This article originally appeared in The Simplifier #39.

Getting Started with the 5 Core Concepts

By Shawn Tuttle

My last article (”Creating Meaningful Goals“) was about identifying specific goals that will motivate you to take action. The next step is traversing the distance between setting and achieving your goal. For this I’ve created the 5 Core Concepts model.

Background
I had seen clients with great intentions for improving their situation get muddled before much progress was made. I saw others beating themselves up with their self-imposed (and I’ll add: unrealistic) expectations.

By the time one woman called me, her office had become unbearable to her. Her thought process had become stuck in avoidance and deficiency patterns. She was frustrated, feeling overwhelmed, and didn’t know how to go about setting up her ideal office.

The question boiled down to: how can we most easily align our actions and thoughts with our dreams while avoiding the pitfalls of self-sabotaging habits?

As much as we’d like to think of the mind as an almighty problem solver, once it gets stuck in a rut, solution creation becomes incredibly difficult. If the mind sees the situation as an unmovable mountain, the trick is to replace the mountain with an oasis. If this is challenging to do in practice, then the best thing to do is relieve the mind of its “problem solving” duties. Tell it to take a break—you’ll let it know when and how its services are needed.

5 Core Concepts model
The 5 core concepts radiate out from, continually refer back to, and support your goal. The five concepts are: Visualize, Clear, Plan, Do, & YES (acronym for “Your Essential Self”).

The power of the model comes from the combination of working on your internal experience, addressing the obstacles in the way of realizing your goal, and (dare I say it?) having fun along the way.

Summary of the 5 concepts:

Visualize - Live it before you experience it. Forming a mental picture of your accomplished goal aligns your head with your priorities.

Clear - Remove obstacles in the way of your goal. Like clutter, obstacles drain your time and energy and keep you from focusing on your goal.

Plan – Identify the components and break them down into specific actions. Taking the time to plan your journey gets you there in less time and with less work.

Do - Carry out your plan with ease. Manifest the mantra: Keep it simple!

YES - Keep your compass pointed in the right direction for Your Essential Self.

Whether your timeline is two months or two years, the information you capture using the model is stored in a way that will easily remind you of the important stuff, so you don’t get lost in the details and lose your sense of direction.

In the last article, you were invited to download the 5 Core Concept (5 CC) model worksheet and to enter your goal in the center oval.

Visualize
Let’s get straight to the first concept: Visualize. Think of this as going into “design your vision” mode.

By living your experience before it happens, you are re-training (or re-patterning) yourself to a life in which the goal already exists. We humans tend to accept the familiar and to avoid the unknown. Visualizing makes the reality of your accomplished goal familiar, and therefore acceptable, to your unconscious self. The importance of appealing to your unconsciousness draws back to addressing self-sabotaging habits. Even though your conscious mind may say “go this way”, without the support of your unconscious, you will have a difficult time going in that direction.

Key steps of visualization

• Relax. Allow yourself 10-15 minutes to step away from daily duties, away from phone ringers and incoming email dings. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
• Visualize your completed goal as experientially as possible (more on this below).
• Jot down details and reminders of your visualization on the 5 CC worksheet in the section labeled “Visualize”.
• Recall and experience your completed goal visualization daily. As you explore your visualization, feel the sensations, replay conversations, hear and smell the surroundings of those moments.

If you have difficulty imagining what your accomplished goal will feel like, here are two ways to draw on other experiences:

Recall similar experiences
For example, say your goal is to start your own consulting business. Break it down into parts. Recall the good feelings from helping someone successfully. Recall the satisfaction felt when you’ve done a good job with a big project. Recall the feeling of flow when multiple people are communicating well and in a timely manner.

Emulate others
If you are still having trouble experiencing the vision, imagine someone you know and respect who does a fantastic job in their business—how would they feel? See the ease in which they would deal with all the logistics and communications. Transpose that experience to your vision.

Once you have a detailed visualization, the next step is to identify and clear obstacles in the way of making your vision a reality. We’ll get to this in the next article. Until then, remember this is your future life you are designing—have fun exploring your vision!

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify