term or ultimate goal. Stay positive, and enjoy success!

Success

Source

References

Carmen, A., (2014). The Gift of Maybe. Positive Thinking for the New Year. Psychology Today. Retrieved 12/29/2014 from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-gift-maybe/201412/positive-thinking-the-new-year


Video Reference:

Ledwell, N., (2014). The Power of Positive Thinking, Top 3 Goal Setting Tips. YouTube Videos. Retrieved 12/29/2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beD74fDsG0c

Photo Source:

Courtesy of Marilyn Fritz (2007). Inspiration and Motivation. Ideas, Passions, Goals, Positive Thinking.

Courtesy of Marilyn Fritz (2014). Ideas and Goals. Ideas= Goals Step 1. Make the decision to do something and get motivated. Step 2. Make a list of short term goals.

Courtesy of Jeremy C. Wilson (2012). Success. The (Twenty Five) Golden Rule(s) of Achieving Success. Retrieved 12/29/2014 from http://www.jeremycwilson.com


working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)