3 Essential Elements to Achieving Your Goals
We all set goals. We set all kinds of goals: New Years resolutions, fitness goals, nutrition goals, personal goals, financial goals. You name it, we set them and likely, if we are honest, we do not always achieve them. I cannot speak for you, but when I set goals I dream big and I want it all done yesterday. I am not overly patient (my husband can attest to that) and when I start a new project, I want to jump right in … ALL in. Unfortunately, most projects can not be completed instantaneously. Everything is a journey, a process, and there are often struggles along the way.
So, how do we get from goal to reality? My mother and I have had this ongoing debate for some time: balance vs prioritize. I have long argued the concept of balance - I wanted to believe I could do it all. However, as I have slowly added the many job titles my mother has held for years (wife, mother, mentor etc.) I have come to realize that the only way to bring goals into reality successfully day after day is to prioritize. We have to take our huge goal and break it down into manageable steps and in order to accomplish this we cannot simply balance out the scales; we have to decide which step comes first and which tasks move down the line or get bumped off the list entirely.
Now that we are over halfway through 2019 where are you at with the goals you had in mind six months ago? Did you start that exercise program - or will that be NEXT Monday. Did you organize that closet - or is it still overflowing? Have you registered for that class - or is life just too busy right now? If life for you is anything like mine, balancing the tasks of life quickly turns into “firefighting”. One emergency (usually kid related) after another. The days blur together and suddenly you are running on the treadmill of life just trying to survive all the laundry.
Launching a personal training studio, raising two kids, and having a traveling husband makes for a pretty full schedule for this mama. I wake up at 4am - so I cannot possibly add in any more time to my day and in no way does my life have balance. It has things I do (what I prioritize) and things I do not do (the things that fall to the bottom, or off the bottom of the list - spoiler alert: they are generally they are house-hold chores). As I consider my goals, I realize they are add-ons to my already hectic schedule. Without implementing consistency, grace and prioritizing I would never have completed my ACE training course and actually launched Pure Joy Training. It would still be on my list of “things I want to do when I grow up”. If you want to tackle huge goals, and remain on track WHILE living life you need to implement: consistency, grace, and prioritizing.
What is consistency anyway? Consistency is doing something more often than you don’t. Making healthy food choices more often than choosing pizza or ice cream, exercising on more days than you Netflix and chill, saving money more often than “Amazon-ing”. Whatever your goal happens to be, consistency means moving towards that goal on more days than you move away from it. Consistency is not perfection and it is not instantaneous.
Does consistency mean you never eat the pizza or the ice cream, or you never stay in your pajamas all day or you never “say yes with one click” on Amazon? Of course not, that is ridiculous. If we banish these things entirely we will inevitably fall off the wagon. When this happens it will usually happen in a big way - we think we are rewarding ourselves for all of our hard work and self-control so we eat the whole cake - or go on a shopping spree - undoing all of our long hard work and likely causing more damage. Instead we commit to consistency, one day at a time. We acknowledge our goal and make the next choice that gets us closer to it, on more days than we do not.
This is where the grace piece comes in. We allow ourselves some grace on the days when consistency just isn’t happening. Maybe the kids kept you up all night and that early morning workout needs to wait, or you are at your favorite restaurant where they serve that amazing dessert you can only get there, or maybe you have just had a day. Whatever the reason, or the occasion, because there will be a reason or an occasion along the way, you allow yourself the grace to enjoy these things that may not be on the direct path to achieving your goals.
Prioritize. Envision the end goal. Now envision all the steps along the way that will be required in order to get there. Write those down. Once you can see those, start at the top and work your way down. Just one goal - one day at a time. Honestly, this is how I sometimes get through cleaning my kitchen when I have let it go ALL DAY. Coming down the stairs after putting the kids to bed with dishes from breakfast, lunch, and dinner all sitting there, I honestly just want to walk away, pour a glass of wine and relax. That choice would be a balance choice. I had a hard day I deserve to relax. Instead, I prioritize my goal of waking up to a clean kitchen over my desire to take a break. Maybe that’s how your huge goal feels - there is just too much to do. I literally have to tell myself, one plate at a time … and once I am actually started, the task doesn’t seem so overwhelming, I know the steps, I know where things go and the job gets done. While cleaning my kitchen is not the same as tackling your huge goal the process is the same. Know the goal - understand the steps - and prioritize them over other items on the list.
Each day you will have to decide which things make the top of the list and which things move towards the bottom. Enter grace again. You may not complete any of your goal-related priorities on the day you thought you had prioritized them. Your child might get sick, your neighbor might need a hand, or some other life emergency might enter your life. GRACE GRACE GRACE. While we are working towards achieving goals, we have to remember we are also living life at the same time. We are managing all kinds of other things around us – there is no balance - we cannot possibly do it all. There is what you prioritize – and what you don’t. The beauty in this is there is no right or wrong way to prioritize. This is your journey, these are your goals, this is your life.
Prioritize your goals, work towards them consistently and have grace for the days the goals just don’t make the list.
xoxo,
Corie
