#goals ~ What’s Holding You Back?
A goal, according to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, is “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result”. We all have goals, right? Or are they just DREAMS? Do they have your full mental investment? Goals take time and, let’s face it, the world is in such a hurry to get . . . NOWHERE. Our lives are so rushed, so full of demands from all directions. There’s no time for a personal goal. That would take too much EFFORT. That’s just absurd! At least for me, it's the goals I have that keep me going, that keep me FOCUSED. If you don’t have a goal, you could spend your life running around that darn hamster wheel and getting nowhere. Just running, running, running and never making any progress. You’d just wear yourself out, physically and mentally.
So what’s the PURPOSE of having a goal? Why is it so important? According to “The Peak Performance Center”, setting goals has several benefits:
Provides DIRECTION- goals give you a direction and destination
Clearer FOCUS on what is important
Clarity in DECISION making
Gives you CONTROL of your future
Provides MOTIVATION
Gives you a sense of personal SATISFACTION
Gives you a sense of PURPOSE in life. (1)
Essentially, it guides your entire being. It provides that guidance in your decision making. Not having a goal is like putting a location in Google Maps and not clicking on the “directions” button. Nothing gets mapped out. Does that really help you? Nope.
Setting goals can give you both short-term MOTIVATION and a long-term VISION. The more you set and concur short-term goals, the more focused you will become to set even more goals towards a larger long-term vision. What have you just done with these goals? You have taken CONTROL to make the most of your life. That doesn’t sound bad now does it?
So if you understand that you can reap bushels of BENEFITS from setting a goal for yourself, what’s holding you back? Do you have commitment issues? A fear of failure? Maybe a fear of success. What? How can that even be a thing? Well let’s start with the fear of FAILURE. If you tell people you have a goal, and then you don’t achieve that goal, you will have created your own “less-than” situation that you didn’t live up to your own expectations and now other people know that. But what if you succeed? If you tell someone about your goal and then you achieve it . . . first of all, BRAVO! That’s fantastic! But sometimes people will get bitten by the jealousy bug and unfortunately they may speak poorly of you. I would hope that they would CELEBRATE your victory with you, and they probably would. But in your mind, you may unfoundedly fear jealousy. You can’t control if someone is jealous of you, all you can control is YOURSELF. So focus on what you can control - YOU!
Ok, so you’ve decided it actually IS a good idea to have a goal, but how do you make this goal? There is actually an acronym for goal setting called SMART, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Let’s start a goal with a little checklist.
___ Specific: The goal needs to be clear and well defined with a specific desired outcome.
___ Measurable: You need to be able to accurately track your progress, a value or amount that can be measured to know when the goal has been met.
___ Attainable: Your goal needs to be realistically achievable.
___ Relevant: The goal needs to benefit you/your life directly.
___ Time-Bound: Have a deadline - set a timeframe for your goal to help keep you on track. The moment you put a deadline on your dream, it becomes a goal.
Begin SOMEWHERE. Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? Of course you have to begin somewhere, but where? What is the easiest thing you can do to see a result TOWARDS reaching your goal? Once you become aware that you can ACTUALLY take an action that produces a result towards meeting your goal, it's like putting a match to a charcoal grill. But it needs a little starter fluid (momentum) to get it going. You mound up the charcoal, apply lighter fluid, and then strike the match and apply it to the charcoal. It’s just started, but the heat is going to build and you can see the heat within each briquette of charcoal, and it spreads to the next briquette, and the next, and before you know it, that grill is going to be ready to cook. Before you could get cooking on the grill, there had to be a fire and that fire needed a source to produce the heat, which means it needed the match and catalyst from the lighter fluid. But the match couldn’t do anything on its own. It needed a DELIBERATE action. It needed - no it REQUIRED a flame! It needed intention. It needed a goal.
Don’t keep your goal locked up in your mind. There are so many things going on in your mind and you may forget. Or worse yet, you may talk yourself out of the goal. Those DOUBTS and lies in your mind that tell you that you can’t do it. WRITE it down! Write that goal down on a piece of paper! Post the goal somewhere that you will SEE it every single day. My favorite place is on the inside of the cabinet in my bathroom. I open it at least twice a day: when I’m getting ready for my day of the morning, and when I’m preparing for bed. That means I start and end my day with that goal front and center.
So what shall your first goal be? Start small. Maybe walking for 10 minutes every day, drinking 32 ounces of water a day, saving up money for a big purchase, spending less time on social media, etc. See how all of these are MEASURABLE? Your goal should be just out of reach, but not out of sight.
Setting goals will trigger new BEHAVIORS, help you focus, and develop a newfound sense of self-mastery. It’s a “win-win”. But what if your plan doesn’t work? What if the SMART technique is applied to your goal but you aren’t making the progress as quickly as you’d hoped for? The problem isn’t the goal, but it could definitely be the PLAN. You may need to adjust the deadline. We tend to get a little over ambitious, a little too RUSHED to reach the goal. That doesn’t mean you are unable to reach the goal you have set for yourself. It doesn’t mean the destination is faulty or unreachable. It means that you may just need a new plan to reach that goal. Maybe there is road construction on the directions Google Map has suggested for you. Maybe another route is the better route to take to your destination, even if it is going to take longer to get there. Don’t give up. NEVER give up! Just reassess your plan, make adjustments, and hit “go” again. IF THE PLAN DOESN’T WORK, CHANGE THE PLAN, NEVER THE GOAL!
So you’ve done it, you accomplished (and maybe even suprassed) your goal! What’s next? How about another goal? Maybe a larger goal . . . the limit is where YOU put it. Who knows where you might take yourself!
Set goals. CHALLENGE yourself. Become a role model - an EXAMPLE - for those looking up to you.
My friends, don’t let life just happen around you. Take that bull by its horns, set goals, and MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR LIFE!!!
(1) https://thepeakperformancecenter.com/development-series/skill-builder/personal-effectiveness/goal-setting/benefits-of-goal-setting/