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At the first of the year, what healthy intentions or goals did you set? Did you want to lose weight? Did you want to be healthy? Did you want to feel less stressed? Did you want to just feel happier?
Whatever they were, I want you to stop for a minute and evaluate your progress. If you are not feeling as accomplished as you had hoped in this first month of the year, let’s spark that motivation.
“Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life.” – Les Brown
When we become committed to our goals, we become unstoppable. Goals help us:
Grow
Overcome
Achieve
Live Bigger
Succeed
Consider clarifying your goals by breaking them down with three steps:
1. Better define your goals
2. Determine your “why”
3. Be real about where you are starting from
For instance, maybe one of your goals was to be healthy. Until you really define what “healthy” means for you, your goal is pretty vague. However, if you know that being healthy means having a strong immune system, energy, strength to do functional activities, being fit, managing your weight, and feeling great, you now know what healthy means to you.
You also want to determine your why – why do you want to be healthy? Maybe you want more energy to keep up with your kids, want to be a healthy role model for your family, want to get off cholesterol or blood pressure prescriptions, or you need to be able to fit into your clothes again so you can stop having to buy bigger sizes.
Our why fuels us with the motivation we need to take action.
The third step is to ask, where am I starting from? Where are you honestly at, and what areas of your health are out of balance? Maybe you are stressed from work, get little sleep and many of your meals come from a drive-through window. Maybe you consistently work out, but your diet staples include Diet Cokes, crackers, bagels and all things sugar. Everyone’s starting point is going to be different.
Once you find more clarity in your goals, you can put small actions in place to get truckin’ on your journey. You’ll make plenty of pit stops and wrong turns along the way, and that is just how we learn the roads. But until you start the car, you’re not going anywhere.
Without clarity about what you need to do, and reasons for doing them, your mind easily wanders, and your heart lacks any kind of motivation for taking meaningful action. As a result, "squirrel syndrome" sets in and distractions and procrastination take over.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not here to be average, I’m here to be awesome. I want to limit distractions and procrastination as much as possible.
Craig Ballantyne, owner of the Early to Rise organization, (I highly recommend checking out his website) coaches people on being high performers and basically finding their awesome. He developed Five Pillars of Success that can help you make considerable progress towards your goals and desires.
Five Pillars of Success:
1. Planning and Preparation
2. Professional Accountability (Get help from a coach or someone who knows more than you)
3. Positive Social Support (Harness the power from your “cheerleaders”)
4. An Incentive (Treat yourself to big victories)
5. The BIG Deadline
When you clarify your goals and put these five pillars in place, you’ll get to your first of many destinations in no time.
Let’s get fired UPP,
Nat
P.S. If you are not part of my Inner Fire Facebook Group, bring your friends and come on over for extra tips and positive social support to get you closer to your goals!
