Goal Setting for Greatness Part 2
Alrighty, Greatness Gang, I am a day late from my scheduled post BUT, herein lies a great example of when life meets goal setting. This past weekend was the Memorial Day holiday weekend, and I was a bit busier than initially anticipated. So, my GOAL of posting part two of Goal Setting for Greatness yesterday, did not happen as planned. Instead, I am posting today, yaay! Teaching moment: There will be times your plans will not go accordingly. Life happens. priorities shift, time escapes our grasp; but, what is important is maintain focus on your goals no matter what.
What will separate you, person of greatness, from the others will be your tenacity, you fortitude and your relentless focus. Your ability to push through and push back. If what you wanted to accomplish was easy, everyone would be doing it. You were given your vision for a reason, so set goals to bring your vision to fruition. Then, work day in and day out on those goals, even if things do not always go smoothly.
In this post I will share 3 more goal setting best practices to build off what I posted last week. Enjoy, and I hope you get something out of it.
VERBALIZE
Verbalize your goals. I will explain two ways that you should verbalize your goals:
Like actually, really, literally, say them out loud to yourself. Sounds crazy right? Well, dare I say you have to have some level of crazy to accomplish great things! Take the crazy a step further by being super audacious and say them out loud as if it has already happened for you. For instance, if you have a goal to lose 10 pounds in 2 months. Say out loud, “I have lost ten pounds!” It may sound silly, but there is a science to this. Long story short, by doing this, you are triggering you Reticular Activating System (RAS); which, is a part of your brain that controls what is sorted between your subconscious and conscious mind. Saying your goals out loud as if you have already accomplished them programs your brain, and causes it to focus on that goal even more.
Tell the people you trust about your goals. I have learned that this is such a great way to establish accountability. If no one knows your goals but you, then you can almost always let yourself off the hook. Sticking with the weight loss example, you want to lose 10 pounds, and no one knows that but you. So, when you go to 3 buffets in one month, drink a profuse amount of alcoholic beverages, and skip the gym for Netflix and Chill, you can tell yourself, I’ll do better tomorrow, the next week, or next month. Sometimes we can be our own biggest critics and other times we can be our own biggest enablers. When you tell people you trust about your goals, if they care, they will check in, ask you about your progress, give you the side eye when you are not making the right decisions. They will be accountability partners! And you will need at least one strong accountability partner when you are going after your goals.
VISUALIZE
I am sure at some point you have heard of the saying: “seeing is believing” and there is a lot of truth behind this statement. How does one visualize one’s goals? Well, again with the weight loss example, you imagine yourself being the size your aiming for. What will you be wearing? What will you be doing? What great, healthy things will you be eating? Generate good thoughts toward your future self. Gather some ‘feel good’ and ‘can do’; because sometimes it’ll be the gas you need to keep going.
A good way to get into practice of visualizing your goals is to write down your goals. There are several statistics that show higher success rates of accomplishing a written goal down versus ones that have not been written down. Highly successful people, often can be heard expressing their love for not only writing their goals down but, even posting them up in places they will see them every day. Writing you goals down helps bring clarity to them. Sometimes, you can see it, but can’t quite put it into words. When you start to write down what you want, it forces you to get more clear about what it is that you are seeking and shooting for.
VALUATE
Valuate is synonymous to assess. As life happens and you continue to work toward your overall vision, you will need to periodically check in and assess, or valuate. First off, you always want to measure progress. How much have you accomplished thus far? Have you been diligent and focused? Valuate your effort as well. Secondly, you want to valuate whether or not the goal is still appropriate or not. Sometimes, our goals shift and that is okay and perfectly normal. This is why checking in often on your goals and where you are is important. My suggestions would be to do a serious full-fledged examination of where you are on your big goals quarterly. If you have shorter-termed goals monthly would be best.
I hope you have enjoyed reading through these three best practices for goal setting; as well as the three from my previous post. All goals matter, and you are worth achieving them!
Until next time.
In Greatness,
Coach Shara