Reaching Goals- 3 tips

Do you have an "Idea Folder" on your laptop or phone? 

Or maybe you're like me and have far too many sticky notes lying around with ideas written on them. 

If that's the case, it's likely you're a goal-oriented person, meaning you get an energy boost every time you set a goal.

Daydreaming about goals is fun, but sometimes, the process of actually achieving them can feel cumbersome, or even impossible. 

If that seems to be the case with the majority of goals you set, what can you do to overcome whatever it is that's stopping you from carrying out your plans? 

The three steps below may be helpful in this regard. 

Plan, plan, plan

What to do: Once you've set a goal, the next thing to do is plan how you're going to achieve it. For me, this means breaking my plans down into daily action-items that aren't too difficult. For example, if I'm trying to write a 300-paged novel, I might set the goal of writing one paragraph every day. Or, on days when I'm super busy my daily goal will become even more doable by becoming "Write one sentence today." Seriously, one sentence. Because that's doable. 
So, even if you have to plan ahead for the next year, and literally write out a daily to-do list for the next year, it's worth it if it'll help you move closer and closer towards your goal. 

What not to do: Where I often go wrong with this step is overburdening myself with unrealistic daily goals. For example, I might set a daily goal of writing 20 pages of my novel every single day for three weeks straight. That's not realistic considering my physical limitations and the fact that I have a day job. When I set unrealistic daily goals, I can't achieve them, which discourages me and makes me feel like I can't achieve the big, long-term goal. So, don't be like me! Set realistic and achievable daily goals! 

Get inspired

What to do: Find someone who has achieved the goal you're looking to meet (or a similar goal) and learn what they did to be successful in carrying out their plans. You might find this person among family/friends, on YouTube, Instagram, or perhaps they're even a celebrity. Thanks to google, social media, and podcasts like How I Built This, it's easier than ever to find out exactly what steps people have taken to achieve their success.
So, find someone who inspires you and learn from them! This way, when you face a moment of self-doubt, you can think of this person and how they pushed through similar moments of self-doubt. This may give you the motivation to keep moving forward. 

What not to do: We may hear the phrase, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," from time to time and it's probably true. But does imitating someone else really help us to find joy in reaching our goals? Not necessarily. There's a difference between admiring someone as we use their example as a source of inspiration and idolizing someone as we imitate them as much as possible. No one is perfect and it can be self-defeating to put someone on a pedestal as if they're perfect and try to copy their every move. It's much better to see people as they are- beautiful yet flawed, take what we can learn from their experiences and apply them to our own personality, our own vision/perception of life. If I'm so busy copying someone else that I mute my own personality, I won't find joy in life. I won't even know myself. And that's just sad. It's almost like self-brain-washing or something.
​So, while it's helpful to be inspired by the great people in this world, it's important to remember that it's likely they've made some missteps along their path to success, and these are habits that we don't want to emulate.   

Do it

What to do: Every single day, follow the daily 'to do' list you've created for yourself to help you reach your goals. And if you have a setback, don't get discouraged and give up. Remember that by following tomorrow's plans you can get back on track! So, keep following your plans, one little step at a time, until you reach your goal!

What not to do: Don't overthink it. Don't get to week three of your step-by-step plan and say to yourself, "Can I really do this? I think I might need to give up." That's fear talking, it's trying to get you to overthink everything and throw in the towel. Shut it down by ignoring it and pushing forward! 

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I hope you're able to find success in reaching your goals. 
And if you'd like to share what your goals are, please do! You can leave them in the comments section of this post!
Thanks for stopping by and reading my ramblings!