Unconscious goals are undefined with no specific direction.  Here are reasons why goals must move from unconscious to conscious to bring success to your life.

1. Unconscious goals are not specific. Everything you do in life is a forward motion. That is it takes you from where you are currently to another place.  If you don’t set specific goals for that movement you won’t have control over the outcome of that forward movement.  You’ll go somewhere but without consciously setting where you want to go; however, you’ll still get somewhere. 

2. Unconscious thoughts blame outside forces. Many people go through life just taking things as they come along.  If the day goes well, it’s one for joy.  If the day goes bad, it’s normally attributed to an external source such as  “bad luck” or to the activities of others people such as those that “don’t like you.” When you leave yourself open to whatever comes it’s a conscious unconscious decision.  No one is to blame except you as the opportunity to take control of your thoughts is your own.

3. Unconscious thoughts control the day. The brain doesn’t turn off simply because you haven’t consciously used it during your day.  Thoughts continue to take place. In fact, you’re thinking at all times about something.  Like other muscles of the body, a brain that doesn’t get exercised gets flabby.  Flabby brain, flabby thoughts.  Flabby thoughts don’t have the muscle tone for a firm foundation. That means your thoughts and ideas can be shifted and turned at the whim of outside forces or the attitudes of those that surround you.

4. Unconscious goals have no pattern.  Because you haven’t stopped to think specifically about what you want to do and how you intend to achieve, your life tends to go up and down with no pattern.  Because you don’t’ know what you want to achieve each day, anything you do is good enough.  Sometimes, you might have to stop to think if you got anything of importance done for the day since you didn’t plan to achieve anything.

5. Unconscious goals are vague. Goals you’re not conscious of are vague.  When you think in vague terms about what you want such as that you’d prefer to live a better life or have more money for instance, but without setting a specific goal your mind can’t create the ideas needed to guide you toward your goals.  Instead, “more money” can be a few pennies more than what you had yesterday.  A better life might mean getting through one more green light driving home than you got driving to work in the morning. Vague has no substance on which to build success.  

6. Unconscious goals waste time.  Having no pattern to your achievements or not knowing where you want to go or why creates the consistent frustration of having a starting and stopping motion in life. First you want where you’re going then you change your mind.  It’s like trying something on then deciding to change your clothes three times before being able to walk out of the house.  You don’t know exactly why you take specific actions so nothing seems to work.  This starting and stopping wastes time and lets you feel you’re taking two steps forward and five steps back with every action.

7. Unconscious goals are costly.  What are your income goals.  Unconscious goals will say “I want to be wealthy” or “ we really need to bring in some money today.”  These type of goals cost you the possibilities of actually reaching income goals. What is wealthy in your definition?  Unless you are specific about this, wealthy might be having an extra $20.00 bill in your pocket.  Now you are wealthy because you have that much more money.  Bringing in more money today could result in getting one sale but if it is the first and only sale for the month, you’ve reached your unconscious goals but could still face bankruptcy in another two months or less.  There is no reason for the mind to create ways to bring in more funds since you haven’t determined what you really need.

Hopefully these examples illustrate the power of unconscious goals for the detriment of your success.  It also gives you reasons to take the time to think through your goals and create goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable, and time oriented.  

Listening is one of the most important skills for any leader to develop. It is more important than speaking skills. Listening forms the foundation for good interaction between leaders and employees and even gives you resources for making presentations to your people. Learn to listen to the people who work for you. Then let them know you were listening as you appropriate communicate using their words, ideas, and suggestions.

A confident employee is prepared for the tasks assigned. Preparation means having the right training and support in order to complete what’s expected with confidence.  Provide your employees with opportunities to upgrade their skills so they stay on the cutting edge in their field.

Employees become more confident when they have a mentor. A mentor is a person who has wisdom to share in personal and professional levels. Employees won’t learn everything just by doing it.  It’s the nuances of company life that have to be learned from a mentor that are so important.  Research shows that women and minorities seldom get adequate mentoring in organizations. Be aware of where you can serve as a mentor to those who are building the firm.

A confident leader will network with people in the organization.  That doesn’t mean spending a lot of time with any one person or group. But it does mean taking time to shake hands with some workers, go to various departments for personal updates or writing a note of encouragement for a job well done to an individual or group or team.

Take time to assess the personal and professional background of your employees and realize how many skills and abilities they bring to the company. It’s easy to overlook skilled people when there are important tasks to be done. Instead of going outside of the company to find professionals, know who is already in the company and assign challenging tasks that highlight their capabilities. This will greatly enhance confidence and let others know you recognize the value of your employees.

Let employees stay on top of the latest technology and continue to increase the company positioning in pertinent areas. Expose them to courses that increase skills using the benefits of both Internet based and offline classes in almost any topic. Don’t allow your employees to fall behind in their professional knowledge base when it’s simple to stay ahead of the learning curve by getting them needed training and education.  

These brief tips provide important ideas that you can use to increase the levels of confidence in your employees. You can help your people become stronger workers and more loyal to the company by doing simple, yet powerful things that let them know you care.