Last week I started talking about goal setting and gave you 3 tips on how to achieve your goals: Find your why and set your goal, is your goal S.M.A.R.T., and write it down. I also shared with you my personal goal of losing 15 lbs by September 1st and how my goal relates to the steps I am sharing with you. I hope you made it through all three steps and are ready for the final stages of goal setting and getting started on achieving your goals!
4. Visualize the success!
After you write your goal down and say it out loud, it is important to keep the motivation up by visualizing what completing your goal will look like and how you will feel when you reach that goal. This may seem like a silly step, but it is a vital one and I also believe that putting thing out “into the universe” to help get results and this is a great way to do just that. Studies have shown that visualization is a powerful tool to help you change your mindset and behavior into positive action and motivation, which is key to achieving any kind of success.
By visualizing myself stepping on the scale on September 1st, and seeing it read 15 lbs lighter, I am further convincing myself that it’s attainable. By focusing on how happy, accomplished, and proud I will feel after seeing I reached my goal, I am giving myself something to hold on to when the times get tough and I feel like giving up.
5. Share it with your support system!
This might be the scariest step of them all but trust me, it’s crucial. You need to tell those that you’re close to about your goal, especially those that are in your inner circle or support system. These are the people that are going to support you, encourage you, and help you reach your goal. They are also the people who are going to let you know if your goal is not S.M.A.R.T. and help you reassess. Don’t forget, asking for help is a sign of confidence and commitment to reaching your goal, not a sign of weakness, so don’t be afraid to ask your support system for help or support, that’s what they are there for! (However if there are people that do not support you or want to sabotage you, then you should reflect on that relationship and decide if it’s one that you want to keep in your life or not.)
By sharing your goal out loud, it not helps to continue to visualize how exciting it will be to reach the goal but will also hold you accountable.
For my goal, I started off by telling my husband and inner circle. By getting my husband and inner circle involved it’s easier to ask when I need help and I can get them excited for me and use them to help hold me accountable. At first, after I told them I remember thinking ‘how in the world am I going to accomplish this?’ but the more I shared, the more realistic it became and the more excited I was to see it through. It’s really amazing how much people want to help and support you once they are aware you have specific goals, especially those in your support system.
6. Take ACTION!
Now it’s time to put a plan into place and get moving on accomplishing your goals! Start off by creating a list of the things you will need to do to achieve the goal and create a game plan on how you want to tackle that list. Remember that you will need to keep adding to this list or cross items off as you start to accomplish and meet your goal!
For me, I started off by making a list: Keep healthy, whole food at home; exercise at least 3 times a week for ½ hour each time, and plan out my meals. Once I had my list, I had to start putting the items into actions. To keep good food at home, we started out by throwing out the junk food and buying whole foods like raw veggies and fruit. Then I committed to working out by joining a swim class at the YMCA and signing up for a yoga class. Lastly, I reflected on my batching practice (see batching blog post here) and picked a day of the week to meal prep out healthy meals so I wasn’t reaching for unhealthy “convenience” foods.
7. Make a #MondayMantra
Last, but not least, you have to keep positive. The key to that is having a good mantra (see my blog post on #MondayMantras) that connects to the ‘why’ of your goal. You know I’m a fan of mantras and a mantra will help provide you focus and encouragement when you need to dig deep within to achieve your goal. You want to come up with a statement that you can repeat to yourself to help keep your goals top of mind and actively working toward them. It’s a good idea to create a mantra to help you during the journey but then to also create weekly ones to help you get over smaller humps.
About 7 years ago I lost over 100 lbs. There were many life changes that supported reaching that goal but my mantra of “nothing tastes as good as fitting in my jeans feels” was paramount. It was my overall mantra I used every day and it’s one that I still use to this day to help me maintain my weight. I did have other weekly ones I used during my journey, like ‘focus on today’ and ‘what is a struggle today will be easier tomorrow,” to help me overcome the times I felt like it was too hard.
This time around, my goal – “I will lose 15 lbs by September 1st, 2018” – connects to my personal ‘why’ because I feel happiest when I am healthy, so my mantra will be: “I feel happiest when I make healthy choices.”
There you have it. This is the end of my list on how to help set and achieve your goals. I would love to hear what kind of goals you have for yourself and how you are using this list to help you succeed! Please reach out at: info@truenorthbeauty.com to share them with me or if you need any kind of support or have questions! A huge reason as to why I started True North Beauty was so I could help and support others, so please reach out to me, I truly would love to connect with you!
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