Do Your Goals Hang Low
Do they wobble to and fro? Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow….
Ok, just kidding. I could have gone on with that one, but I’ll stop there. You get the idea. We hear this word all of the time and frequently get asked what our goals are. I’m not sure about you but I always have a hard time answering this question. My goals? Shoot. I have no clue? World peace? Create an entire business empire? Get out of bed tomorrow morning?
It feels super personal to answer that question oftentimes because it makes us vulnerable to put out those thoughts. Suddenly you find yourself questioning whether your goal is too big, if the person you are talking to will doubt your ability to obtain that goal, or if you should just give up all together.
Well its time to tell those voices to shut the heck up. Who CARES if your dream is huge. Who CARES what Sally from HR thinks about you wanting to run a sub 4 hour marathon. WHO CARES. Because guess what? Sally isn’t you. Sally isn’t willing to put in the long hours and work through those days when that goals seems like eons away. But you know who is? YOU.
So, to begin. Let’s pick a goal.
Now, did you catch that? I said GOAL singular. Not GOALS. You are allowed one goal in this space. Just one. We can’t properly work towards our goal if we’ve got too many irons in the fire. Sure you want to run a marathon, write a book and become president of the PTA. But listen up. You may be superman or superwoman but you can’t achieve your current goal with 100% effectiveness if your focus is spread too thin. So, first on our list of requirements for today: our goal must be singular and specific.
The broader and more fleeting our goal is the harder it is going to be to reach it. For example, you want to get healthy, that’s great. But really take a minute a think what that means for you. How do you define healthy? Is that in the food you eat? In the exercise you do? In the vices you take out of your life? We need a plan to reach this goal and without specific parameters we might get lost in thinking we are working towards it but really just spinning our wheels. So. Be specific. “I want to get healthy and I will do that by training to run a half marathon.” Perfect. Now we’ve got a very specific goal.
Second. Our goal must be measurable and therefore have a few milestones. Again, notice how I didn’t say deadline. Sometimes putting a deadline on a goal creates an added pressure that causes us to quit when we don’t think we can do it in a certain timeframe. My goal to own my own gym didn’t happen in the timeline I originally planned for. If I had forced myself to stay within my original timeline I may never have continued to push to achieve it. Therefore, our plan must have milestones so we can see and feel our progress, so our goal can be measurable.
And finally our goal must set your heart on fire. Goals are HARD. Not a little hard. They are HARD AF. You have to be disciplined enough to keep fighting for this goal on the days you don’t feel motivated. On the days the temperature drops and it is cold outside and you don’t want to run. When our goal seems like an impossible distance away. Those are the days you have to fight for it. And without that fire in your belly to achieve this goal your discipline might slip. So pick something that speaks to you, that causes butterflies in your belly, that thing that keeps you up at night.
Don’t let your goals hang low. Screw Sally from HR. Pick the goal that you have to reach on your tip toes for. Keep that promise to yourself that you will work towards it no matter what. You will get there and every single day you work towards it is one move closer to achieving it. You got this rockstar. I believe in you.