The Easiest Way to Achieve What You Want

We have all set goals that we haven't achieved. A new year often encourages people to set goals while some people triumph, it is common for people to lose motivation come February. If you set a goal in January and you are struggling, please don't worry. you are normal.

January is typically a nice time to think about your goals but waiting might be a good idea. In January we have just had Christmas which leaves us out of pocket, it's freezing and dark. You may feel like you have failed but that feeling gives us an indicator of what you DON'T want. You feel it, it's crap. Let's move on and get you what you want.

The spring can be a much more promising time the temperatures (eventually) start to rise, the days become longer and there is more cheer in the air. You're ready to begin your journey of achieving everything you want. The steps below are your recipe for success. Grab a pen and paper, writing something down makes it more real.

Recognise what is missing in your life without the goal What brought you here in the first place? What is lagging in your life for you to want the goal in the first place? Recognise the reasons why your life is painful without your goal to push you towards it.

What obstacles are getting in the way of you achieving your goal? There are things that are getting in the way of your goal or could get in the way of your goal. Let's identify them so that when they happen you are prepared. It was often preached to me to never have plan B, unfortunately, life isn't as simple as that. As we saw with Covid 19, life is unpredictable so having a plan b prepares us. When an obstacle presents, make sure you have a plan. For example; Sally's goal is to slim down for her wedding in August but it's her 30th birthday in 2 weeks and she wants to enjoy it.

Plan A was to stay on plan, no alcohol, no treats, and go to the gym. Plan B is to go to the gym, have a gin and slimline tonic (a low-calorie option) and have 1 meal off her plan. This means she can enjoy her birthday and be realistic. It is likely that if she tried to stick with plan A that she would fail and then feel guilty. Instead, she set herself up to win and it won't affect her big goal.

Think about what benefits you would get from making a change There are obviously benefits of you achieving your goal, now list them! You have written your obstacles so now let's remind you why you are doing this. List at least 10 benefits and get excited about it

Break the goal down Your goal is quite scary, you might not fully believe you can do it YET. Let's say you're planning a birthday party for your friend, you can't just make a party appear. There are many components that go into it. Location, date, time, cake, music, decoration. It's hard work, like your goal. Both will be worth it in the end, they just require planning. So let's condense your goal into smaller, measurable steps. Going back to Sally's example of wanting to trim up for her wedding.

We need to know what trimming up means. In her case, it is getting into her wedding dress which is a dress size smaller. So she needs to lose weight, roughly a stone. She also wants to look toned. In order to look toned and lose weight, she needs to exercise. Her first small, time-framed goal would be to join a gym in the next week. How can you condense your goal down, is there anything you can do right now?

Learn what needs to be learned In order to achieve your goal, are there any skills that you need to learn? Sally needs to learn how to lose weight as she doesn't have any experience in this area. She needs to think about the best way to learn, it may be training with a friend, YouTube, a PT, or attending classes.

Support. Find someone else who has achieved what you want to achieve and model from them. If you don't have anyone in your social circle, it has never been easier to find a peer group as social media and the internet, in general, is full of people who have achieved your goal or very similar and they have done it well. Observe what they have done to get there and do it better. Or at least with your own spin on it. They learned from someone and the person before them did also.

It is also good to find someone on a similar journey as yourself so that you can support each other along the way, it also holds you accountable. It is a good idea to ask for support from friends and family but it can often be frustrating as they often don't understand in the way you want them to. If they do, awesome but it isn't an issue if not, Know that they do support you, they just don't understand properly yet, but you will show them. Sally may hire a personal trainer to make her life easier, it means she is held accountable and she has found someone who is an expert at what she needs to learn more about.

Visualisation You have a very good plan in place so far. Now comes the part where you believe it will happen. It may have just been a dream before but now you will visualise yourself achieving it. You can do this by closing your eyes and getting a picture in your head or creating a vision board or listing what you can imagine when you picture yourself achieving your goal. What does it feel like?

Give yourself some treats You will need an incentive, the goal itself may sound like a good enough incentive but it isn't. This is a key part of keeping your focus. You still may feel like the big goal is far away. So plan some treats along the way. Once you have achieved some of your small goals or maybe you want to do it on a time frame, plan a reward. When kids go to primary school they all want to be the star of the week to get the certificate. It helps them to keep on track with homework and behaving well. Sally could buy a new gym outfit to celebrate her new beginning.