I will lose weight.
I will become more successful.
I will be more productive.
How many of these sound familiar? Every year, month, week, and even day people make statements like those as a way of setting goals that they often don’t accomplish. If you’re like most, in the beginning you have all the momentum in the world, yet somehow by the end of January you find that you have swept them under the rug.
This tends to happen because you’re not setting your goals, in what I consider to be the “right way.” Actually, what most consider goals really aren’t. Typically what most people create are basic statements, which are fine, but they need more muscle to really go the distance. There’s a process I encourage you to use that can help you set as well as accomplish your goals.
- Put yourself at the core of what you create-When creating your goals it’s important that you put yourself at the core of what you create. If you were to go through your list of goals and ask yourself why you want to accomplish them, your answer should be because it’s something of value to YOU. When you create goals around others, they don’t become a priority to you, and you find yourself working towards it less and less.
- Get emotional-Envision what you want the end result to be. Think about what areas of your life reaching your goal will impact and how you want things to look; most importantly, think about how you want to feel. Ask yourself what internal or emotional experiences you want to have and let that factor into what you’re creating.
- Instead of creating from ego, create from the spiritual side of things-Rather than setting goals that would seem to bolster your ego create from within. What things are you led to do? What calls or speaks to you? Use meditation as a means of discovery. Connect to Source and see what’s revealed. Journaling is another method that proves to be quite effective.
- Set your intentions-If you reread the list I mentioned earlier, you’ll notice that they are very vague. This is where making them S.M.A.R.T. comes into play. Making them specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound makes them solid. It turns vague statements and resolutions into goals.
After you take these steps, determine how you will reach each goal by creating a plan and remember the “by when” date you gave to each as you do. The more specific you are with the details of the plan the more likely it is you’ll reach the goal. If you want to lose weight, instead of “I will lose weight” your goal would be, “I want to lose 20 pounds by April 1st.” This is short and sweet, but it’s S.M.A.R.T. Some of the steps you might take to get there are:
- Drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day
- Eating whole foods and cooking at home 5 times a week
- Exercising for a minimum of 30 minutes every day
As you can see, taking that vague statement and giving it some depth it becomes more specific and clear. It also makes it easier to add the steps to help you get there. I want you to truly look at these 4 steps, and use them to create your list of goals for the year. (Just because it isn’t the first of the year doesn’t mean it’s too late!) Remember to make them S.M.A.R.T, as those who do are more likely to be in the 8% of people who actually accomplish what they create. If all of this feels a bit challenging for you or even intimidating and you’d like help creating your goals and a plan to reach them I invite you to sign up for a private session with me!