ASK ANDREA – Set Your Sites on the Stars and Surpass Them

A recent Hello Beautiful Blogger asked me about setting goals.  Why is it important to set both short and long-term goals? 

“One-half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it”. ‰- Sidney Howard

Goals are what move us forward and inspire us in life; they are the oxygen to our dreams. If you want to be successful in your personal and professional life, you must constantly be setting goals.  Have you heard the term CANEI. – It stands for Constant and Never Ending Improvement. If you aren’t moving forward you’re moving backward.  You won’t be successful if you are setting goals, revising them and moving towards the end result. Goals are the first steps to every journey we take and are also our last. 

What Is A Goal?

The desired result a person or a system envisions plans and commits to achieve a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. In other words, any planning you do for the future regardless of what it is, is a goal. So the next time you are planning on doing the weekly chores or decide on watching that really cool action movie after work instead, you are procrastinating achieving a goal. Keep in mind that these small tasks account as goals and while seemingly insignificant you are goal setting.

5 Reasons Why Goal Setting Is Important:

1. Goals Give You Focus

Imagine having to shoot an arrow without being given a target. Where would you aim? You can have all the potential in the world but without focus your abilities and talent are useless.  At the end of the day, goals are what give you direction in life. By setting goals for yourself you give yourself a target to shoot for. This sense of direction is what allows your mind to focus on a target and rather than waste energy shooting aimlessly, allows you to hit your target and reach your goal.

2. Goals Allow You To Measure Progress

By setting goals for yourself you are able to measure your progress because you always have a fixed endpoint or benchmark to compare with. Take this scenario for example; Andrea makes a goal to write a book with a minimum of 300 pages. She starts writing every day and works really hard but along the way, she loses track of how many more pages she has written and how much more she needs to write. So rather than panicking she simply counts the number of pages she has already written and instantly determines her progress and knows how much further she needs to go. She also sets. aside time each day to write in order to ensure she will meet her goal by the specified timeline.

3. Goals Keep You Focused and Undistracted

By setting goals you give yourself mental boundaries. When you have a certain end point in mind you automatically stay away from certain distractions and stay focused towards the goal. This process happens automatically and subtly.  You subconsciously keep away from distractions and your focus remains only on the goal. And by the way if you didn’t know yet this is how you become successful, you set a goal, you lock it in and then give it 100%.

4. Goals Help You Overcome Procrastination

When you set a goal for yourself you make yourself accountable to finish the task. This is in complete contrast with when you do things based off a whim and it doesn’t matter whether you complete them or not. Goals tend to stick in your mind and if not completed they give you a reminder. These reminders in the back of your head help you to overcome procrastination and laziness. Whenever you‰ set a long-term goal, break it down into several short-term goals so you can complete a chunk of the larger long-term goal every week or every day.

5. Goals Inspire & Motivate You

The root of all the motivation or inspiration in life are goals. Goal setting provides you the foundation for your drive. By making a goal you give yourself a concrete endpoint to aim for and get excited about. It gives you something to focus on and put 100% of your effort into and this focus is what develops motivation. Goals are simply tools to focus your energy in positive directions, these can be changed as your priorities change, new ones added, and others dropped.

1. Visualize yourself achieving your goals
Big goals can feel overwhelming — especially if they require real lifestyle changes. You will feel radically different when you achieve them. Whenever your motivation wanes, visualize how accomplished you’ll feel when you reach the finish line.

2. Procrastination prevents success 
In the moment, it can be tempting to skip an early morning workout in favor of sleeping in, or dig into the chips and dip when you ought to eat a healthy meal. When you’re relying on pure willpower to do (or not do) something, try to consider how much long-term happiness you’ll get out of it. Compare that tempting, yet fleeting satisfaction to the success you’ve visualized and suddenly it’s far less enticing.

3. Create accountability
Try talking to a friend, a spouse, a co-worker or a confident about what you need to do to accomplish your goals, then set a deadline and report back on your progress. For many people, it’s important to feel accountable to someone other than yourself — and you can create the same motivation through groups. Want to read more? Join a book club. Need to eat better? Create a healthy eating challenge with colleagues at work.

4. Take small steps, You can’t eat an Elephant in one bite
No matter what you want to achieve, it can probably be broken down into smaller pieces. Rather than summoning the motivation to work out, just push yourself to get up and put on your workout clothes. Instead of “cleaning the house,” pick up just a few misplaced items. Once you’ve started moving in the right direction, it’s easier to keep up the momentum, making it more likely that you’ll finish the task.

5. Give yourself a day off.
It is imperative that you give yourself some free time to relax and rejuvenate. It’s not realistic to expect yourself to go full bore 100 percent of the time. The dread of doing something difficult (and failing) can be enough to prevent us from even starting. If you’ve got something tough to get done, know that you can give yourself an occasional “get out of jail free” card. 

6. Make it a habit 
If you do something daily, it’ll become habit far more quickly than if you do it just a few times a week.

7. Surround yourself with success.
The company we keep can have a huge impact on how we feel and how we spend our time. If you want to accomplish something, surround yourself with people who are working toward (or have accomplished) that same goal. Use their achievements as your motivation, and let the positive vibes sink in.

8. Look back.
Look back on what you’ve accomplished so far and give yourself a pat on the back.  If we focus too much on what has yet to be done, we may become overwhelmed and give up. Take some time whenever you’re feeling down to look back at how far you’ve come. Try journaling or snapping pics to document your successes. You’ll be grateful when you can look back and recall exactly how you looked or felt then versus now.

9. Prep for success.
 Make tough choices easier by prepping for them when you’re already feeling motivated. For example, plan your workouts or meals for the week on Sunday afternoon after a weekend of R&R instead of just hoping you’ll make healthy choices after a tough day at the office.

10. Beleive in yourself 
 By simply believing you have the self-control to accomplish your goals you can do. Your mind and body believe everything you tell it. So Beautiful Ladies I challenge you to

SET YOUR SITES ON THE STARS AND SURPASS THEM.

I recommend the book “You Are BadAss” by Jen Sincero. you can purchase it on the Hello Beautiful Ladies Website under Motivational Books.