How to Achieve Your Goals

It's writing challenge Day 2 - I've shown up again!

You can't see it, but I'm giving myself a high-five (yes, it's a clap).

This topic has been on my mind a lot over the last couple of months, and I've been simmering on the topic in preparation for a webinar I'm giving this month (January 2023).

I've followed a lot of very smart people and pulled together my own version of this process.

I'm testing it out on myself, so you're seeing how it's going live.

You're welcome.

Here's how to achieve your goals:

1) Envision your goal (both the outcome and the process)

2) Manage with your mindset

3) Take action

The big reveal here is actually your mindset.

It's the secret sauce that actually allows you to achieve your goals or not.

But it's in the middle because there's some crucial planning to do to bring up your mindset blocks, AND you want to take action from an inspired place, not white-knuckling your way through (a sure way to NOT achieve your goals... and feel horrible).

1) Envision your goals

It's goals (plural) because there's two goals you need.

The result you want (your outcome goal).

Everyone's familiar with an outcome goal. We tend to call them dreams or visions.

It's us, being the hero, triumphantly seeing ourselves as the person we want to be.

Then there's the process goal.

This is the part most people skip, which is "what am I going to do and how often, to reach the outcome I want?"

Planning, baby.

2) Mindset

This part is the reason why diets don't stick, houses get cluttered, and we skip the gym over and over.

The thoughts we're telling ourselves are what's keeping us stuck where we are and struggling to get where we want to be.

A lot of things go into this:

Our identity

Our stories

Our present thoughts

Our commitment when things getting tough

Our understanding that difficulty IS the process.

If you get so far as to choose an outcome goal (which can be hard and scary in itself) AND set your process goals, you're going to get stuck on mindset as soon as things get tough if you didn't prepare yourself for that ahead of time.

Speaking from experience, we convince ourselves that if we just make things easy enough, we just remove temptation enough, we just lower the barriers to entry enough, we just plan HARD ENOUGH, we'll have an easy time changing a habit.

We've convinced ourselves that if changing your habits and actions is hard, we haven't done something right.

And it's OUR fault that it didn't work out because we didn't DO enough to avoid the pain.

No way, my friend.

That's the cycle of shame and stuck.

To get out of it?

You have to be willing to handle it when things get tough.

3) Take action

This part Seems simple enough when you're in the right frame of mind.

Just motivate yourself enough to do the thing.

Motivation fades though, and we need something else to fall back on.

That's where habits and routines and rituals come in.

Want to know more?

Watch this space in the coming month for more details about each of these steps.

And there are a lot of details.

Day 2 complete.

See you tomorrow.

Steph