Kickstart Your Dreams: Five Steps to Achieving Your Goals
If you are ready to kickstart following through on your dreams, keep reading!
I’ve been dreaming of learning how to play guitar for decades. I took a few courses when my kids were first born but dropped it soon afterwards.
The guitar has been taking up space in our cramped NYC apartment and in my mind ever since, taunting me.
I dream of living up to my melodious name and playing songs by the campfire.
My excuses range from I don’t have enough time, to it isn’t a top priority, I’m not disciplined enough, I’m not musically inclined, to it hurts my fingers too much.
Sound familiar?
Thanks to life coaching I’ve been learning how to get unstuck in many other areas of my life like switching careers, starting my own business and going off wine.
So I finally had enough of my guitar excuses and coached myself on it a few weeks ago.
By now I know what it takes to move forward on this dream. I’m going to have to choose to be uncomfortable on purpose for a while.
To achieve my goal I’m going to have to trade short-term discomfort for long-term gain. This is what it takes to achieve goals and get shit done.
Frankly, I’ve been uncomfortable for the last 10 years beating myself up for not learning how to play, so either I drop the goal entirely and allow my mind to rest in peace, or I commit to the discipline it takes to learn how to play so I can reap the rewards.
The decision is made. Short term “pain” for long-term gain. 😃
Here’s my plan and five steps you can take to achieve your goal as well:
1. Set Your Goal and Have a Strong WHY.
Try to set only one major goal at a time so you can focus all your creative energy on accomplishing it.
Pick a date and time for when it will be accomplished and make it measurable. Make sure the goal causes you to STRETCH but is also doable.
Example: By November 1, 2021, 6 pm I will have practiced guitar 5x a week for 15 minutes a day by working my way through six online NYC Guitar School courses.
Having a strong WHY helps you take action when things get tough. It is a purpose and personal vision of why you are pursuing this goal. It needs to be strong and personally compelling for you.
Example: I want to play guitar because I want to bring more music into my life on a daily basis, cultivate an untapped creative side of me I’ve never explored before and create community in my life through music (ex. around campfires).
Spend time visualizing yourself having accomplished your goal. What will it look and feel like? How will you be different? What impact will it make? The more you can tap into the details the better. Don’t skip over this.
2. Align Your Foundational Thinking with Your Goal.
Make sure your primary thoughts around your goals are creating feelings that are supportive of your end goal.
Example: I can’t wait to play guitar around the campfire --> excited.
I’m going to be an amazing guitar player --> committed.
Remember that our results are achieved by actions taken. All actions are driven by our feelings, and all feelings are created by our thoughts.
At first our feelings won’t be what they need to be to complete our goal, otherwise we would have already achieved it. So to begin with we must figure out what our thoughts are and work to align them with our goals.
Emotions are like rocket fuel that help you get your ship to its destination. Premium emotions that generally help you get work done include: committed, disciplined, determined, empowered, confident, excited, curious, willing, motivated, etc.
Emotions like confusion, overwhelm, doubt, self-pity and fear will keep you stuck and are dream killers. Notice which emotions your thoughts are creating and align them accordingly.
3. Take Massive Action.
Make a list of everything you need to do to accomplish your goal. Break it down into manageable bite size steps. Prioritize what is most important.
If it’s a big goal sometimes I like to work backwards and figure out all the milestones I want to cross along the way to achieve the goal. Sometimes I don’t know all the steps, so I’ll just take the first few steps I do know trusting that I’ll figure it out along the way, believing strongly in my WHY and being fueled by healthy emotions.
Example: Tune guitar, download tuner, buy a pick & capo, purchase NYC Guitar School package program for year, print workbook, create inspirational list of songs I want to learn, learn all the chords, etc.
4. Obstacles and Strategies.
Ask yourself how committed you are to this goal on a scale of a 1-10? One being low and 10 being high. If not a 10 what obstacles are standing in your way and what will it take to get you to a 10?
What needs to happen to make this dream come true? What do you need to learn? What things need to be completed? What daily activities need to be committed to?
Dan Sullivan teaches that every obstacle that comes up can be turned into a strategy to reach your goal.
Turn every obstacle into a strategy or a skill you need to develop and add them to your list of to-dos.
Example: On a scale of 1-10, I’m about 7. I’m worried about committing to something a year out from now and practicing 5x a week sounds like a lot.
My solution is to break my yearly goal down into monthly goals and further into weekly goals. This feels more manageable and digestible.
I also changed my thought from “5x a week sounds like a lot” to “With 1440 minutes in a day, 15 minutes of guitar practice is no problem.”
5. Schedule Everything on the Calendar.
Take your to do list and transfer everything you need to do to your calendar. Create time for it. Make sure you frame everything you put on your calendar in terms of RESULTS you will complete.
Decide how long you will give yourself to complete each result.
Be kind to yourself. Remember your future self will need to follow through on this, so be thoughtful when scheduling.
Try to make a practice of not rescheduling things once they are on your calendar. Show up for yourself and create a habit of honoring your commitments like you are the CEO of your life.
If you need to have backup plans, make sure your backup plan is more painful than the original plan so it isn’t easy to default to it.
Example: I’ve decided practicing guitar is a great way to end my day for the next month. I’m going to see how that goes and re-evaluate at the end of the month. I put it on my calendar.
So there you have it. The recipe for manifesting your goals and dreams. What goals have you put on the back burner? Let me know and I’ll cheer you on.
If you want extra support with setting your goals and following through on them, set up a call with me and I’ll help you accomplish them.
#getthingsdone #goals #timemanagementtips #goalsettting #manifestingyourgoals