Well-Formed Outcomes

Success is a lifestyle. It is not something you get automatically. It has to be something you want so much; it makes you start living in a completely different way. Success is a conductor, a motivator, and an incentive to work.

Successful people (like the best traders) did not wake up one morning and simply start being successful. In order to become it, you have to work hard, and the way to do this is by setting “Well-Formed Outcomes (WFO).” Imagine a kind of SMART (just like you read in the post "Rules you should follow") but to the nth degree.

I am going to show you the questions you need to build Well-Formed Outcomes alongside some useful results that will put you on the right track to getting the life you deserve.

Brian Tracy, a Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author, said: “you cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”

When you decide to focus your attention on results rather than goals, you exploit the power of NLP significantly improve your chances of success significantly. Think about it for a second. When you hear the word “result,” you immediately think of a real conquest, perhaps even one that has already been achieved.

The word “goal” instead seems very distant, and subconsciously, you might even consider it as something that is unattainable. If your goal is not reasonably formed in your head or if you cannot see it clearly, then it will be very difficult for you to reach it.

The first stage in effective decision-making is to make sure that your outcomes are “well-formed.” Well-formed outcomes are derived by working through a set of questions that generate a well-formed outcome.

If your outcome is poorly formed in your mind or you cannot see it clearly, then it is improbable that you will achieve it.

Well-Formed Outcomes provide the following key components that enable you to effectively identify your desired outcomes, beginning with:

• stating the goal in positive terms (our subconscious does not understand negativity);
• specify the goal in sensory-based terms (the outcome must be testable and demonstrable);
• specify the goal in a way that you find compelling;
• run a quality control (ecology) check on the goal to ensure balance in all areas of your home/work life;
• ensure that the goal can be self-initiated and maintained;
• state the context of the goal;
• state the resources needed to achieve the goal;
• how will you evidence success?

Let’s take a look at what the Well-Formed Outcomes questions you have to ask yourself are.

WHAT (present state to the desired outcome)

• What is the desired outcome? (Remember to be positive)
• What will the outcome look like? And your feelings?

CONTEXT (identify the goal in your private and professional life)

• When do you want to reach the goal? What date/period?
• Where will you be when you reach the goal?
• Do you need to work with someone else to achieve your goal?

PURPOSE (the reason why you want to achieve your goal)

• Why do you want that result? Why do you want to achieve the goal?
• What does reaching your goal mean to you? How will achieving this outcome benefit you?
• How will you feel when you have achieved the goal? Is this something you want? What are the benefits? And the disadvantages?

PROCESSES (the steps to reach your goal)

• Do you know what to do?
• Is it self-initiated and maintained?
• Can you do it?
• Have you done it before?
• Do you know the steps and stages?
• Do you have an action plan?
• Do you have a way to monitor your progress?
• Do you have a way to deal with interferences?
• Do you have the resources? Internal & external.

CHECKS (make sure your goal does not conflict with your other desires or beliefs)

• Ecology? Are you in alignment with yourself?
• Why do you want it? Is it compelling?
• Have you made a decision? Are you ready to get involved?
• What will be the evidence, the element that lets you know that you have achieved the outcome?
• What are the immediate tasks you need to take action on?
• What are you learning?
• Have you made a decision? Are you ready to get involved?

Now, I give you some exercise. You have to answer all the above questions. Keep repeating this exercise until you can answer all the questions satisfactorily. Whenever you reach a question that you cannot answer positively, you must review the outcome statement and refine it.

In conclusion, our mind gets bombarded with negative thoughts which stop us from doing things we really want to do. Luckily, we have a process of reframing which can help us to live our desired life and business.

Reframing is about changing the meaning or the context of the present problem we are dealing with. The frame is a perspective, and reframing is about looking at the same situation from a different perspective.

The Well-Formed Outcomes are a little bit like SMART goals. Except they dive a little deeper and look at the possibility and accountability elements of the goal that you want to set.

Goals are often called targets. And this is for an excellent reason. Goals and targets are like destinations, and they give us something to reach for or head to. Having no goals in life or business is a bit like jumping in a car for a drive. You go somewhere, but it will not be where you want to go, it will just be somewhere because you did not decide on what you wanted.

At this point, if you answered all the questions satisfactorily, it is time to bring your Well-Formed Outcomes to the next level, integrating them into your trading plan.