Setting goals is a relatively easy step in the process of self-development. But to make progress towards our goals requires something more. It requires programming. In this article, I'll show you 7 of the best programming techniques that can propel you like a guided rocket towards your dreams and your goals.

1. Affirmations. Affirmations are written or spoken declarations of what you want to be. Boxer Muhammed Ali used to say, ¡°I am the greatest. Louis XIV declared, ¡°I am the state. And Beethoven said, ¡°I am an artist. What all of these people were doing was making an affirmation and doing it using simple, clear, and present-tense statements. Affirmations work for both individuals and teams.
   
   Here are a few organizational affirmations:
   
   "We are proud of our workforce. "
   "We enjoy maintaining and improving our high standards of work."
   "We thrive on the feedback we get from our customers as a way of knowing how well we are doing."
   
   
2. Visualisation. The power of the imagination allows us to arrive at our goals mentally before we reach them physically. We can do this simply by closing our eyes and using vivid pictures in our imagination. For example, we might see ourselves performing our goals, imagining what an ideal day would be like, seeing our surroundings, and other people coming and going. The 18th century poet Goethe used just such a trick before going to sleep at night. No matter how good or bad his day had been, he always imagined how his problems would work out and then a friend walking towards him saying: "I congratulate you".
   
   
3. Motivation. The word "motivation" comes from the Latin verb "movere", to move. Motivation is a drive that causes movement or a reason to move. Gestalt therapy argues that when we are content, with our needs satisfied and no goals to achieve, we are whole ("Gestalt" is German for "the whole structure"). We are in a static state but going nowhere. When we present a new goal to our subconscious brains, we move out of the static state into a state of positive discontent. This discontent provides us with the motivation to move towards the goal.
   
   
4. Pleasure and Pain. The reason why fear and reward are used so much by people in authority is because of their association with pleasure and pain. In the same way, when we set our own goals, we can increase our motivation level by associating thoughts of pleasure with goal attainment and thoughts of pain with missing the goal. Such motivating devices will help to see us through short-term discomforts, setbacks, failures and hardships.
   
   
5. As-If Practice. "As-if" practice sessions are rehearsals, no-hit batting practice, dry runs. They are like fire drills which we run through regularly to prepare us for the real thing. It's like the supervisor who sought promotion to her boss's job by dressing like her boss, studying problems like her boss and treating staff like her boss.
   
   
6. Positive Suggestion. "Positive suggestion" is a form of self-talk which tells us we're making progress towards our goals. The technique was discovered by French pharmacist, Emile Coué, who, by mistake, gave sugar pills to a man who believed he was seriously ill. When the man came back cured. Coué realised that it was the man's belief in the efficacy of the medicine that changed his thinking. Coué later replaced placebo medicines with self-talk to create the same effect. His most renowned phrase was: "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better."
   
   
7. Leave-It-Alone. When we set goals through our conscious brain, it's then up to our sub-conscious brain to come up with the answers of how to get there. Our job is not to interfere. Interference throws the sub-conscious brain off-course through doubts. It is like the penalty shooter who starts worrying about how he should hit the ball, which way the goalkeeper might move, what the crowd might think if he misses. Inevitably, his worry makes him take his eye off the goal and he misses the target.8. Prayer. One of the pioneers of self-development in America was Norman Vincent Peale. One of his contributions was to link personal development with religious traditions, in particular prayer. Peale suggested that when you pray for something to happen, you should do so with total conviction and thanks that the prayer has already been answered. Prayer works, because, like the Leave It Alone technique, you make your request and then hand the execution of the request over to someone or something else.Setting goals without programming them is like deciding when you want to wake up without setting your alarm. You might be lucky and wake up on time. But you might not. Always programme your goals. That way, you'll guarantee you arrive.
   
   © Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn. 2009