Achieving Your Goals

How do we get serious about achieving our goals so that we see real progress?

When you look back at the year, I want you to feel really proud of everything you have achieved and these tips are things that will help you to accomplish your goals.

It is pretty common that we have things in the back of our mind that we want to do. We want to lose weight but we are not willing to make the time to get to the gym. We want to write a certain number of blog posts per week but instead we are scrolling through facebook. There are lots of things that distract us. The list goes on and on with things that we want versus what we actually end up doing. At the end of the day, discipline is so important because it is what we are giving up right now to actually get what we want later down the road.

Here are my top tips for taking actionable steps that you can start today to reach those goals.

  • Stop making your goals optional, make your goals mandatory: If it is an option we tend to allow our feelings to take control meaning that it is easier to push things to the back of the to do list versus making it something that we have to do. We can find millions of things to do to talk ourselves out of it, there is always an excuse. Your goals are not going to magically happen, we have to do things, we have to take action to make them happen. At the end of the day, if you are not doing the work then it is not going to happen.
  • Give yourself a time limit: This will put more pressure on you, and pressure can be a really good thing, it can keep you self accountable so that you know that by x date x has to happen. An example is I want to lose 5kg by the 1st September, I want to set aside 3 hours per week to write my blog posts. Giving yourself a concrete date is going to help you to focus as you have got to get it done.
  • Visualise: It is really important to practice this, I can’t tell you how important it is to write down your goals, have a vision board and to actually see yourself achieving your goal in your mind. By practicing visualisation, it can help you see the end result. A Harvard study concluded that if you write down your goals or visualise your goals you are 80% more likely to achieve them.
  • Be realistic: Come up with you goal, create an action plan to make it happen, e.g. hire a personal trainer to work with you three times a week. The more specific you are in your plan, the easier it is to accomplish your goals. Do something every day or every week to achieve that goal. We all have 24 hours in the day and it is up to us to decide how to use those 24 hours.
  • Be flexible: There are so many times when things don’t go our way and we get stuck in a rut and we just stop trying, but there is always another way. You can have all the motivation in the world, but you need to be prepared for when life throws you a curve ball. It is also easy to come down on yourself really hard, because of the things that don’t go your way and you can’t get done what needs to get done. It is easy to beat yourself up about it, but you can handle it with grace and move forward. Learning to adapt and have situational awareness is really important.
  • Accountability: Have someone that you can reach out to and tell them what you are trying to do and ask them if they wouldn’t mind checking in with you to make sure you are doing what you say you are going to do and that you are actually getting it done. This can really help you.
  • Re-assess your goals: Check in with yourself on at least a monthly basis and track how you are doing against your set goals. This helps you to stay on track.
  • Reward yourself: This is something that people often feel that they can’t do, however, there is nothing wrong with rewarding yourself for your achievements. This is essentially saying well done to yourself. This is great for positive re-enforcement.

What Should You Do Next?

Life coaching is all about setting and achieving goals. At each coaching session I have with my clients, the focus is on actions to get from where you are today to where you want to be in the future. If this sounds of interest to you then please click here for a free 45 minute taster life coaching session >>>> Book Free Session