I am wishing all of you beautiful Mama’s a wonderful Mother’s Day tomorrow! Unbeknownst to me, I signed my son and I up to do a volunteer event at the beginning of the school year, for this Sunday. We will be making and serving breakfast burritos to the homeless downtown San Diego. And not to get all Mother-Teresa-ish about it, but I’m looking forward to doing this with Jude and I can’t think of a better way for us both to give back. Especially to those Mom’s and Dad’s who have no one. There is lots of time for relaxing and self-care, as I’ve made this a routine practice and not just a once-a-year endeavor. I hope you can do this too, because it honestly makes all of the difference in how we show-up as Moms, friends, wives, daughters, and so on. Self-care = Self-less.
Speaking of self-care and goals, I learned some really interesting facts this week. In today’s article I share the astonishing facts around goal setting, how many people just don’t do it, and what it takes to make goal setting uber successful.
Here are the stat’s.
80% of people do not have goals.
16% think of goals, but do not write them down.
Only 4% of the population write down their goals.
AND…Just 1% write down their goals AND regularly review them.
That 1% are amongst the highest achieving population people in the population!!
Wowsa. This is so fascinating to me…well of course it would be because this is my profession. Helping people achieve their goals and dreams.
I just want to first say that I think the word “achievement” is getting a bad rep. these days. On the one hand there is a lot of talk about “doing’ less and “being” more. The idea being we’re moving too fast and not slowing down enough to smell the roses, and also that our worth doesn’t come from our achievements. We are enough without them. And while I agree with all of this, we are also meant to create. The universe is built upon both giving (doing) and receiving (being). We are meant to create joy and extend love. It’s our natural state. It’s only when we attach dysfunction to achieving that it becomes an issue. We are enough already without the external accomplishments. BUT our natural state is about creation, which is not dysfunctional at all, and comes from within. It can’t not extend outward and shows up by taking inspired action. The physical manifestations are just a result of our creative thoughts. We can use our thoughts to create our hearts desires or go down an ego trap of trying to get. Like trying to get love and approval outside of ourselves. The flowers don’t question how to grow or look to other flowers for approval once they reach their full length and are in full bloom. They just are, and so are we.
Sooo now that we got that cleared up and don’t have to get so hung up on the word “achieving” of our goals, we can move forward. Have you taken the time to write out your goals? And if not, why not? What is blocking you in doing so? I always have my clients hand write their goals when we first start working together. I do the same the beginning of each New Year myself. There is also something powerful about handwriting as opposed to typing. We slow down and we really feel what it would be like to reach those goals. Our minds don’t know the difference between reality and imagination, and so this step is integral in visualizing your dreams every day after taking the time to write them out.
Take 20 to 30 minutes, and write out what you’re really wanting. What are your big dreams, and then break them down to get as specific as possible so that you can 1. gain clarity, and 2. start to feel what it would be like to bring them to fruition as I mentioned above. From there, we want to create a tangible plan on making them happen, while still being open to what the universe shows us as next steps. We want to break those big goals into measurable steps – quarterly, monthly and weekly. Then we want to follow that plan while staying open at the same time. Checking in on your goals weekly will help you stay on top of them. What’s working, what’s not, what needs to be tweaked, etc. Visualizing these goals every day (or pieces of them until achieved and then you can move on) is also key. Feeling worthy enough of achieving your goals is also integral. You must move through your inner blocks WHILE taking the action you’ve mapped out. This is really where I see a lot of people falling short. They don’t have the willingness or perseverance to do what feels uncomfortable as they go. You have to be so passionate and fired up about your vision, that you’re willing to stretch yourself and feel uncomfortable. You have to be willing to take the action. It will be worth it in the end AND the best part is that you will see it wasn’t that big of a deal, which will help you continue to take action and stretch yourself.
Wherever you’re at in the goal setting process, schedule in your next step now to ensure you actually do it! It’s the only way it will get done 🙂 And make it a non-negotiable too, like catching a flight.
