There are mainly two types of people when it comes to goal setting systems – namely, the pragmatic and New Age types. Any goal setting system cannot really please everybody, can it? But most goal setting systems would like to cater to both of these groups of people. Personally, I’m a mix of these 2 traits, leaning a little bit on the action-oriented side.
To the pragmatic types: learn to trust intuition, right-brain, fluffy stuff more. Not every aspect and detail of all plans see fruition to the degree of 100%. Accept some flexibility and unpredictability. You know what you really want, and that’s good. It doesn’t matter how you get it, as long as it’s ethical and legitimate, and you enjoy the process, even if just a bit.
To the New Age types: learn to bring some order and structure into your life. Take the driver’s seat. Try to rely less on the “Higher Intelligence of the Universe”. You’ve got to stop being indecisive and vague about what you truly want in your life (like, “I want to help the world by ending hunger and advocating world peace, umm… and at the same time, look good, become rich & famous, and attain a higher awareness of my spirituality” and other similarly sissy stuff). Be specific! And painfully realistic!
Very, very often, people will begin to see some things happening, some new people entering their lives, some great changes, even some temporarily crippling tragedies taking place, as soon as a few days to a few weeks after they started to do some conscious inner programming of their goals into their subconscious minds. You may or may not begin to see the “trigger” even before the number of designated days for the system are up.
If it does, simply continue with the entire process, while taking note of these serendipitous events. If something major occurs, take time off the program and continue as soon as you are able to get back on track. If it does not, meaning that the “triggers” only happen after the designated number of days, and even that takes a long time, you need to start creating a definite plan of action, if you haven’t already.
The rules for effective project management apply: set specific, measurable, realistic targets, fix deadlines for those targets, define the major sub-goals or milestones and the deadlines for those milestones, the possible risks involved, the people you need, the resources and finances required, et cetera. Pick up a good book on project management for beginners (maybe one of those “For Dummies” or “Idiot’s Guide” books, my favourite!). And start working, already!