A man who has control over his mind is able to realize its full potential – says an ancient Indian text

Let us decode the above quote with the approach of outcome-based goals

Very few of us understand how our brain and mind works. We don’t really take charge of it, we don’t really know what pictures, sounds, feelings, taste and smells are in our brains and minds, let alone how that information is impacting us right now.

The brain operates pretty much on its own, doing its job to process information and keep us alive. In contrast, the mind can focus on more than just survival, it provides us with an opportunity to create and choose from countless options.

In this post, we’re going to explore the way our brain makes sense of the world, how to fine-tune that process and how to deal with things that cause an emotional reaction and pull us off our desired course.

Imagine this, someone gets into a taxi and the driver asks “where to” and the passenger says “don’t take me to the station”. It sounds silly and yet this is how many of us navigate our lives. It is hard to get where you want to go – when you’re not completely clear about where that is, so first, we need an outcome!

An outcome is something you intend to achieve, that is achievable, appropriate and measurable. We will create an outcome frame because it carefully and thoroughly addresses the elements that make up for a worthwhile goal that truly serves you.

An outcome frame is a set of questions that orient your thinking to maximise the possibility of your getting what you want – a way of perceiving an experience as a set of choices rather than addressing the issue of why a problem.

Once I learned to use the well-formed outcome, I wondered how I ever, got along without it. It is so simple and effective that you can apply to anything you want, especially helpful when you are planning big changes, find yourself stuck, or when you simply want to finetune a goal you have or already pursuing.

Let’s now review the key questions and conditions of a well-formed outcome and then you will have an opportunity to apply them using a simple worksheet to an outcome that you want.

Thoughts are ancestors of action and hence all personal achievements start first in the minds of the individual. The first step is to know exactly what the goal or desire is. A well-formed outcome goal must be stated in positive terms chosen by you and within your control, described in a sensory-specific way and have a manageable size or scope which we call chunk size.

Here we go, imagine that you wanted to feel more persuasive remember, if your goal is to feel more persuasive you can’t state it as “I don’t want to feel pushy”.

This can’t be a goal at all.

This is simply a statement of what you don’t want. It’s too vague to ever know if you had even attained it. It is also very hard for the brain to work with negatives. How do you not think of a pink monkey? first, you have to think of it and then try not to think of it, that’s just a big waste of energy. So every time you think “I don’t want to be pushy” you first have to think of being pushy. The only way to stop that thought is to think of something else. So why not just go for what do you want directly.

To find tune what feeling persuasive is, I would want to describe what that means to me in specific sensory terms. To do this, I ask myself what will I see, hear or feel when I’m feeling and being more persuasive?

In response I might say when I’m feeling persuasive I’ll feel like

• I’m really being helpful,
• That I’m giving someone what they need to make a good decision,
• I’ll be breathing comfortably thinking clearly
• Easily accessing information and material I need an expressing myself in a dynamic helpful way.

Let us narrow that down a bit more sharply – for example “I want to be feeling more persuasive in my job”. Now get ready with your pen and paper to do the ‘Discovery activity to a well-formed outcome”

Pick one of your wants which you have now identified and use it to apply a well-formed outcome – answering the well-formed questions listed under…

1. What specifically do you want? describe your desired outcome or state in a positive sensory-based way that’s an appropriate chunk size and also addresses what else having or achieving your outcome will do for you (meta outcome – thinking about thoughts) 
2. How will you know when you have achieved what you want? determine if the “evidence” you are focused on is appropriate and timely (soon and regular enough – a time frame that allows me to take the necessary steps to achieve my goals) 
3. Under what circumstances where, when and with whom do you want to have this result? reflect on the contexts in which you want to have this outcome and evaluate the ecology so you can consider how achieving this result may affect other areas aspects of people in your life. 
4. What stops you from having your desired outcome already? identify and explore any feelings, thoughts, or circumstances that seem to inhibit movement towards your outcome.
5. What resources will you need to help you create what you want? determine what resources you already have that will help you (knowledge, money, connections, etc). Consider additional resources you would need to move forward.
6. How are you going to get there? Identified manageable steps to help achieve your results, consider multiple options to get where you want to go, and determine the first step you will take.

Now having taken you through the outcome process the achievement is, that you can apply this for anything and almost everything in your life. It will serve as one of your best tool that will free up your energy and time for outcomes you really want to realise and worth having your time and those which really takes you forward.  

Do apply the techniques explained and please put your comments in the section below so that others can use and benefit from your experience. And don’t forget to share this post with your circle of friends. When you share it grows!

Thanks for reading this piece and let’s go and make those outcome-based goals