What are your Goals?
Let’s talk about the history of Trene’s goals. Some of them were really big, like trying to start my own makeup artist company back in 2009 (spoiler alert it is now 2020). So many BIG Goals, I worked at them a little bit as you can tell I’ve strayed away from it. Then there was my first blog on Blogger called Mothermaven, I don’t think I did more than one post, so you can say this is a re-do. The thing about big goals is that while you working through them they must make you feel really good about yourself. If you lose your sparkle from the beginning you can honestly tell yourself “maybe I’m not doing it for me” or “maybe I’m not ready, and I need help with this”.
The Best decisions are made from failed experiences Click To Tweet
It’s easy to lose your focus on big goals because they can feel intimidating. All of this fear can make you procrastinate and sadly not accomplish them. How do we fight the fear, in other words, it puts it in its place! The first thing you have to realize is fear is a natural reaction, accept it for what it is. This is your mind and body advising you, it’s just plain new. If you want some tips on choosing the right goals, here are some things to think about.
- Is this Goal for me or someone else?
- Can I picture myself accomplishing this? The end Result
- Do I feel motivated to go through with it?
- Can I get more education or support on this?
- Can I break this goal down into manageable steps?
- How much time is needed to complete this goal?
After all of that questioning, phew!…are you ready to get started? One thing to keep in mind you are always going to have many goals. Some are wins and some are fails. I’ve failed at my goal of saving money so many times before. It didn’t make it my top priority until it kicked me in the butt with debt. All of those failures were not useless, they really help me understand what motivates me. I’m a naturally stubborn person so you can say I need a lot of motivation, but this I know about myself.
Tell me all about it
I’m interested to know what your goals are? After reading this, What are the steps you made?
Defining your Goals to focus on
Goals can be made up of many, many thoughts and dreams until you make them more tangible. Put them on a medium in which you can revisit. Create a goal for all aspects in life, not just work related. Take the time to analyze how you naturally maintain focus. Are you more mentally active in the morning? Also after two cups of coffee? Do you get distracted at home?, Need a defined work-space? Is there a journaling session that needs to happen, before you get in the zone?
When it comes to motivation it’s easy lose it quick. It’s important to know that not every step comes with a support structure. There are going to be times, you just going to have to tell yourself “Just get it done” You may not want to do it, you may be a little tired, just immediately start on the task for 5 minutes. Now if you can make it in 5 minutes, maybe now 10 minutes. If the ten minutes are reasonable for you, its enough!. Congrats you started, know your motivation limit but don’t let of the fear hinder you.
Getting to know yourself and how you are with getting stuff done is crucial. When it comes to planning stuff out, do you write things down or do you check your phone a lot? You don’t want to write down your goals some where that you’ll forget all about them. Make your plans and put them somewhere that you check quite often.
If you know yourself really well, you would know if you need support. Just because this is your goal doesn’t mean you can do it all alone. You might need someone to hold you accountable, a partner to keep you on track. You might need a mentor, some inspiration, maybe look into someone that has already accomplish this goal. Reach out to them for some advice, do some history search and see what helped them get to the end. What difficulties they had to overcome ? And how did they overcome them?
Losing track of a goal and your future can feel like two of the same Click To Tweet
Discovery leads to productivity
Learn how you are as a person at a time of focus, don’t work against it …work with it.
If you’re a procrastinator, what triggers you to not take initiative?
What do you find yourself doing in the meantime?
A good tip is to use a time tracker app on your phone. I’ve used an app called “Boosted” to track time, it’s free to use and has a lot of charts. It wasn’t until I felt exhausted from being busy that I wanted to track my time. I know it sounds tedious, but you can learn a lot from what you do all day. I like to evaluate where I’m spending all my time and when I find myself taking longer to do simple tasks. By using Boosted I was able to see how long it really takes me to do a task. Sometimes I pile my days up with stuff to do but don’t take into account how long it takes to do them. When I scheduling my steps in my goals I can be more realistic with myself.
Breaking the Big Goal down
Overcoming the Big challenge needs to feel doable, more manageable.
Start with a visual concept, like a vision board or a presentation. Imagery can be used to compile what we call “The Big Picture”. Try creating a collage of your goal’s main points. Come up with a focus photo and expand from there, you can add graphic quotes, a photo of inspiration, just explore.
When you’re breaking down your goals into steps, try thinking important parts:
- When ( starting point, deadline, the time allotted,)
- How (Resources, Necessary Education or Studying, Realistic Steps )
- Why (main purpose, my prospective results, this motivates me)
Then keep repeating this process into it gets even smaller. Turn a year into months, months into weeks and so on. After a week goes by, revisit your goals thoroughly. Ask yourself these questions
Did the time frame seem realistic?
How does this still contribute to my main goals?
Am I still doing this for me?
Make sure the breakdown of your timeline is reasonable. Don’t give yourself the weekend and its a month project. You don’t want to burn yourself out. Burnout won’t feel like a reward.
Thank yourself
Give your self grace for the little bumps. Think about it this way, if it didn’t hit where you stood, How can you test your strength? I believe difficult goals are the best to strive for because One – to teach us a lesson, and Two – to share those lessons unto others.
You can try celebrating the small wins to keep yourself motivated throughout. I’m not really into the reward system, but taking a moment to appreciate yourself is worth it. If you are the kind of person that needs something to push for through each hurdle, then that option is for you. I consider it like having a cheat day, a reward for progress. If your goal is to save money by the end of the month, then push yourself to save an extra 10% of your goal. Now, you can treat yourself to that Facial that you never had. I personally get satisfied by seeing how I can change during my progress, like my habits, my mental state, my HAPPINESS!
Lastly, it’s ok to hit the pause button sometimes. Taking a break when you’re feeling overwhelmed doesn’t need to be criticized as a failure. You can always pick up where you left off. Re-discover your drive, analyze your habits and breakdown your goals again. If you need to step back and revisit it when you have more energy or support, then that is enough. You know what they say, “To Try, and Try Again”!
This post is amazing and SO helpful. Downloading that app right now. Thank you for sharing ! <3
cathclaire
http://www.cathclaire.com
fashion, life-style, and travel blog
Lovd the clarity with which you explained the goal setting process. I too believe that small achievable goals are better than big goals.