What drives us forward is the possibility a future that is exciting, compelling, filled with enjoyment and accomplishment. Unfortunately too many of us don't experience the daily motivation we otherwise could because the future we desire is poorly defined, and lacking clarity in our minds. Tony Robbins is quoted as saying 'People aren't lazy, they just have impotent goals that don't inspire them'.

I'm prepared to add to this that some people even have exciting goals, but they aren't represented to the person internally in a powerful, compelling way that creates a continual motive for action. Creating a compelling and exciting future is a process that gives you a greater level of control over the way your goals are represented in your mind. Doing this serves a number of distinct purposes.

1. It makes those goals more easily attainable. After all you can't hit what you can't see. It gives your mind a more clear more defined target.
2. It gives you access to a fast source of motivation towards that goal. Once you have created the visual representation of the goal you will be able to recall it at will to produce a state of excitement and enthusiasm toward the goal.
3. It helps you attract the goal. We won't get into a full discussion on creative visualization but suffice it to say that visualizing a goal with positive expectancy sets in motion universal processes gear towards drawing that goal to you like a magnet.

Here is a simple exercise for clarifying your goals internally and creating a compelling future:

Step 1: Pick one of your goals. If you don't have any you probably shouldn't be here. The goal can be one you intend to accomplish over any time frame. Today I chose to use this technique for the goal of purchasing a very large home I intend to be the owner of in the not too distant future. I will continue to explain the technique citing this example.

Step 2: With your eyes closed or open (whatever works best for you) develop a picture in your head of you having achieved this goal. It will help if you look with your eyes to the right. Once you have a picture, turn it into a movie that depicts you in the act of having achieved the goal.

See the movie in first person, as though from your own eyes when you are experiencing it. What can you see? What is happening? What are you wearing? What is the weather like? Work on making the image as detailed as possible. Is there anyone with you? What are they wearing? Try to get a really intricate movie rolling.

Next fiddle round with what in NLP are called the Submodalities. Make the pictures of the movie very big and very close to you in your minds eye. Make the colours extremely bright and vibrant.

Increase the pictures borders out to include more detail. You should notice that the more detailed your picture gets, the more intensely you start to feel the feelings you associate to having achieved this goal.

In my example I saw a movie that started with me walking up to shake the hand of a realtor out the front of the enormous home. I saw the colours of the blue sky and the color of flowers in the garden. I saw the outfit I was wearing as well as that of my girlfriend who was present in the picture.

Now it's time to move onto your audible modalities. What can you hear as you are achieving this goal? How loud are the sounds? When I did this I heard myself talking to the realtor about the purchase.

I then spoke to my girlfriend about how great it was that we finally had this awesome house. Make the sounds as detailed as possible too. Can you hear any noises in the background like birds chirping or a car driving past?

Again fiddle with the Submodalities now. Make the sounds louder and more clear, like you would hear them if you were actually there. We are trying to create the experience of what it will be like when (not if, WHEN) you are actually there.

Now move to your kinesthetic modalities, things you will actually FEEL as you are experiencing achieving your goal. Is there a breeze blowing that you can feel on your face? Are you touching anything or anyone? Can you feel the warmth of the sun on your skin? Whatever it is, feel the feelings you would feel. Make them feel as real as possible in your mind.

Finally try to think what you would be thinking at the time? What would you be thinking and feeling mentally as you achieve your goal? Maybe an excitement that it's finally happened? Maybe a sense of accomplishment? Perhaps anticipation? Maybe you feel a sense of freedom or happiness or fulfillment? Whatever it is, let the you in the movie think and feel those same feelings.

By now you should be feeling pretty darn good! This is as close as you can possibly be to actually achieving your goal. You should be now thinking, hearing, seeing, and touching everything as you would if you were actually there having it happen.

And as a consequence you should be starting to feel those same feelings while you sit and picture! You can have the feeling without even having the goal (but that's another story).

This movie that you have created can be extremely motivating. Try recreating the movie whenever you feel a lack of motivation toward that goal, or even first thing in the morning if you find that empowering.

Take some time each day to relive this experience and reenact your goal. You will find it becomes clearer with each repeated visualization.

Eventually it should feel so real to you that when you think about it while not visualizing, it will start to feel like it actually has happened, in other words the visualized experience will start to seem like an ACTUAL experience. Remember everything in the world started as a figment of someone's imagination, a visualization.

It is this clear and continual visualization (or use of the compelling future technique) that takes the goal from just that, to a physical reality.

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Andrew Hansen is an entrepreneur, author and personal development trainer. He runs a website dedicated to personal growth that provides tips, information and advice on attaining the level of success that you're worthy of in all areas of your life. For more information on NLP please see NLP