Y’all, goal setting is the real deal. Goals can keep you on track. Goals give you something to work towards. Goals are important in our daily lives. But goals can also be soul crushing & intimidating. And they can actually hinder us from getting where we want to be. I know, I know – W H A T!? Hear me out here…
It’s easy to set a goal. I want to lose 25 lbs in the next three months – there’s a goal. I want to start and grow my side gig so I don’t have to work my corporate job – that’s a goal. I want to learn how to climb a tree – that’s a goal. But all of those are simply statements (either written or said). There nothing but wishes, UNTIL you start making plans to make them happen.
GOAL : The object of a person’s ambition or EFFORT; an aim or desired RESULT.
Do you know what the words effort & result have in common? They imply WORK. When you put in effort, you put in the work. You are working TOWARDS something. Result is what happens when you worked TOWARDS something. A goal isn’t a statement – it is the end result of your EFFORT. Without the EFFORT – you might as well make a wish blowing on a dandelion as to write something on a vision board.
When we set a goal, we are publicly saying this is what we want to happen. That’s the easy part. The effort that goes into making it happen – that’s where most people drop off.
Sometimes, we aren’t really willing to work for our “goal”. Usually that means we didn’t really want it in the first place. But sometimes the willingness to work for it isn’t the problem, sometimes we just get swept away in not knowing how to actually make it happen. And sometimes, we set ourselves up for complete failure. And when we don’t reach our goal – we become discouraged, and stop working towards it all together.
I can’t help you WANT something more – but once you want it – once you are willing to WORK for it. Then you can learn how to set yourself up for success. For more on setting successful goals – check out my goal setting resources, or find out when I’m teaching the next GOAL PLANNING workshop on the calendar!
Today, we’re talking about what NOT do. And maybe a little about what TO DO too. Here are the TOP 5 reasons people who come to me for help seem to be missing their goals.
TOP 5 GOAL BUSTERS
1. You’re Biting Off More Than You Can Chew at One Time : Goals are the big picture, sure. But if you’re starting at A, you can’t expect to get to Z with out hitting the 24 letters in between. Know where you want to end up, but break that journey down into pieces you can work on, one at a time.
2. You Aren’t Doing It Your Own Way : We are overrun in our world today with people showing you HOW TO. We have Pinterest boards full of ideas – how to dress, how to decorate our house, how to eat no carbs.. AND THAT’S GREAT! Inspiration is a fabulous thing. But we can’t confuse inspiration with imitation. Just copying how someone else did something won’t work. Because you aren’t them. Your body is different, your life is different, your family is different. As you watch your IG favs, or pin your pins be conscious of using it as inspiration – not imitation.
3. You Aren’t Being Realistic : Hear me out here – I’m not saying you are dreaming TOO BIG. There’s no such thing. Dream BIG – but don’t think that it will be an instant pot goal. Y’all we’re workin’ with crockpots. Personal story – the first time I tried to lose weight after I had B, I set a goal of 50 lbs lost in 6 weeks. That was completely unrealistic. And when I didn’t hit it – I got discouraged and I ended up gaining more weight. I eventually lost all 50 lbs, but it took a year.
4. You Aren’t Making Plans : You have to stop setting goals WITHOUT making plans AT THE SAME TIME. I can’t yell this one enough. So many times I’ll get a DM in my inbox – with someone sharing their goal, they’ve been “working” it for months & aren’t any closer to reaching it. But when I ask them how they are working it – its a mish mash of randomness. With no real PLAN. Goals have to be broken down into smaller ACTIONS that all add up to the desired result. The action has to be continual & consistent.
5. You’re Quitting : This one is hard to talk about. But for far too many of us, quitting becomes a habit. When something doesn’t happen as quickly as we think it should or becomes more work than we originally thought – Q U I T. Here’s the deal, most successful people are just those who didn’t quit. There’s no secret formula for anything. Besides work. You just have to keep pushing forward. No matter how hard, no matter how long. Keep pushing forward.
BONUS : Coming right off of that last one, this is one other tip I think is worth mentioning during this post. REASSESSMENT. Don’t hold onto a goal simply because it was your goal once. If it is no longer important to you, if it no longer works for you, if it doesn’t bring you joy, or if it becomes a negative impact on your life – CUT IT.
There is a difference in quitting on something you WANT because it’s too hard and cutting something that isn’t building you up. If it isn’t a positive force in your life – it needs to go. Every other area of your life will suffer if you continue to keep working towards a goal that isn’t serving you.
Reassessment also needs to happen for goals with a “time stamp”. I’m not a HUGE fan of timed goals – there are pros and cons to them.. sometimes we need to push ourselves towards a deadline, because pressure helps push. But we have to be very self aware with a timed goal. You have to be willing to take a self inventory – are you working as hard as possible. Are you following your steps. If so, reassess that goal. Give yourself grace.
And finally I reassess my plan every quarter. I go over the goals I’m working towards – I look at the plan in place. What is working well, how can I “beef” that up? What isn’t working, what can I replace that with?
Do you have goals you need to reassess? I’ve put together a FREE reassessment worksheet for you to get back to rockin’ out your goals! Click here to snag!
Keep setting those goals y’all! Until next time!!
ALL THE MAGIC,
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