The conditions
- Stated in the positive — what you want, not what you want to stop
- Within your control — initiated and maintained by you, not by other people or circumstances
- Sensory-specific — what will you see, hear and feel when you have it?
- Contextualised — when, where, with whom, specifically?
- Ecologically checked — what do you gain from the current pattern, and what might you lose by changing it?
- Evidence procedure — how will you know you have it? What is the first sign?
A worked contrast
"I want to stop being nervous in client meetings" fails four conditions at once: negative framing, no context, no sensory evidence, no ecology check on what the nervousness currently protects. Reframed: "In client pitches, I want to speak from the same state I have when explaining my work to a friend — hands still, steady pace. First meeting after the programme is the test." Same intention, now aimable.
Where it is used
Coaching openings, sales discovery (what is the buyer actually buying?), self-management, and as the framing step before change techniques — you do not run a swish on a fog. It pairs naturally with the Meta Model: most weak goals are goal-shaped deletions.