Tired of Setting Goals You Never Achieve?
Here are some steps to take if you are frustrated with your life
Do you have goals that you never seem to reach? Do you set goals, and it seems year after year goes by, and nothing has been achieved?
Here are some quick tips to help you achieve your goals:
• Write down your goals. Be specific. Describe them. Write about how you will feel as you are making them a reality.
• Ask yourself: am I willing to do the work that this goal actually involves? Most goals involve a lot of persistence and work. Be sure that as you embark on a goal that you are willing to do the work required to make it come true.
• Get in touch with people who have already achieved the goal you are seeking. Ask their advice. Ask them to mentor you. Look at the steps they took to success and try to emulate their path, while staying original to your own goals and vision of how you want to achieve them. You don’t want to be a copycat, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel if the information on how to achieve something is available to you.
• Ask yourself: do I think I am worthy of achieving my goal? If on some level you feel you are inherently not worthy of achieving a goal, you may sabotage your efforts or not put the effort and work into achieving your goal.
• Say positive affirmations about your goal each day, such as: 'I can lose weight', 'I have the power to lose weight', 'I give myself permission to lose weight', 'I am worthy of losing weight', 'my body knows how to lose weight', 'I can make choices that will help me lose weight', 'the universe is supporting me in my quest to lose weight.'
• Draw a map of the journey to your goal. Draw map of where you are now as a starting point, and your goal as the destination. Draw visual reminders of the journey along the way to this goal, hang it up, and look at is so you won’t lose sight of the path you are traveling.
• Set smaller goals within your goal. If your goal is to write and publish a book, start with the goal of writing one or two pages a day. If your goal is to start a catering business, set a smaller goal of developing a repertoire of recipes and writing up a menu to distribute to potential clients.
• Set a deadline for your goal. Don’t let time be your enemy or slip away. Set reasonable and realistic deadlines for your goal. This will help motivate you if you feel you are getting stuck or losing momentum.
• Create an action plan each day. At night, before you go to sleep, write down one action you can do the next day to get a step closer to your goal. Action is needed to make any goal come true—and consistent, repetitious action can build to making a dream a reality.
• Measure your progress. Are you moving forward? If not, evaluate how you can begin to see progress toward your goal.
• Stop being a perfectionist, procrastinating or waiting for the ‘ideal’ circumstances. It can be hard for perfectionists or those who are afraid of failure to move forward if not all the conditions are ideal. Let go of the idea of perfect. Stop procrastinating—the ideal time to do this is now, not tomorrow when life is perfect (which will never be a reality). It can be hard to face that perfect or ideal are not conditions under which you can achieve or pursue your goal. And remember to remind yourself that failure and mistakes are okay—you’ll just need to get up and try again! Put the need for perfection aside.
• Shut the negative chatterer in your head up. Inside you there may be a negative bully who shouts words like, ‘an idiot like you can never do this’ or ‘you think this dream can come true? What are you stupid? Look at your past! Look at your failures! Ha!” Right now, shut that bully up. Don’t listen—and if these words start going off in your head, distract yourself and get to work. You don’t have time for this—and remind this bully that some of the world’s greatest successes have also experienced great failure.
• Ask for help. If you have a friend, relative or business acquaintance who might have some good advice for you in reaching your goal, don’t be afraid to ask. This doesn’t mean you have to follow every piece of advice given you, but they may have some constructive feedback that can lighten your load and give you some new perspective.
• Imagine that some of your greatest heroes and heroines are pursuing the same goal. How would your favorite person in history pursue this goal? What steps would they take? Imagine that you are sitting at a table with five people throughout history that you most admire—what advice would they give you?
• Stay positive. Even when it looks like your goal is not attainable, keep saying positive words to yourself. Keep envisioning your goal coming true. Make an affirmation board with pictures and words that can inspire you and keep you seeing the reality of your dream coming true—even before it is a physical reality!
• Make it a joyful experience. Try to enjoy each step you need to take towards your goal. Enjoy the process, not just the destination. Consider yourself on a journey, a vacation, a trip, and let each leg of this trip be something you savor and experience to the full.
• Create a check-in system with someone who loves you and wants to see the best for you…your Mom, a best friend, a former teacher. Ask them to phone you weekly or monthly to see how your goal is going. It helps to have someone to account to and that you feel a responsibility towards.
• Remember to never give up. Most great successes come from lots of practice and a will to persevere despite all the obstacles.
