The word goal has gotten used and overused lately.
Everyone talks about goals – from Life Coaches to Self-Help Experts to that Personal Trainer at your gym who fancies herself Jillian Michaels while she yells motivational phrases into your ear.
And perhaps when you think of goals you think of the big changes you want to make in your life.
But when I think of goals I think small.
Itty, bitty.
Teeny, weeny.
Why?????
Because I absolutely need regular successes to keep myself motivated and I have found that, for me, success comes in lots of little achievements that get me to my BIG vision for my life.
I discovered this about myself a few years ago when I was literally immobilized contemplating one of my BIG goals for my life. Contemplating my desired end result had me overwhelmed before I took even one tiny step. I was literally floundering in inaction while my BIG DREAM stayed floating around on the quantum plane.
So I created some new language for myself.
I decided my BIG DESIRE needed a word that spoke to the magnitude of where I wanted to be so I came up with the following scale:
My BIG DESIRE became my INTENTION.
My INTENTION broke down into specific OBJECTIVES or MILESTONES.
And my OBJECTIVES/MILESTONES broke down into GOALS.
And there I was, moving along with teeny, weeny, manageable actions.
So if my approach appeals here is where to start using my five ways to ROCK YOUR GOALS. I call this a worksheet because I want you to spend some time writing down your answers. The better you define what you want to create at the beginning, the greater the chance you will achieve what you want.
1. State your INTENTION (the BIG DREAM, DESIRE)
Make sure you are clear on the WHAT and the WHY – check in with your values and make sure your BIG DREAM (INTENTION) is authentically aligned with who you are.
Then bring in your heart and LOVE it into being. You do this by visualizing yourself already at your destination and allowing the joy, excitement and sense of accomplishment to wash over you.
2. Decide what the specific OBJECTIVES and MILESTONES are that support your INTENTION.
For example, let’s say your INTENTION is to write an inspirational children’s book. That’s the BIG IDEA. OBJECTIVES and MILESTONES that support your BIG IDEA might be things like collaborating with an editor, working with an illustrator, developing a marketing plan, developing a launch plan, choosing a publishing option and so on.
3. Now you can create your specific GOALS for those OBJECTIVES/MILESTONES.
Staying with our example, a specific GOAL might be learning software like SKRIVNER (software specialized for writers to help them lay out a book), or researching best-selling children’s books to see what are some of the most successful themes, or researching the target age and demographic for the kind of book you want to write. A GOAL can even be picking up the phone and calling a BOOK COACH to see if you might need that kind of support or finding someone to be an accountability partner. And you can have writing goals just to write for fifteen minutes daily – doable, manageable and far away from that feeling of overwhelm.
Your GOALS are designed to get you going in small, doable steps but need deadlines and due dates so you can continue to check things off and get on to the next steps.
4. Commit with daily actions to your GOALS.
Some examples might be as simple as reading your INTENTION daily and doing a daily visualization. Others might be putting specific times in your schedule to work on various aspects of your goals – you have to commit your time in order to move your goals forward. Accountability partners are invaluable if you are someone who has no problem missing deadlines you set for yourself. Sometimes it’s easier to make sure you get something done if you have someone else to report in with.
5. Foolproof your success by identifying distractions that keep you from taking action. Then decide how you are going to remove each distraction from your day so you can keep moving ahead.
So maybe you will stop keeping your phone on all the time, or stop keeping your email open so each ping distracts you, or maybe you’ll stop taking care of your neighbor’s cat when there are others ready and willing to take on the task. If you are suddenly feeling compelled to clean when you begin to take action on your goal breathe through the impulse and let your accountability partner talk you down from the edge. Who will care if the house is messy once you are fabulously successful! LOL
And here’s the secret sauce to success:
Celebrate what you do and let go of what you didn’t do!
Treat each day as complete and whole within its borders and end with gratitude that your INTENTION is alive and well and coming closer to you each and every day.
You might think that motivation is the answer but really action is the key ingredient and that’s why the smaller you can make those goals, the greater the chance you will be reveling in the glory of your dream achieved sooner than you could have ever imagined!
