Ever set a goal for yourself, and decide you had to attain it? Did you notice a few days or weeks later that you weren’t any closer? How do we really make ourselves accomplish goals, and what if we’re really bad procrasinators?
Most people who start setting goals do so haphazardly. If they’re into writing, they’ll write a few down somewhere, and if they’re not, they’ll just make a mental note. Either way, it’ll get quickly set aside for more pressing matters.
I would write goals down in the sidebars of my journals before I found a system. I would write down goals for the month in one entry, and then forget about them until I looked back in my journal a few months later. I never got anywhere near where I wanted to go. That was frustrating. I stopped setting goals.
Even after I stopped setting goals, I knew without them I’d just be living on autopilot. I was really saying I wasn’t good enough to control my own future. And that’s just rediculous.
But then I saw an idea for how a lot of people were incorporating excercise into their lives. It was the 30 day trial. I decided to make a 30 day trial of goal setting (and finishing).
Every day for 30 days I woke up and wrote down 5 goals for the day. First thing, before I ate, but after I relieved myself. As the day progressed, I drew a line through every goal I accomplished. At the end of the day I would recap and see all of my goals crossed out and feel worthy of sleep.
By the 30th day my goal was accomplished. But more importantly, I had incorporated goal setting into my daily habit. So now it’s not even a challenge or a question. It’s just a part of me. And that’s a powerful thing to have be a part of you.
So, here’s my method, only there’s a catch. You have to start this today, or you’ll never get started. Ready? It’s easy, I swear.
Get yourself a journal if you don’t already have one. You can buy one online if it’s night time. Either way, do it now.
Open your journal to the first page and write the date. Then, write out exactly what goal you would like to accomplish within the next 30 days. Really take the time to figure out what would excite you the most. Lose 10 pounds, learn a language, meet 100 new people, whatever. Then, you can either move on and write down 5 goals for the rest of the day and accomplish them, or you can wait for the next morning.
The next morning, as soon as you wake up, write down five goals for the day that will help you accomplish your bigger goal for the month. Don’t rush yourself, and find the best goals for the day in your head. Your brain will have thought about this goal all night, and the answers you get will be the best you’d ever want.
Throughout the day, check off each goal as you accomplish them. It feels best for me to physically put a line through every one I finish. When every last goal is checked of, breathe a sigh of relief and give yourself a doggy treat. You earned it.
Do this for just the next 30 days. If your life isn’t revolutionized, you can stop. If you didn’t achieve your month goal, you can stop too. Because if you don’t think the value of the 30 days of following goals didn’t help now, you probably won’t ever. Continue repeating the same circular thoughts and experiences until your life ends.
But if you did, congratulations. How much further can you go?
