How to Stick to your Goals by Lisa Cybaniak

Beauties, how are your New Years resolutions going? We hope that you all read our piece about how to make 2020 your ‘Re’ year about ways to navigate the rest of the year… following on from this as we start to leave January behind,  here’s a great piece from Life Coach Lisa Cybaniak about how to stick to your goals. 

It’s that time of year… You know, when most of the population who made New Year’s Resolutions have reverted to old habits, or even forgotten what their resolutions even were?

Yep, it happens to the best of us.

Let’s face it, the only reason this is a problem is because falling into this New Year’s trap means we’re more likely to repeat this pattern of not following through on our goals at other times in the year.

And if you consistently struggle to reach your goals, you can easily start to use this trend as “evidence” that you’re not good enough and you just shouldn’t bother with setting goals. Afterall, you can “never” seem to accomplish them anyway.

So, let’s have a look at a few steps you can take with your next goal-setting adventure to help guarantee your success.

What do you want?

It’s obvious that the first step is to get really clear on what you want, right? That may seem a given, but a lot of people make goals that are so vague they wouldn’t be able to measure whether they’re successful at reaching them.

Take for instance, wanting to get fit.

What does that mean? Do you want to be a certain weight, fit into a specific dress size, or feel a certain way when you look in the mirror?

If you don’t know exactly what “fit” means to you, how will you know when you’ve reached it?

My first bit of advice is to ask yourself exactly that question: “How will I know I’ve reached my goal?” Be specific here and ask yourself what you will see, what you will hear from others, what you will hear from yourself, and how you will feel.

Why do you want it?

This is the step that most people don’t consider, but it’s the most important part, in my opinion. Getting clear on what your driving force for reaching this goal is will act as your motivator.

Ask yourself what you will get from achieving this goal, and how you will benefit. And before you ask, no those are not necessarily the same thing.

Allow yourself to respond honestly. If what you’ll get and how you’ll benefit are one in the same, so be it. If not, that’s okay to. What’s important here is that you truly understand both.

Going back to our getting fit goal, you may feel what you’ll get out of it is a new wardrobe, and how you’ll benefit is pride in yourself, a sense of worthiness, and a feeling of success.

Both are valid and both are what you’ll hold onto throughout the entire process of reaching the goal.

When will you reach it?

This one is blatantly obvious, but I will advise you here to be realistic. Setting a timeline that is too far in the future will likely cause you to get bored, while setting one that doesn’t leave enough time to legitimately get it done with leave you feeling overwhelmed.

How much time will you really need to do this?

What steps to you need to take?

The big goal is fabulous, however you likely aren’t going to do one thing and POW, goal achieved. What are all the little steps you need to take to get to the big goal? What timeframe can you set for each of those?

Get specific. Can you accomplish one of these steps today or tomorrow? What time, exactly?

Overcoming obstacles

You will face obstacles to reaching your goal, no matter how small it is. How do I know? Two things: Life and limiting beliefs.

Between the hustle and bustle of life and your beliefs about what you’re capable of, what you deserve, and what you’re good enough for, your goal is at risk of being ditched.

The best way to avoid this is to plan for the obstacle. Literally make a list of all the things that could get in your way and next to each item, plan how you will react.

If your kids could wake up cranky, uncooperative, or ill, can you push what you need to do to tomorrow? Yes? Exactly when tomorrow?

Setting the goal is the simple part. All the steps you need to follow through on to achieve that goal is another story. The best way to guarantee your success is to get crystal clear on your what, why, when, and how, including your plan for the “unexpected”.