"We all know what a goal is, but vision is a topic of confusion for many.”  This is what the founder of Success University, Matt Morris, wrote in a recent newsletter.  Knowing how to achieve goals is a question of how well you can see them.

 Morris goes on to say: “your vision is how you see yourself.  You can set goals all day long, but if you cannot truly see yourself achieving them, your goals will never be realized. To accomplish a goal, you must truly expect to achieve it."

 Most of us set New Year resolutions – yet how many times have you found yourself the following New Year’s Eve, knowing that those goals were never achieved?  This is mainly because our goals, no matter how worthy, lack vision.

 This is not some airy fairy bit of “new age” nonsense.  It is based in scientific fact.  If you do not have a vision of achieving your goals, your subconscious mind has no motivation.  Without a clear picture of where you are heading, you cannot possibly get there.

 If you are familiar with Matt Morris, you will know that his background was one of poverty and low expectations. Early in his life he focused only on how broke he was; his circumstances dominated his subconscious mind. 

 "I had no idea that my vision, which is trained by my subconscious mind, was overriding my efforts to succeed."

 The subconscious mind draws on what you focus on.  If we are focused on poverty and failure these will continue to show up in our lives they are the “blueprint” for how our subconscious mind creates our reality. 

 The good news is that you CAN change the vision the subconscious works with.

 There are three main ways in which the subconscious level of the mind is influenced: by others, by your experiences and how YOU think about yourself.

 To change your vision and transform your reality of life, here are three things you can do to deal with those three influences.

 1. Do not socialise with people who put you down.  Have people around you who are positive about you and who can be positive mentors.  If this is difficult for you, find a program where you can be coached by mentors like Matt Morris. 

 2. Do not be a victim of your past.  Whatever happened, you can view it as a source of strength rather than failure or weakness.  Re-interpret it so it is something to be learned from, instead of a source of self-defeating guilt or anger. 

 3. Learn to think positively about yourself.  Whenever you find yourself putting yourself down, change it into something self-affirming and strong.   

 Begin to see your goals in pictures.  Every day, impress these visions upon your subconscious mind as clearly as you can.  Again, using the daily motivational resources of online organisations can help with this. 

 As your subconscious mind begins to transform its vision, you will now begin working towards your goals with confidence, belief and inspiration.  These, in turn, will motivate you towards taking action or responding to opportunities that will bring you ever closer to achieving your goals.

 As you meet obstacles or false leads, your vision will now lead you through these, whereas before, without vision, you would have been discouraged and more likely to give up. 

 Ultimately, your vision is how you see yourself, and this is what will bring you through whatever trials you may face on the path towards your goals. 

 Samuel Smiles, the 19^th century writer and advocate of “self help” wrote:

“It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.”

and:

 “We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.”

 Do not allow your mistakes to affect your vision; rather allow them to contribute to its achievement.  They work as feedback that allows you to change course so that you are always moving towards your goal, rather than veering off course.

 It was when Matt Morris discovered that having a "vision" was the key to achieving goals, that he broke free from his life of poverty and went on to found Success University, which became the most popular personal development website on the internet in its first year of business.

 Anyone can achieve their dreams.  Certainly if Matt Morris can do it, you can.  All you need is a compelling vision for your subconscious to feed upon, and achieving your goals will be something that is motivating and easy.

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