Go Get Your Goals! New Year's Goal Setting Parts 7-10 Staying Inspired and On Track

Part Seven of The Goal-Getter Challenge - Staying Inspired

A goal-getter stays inspired!  Some days, we wake up inspired, and that's great to have those days, but more often than not, we need to put in the effort to cultivate feeling inspired.  Nobody's going to do it for us. It’s something that we have to do for ourselves.

 I want to review with you a few ways to maintain your motivation and inspiration so that you can take action on your goals and be full of goal-getter energy.

One easy way to stay inspired is to pick a few goals and visualize how you will feel when you accomplish them. This is nice to do when you wake up in the morning or drift off to sleep at night—any time you have a chance. Sink into the feeling and connect with the emotions of how you will feel when your goal is accomplished.

When negative thoughts pop up, like ’I don't have time to do this, this is ridiculous, why did I set such a big goal?’ it can be discouraging, and there will be days like that.  I like to have a word I can tune into and repeat in my head a few times.  It's something just to flip that energy.  Right now, my word is faith.  I lean on that when I start getting discouraged - that I have faith.  Just saying the word faith, I can feel my energy lifting a little!  

Gratitude is another tool for switching to positive energy. Instead of thinking, 'oh I have to get up, I have to write every day, and I have to do all of this so that I can reach my goal,' switch to 'I get to get up in the morning, I get to write every day, and work on my projects, I get to work on my goals'.  

What an amazing blessing this is in my life!  I get to be a great example for my children of someone who works hard and accomplishes their dreams!

If you are reading this, you probably have advantages that other people in this world don't have. It's important to be grateful for those advantages and realize all of the things we get to do, even if they feel hard. It's a privilege to be able to choose them.

Next, listen to books and audios that motivate and inspire you! This is one of my favorite things—I try to put good stuff in when I'm walking or driving in the car. You know what they say: good stuff in, good stuff out. Immerse yourself in positive stories and people who inspire you, and build your faith with stories of people who accomplish their big goals and overcome obstacles.  

Hang out with people who have goals. You could even have a regular get-together.  I used to have a book club with a couple of ladies.  We met at a coffee shop one morning a week and started with Catherine Ponder books - the first books I ever read about manifesting and using affirmations.  We would just encourage each other, and each had different types of ventures and businesses. I was just starting my first blog, and it meant a lot to have these ladies to talk to about what I was working on and to have them encourage me.  Think about who you hang out with and put something together.

Even 5 minutes of reading in the morning while you drink your coffee, makes a big difference.  Put your Kindle app on your phone so that if you're somewhere where you have a few minutes, and instead of checking social media you can read a couple of pages of your book. Kindle books are between 99 cents and $9.99, and they are well worth it if they keep you motivated to reach your goals.  

An accountability partner is similar to the small group idea. You check in at certain times, encouraging each other and staying accountable. The power of sharing what you plan to do and checking back in, cannot be underestimated! Having a coach who does that for you is another great option.  

Then, one thing I found that helps me when I'm just not feeling motivated is doing one thing.  For example, even though I feel unmotivated, I will send one podcast pitch or one round of 6 podcast pitches. I know that task will take less than 10 minutes.  Once my computer is out and I've done one thing, I usually feel like I might as well do another and maybe another.  

Create a plan to stay inspired and keep getting after your goals. I hope these ideas help.

The Goal Getter Challenge Part Eight - It’s not a competition.

Let’s discuss comparing ourselves to other people. Comparison can be a huge damper and kill your dreams altogether. When you look at other people and feel like you’ll never measure up or ‘get there,' that can be a distraction at best and kill your dreams altogether at worst.

Consider using comparison differently as inspiration for what you can do and what is available. If something is available for someone, it is also available for other people—possibly even you. Maybe not a replica of what they have created, but a unique version of it is genuinely available for you.  

When you're comparing yourself, and maybe you're even a bit jealous, list what you think they have that you would also like to have or what you think they are doing better than you.  It might be  their fancy website, their income level, or something that they own like a car or a gorgeous beach house.  Next, look at that list and use it as inspiration for your goals, your vision board, and affirm that those things are available for people just like you!

You can also look at why you're attracted to those things and dig in a little deeper.  

Underneath the surface of 'I want a certain income or a certain car or house or a certain level of lifestyle' there are deeper 'why's'.  Perhaps you believe that at a particular income level you would have safety and security and extra money in the bank.  You can look for ways to bring those qualities into your life now!  How could you get some extra money in the bank and have that safety and security even without the big fancy house that you think represents it?  There are always layers and levels of these issues that pop up, and sorting them out can be an interesting part of the journey. 

I  also recommend avoiding comparing yourself to other people in general.  If there are people online or that you receive emails from that are somehow triggering you and causing you to compare yourself and feel like you're not measuring up, behind the curve, or moving slower - keep in mind that you might be comparing your year one or two or to their year ten or fifteen!  

We often compare unequal situations and scenarios.  Anything that you can do to keep your eyes and your mind and your energy focused on your own goals and not looking around at what others are doing in the first place is the most beneficial.  

When you do find yourself comparing, which will happen from time to time, try some of these tools and techniques and change your feeling of comparison into a feeling of being inspired!

 Part Nine: The Signs of Progress

There are always signs that your goals will be achieved; that you're making progress, that you're moving forward. You just need to recognize them!

Working day after day toward long-term goals can be challenging. They take a long time to achieve, and there are no guarantees we will ever reach them. However, I believe we will always learn so much on the way to achieving really big goals that we may achieve other things instead. Going after your dreams and goals is never a waste of time or energy.

Long-term goals take time, but we can celebrate our progress! One way to do this is to set smaller goals on our way to our bigger goals.

By breaking your goals down into smaller pieces, those 5 - 10 minute small tasks, you can turn those into daily goals or weekly goals and start racking up the wins! By doing this, acknowledging and giving yourself credit for what you achieve, you're stepping into the energy of being a person who achieves your goals.  

If you always have a goal “out there” or up on a pedestal and think ‘‘nothing counts until I have the end result’ - that keeps you in a mindset of lack and scarcity; that you don't have your big goals.  When you can look at the smaller pieces and own your progress, you are a person who reaches their goals.  

It’s great to set some smaller goals that you know are achievable intentionally.  Like, I'm going to drink an extra glass of water for a week, or I'm going to walk for 20 minutes 3 days a week.  Achieve those smaller goals, and you'll be in the energy of a person who achieves their goals. That affects every area of your life!

Look for signs that you're on your way, and you’ll see them.  It's easy to brush them off and say, 'Oh, it was just a reply to an email or a comment on Facebook; it wasn't someone booking'.  But the fact that you're getting emails, you're getting those comments on social media - they are all signs that you're on your way!

Give yourself credit, acknowledge your achievements and keep looking for those signs that you are on your way to achieving your big goals!   

Final Thoughts

I wanted to leave you with some final thoughts on pursuing your goals. There are several different energies from which to choose. It is easy to dive into our goals with both feet and make endless to-do lists, but soon, we start to feel resistance.  

Many of us are creatives and entrepreneurs - we don't want to operate through endless to-do lists. I love that ‘there is never anything you have to do, but there is always something to do.’

Given that there are probably hundreds of thousands of ways to get from where you are now to your goal, we never have to feel locked into following certain steps, doing things in a strict order, or even following the method we learned from a mentor or in a class—those are just possibilities.  

I love to have choices and possibilities, and as I go through my day, I allow myself to go with the day's energy.  For example; I may have a goal of doing 10 sales activities per day, that's a pretty standard goal that I have, however, which sales goal activities I choose can be fully based on what feels right to me that day.  An exception to that would be if I had scheduled appointments for interviews or something like that.  I would show up and give my best to those even though I wasn't fully feeling it.  Usually, once I get going on an interview, I enjoy it very much.  

Sometimes, it's a matter of taking the first step and getting started; sometimes, it's a matter of choosing a different activity. 

Working out is another great example. Perhaps you make a workout schedule and are supposed to run X miles each day for several weeks. You're on a day that's supposed to be a longer run, but the thought of it doesn't feel good. Rather than skip working out altogether, you choose swimming, so you are still moving forward, just in a slightly different way.

Sometimes, we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones, and we may feel expansive about doing so. 

Other times it’s a contractive feeling, like it’s not the thing you should do that day, it might be because of your energy. 

Figuring out when it is time to push yourself, relax, and practice self-care or work through your temporary and often self-created ‘feelings’ is a matter of being honest with yourself and your commitment to your goals. 

 Listening really deeply to ourselves and our intuition is an important part of reaching our goals.  It's a balance.  A balance between listening to ourselves and our intuition and moving in the direction that we're guided but also at the same time not using that as 'oh my intuition says I'm supposed to stay in bed under the covers all day' because it's likely not!  

As you're working toward your goals, ask yourself, 'How can I work toward my goals today in a way that feels uplifting and a way that feels expansive.'  Some days that may be crumbling up your to-do list, so throw it out and make another one—or clearing your inbox and some things that are taking you away from reaching your goals before you dive into your goal.  

Things will always come up, and there will always be days when we don't show up.  We might feel down on ourselves or bad about ourselves.  'I'm not doing what I said I was going to do'.  But here's the thing; that energy of beating ourselves up for not showing up will perpetuate the problem so it's a continual process of realignment and recommitting to ourselves from a space that feels good.  Beating ourselves up never feels good.  

Choose your thoughts and choose to say things to yourself that you would say to a friend who got off track with their goals.  'You know what, tomorrow is another day' or 'Guess what!?  There is still some time left in the day.  Before you go to bed tonight, can you do something to help with forward momentum toward your goals?'  I often do that.   

If something's not working, figure out what's happening and get back on track!  

Remember everything that we've learned in this series that will help you:

• Setting reasonable and doable goals for your day and your week - but then setting really big goals that feel expansive to you, that are exciting to you
• Reviewing your goals.  Set an appointment with yourself to review that goal book every week and do things daily to lock in your goals.  
• One of the easiest things you can do is to make that vision board and put it where you can't avoid seeing it.  Instantly review your goals every day, right?

Go back through this blog series as often as you need to. We're human; we will always get a bit off course. But just like a plane flying from the East Coast to the West Coast, it course corrects. Then, maybe because of the winds, it might get a little bit off course again, but it gets back on course again. If the pilot didn't correct the course, they might end up in Alaska instead of California!  

You'll eventually reach your goals or achieve something better with ongoing course correction for your hours, days, weeks, and months.

Unexpected blessings, lessons, and adventures may occur along the way, and we may end up with something even bigger and better than we could have imagined.