What are your most important dreams in life and what are you doing about them? Do you want to go on safari with 5 of your closest friends? Do you want to retire before you’re 40? Are you hoping for an ideal mate to spend your life with, or maybe a brand-spankin’ new Mazerati? Whatever your goal is, one thing’s for sure: if you haven’t got a ‘plan’ to achieve it, you’re probably not going to get it. If this is ringing uncomfortably true for you, then maybe it’s time for you to take a closer look at your goal setting motivation …
Pipe Dream?
I connect with a lot of peeps who have what I call “Pipe Dream” Goals. Let me be clear – this isn’t because their goals are impossible, but because they’re so lacking in motivation to set an actual plan to achieve it, it becomes nothing more than a vague, “some day …” dream.
Expectation Leads to Disappointment?
For a lot of folks, one of the reasons why they lack the motivation to commit to a big goal is because it’s scary to contemplate failure. Let’s face it, if you actually set a goal to retire as a successful entrepreneur by the age of 40, then you’re going to have to be motivated enough to break that goal down into steps and take massive action – every day – in order to achieve it. But what if s**t happens along the way? What if you lose motivation? What if you ‘fail’?
These thoughts and questions, even when they’re unconscious, are what keep most people from ever really going for their dreams. Some folks are just able to accept a less-than-ideal life in exchange for the comfort of not having to fail. If you’re one of them, you can stop reading now.
Reach for the Moon
There’s an old saying: “Reach for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” Astronomical inacurracy aside – I think you get the drift – aim high and even your ‘failure’ will be better than not having aimed at all.
Now if you’re still reading this, I suspect you’re someone whose not willing to settle for less than your dreams – bravo! (me too :)). So then, what now? If you know you can’t live without achieving your goals, but your motivation to actually set goals and stick to the plan is a little lacking, what should you do? I recommend these 5 things to start:
- ‘Live’ the end result. Every day for 40 days (minimum) in a row, take 5 minutes to ‘act as if’ your goal is already real. Most important here is to evoke the feelings you imagine you’d feel if you were actually retired and wealthy, or waking up in a tent for another day of big game viewing in Africa, or laughing and caressing with your ideal mate.
- Tell someone. I have a friend who says she knows she’ll clean her house if she invites guests for a dinner party. Same true for anything in life. When we say we’re going to do something, we stand a much better chance of taking action.
- Back engineer it. From the end result, Write out each step that got you there in reverse order, all the way to where you are right now.
- Take the first step. Once you’ve got your ‘back engineered’ steps to your goal, take the 1st step. Chunk it down as much as you need to, but take action. When it’s complete, take the next step, and the next, and the next …
- Celebrate your ‘wins’. My business coach really drove this one home for me. I was so darn busy crackin’ the whip on myself that I never took the time to appreciate how far I’d come. When you take some time weekly to celebrate your movement toward your goal, you put yourself in the all-important vibrational state of success!
What goal are you ready to really commit to achieving in your life? What action are you going to take next to achieve it? Let me know in the comments below.
Dawn DelVecchio is a writer, speaker and self-empowerment coach. She’s the author & host of DawnDelVecchio.com, where she shares insights, tips and practical tools for living a life of joy and abundance. Her eBook, The 7 Keys to Unlock your Soul’s Purpose is a simple guide to connect with your truest calling in this life. Dawn’s intent is to “Help you unlock the door to your soul’s calling so you can live in the joy and abundance you were meant for.”
