Self Discipline in 10 Days - by Theodore Byrant (Category K)
Most importantly understand your wrong side. What makes you push the work out of current window, what steals all your time that you allocated for a particular work?
Some feelings that prevent a work from happening is:
I will become a slave to routine.
I will loose my freedom.
I will loose my sense of fun.
I will drown into sea of responsibilities.
I will put too much pressure on myself.
This subconscious thought comes from childhood and says: “Nobody can tell me what to do, not even me”
<note tip>Remember: A part of you doesn’t want self-discipline.</note>
Hyde’s five favorite poisons
Cynicism - A cynic is a genius at pointing out why a particular plan, idea, or choice is not good and won’t work. Since nothing in life is perfect, cynic find a flaw in absolutely anything.
- Antidote to Cynicism: Have faith in your ability to improve. Accomplishment oriented, present tense, concrete self talk to first line of defense.
Negativism - Hyde tries to draw attention towards everything unpleasant about persons, places and things that make up your environment. What you tell yourself, positive, negative, subconscious believes everything. Subconscious mind doesn’t weigh evidence and evaluate your claim. It simply believes what you tell it. Moreover, it finds reasons to prove you right, even though you are wrong.
- Antidote to Negativism: You create your attitude and behavior by what you tell yourself. Believe your attitude is everything to do with your success, regardless of task at hand. Believe, there is much good stuff in world, as bad stuff.
Defeatism - It is the fear of defeat, fear or inability to do it. Hyde will try to conceive you that the fault lies within you personally. He will show all perceived shortcomings and bitter instances of past to defeat the self confidence.
- Antidote to Defeatism: Believe in your ability to profit from knowledge.
Escapism - This is about diverting attention from day’s exercise. Especially from self discovery exercises. Diversion of attention to doing other tasks is its attribute.
- Antidote for Escapism: Once you take a work, don’t move away from it for perceived amount of time.
Delayism - This is “let’s do it later” kind of attitude. This in most cases will be associated with some perceived road-block for doing the work.
- Antidote to Delayism: Do not delay the current task in hand for any reason, complete it to as far as you can.
Action Oriented Self Talk
Self talk should always be positive, specific, and present tense. Don’t use words with negative emotions. For example,
instead of saying “I cann’t”, say “I choose not to”.
Similarly, use assertive statement for works to be completed, like “I must, ..”.
Understanding Self-Discipline
Sometimes our emotions pull us in one direction, and our intellect in other. Sometimes our desires try to lead us down a path, while fear wouldn’t allow us to follow. Regardless of where you want to apply self-discipline, the secret to success revolves around our ability to recognize and deal with the part of us that offers resistance.
Interestingly enough, we did not face this problem in college or school because there were people to decide and dictate on what, how and when should we do things. We feel problem of self discipline when we are called upon to be our own boss. Without exercise, self-discipline becomes weak and flabby. Because we have spent much of our lives being disciplined by others, we seldom develop necessary skills to discipline ourselves.
Fears are our greatest road blocks to self discipline. This is unavoidable reality that needs to be accepted by anyone trying to bust through the road blocks. Subconscious fears are deep-rooted inner reservations that we often hide from ourselves. Uprooting buried fears is difficult because:
Facing our fears, either conscious or subconscious creates anxiety. Anxiety is powerful, uneasy feeling that we want to avoid at any cost, including self-deception.
We have been conditioned to view fear as a form of weakness or inadequacy. We would rather rationalize them rather saying “I am afraid”
We associate fear with childishness.
Most of us believe in heart of our hearts that if we avoid an unpleasant or difficult situation long enough, it will go away.
Until we are aware of them, and accept them as part of us, we cannot succeed; as those fears prevent us from transforming ideas into actions. We cannot get rid of fears, they are part of life. We can only minimize their effects. Some of the commonly known fears are:
Fear of Failure
Fear of Success
Fear of Rejection
Fear of Mediocrity
Fear of Risks
Fear of Failure
We fear the failure most because psychologically we tend to connect the failed endeavor to our self-esteem. We don’t separate the task from ourselves. “The task failed, so I’m a failure,” we subconsciously tell ourselves. Sure, a person can fail at a particular task or project. But a person cannot be a failure. Moreover, a person can fail at the same task numerous times yet not be a failure as a person.
Our egos have been trained by society, schools, and parents that to fail is something about which we should be ashamed. Consequently, in growing up we grew more reluctant to attempt anything at which we were unsure of succeeding; our subconscious thought became “If I fail, I’ll look like a fool”. Consider the procrastinating businessman who can’t get himself to promptly perform the tasks required in his work. In many such cases, fear of failure is operating. He fears losing face more than losing money. For unless one fully invests oneself, one’s chosen task suffers.
<note important>Subconsciously, we all link failure to humiliation. Fear of humiliation hampers our ability to make a strong commitment to our chosen endeavors, the big stuff and the little stuff. Commitment is a necessary ingredient of self-discipline.</note>
The formula for reducing fear of failure lies in your refusing to link failure to self-esteem. For when you perceive failure not as a tombstone, but as a stepping stone to success, you immediately multiply your power of commitment.
Exercise: Identify worst failures of past life and note them down. Most of our present conception depends on our past experiences. So, our ability to reduce effect of fear of failure lies in our ability to recall those failures, identifying them, and discarding them. Also note down your reaction (physical and emotional) to while writing those failures.
Fear of Success
Many people fear success because of the attention, both positive and negative, that would go along with it. They fear that they would feel a tremendous pressure to live up to their success. Many artists frequently go into panic immediately following a well-received novel, song, dance, or play. They say to themselves,
“How can I possibly live up to it. Now, everyone is going to expect my next work to be just as great, even better.”
- “If I’m successful, people will judge me with a more critical eye.”
- People normally think.
“If we have won a game 5 times, we fear loosing it 6th time, breaking the previous record.”
This builds tremendous pressure.
Exercise: Identify best achievements of your life, and explore the bad experiences associated with it.
Fear of Rejection
Moral: After a moment of silent reflection, the father turned to the boy and spoke: “Son, we learned a valuable lesson today. We learned that when you try to satisfy everyone you end up losing your ass.”
Unless monitored, our need for approval can put us on a long and endless fool’s mission. Fear of losing favor with family, friends, employers, coworkers, or society is one of the most common blocks to establishing and pursuing personal goals.
Frequently, a person who subconsciously fears rejection doesn’t consciously perceive it as a fear. Rather, this type of fear is perceived as a desire to be a “nice person.” Persons in this position unwittingly spend an enormous amount of time and energy satisfying others and neglecting their own desires. They then become haunted by thoughts of “I never seem to accomplish what I want to,” and experience feelings of unfulfilled.
To develop self-discipline you’ll need to overcome feelings of guilt, anxiety, and insecurity for saying “No” to others and “Yes” to yourself. You’ll then find that your desires take on a greater importance, which in turn means that your inner resources will rally around your efforts at turning those desires into reality.
As you can see, one’s inability to say “No” can have direct consequences. You will do well to know also that fear of rejection has a second face that reflects our subconscious terror of being told “No.” Whether we risk hearing “No” to a job application, a marriage proposal, or a pay raise, fear of rejection rears its ugly head.
We all do our best to avoid rejection, even if it sometimes means engaging in self-defeating behaviors. Simply stated, being told “ No” hurts. And because we are human beings, we don’t like to risk being hurt.
Fear of rejection subverts our ability to employ self-discipline because we feel as if someone is constantly looking over our shoulder, judging and evaluating us. Thus we find ourselves constantly second-guessing ourselves, our choices, and our methods.
Exercise: Write 3 big situations in which you did what you really did not wanted to feeling that someone else will be hurt.
Fear of Mediocrity
Because perfectionism is socially touted as a positive personality trait, we consciously accept its existence within us as desirable. But within the hard-core perfectionist, fear of mediocrity stands unseen off stage and pulls the strings. So, even though perfectionism enjoys acceptance, it creates a pattern of self-imposed pressure that we tend to avoid. This avoidance, in turn, leads to procrastination and self-defeat.
<note important>Perfectionism is really a subconscious fear of appearing mediocre either to ourselves or to others. Attempts to escape our fears often lead us down self-destructive and self-defeating paths. Fear produces anxiety, and anxiety produces a host of other undesirable physical and psychological conditions, including such reactions as alcoholism, drug abuse, and depression.</note>
Regardless of our chosen task, we fight ourselves every step of the way: “If I can’t do it perfectly, then I really don’t want to do it at all”. Chasing perfection is like chasing the fountain of youth— it’s a fool’s mission. Immediately divorce your self-esteem from perfectionism. Remember: None of us is perfect; nothing we do is perfect. We’re all human; perfection is the domain of the Gods.
Exercise: Identify set of events where you tried perfectionism and it set you back or you rejected some work because you felt, you are not perfect for that job.
Fear of Risks
Many of us feel comfortable only in the presence of sameness, things to which we’ve grown accustomed: same foods, same style clothes, same friends, same recreation, same, same, same. Life becomes a rut when we subconsciously come to view risks as dangerous threats to our security rather than as opportunities for growth.
Persons who fear risks are persons who doubt their ability to function successfully in unfamiliar situations. The concept to focus on here is self-doubt. Our self-discipline muscle gains strength only through frequent exercise, exercise that leans heavily on self-confidence. When you stop taking risks your self-confidence muscle won’t be usable when you reach for it.
<note important>Self-confidence supports self-discipline. Nothing ventured nothing gained. That’s the ticket. Begin to think of risks as opportunities, not dangers. When you are faced with a risk that you wish to take, but feel immobilized by fear and anxiety, practice self-talk. Ask yourself “What is the worst thing that can happen?” </note>
It needs repeating: Self-confidence and self-discipline feed off each other. No self-confidence, no self-discipline. You won’t start that diet because you don’t think you’ll stick to it. You won’t start that business because you don’t think you can make a go of it. Indeed, a large part of self-discipline requires that you genuinely believe in yourself.
Remember: Self-discipline can be hindered by fear of risks, but this fear can be overcome by a change of attitude, which is entirely under your control.
Exercise: Identify 3 main memories when you avoided taking risks. If memories are from your childhood, the better.
All or Nothing Attitude
Under this belief system success means living a life of fun-less workaholic. Well, unfortunately, if all you can see is the whole overwhelming project, you will never get yourself to begin because you can’t feel comfortable taking small steps; you must do it All.
Power Tool - Visualization: You need to repeatedly visualize the positive aspects of your goal or project. You need to replace Hyde’s self-defeating mental images with supportive mental images. When you choose a project or goal, you can also choose mental images that make you less susceptible to Hyde’s resistances while simultaneously programming your subconscious mind to motivate you and magnify your powers of perseverance.
Consciously create vivid mental movies that involve your senses. Let’s say that your goal is to start rising an hour earlier to exercise. Then every day for a week or two before you rise earlier for the first time, visualize yourself doing it. Hear the alarm. See yourself stretching and rising. Smell the morning. Then see yourself doing specific exercises. Each day visualize yourself in action as often as you possibly can; ten times, fifty times, a hundred times daily.
Visualization prior to action will firm up your commitment, increase your confidence, validate your ability, motivate you, and most important, it will reduce Hyde’s influence.
<note tip>Remember: Visualization works best when you visualize all the specifics of the activity you want to do. In your mind: see, hear, smell, taste, and touch the location, clothes, room, temperature, details, details, details. Make it real. The more you practice visualization the easier it will become. So, mentally, many times a day, for a few seconds, use visualization to experience yourself doing what you want to do. Visualization is quick, easy, and remarkably effective.</note>
I Must be Perfect
Some persons find themselves in a continual wrestling match with this self-defeating belief.
“I must win this contest”,
“I must perform this job perfectly.”,
“I must be the best”
Whenever you feel you “must,” you’ve climbed into a pressure cooker. You’ve fallen victim to the attitude that says “Any performance short of perfection is unacceptable.” But human perfection does not exist.
A part of you realizes, of course, that the concept of perfection is only an ideal to motivate you to seek the best in yourself. Your logic tells you that no matter what you do, most likely it won’t be perfect. For someone hung up on being perfect, the psychological pain, humiliation, and self-loathing that result from falling short of this impossible standard is too much to endure.
<note tip>Remember: The reality of getting it done is more satisfying than the dream of getting it perfect.</note>
Perfectionism weakens perseverance. And perseverance produces more achievements than talent, smarts, or luck. Indeed, the path to accomplishment lies in perseverance.
Try this: During the next few weeks purposely write a few mediocre letters to a few different friends. Do not try for wit, genius, or perfection; but do not say in any letter that you are just dashing it off.
In other words, in the body of the letter don’t make excuses for being less-than-perfect. You are not writing the Great American Novel. Do not tie your self-esteem to the act. Do not spend much time being methodical; the point is to write a quick, mediocre letter and live. Any considerations about content are yours. Regarding length, keep it short. Again: By no means are you to acknowledge your purposeful mediocrity in the body of the letter itself.
As you do this exercise, you actually are reprogramming your attitude, both conscious and subconscious, about perfectionism.
Power Tool: Reward Systems
A systematic reward is the golden key that opens the door to your self-discipline, painlessly. Believe me, rewards are the easiest, most effective psychological motivators available to get you started and keep you going until you complete your projects.
Private Praise: Every time you perform even the smallest step toward a large goal, immediately follow you action with private praise. That’s right, immediately congratulate every positive thought, feeling, or action, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, with supportive self-talk. Ex.
“It makes me feel good to get this done.”,
“Congratulations! You did it!”,
“Good going!”
<note tip>Tip: Try to use the words of someone from your past who once gave you support for your accomplishments. Try to hear the sound of that person’s voice. This will give you added subconscious power when dealing with Hyde, the side of you that does not want self-discipline. But remember, this technique is only one third of the reward system that you will be using. Quick phrases like “Good work!” “Don’t give up!” and “You can do it!” said in a strong, solid, supportive voice will work psychological wonders. This technique is too easy not to use constantly.</note> <note important>Important: If you slip in your self-discipline, do not berate yourself. Don’t call yourself stupid, lazy, or stubborn. This type of self-talk is counter-productive, it’s a subtle form of punishment and works to lower your self-esteem. Punishments do not change behaviors as well as rewards do. So when you slip, and you will slip because you are human, say to yourself, “So I slipped. No big deal. I’ll do better next time.” That’s right, let yourself off the hook. And even though you might feel that you should be harshly criticized for slipping, the real truth is that you will be much better off in the long run if you do not punish yourself in any way.</note>
- Contracts: Self-contracts are powerful psychological devices that you can use to reward yourself for every step you make toward a goal. You contract with yourself just the same as you would with another person. When you contract with yourself always be specific about your actions and the reward involved. Sometimes translating the agreement into numbers helps.
<note tip>Tip: Simple written contracts with yourself will give you more self-discipline power than verbal ones. The act of writing involves you in your agreement physiologically as well as psychologically, thus adding even more power to your efforts.</note>
- Gradual Steps: This might just be the most important element in any reward system. Remember that all of your self-discipline projects need to be based on a step-by-step approach, and each step needs to be rewarded. This holds true no matter how small the step or how small the reward. Because the first few steps of a project might seem too small to deserve a reward, many people make the mistake of with holding rewards until after they take the bigger, more visible, difficult steps of their project. This approach is counter productive because it overlooks the psychological benefits of having a solid reward system that operates throughout the entire project.
In other words, use rewards at the beginning of the project, then when you hit the middle and end stages you will get a psychological boost from knowing that the entire project has had enjoyable benefits for you, not just the outcome. This can keep you going when you hit the parts of your project that are outside your comfort zone. It will also help you get started on your next project.
My Guilt-Free Rewards
Go to a movie
Rent a video.
Dinner at a special restaurant
Buy that pair of too expensive shoes
Fifteen minutes of long distance talk
Dumb TV, with popcorn, one hour,
Relax on the Beach for one hour
Weekend vacation
Week vacation
Go feed the ducks
Entire video movie day
See a play
Fluff novel, one chapter
Fluff novel, entixe Box
Buy magazine
Read magazine
Playa music, one hour
Go hear live music
I can achieve without discomfort
The person who refuses to venture outside the comfort zone, where trade-offs usually take place, can never hope to incorporate self-discipline into everyday life. However, the extreme concept of “No pain, no gain” does not apply here. Subconsciously insisting that everything be easy, without effort, is but another way to avoid confronting many of our secret fears and the anxiety that accompanies them.
Whenever we find ourselves avoiding a particular task, our avoidance usually isn’t based on the real effort involved in performing the task itself. Rather, our avoidance is usually based on a pseudo-horror that we have subconsciously connected to the performance of the task.
The point: Learn to expect, accept, and tolerate periods of discomfort without mentally inflating them. Without periods of discomfort you will not accomplish even the simplest task. Moreover, practice identifying instances in which you act as if you believe “I can achieve without discomfort.”
Power Tool: Vitaminds
Self-talk affirmations work wonders, but written affirmations work even better. They provide you with simple and easy self-motivation that works on a very deep level. Use your name, and write your affirmation three different ways using first, second, and third person.
“I, Ted Brown, practice piano one hour a day.”
“You, Ted Brown, practice piano one hour a day.”
“Ted Brown practices piano one hour a day.”
Keep your sentences in the present tense. Make them specific, sometimes using numbers helps with this. Try to capture an action when possible. Always state your affirmations in positive sentences rather that negative sentences. After you have written your three affirmation sentences (first, second, and third person), copy the group of affirmations two more times, so that on your sheet of paper you have three identical groups of sentences. Each group should contain your affirmation three different ways.
Write your sentences by hand, slowly in a thoughtful manner. Don’t just do it mechanically. Think about what these words mean as you write them. If you feel any negative thoughts as you write, or any resistances, or any doubts, then write down your negative thoughts on a separate sheet of paper. Even if the negative thought or feeling is only slight, write it down. Really listen to yourself. After you finish writing your affirmations, look at any negative thoughts that you wrote. Try to connect the negative thoughts you wrote to one of the five subconscious fears, or one of the subconscious beliefs that underlie the fears. Take these affirmations and put it in places that are easily accessible to you (like mirror, wash basin, etc).
<note important>Whenever you find an inspiring quote write it on a strip of paper and put it where you can see it many times a day. Also put a copy in your wallet or purse. Remember to read it frequently. Change your quote regularly.</note>
I can’t Change
“Some people just can’t change”,
“I’m just lazy”,
“This is just the kind of person I am”,
“I’m just like my mom (or dad)”
Damn lies, People do change—constantly. However, there is a catch. No one can make another person want to change; the desire for change must come from within.
<note important>While a positive attitude can create positive actions, the reverse is also true. Positive actions can create a positive attitude. They feed and support each other. You are now gaining the information, techniques, and tools to strengthen them simultaneously.</note>
Good luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.
The point: Your ability to develop, employ, and sustain self-discipline is directly related to your readiness to accept responsibility for creating your own circumstances.
Power Tool: Relaxation
By using some sort of relaxation system you can immediately increase your ability to think, feel, and do whatever you choose to think, feel, and do.
The Avoidance Process goes like this: First, you decide to begin a task that requires self-discipline. Next, Hyde uses various tricks to keep you from doing it. Then, because of the inner conflict that is beginning to go from simmer to boil, your stress level begins to rise. When your stress level rises, so does your anxiety level. Then, as your anxiety level rises, your motivation drops. Then you say to yourself, “I don’t want to do this now.” Then, because psychological stress causes a physiological reaction, suddenly you don’t physically feel like doing the task.
In fact, the closer you move toward the task, the more you think and feel like avoiding it. As the Avoidance Process unfolds, you find yourself putting off, avoiding, or escaping a task that you need to do in order to reach whatever goal you’ve chosen. Then, when you start doing some sort of avoidance activity, you feel immediate emotional and physical relief. This false feeling of relief occurs even though you know that the consequences of your escapism and delayism will create problems later.
What to do? – Well, you already know the poisons, roadblocks, and self-defeating beliefs that short-circuit your self-discipline. But general knowledge is not enough to overcome Hyde’s resistance. You need to know which specific tricks are being used against you. Then you can usually pinpoint why they are being used. Armed with why, you can work out a quick deal with Hyde to relax the inner conflict that occurs when a part of you wants to do something that another part of you does not want to do. When the inner conflict relaxes, the roadblocks will begin to shrink, eventually becoming so small that you will be able to exercise your desired behavior.
You will need to ask yourself “Why” questions. These questions will help you quickly determine the real reasons for your avoidance behavior.
Relaxation is what gives you an opportunity to shift your behavior decisions from the subconscious into the conscious part of you mind. In other words, when you become quiet and systematically relax, even for just a couple of minutes, you can suddenly hear yourself think.
<note important>Important: If you relax for a minute before beginning an avoidance behavior, then you will become aware of rationalizing, minimizing, and justifying the avoidance behavior. This insight alone will give your self-discipline a gigantic boost.</note>
A Quick and Easy Situational Relaxation Technique…
Take a few deep breaths, slow your breathing, and say to yourself, “I am completely relaxed.” It doesn’t really matter whether you are standing, sitting, or lying down. Simply try to be as physically comfortable as the situation will allow.
Then as you continue to slow your breathing and relax every part of body one after another.
Take a minute to really give your body a chance to feel relaxed. Control your breathing. Use your self-talk to support your physical relaxation. Use visualization to see yourself easily doing the task that is at hand.
Quickly ask and answer a few “Why” questions. Listen to what Hyde is saying to you. Become aware of how Hyde is trying to trick you into avoiding the task. Then counteract Hyde’s influence by telling yourself the other side of the story. Be convincing, be forceful, but be relaxed. Focus on a specific immediate reward for completing the task. Use visualization, self-talk, or any other tools that feel useful.
Begin to take a small action step toward the task. As you get closer to the room, table, tools, or wherever you need to be to start the task, continue to control your breathing and physical state. Remind your muscles to relax. Every time you feel or hear an avoidance message from Hyde, use your self-discipline tools and techniques to replace that message with a flood of self-discipline messages.
Getting started is the toughest part of the self-discipline process. While this is true with daily tasks like exercises, diets, and skill development, it is also true with one time projects.
“Something Terrible Will Happen”
Whenever we approach a situation in which we feel uneasy or uncomfortable, our anxiety rises from the depths in the form of an inner voice. This voice acts as a caution sign: “If you try this, here are all the bad things that could happen to you.” So far so good.
Now consider: Every time you take a step toward a goal, you are taking a risk. Whether you are buying real estate, starting a diet, or cleaning out the garage, something can go wrong. So to spare you the possibility of catastrophe, your inner voice over-emphasizes the dangers involved in the risk. So, be honest with yourself about whether your procrastination is based on a catastrophic expectation or based on a legitimate concern. Don’t let Hyde use you mental danger signals against you. Challenge your fears with your intellect. If you consciously listen to your rational inner voice, then your emotional voice will lose some of its power over you. Then, you can move along with fewer bumps in the road.
Power Tool: Goal Sheet
First you have a dream, then you transform the dream into a concrete goal, then you devise a plan to reach the goal.
<note important>Important: When you make your Goal Sheet, don’t go getting all serious and tax your brain. Making a Goal Sheet should be a quick and easy deal for you. This tool is much too important to take seriously. So, RELAX!</note>
The Goal Sheet has 3 simple components:
You need to write a specific, detailed statement of your goal. Don’t write, I want good health, or great wealth, or genuine happiness, etc. Instead write “I want to lose 30 pounds in 6 months,” “I want to be earning $100,000 per year in two years,” “I want to learn conversational Spanish in 1 year.” The clearer the picture of what you want, the easier it will before you to develop a plan that gets it for you.
You need to state why you want to reach this goal. What is your purpose? Some people refer to this as a sort of mission statement. Clarity of purpose determines the power of your commitment, which in turn fuels the self-discipline process. Writing down your purpose will also help you be sure that the goal you chose is really your dream and not someone else’s idea of what you should do. Having a written purpose for your goal is an important part of the self-discipline process because it gives you enduring motivation. Indeed, for self-discipline to roll along smoothly rather than grind along in a series of frustrating starts and stops, you need to know clearly why you are doing what you are doing.
You need to list the steps, as many as you can think of, that your goal requires. Later you will give each of these steps a time frame. But for now all you need to do is put down the steps in short sentence form, very short sentence form. Don’t try to list the steps in order. Just write them down. You can always add, delete, or modify later. As you list the required steps, break down the intimidating ones into smaller steps. The smaller the steps, the better your chances of completing them.
After completing the preceding exercise, you will need to ask yourself some questions that will help you know, really know, whether this goal is something you really want to pursue and achieve. The questions that I want you to ask yourself will either solidify your commitment or prompt you to reconsider your direction. Either way, you will be better off knowing your true feelings about it.
Now ask yourself: Is this goal worth my time and effort? Are the rewards worth the risks? How will my daily life be affected? Is this a good time? What is the downside of my pursuing and attaining this goal? How will my family, friends, and career be affected by my pursuit and attainment of this goal? You don’t need to write down your answers, but you do need to give them some thought. Your thoughts and feelings about your answers are an important part of the Goal Sheet tool. Don’t forget, keep it simple.