Goal Setting
Learning to Endure
When you are on the goal setting journey, you WILL suffer from the inevitable setbacks. Those setbacks are a normal part of the process of expanding and growing as a person and should be treated as such. Easier said than done, right?! Being able to endure setbacks, and even embrace them as a valuable learning experience, will go a long way towards making the process of achieving your goals faster and easier.
When we deny the setbacks, we are also denying the opportunity to learn from the lessons they have to offer. If we resent these temporary road blocks, we can create our own misery and lose momentum. This often begins with stories in our heads telling ourselves about the way things “should be”. Anybody who sets out to achieve a goal will already have a story and a narrative in their mind describing exactly how they want things to go, and how they feel things should work.
Any setback that you encounter will inevitably challenge this story, so the key is to create a flexible story that can be challenged without falling completely apart. The key is in adjusting your sails so that no matter what is thrown at you, you can come back.
Become stronger and smarter about the process than you were before.
These lessons will also sort the wheat from the chaff and show you your mettle so you’ll learn what you’re made of! You’ll see how quickly you can come back and whether you can come back with enthusiasm and determination. You’ll learn whether the desire for the end goal is strong enough to carry you through the challenges that occur. And remember that everyone has these challenges, and only those who are able to rise above them will succeed.
It’s okay for you to decide that the goal isn’t worth the trouble, but you need to be honest with yourself and absolutely clear that you’re not simply giving up because things got rough! Nothing worth doing ever came easy, and when you consider all the things you’ve done in your life, haven’t the really rewarding things you’ve accomplished all come with a bit of challenge?
Think of the stories you’ll be able to tell about the problems that arose, and how you solved them and rose above them! This can be very motivating and inspirational to those around you, as well, so your journey isn’t really just your own. There is a ripple effect that is important to consider as well. You can become a role model of success for your friends and family to aspire too; how’s that for stroking your ego?!
It is a great thing to set goals and start off on the journey towards their achievement, so long as you’re aware that you’ll need flexibility to endure the hard times, and the motivation and momentum to bounce back and get back on the proverbial horse again!
There is no greater pleasure than achieving a goal, and when the journey there has allowed you to grow as a person, it’s an even sweeter ending. So grit your teeth, knuckle down and keep grinding until you get there, but also allow yourself to enjoy the process and reward yourself when you do overcome these obstacles! Keep hustling!
Expert Goal Setting
Goal setting may appear to be a rather intuitive process that results in you reaching some sort of achievement. But you need to follow a few specific rules regarding your goal setting to make the process much more efficient, and ultimately effective in helping you reach a successful conclusion!
Set Yourself Up for Success From The Start
Everyone should have big goals as they are incredibly motivating and it is a chance for you to see the future in advance! The end goal, the big one, can be as big as you’d like, but make sure that’s not the only goal you set as it can appear to be overwhelming and this can cause you to start procrastinating and stop taking action, thus losing momentum.
Break your big goal down into smaller interim goals as they will appear to be much more achievable and will help to smooth the road to success. It can easily become too overwhelming to set one goal of “I will buy a bigger home next year” (although this can be an excellent end goal)!
Break that big goal down into smaller, more readily achievable goals such as; “Pay off all credit card debt”, “save 20% down payment”, and “raise credit score”. Achieving these smaller goals will keep you motivated and this really sets you up for success in your major end goal!
Set Realistic Goals
If buying a house next year just isn’t going to happen, don’t set yourself a goal that big, or you’ll only be setting yourself up for failure from the start and this may cause you to feel like a failure and disempower you, the exact opposite of what a good goal should be doing! Instead, try to set more realistic goals that you actually have the chance to achieve. It’s ok to dream big, but be realistic in how you are going to reach that big goal.
There are usually many smaller goals that make up large goals, and there’s nothing wrong with setting a pace for yourself so that you stay on track. This is definitely preferable to getting overwhelmed and ending up endlessly negatively analyzing your every move. Setting realistic goals will make sure that you achieve them!
The Power Of Visualization And Belief
The goals you set become so much more concrete in your mind when you can also visualize them and believe that you’ll reach them. The first step in effective visualization is to become completely engaged and to put all of your senses into the process. If your goal is a new, larger home, imagine how it feels to walk around in that house with ample room. Visualize yourself making a meal in the large kitchen. You’re surrounded by the sounds of a happy family, the smells of good food cooking and the feeling you have everything needed, organized and at your fingertips.
Utilizing the senses in this way when you visualize will help secure this goal within your subconscious mind, and effectively make it easier to take the actions you need to take to work towards your goals. Your actions will follow your thoughts, so make visualization a part of your daily routine!
Keeping Your Focus On The Journey
In life, in business, in everything, there comes a time when you need to start setting goals, and the journey to those goals must be started; remember the first step is always the hardest. Most people who are striving for success in their lives choose to focus on the goal instead of the journey towards that goal but in doing so, they truly miss out on the myriad lessons to be recognized along the way and are missing out on the joy that comes along with their growth.
When you begin a journey toward a goal, there is always a period of excitement, of renewal, of momentum and motivation. And when you accomplish the end goal, there is a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment. The starting point and the ending point are to be celebrated, but so is the journey in between!
To ensure that YOU don’t miss out on the many lessons along the path from start to end, here is a helpful little technique for you to use:
Depending on the goal you have set, whether it be weight loss, business-related, better relationships…it really doesn’t matter…keep a journal of the process you are going through.
Keeping a written journal of some kind (this may be paper and pen, or online) can really help you identify thought and behavior patterns, positive and negative habits, and can help you discover things about your thinking and the actions you take. Some of these things will be obvious to you – no surprise there. But you may learn some things about yourself that will come as a complete surprise, and herein lies those valuable lessons.
By learning what works, what doesn’t work, how you tend to react to when things go well and when they do not, you begin to learn to adjust your course based on where you are at that moment. And being “in the moment” is a life lesson that can’t be underestimated!
When you really take the time to sit down and analyze the how and why of your journey, you can learn some incredibly valuable lessons about your action and reaction. And once you have learned these lessons, they can be used in all areas of your life to help you create and achieve even higher, stronger, more important goals. Once you have identified your strengths and weaknesses, you can use that knowledge to your advantage and ensure that you always try to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses. This will skyrocket your chances of success now and in the future!
But, the thing is, if you are blissfully unaware of the intricacies of your journey, you will never know this as you will be missing these incredibly valuable insights and lessons.
So, if you can keep your eye on the goal while you are on your journey, this will help you to reach those successes that you are after much quicker! So, go and set your goals, and keep one eye on the journey and enjoy the process!
Cultivating a Positive Environment
One of the most important steps that you can do in the goal setting process is to give your mind a positivity makeover. You know that being positive is important right? So doesn’t it make sense to create an environment of positive thougth and feelings that surrounds you every single day to move you forward and also make you feel great?
But this can be easier said than done and how exactly can you surround yourself with positivity? Well, I have some good news for you; it isn’t really all that difficult at all! If you just follow a few simple steps you will boost your feelings of posititvity and this will support you on your journey towards your goals. Here are just a few of the steps you can use!
Remove Any Obvious Negativity Immediately
What do I mean by this; well the answer is twofold. It could be the things you surround yourself with but it could also be the people you surround yourself with. They are both equally important to the larger journey you’re on. If you have things around you that instantly conjure up negative emotions, get rid of them, or at least get them out of your immediate surroundings.
If you are surrounded by negative people, it can be very difficult to break free from that mold and live a positive life. This takes some deep introspection, and you must be willing to remove these people as much as possible from your immediate surroundings. Now, I do understand that this can be incredibly difficult, especially if some of these people are your close friends. But be honest with yourself and ask “what are they really bringing to my life; do they enrich or impoverish it?” You need to find the courage to remove these negative influences fast and, believe me, the reward you will immediately gain will be very obvious once you’ve accomplished it.
Ban Clutter
Clutter stresses most people out, and the last thing you need when trying to cultivate a life of positivity is negative stress. So get rid of the clutter!
Clean off and organize all “horizontal surfaces” – tabletops, desks, counters, windowsills. These are generally problem areas in the battle against clutter.
But how do I decide what gets thrown away? Easy! Hold the object. Does it evoke a joyful feeling, a happy memory? If it does, great but if it doesn’t it is time to get rid of it. Your life is far too short to hold onto things simply because you feel you “should”, or because someone bought it for you and you feel obligated to keep it.
Those areas that typically house a lot of “stuff” should be organized, with a place for everything, and everything in its place. Your desktop is a perfect example – it’s much easier to sit down and work when you have a clear, positive space in which to do so!
Stack The Positivity!
The final part is to start adding in positive things to your environment. Art, music, living plants, or maybe even a small, calming aquarium! By adding things to your surroundings that you love and enjoy, you’ll have a much more positive experience when in those surroundings. Your productivity will increase, and you’ll be well on your way to those end goals!
Have a Vision, Not a Goal!
If you want to accomplish as much as you possibly can, the most important thing to get right is the vision or goal you have to begin with. This is essentially the same as setting your trajectory and without a trajectory, you don’t stand much chance of getting to your destination. Unfortunately, many people don’t know how to correctly write goals and this can end up preventing them from achieving the success they so desire.
And actually, if you’re starting off with writing a goal then you’re starting out with the wrong intent to begin with. And this is because ‘goals’ aren’t really as useful as visions or visualizations – and that is what we’re going to explore here.
The Difference Between a Goal and a Vision
So what’s the difference between a goal and a vision? Basically, a goal is something that you write down and that is very concrete and simple with a pre-determined endpoint. A goal may for example be to ‘lose 10lbs in two months’. That’s a goal but it’s also not as effective as a vision designed to the same end.
This same ambition posed as a vision rather than a goal would instead be more the idea of being in shape. You might visualize yourself looking ripped and feeling healthy. You might imagine yourself going for jogs on the beach with your top off in summer and feeling great about yourself. That’s your vision.
A vision can also be an image of yourself standing in an office block and looking out over the world, knowing that you’re in a position of great importance and power.
This is a much more abstract concept that nevertheless helps you to get a picture of what you want and what the emotion behind that goal is. It is the motivation behind the goal
Why Visions Are More Effective Than Goals Alone
Why are visions more successful than goals? For one, goals are not nearly flexible enough. If you have a goal, then this gives you one thing you’re trying accomplish and only one idea of how to get there. If it doesn’t go to plan then you have the freedom to change the steps you’re going to take to get there, or to bend them to fit your current lifestyle, plans and free time.
Another reason visions work better is because they have more emotional content. When you visualize something, the same regions fire in your brain as though it was actually happening. This in turn means that you can actually trigger the emotion as though it were happening. And it’s this emotion we can use to motivate ourselves to go through with plans!