photo:Brandy Melville
Our attitude to goals is all wrong. We often think of goals as something that someone else sets for us, or something to set ourselves once a year, but goal-setting is something you should aim to do once a day.
The first thing you need to realize is you always have goals, you will never be able to look anyone in the eye and say you’ve achieved everything you ever set out to. Life would be very boring if you had.
8% of people who set a New Year’s Resolution actually achieve it. Because we always set big, unachievable goals and give ourselves a whole twelve months to do it. That’s not the best way to work out your goals, nor is it the best way to achieve them. So we created the five-day goal detox to help us all retrain our brains and start thinking about achievement differently.
Day one: The Two-List Method
We’ve talked about this before, but listing your goals really helps to get them out of your head on down on paper. Start with 25. Which might seem like loads, but if you really think of it, from small goals to large unspecific ones, we all have goals. Circle five you’d really like to work on in the immediate future and leave the rest in your notebook (you can always come back to them!)
Day two: Edit your goals
Choose one goal out of your five that you want to work on this month. Look for easily achievable and realistic goals. It might take some time, lateral thinking and maybe even the opinion of others, but committing to one goal isn’t hard.
Day three: Now you get to break it down
That one goal will need breaking down into actionable steps that can be worked on in the amount of time you want to work on them. So for example, if you have four weeks to work on getting 100 views on your brand new blog, you should be working towards it every day or every couple of days.
Don’t push yourself too hard and be realistic, what can you do and how often can you do it? We recommend one hour a day for five days, giving yourself two days off. But you may find you want to work on your goals on the weekend, too!
Day four: Get visual
To make your goal a reality, create a vision board. Whether you use Pinterest or a similar visual website or do a good old fashion cut-and-stick board. It’s so important to create a feeling.
Get magazines, get creative and have a think about what feeling you want this goal to give you, even in the darkest days when it’s almost impossible to keep working on it. If you frame it somewhere in your house it will always remind you of where you’ve come from.
Day five: Celebrate and check-in
Hold yourself accountable for where you’re going from here. Make time to figure out what your plan is. Every five days hold a little celebration for yourself that you’ve kept going. It doesn’t have to be a party, just allow yourself those little rewards to keep yourself on track. And if you have nothing to celebrate, figure out why and be strategic about it. Don’t be negative and give up at the first hurdle!
This is how you kick-start achieving your goals. You can use it as a template whenever you need to plan a new goal, and while you’re working on it make sure to check in at the end of every week. Some people find it easier to bullet journal their goals. Focus on that feeling of achievement. It’s amazing!
The Career Girl Academy is taking place on the 27th November. With classes on how to build a business from scratch, become a successful blogger, get the job you want, manage your money and get your name out there, we will help make 2017 your year!
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I love this idea! It forces you, not to abandon your many goals, but prioritize! Awesome practice :)