Anytime is the perfect time to think about where you want to go in life, what you want to be and what you want to have. Too many people leave their lives to chance and happenstance and don’t take the time to write down their dreams + goals and the subsequent plans to achieve them. I’m a huge fan of getting in the car without a destination but when it comes to your dreams + goals in life and business, having a road map will help you considerably.
Having written goals will change your life.
Spend some time thinking about what you’d like your life to be like. For the sake of this exercise, let’s set goals you’d like to have accomplished one year from now. Of course, you can set shorter and longer goals as well.
- What would you like for your relationships?
- How about your health, career, and finances?
- How about your mind and emotions?
- What would you like to experience?
- What would you like to do, be, or have?
Take some time now to identify these things and write them down. This will greatly increase the likelihood of your accomplishing them. Now, look at your dreams + goals, particularly your short-term ones.
Do they make you want to jump out of bed each day eager to get going?
The challenge that I often see is that people like their dreams + goals to be their truth but can’t figure out either how to make it happen, or stay in the seat to do the personal development work required to get there. Instead, they focus on being more realistic and in the process create every single excuse of why they cannot achieve what they want.
The problem with being realistic is that you lower your expectations. While this may seem like a reasonable thing to do, it will leave you uninspired and unmotivated. For example, if you have a goal of making enough money to “pay the bills” how exciting is that? Is that going to make you jump out of bed in the morning saying, “oh wow, I can’t wait to get going, so I can make money and pay the bills!” Probably not so much.
Give yourself permission to dream and play bigger in this world and set goals that feel like they are way beyond your reach. Goals that are huge enough to really get your juices going.
You don’t have to wait until December or January to set goals – so how about you get started right here, right now? Following is a simple exercise to help you become clear about your goals and begin creating the life you’ve always wanted.
List everything you want to do, be, have, and share for the upcoming year and beyond. Rather than writing “be thinner,” for example, write “I feel & look great weighing 175 pounds.” Instead of writing, “More money,” be specific. How much more per month?
Write each goal in the form of a positive affirmation, in the present tense (I am, I have, etc). Set goals in the key areas of your life – spirituality, health, relationships, social, career, things, and money.
Next, to each one, write why you want this and how you will feel when you have accomplished it. Knowing the why is often the kick in the butt you need to get yourself going – because now you understand the reasons behind your dreams + goals.
Write at least one small action you can take right now to move toward your goal. It starts with one thing, one action to get going – but if you can take the mountain (your dreams + goals) and create your own hiking map to get there – sometimes the smaller the step the easier you can see how ti can be done.
Each day, read your list of goals, concentrating on the feelings associated with having them. The more you can feel the feelings your goal will produce, the faster you can draw it to you. Your subconscious mind does not know the difference between that which is real and that which is vividly imagined.
After you reread your goals, seeing yourself as having achieved them, and are feeling the good feelings associated with having them, ask yourself, “What is the next action I can take to move toward this?”
Do this daily and watch your life change.
Dream + Play Bigger!
Cheers,
Petra
P.S. Now think about what you could achieve if you had the support, tools, resources and accountability to make it all happen? Come hang out with me in The Gathering and stop waiting on one day for motivation and inspiration to arrive.
