Well, it’s that time of year! The time where we wind down, reflect on the past 11 months, and re-prioritize what we truly want out of life. To be honest, I’m not one to encourage resolutions. Instead, I aim for one, big, gigantic goal – without the stress and overwhelm of trying to meet it.
You might be thinking, “Well, that sounds counter intuitive”, but I’m going to explain exactly why it’s the best thing you can do for yourself if you truly want REAL results, without the stress and near burnout moments.
First, let me explain the goal. I want you to think real hard about a singular goal that seems impossible, but if you really achieved it, it might just feel as if you won the lottery. It could be the dream number on the scale, the partnership you always romanticized about, finally getting THE promotion at work, or perhaps it’s as simple as meditating every single day no matter what.
Remember, it has to be almost impossible for you to believe it could actually happen. Maybe even scare you a little. Ok… a lot.
Now, the purpose of dreaming big here is so that you understand you WILL fail.
You will fail multiple times trying to achieve this goal of yours. And if you think about, if you’re trying to achieve something you have never done before in your life… doesn’t it make sense you’d come across numerous, various obstacles because it’s new? Think about watching babies trying to walk. They need to fail multiple, even hundreds of times to finally reach a new level of strength, capability, and growth.
Who’s to say as adults we should never fail in order to reach our new edge?
With that said, I want you now to list every possible failure you could think of in trying to reach this big goal of yours. Let’s say your big goal is to meditate daily. A few failures you might come up with might include:
- Getting sick
- Waking up late
- Needing to tend to the kids
- Feeling too anxious to sit still
- Being on vacation
- Feeling as if you don’t need meditation that day
- etc.
Listing out every failure you could possible think of serves a couple of purposes:
- It removes the “unknown” when it comes to reaching your one, big goal. Now that you understand there will be failures, you can now properly prepare to mitigate against these possible risks.
- It removes the stress and overwhelm of the fear of failure. Look, the point of creating one, BIG goal is to fail! Once you understand you likely won’t reach that goal (though I always like to leave room for the impossible!), you now have space for curiosity, playfulness, creativity, and possibility. Now, THAT is a much friendlier place for growth and miracles wouldn’t you say?
A couple of you might be thinking, why just one? Why not go for at least two, or even three?
I always respond with this: our human brains can only focus on one thing at a time. We must identify what area of our life we want to make the biggest impact on, and go ALL IN. This means making it our SINGULAR FOCUS and not wavering. This means, declaring a decision and committing to oneself for the next 365 days of 2019.
Because here’s the truth about it all, while we may not reach out one, big goal… we will achieve SO MUCH MORE as a byproduct of having gone for said goal.
Think of all of the new habits, new level of mindset and maturity, and every other way your life will be improved from this commitment.
So, with that said, a good goal wouldn’t be complete without quantifiable metrics. Plan each quarter accordingly. If it’s a weight goal, include the new weight you plan to reach by each quarter. If it’s a new career, plan exact outcomes you plan to reach for each quarter; this could be the number of interviews you plan to do by Q1, transition to the new role by Q2, etc.
Because I’m a visual person I decided to provide a free goal planner to anyone who wants to join me in this impossible goal planning for 2019. Here’s a preview of what it looks like;
Just enter your name and email and it will be sent to you right away! Click here to download it now.
What one, big goal are you dreaming of?
Regardless of how impossible it seems or what anyone says – nurture it. Dream big, fail hard, and start reaping the benefits because this I know for sure: no matter the outcome… you are already worth it.
In wellness,
Susan