Goal setting is an important part of life. Without goals, it’s very easy to get distracted from doing the things we need to in order to succeed. Goals motivate us, drive us, and they allow us to move forward. But reaching your goals is also tricky. Set them too high, and you run the risk of falling short and failing. Too low, and they become too easy to reach, creating a false sense of accomplishment. Hypnosis is a valuable tool that can help you find the right balance between setting and eventually reaching your goal. 

Goals are everywhere. We see them at work, at school – we even have goals at home. So why are goals so hard to set and understand, and why do we often fail at pursuing them? 

In this blog, we explore goal setting and how hypnotherapy can help us to actively pursue our goals without becoming overwhelmed by the process or losing sight of our objectives. We look at why reaching your goal is so important and what therapists, like those at Perth’s Hypnocare Hypnosis clinic can do to help. 

Why Goal setting Matters

Goal setting involves identifying a particular goal or objective, determining what you need to do in reaching your goal and how long it’s going to take you. Now, picking the right goals sounds easy, but the process can be challenging.  

Aside from the endless list of goals, we can choose from, things in life can change quickly, shifting the focus of our priorities. For example – Sarah from Perth may set a goal to visit three countries before the end of the year. A month later, she finds out that she is pregnant. Suddenly her goals shift from saving for traveling, to finding a good doctor. 

The Problem with reaching your goals

But it’s the smaller goal-setting challenges where most of us struggle. Reaching your goals, like eating better, sleeping right, or even finishing a book, can be tough to get right. The modern world is full of distractions, with social media, the internet, and TV often getting in the way of even thinking about goal setting. 

This can lead to people feeling demotivated, lazy, and disillusioned with their lives. Eventually, this takes a toll on their mental health, letting in negative and destructive emotions like anxiety, stress, and depression.

Hypnosis and the mind

Hypnosis uses many techniques and methods to achieve – you guessed it – therapy goals. From dealing with anxiety to helping people break bad habits and manage their pain, hypnotherapy has for centuries been recognized as an effective practice for overcoming issues of the mind. 

Hypnotherapy involves engaging with the client, first determining the problems they’re facing before considering techniques that will be most effective at addressing them. Therapy goals may look like simple ambitions like falling asleep quicker or helping to relax, or they may be more complex – like helping a client overcome childhood trauma or deal with chronic pain. 

The mind is powerful and capable of many incredible things. But it is also fragile and susceptible to problems. Hypnosis has evolved to tap into the power of the mind while helping you confront and overcome challenges and issues by actively pursuing and reaching your goals.

Hypnotherapy, meet your goals

There are two components to the mind: The conscious mind, which we’re aware of and where we rationalize, reason, and think logically, and the subconscious, which is responsible for involuntary actions like emotion. 

Goals live in both the conscious and the subconscious minds. The conscious mind views goals objectively, considering the goal elements that can be seen and touched. The subconscious, on the other hand, focuses on how attaining (or failing at) that goal will make you feel. 

Put simply, a person, for example, setting a goal to buy a new home in Perth’s most exclusive suburb, may think objectively about how the house will look and how much they can afford (the conscious mind). At the same time, the subconscious works on the feeling of being a homeowner or the happiness of raising a family there. 

Hypnotherapy can access both the conscious and the subconscious minds, making hypnosis an effective goal-setting tool. 

On your marks, get setting, Goals!

So how do hypnotherapy professionals like the ones at Hypnocare Hypnosis Clinic in Perth help clients with their goal-setting efforts? They follow tried-and-tested hypnosis techniques and processes:

1. Establishing the goal. Here, the therapist encourages the client to write a goal down and ensure that it is realistic and attainable.
2. Goal positivity. Next, the process uses positive reinforcement and association to position the goal within the mind as a positive objective.
3. Understanding the goal. Rational acknowledgment and acceptance come into play here, ensuring you understand why you chose this specific goal. 
4. Approach the goal. By breaking down the steps that need to be taken to reach your goal. Affirmations and clear instructions reinforce the elements of the goal and explore how it’ll make you feel. 
5. Define the goal expectations. The therapist will ultimately work to explore the client’s expectations of what reaching your goal will mean, allowing us to accept the outcome.