How do you make sure that you are doing your best to achieve your long term goals? Most people have trouble keeping focused on big picture goals, instead focusing on the day to day tasks that prevent them from achieving their dreams. Time is on your side; this article will show you a step-by-step process that will get you from where you are today to where your long-term goals are. It’s not hard, it’s simple and it’s free!
Connect your long-term goals to your core values
Connect your long-term goals to your core values, and they will help propel you to newfound success. Mounting goals can feel daunting. It’s the reason we fall into small goals and quit. We’re lazy, and when we feel positive, we naturally want to take longer to achieve every desired outcome. But our progress will stagnate just as soon as we lose motivation.
No matter how fast you want to achieve an activity, if you save your “searching for the good reasons” mentality for a year’s time, you’ll have nowhere to go. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is one of life’s most powerful gifts: to enter life’s journey with a clear purpose and a massive dose of belief. So grab your board, clear your mind, and get off the couch to build your structure. Researchers discovered that a person’s genetic predisposition to achieve short-term goals might predict their long-term success.
In other words, if you feel more motivated to drive a car to work but lack the motivation to move it to a parking lot, you’re more likely to give it up than someone entirely free of such negative visualization. Conversely, those who saw an activity’s beauty, become aroused, and cared for it were more likely to see long-term benefits.
This topic also reminds me of an article written by University of Massachusetts psychological scientist Jordan Nelain. In her article, she describes how by viewing a breathtaking landscape, I’ve improved my probability of making a long-term goal come true.
Mood is one of the most powerful reasons to strive for a goal.
Nelain pointed out in her research that while anticipating a positive mood diminishes your intensity of effort, the opposite holds true when wanting to give up. In great analysis, she states that “difficulty controlling one’s mood serves to focus one’s attention on the task at hand — a tendency that helps optimize creative work and circuitry involved in goal achievement.”
Our snapshot-obsessed culture makes goal setting feel fraught with discomfort. It’s why we procrastinate, overplan, and hesitate. And trying to build the ability to build momentum is made harder by a culture where negative narratives discourage us.
Break your long-term goals down into short-term tasks
This step to achieve goal helps you self-actualize. Living a deliberately purposeful life requires more productivity than a job with guaranteed paychecks. Learn how to develop additional pockets of hours that allow you to accomplish more things.
Defining your purpose extends beyond accomplishing the literal definition of that goal. Think about why you want to be a productive member of the world. Who benefits from the lifestyle you’ve envisioned? What do you hope to achieve in your working and your leisure time? What makes you unique and who are you working for?
Ask yourself how you could implement that purpose into the daily activities you do. Are you actually on time for your appointments? Looking after your finances and home yourself? Learning and performing more self-care and pleasure in your work? Minimizing procrastination?
Every time you set a goal, make it as concrete and important as possible. Make it clear how you’ll know when you’ve achieved it. In the area of productivity, make it clear to yourself when you won’t be rushing or stressed because the opposite effect can actually be more harmful. Making the goal achievable and down to the minute ensures you’ll achieve it.
The ultimate purpose of your purpose is to become aware of how empowered you become by creating meaningful outcomes on a regular basis. If you create meaningful outcomes consistently with the direction you’ve set for yourself then you’ll soon realize your motivation and productivity will skyrocket.
What’s great about setting our goals achievable is we’re doing the work for us. Concrete goals bring us possible outcomes we’d like to see. If we need a day to write 1000 words, let’s say we set a goal of practicing 5 times a week for a week. The thought of writing every day can feel daunting, but achievable. 2020 brought about more productivity than ever because we understand we need to make short-term goals we can achieve in a week. At the same time, as the year went on, we realized the time we needed to practice writing had never been as important as we thought. Analytics will reveal the shift in our thinking resulting in us overruling our original goal.
How do you know until you’ve accomplished your goal? After completing these steps to achieve your goals, look back and see what you could have accomplished in the time you need to accomplish it to reap the rewards. Learn from that setback so you can keep moving forward.
Suggested Post: Make your Priority Straight!
Not all goals need to be gained in a day or over a specific period. Set different goals that push you further towards your dreams.
— Robert Schatten, Ph.D.
Why do we procrastinate? We need to push through and finish what we started. If we’re making a list with goals, knowing that we won’t finish them is helpful. Maybe it makes you more likely to get up and do the work. But what if we don’t have goals? What if instead we’ve just started? Then whether we complete those tasks or not, the experience is valuable. It feels like we achieved something — and we just needed some extra push to complete our goal!
— Brené Brown
We all know that giving others a compliment makes us happy for ten minutes. But is there a deeper connection? Does complimenting someone bring them happiness too? What if you noticed them daydream and complimented back, signaling your support and appreciation?
— Jessica Everman
Most of us have a belief that the more we spend, the better we will get. The goal for most of us is to get enough to get comfortable, yet never feel like we need to overinvest.
Frugality is a critical part of most intentional-living frameworks. I use to write off spending on impulse as a weakness and then shame myself for even being tempted. I felt terrible about spending money on something I didn’t truly need. The truth is, I never feel great about going without or splurging on something I’ve never really needed. I’m not a crunchy granola vegan, and my weight fluctuates every few months. So I haven’t spent a lot to be happy.
But if you were to be financially independent and had few needs or wants that you had to monetize, you’d realize that you had way more money now than you ever thought. There was so much more than you realized standing by your side waiting for you to use it.
Sunday, April 25, 2021, 11:00 [IST]
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