Turning your goals or your fantasies into reality can only happen if you let them. Use these manageable techniques to help yourself move towards whatever it is that you need or want to do. It’s all there for the aspiring with your Long Term Goals!
This post contains affiliate links.
The Ultimate Guide to Setting and Keeping Long Term Goals
It comes at you in many ways…through your daily horoscope or I Ching readings, Oprah Magazine, daily meditations, inspirational quotes, the expensive know-how workshops. All of them telling you about the definitive pathways to turning your dreams into realities. And if you are anything like me, you KNOW it is important to have dreams and to keep your eyes on the horizon, especially now that we begin another new year.
January is great that way! It’s a clean slate, fresh start, no failures recorded. And over 360 days ahead filled with nothing but potential and resolve to attain your long term goals!
But is there a way to ensure that your good intentions for the new year actually happen?
I dunno, but I am taking my chances on a few manageable techniques that I hope will take me on a good course to reach my long term goals through 2014.
How to manage practical long term goal setting
Exercise, Energy, and Inspiration. So yeah, I tend to get sluggish. I know I need to work out, but when I’m tired, all the excuses come creeping into my psyche… do it tomorrow, too tedious, too busy, kids need me, etc. etc. Sometimes I have to trick myself into it. So here is my (so far) foolproof plan to guarantee good attitude, energy, and MOVING in 2014…I am going to play one of my favorite songs every single day this year…Neil Young’s “Walk Like a Giant”, Extended Version. Yes, in 16 fantastic minutes, I am getting exercise (dancing!), inspiration and tons of energy. Try it!
Affirmations. Goals are great. I totally believe in long term goals. But how to get there is often trickier. One technique I have recently started using is repeating a specific affirmation to myself several times a day, regarding where I want to get to, but haven’t attained yet. For example, if certain high maintenance people upset your day on a regular basis, you could repeat to yourself, “My emotions are not determined by others.” And even though you ARE letting these people throw you off your mark, the affirmation is what you aspire to. Or, as another example, if you need to take more time for your health, you could say, over and over…“I am growing healthier every day.” I find affirmations doable and effective as reminders or for added resolve. “I do not need to feed my nicotine addiction” etc., etc. And in the midst of a meltdown, a good solid affirmation is great to fall back upon… “I can face problems calmly and effectively.” Yeah!
Be Realistic. If it has taken you five years to create messy zones in your house, desk, or relationships, OR your children’s toys are spilling out of their closets and into your zen, these quagmires aren’t going to disappear in a day’s work. So when you look at one of the overwhelming messes of your own creation, it’s easy to throw up your hands and run away! But if you break it into chunks, it doesn’t feel so impossible. This is true for most work – you can’t tackle everything at once. So one of my favorite ways to calmly get some work done, when there is simply too much work to get it ALL done, is to follow a simple mantra: “Do the next thing.” I prioritize, and I break off a chunk of work that is small enough for me to chew. And when that is done, I feel good, and I move on to the NEXT “next thing”. I vastly prefer this to “multi-tasking”, which usually fragments my feeble attention.
Know Yourself. Turning your goals or your fantasies into reality can only happen if you let them. And by now, you know your own internal stumbling blocks. Face your inner roadblocks head-on, or trick yourself, whichever works for you. My techniques are ones geared for getting around my own particular, um, ISSUES. So be honest with yourself, my Mamas, and do whatever it takes to get yourself moving towards whatever it is that you need or want to do!!! Write a book, lose some weight, change your attitude…It’s all there for the aspiring, in your 11th House of Long Term Goals!
Let us know the techniques you Mamas employ to reach your own long term goals! Feeling like you need some extra motivation, check out our post “Procrastinating? Get Off Your Mommy Butt and Go For IT!” You will be achieving those 2015 goals in no time!
Fashionably yours,
Deborah
I find myself struggling with my weight loss goals between work and time with my Kiddos. Love making lists of goals and crossing them off. The problem is finding the lists on my iphone and realizing it’s January and the lists I made are dated June.