Goal Setting: 10 WAYS TO MAKE WHAT YOU WANT HAPPEN!

Many of us have an idea of a goal that we want to accomplish–most of the time, when it’s health and wellness related, we may know that it takes effort to accomplish this goal, but may not know what specific steps to take. We must also make sure we implement a plan to achieve our goals. How do we achieve success? Try my favorite tips to help you get started:

1.) Awaken your body and mind to be open to ideas from yourself and others.Exercise is one of the best ways to increase brain power! Make sure to head into class every morning to get your day started. Try to figure out the purpose of what you’re doing and what you want to accomplish. Ask yourself, why am I working out? Is your motivation coming from a good place or from fear of a double chin and potbelly? Start to think about why you like to work out and how you feel during and after your workouts. Fall in love with exercise and your body!

2.) Create One Specific Goal. You cannot maintain energy and focus (the two most important things in accomplishing a goal) if you are trying to do too many goals at once. It’s not possible — I’ve tried it many times. You have to choose one goal, for now, and focus on it completely. Maintain focus on your One Goal by creating a visual mood or goal setting board. Utilizing inspiring quotes and images, create a board that you can return to every day to help remind you of your goals; this can be done physically or using social media (share it with us on Facebook!).

3.) Once you have your One Goal, figure out how you’re going to accomplish it. Break up the large overarching goals into small, manageable tasks and start hacking away at your life goals! Start small. Really small. If you are having a hard time getting started, it may be because you’re thinking too big. Do small, tiny, baby steps; focus on your workout for that day. Before you go to bed, set your workout clothes aside so when you wake up all you have to do is put them on and head out the door. Build on small successes. Take that successful feeling and build on it, with another baby step. Make each step really, really small, and you won’t fail. After 5 weeks, your tiny steps will add up to a lot of progress and a lot of success.

4.) You can’t talk down to yourself then expect to feel good. It may seem silly, but your words are powerful; affirm, don’t destroy. Even if it’s your own judgment, it hinders your positivity. If you think badly of yourself and your body, you won’t strive for change. Instead remind yourself of the benefits, not the difficulties. One common problem is that we think about how hard something is. Instead of thinking about how hard something is, think about what you will get out of it. For example, instead of thinking about how tiring exercise can be, focus on how good you’ll feel when you’re done, and how you’ll be healthier and feel slimmer over the long run. Squash, “This is too hard!” and replace it with, “I can do this!”

5.) Find inspiration. Inspiration, for me, comes from others who have achieved what I want to achieve, or who are currently doing it. I read other blogs, books, and magazines. I Google my goal and read success stories. Social Media is great; check out @BrittanyDCosta on Facebook and Instagram for the ultimate inspirational posts and to see what’s going on in our community.

6.) Get excited. This sounds obvious, but most people don’t think about it much: if you want to break out of a slump, get yourself excited about a goal. But how can you do that when you don’t feel motivated? Well, it starts

with inspiration from others (see above), but you have to take that excitement and build on it. For me, I’ve learned that by talking about it and reading as much about it as possible, and visualizing what it would be like to be successful (seeing the benefits of the goal in my head), I get excited about a goal. Once I’ve done that, it’s just a matter of carrying that energy forward and keeping it going.

7.) Think about it daily. If you think about your goal every day, it is much more likely to become true—this is known as the law of attraction, by focusing on positive or negative thoughts, one can bring about positive or negative results. Of course it’s not as simple as just sitting in bed all day thinking—to make things happen you have to take action. To this end, posting the goal on your wall or computer desktop helps a lot. Sending yourself daily reminders also helps. And if you can commit to doing one small thing to further your goal (even just 5 minutes) every single day, your goal will almost certainly come true.

8.) Hold yourself accountable. Post your goal. Print out your goal in big words. Make your goal just a few words long, like a mantra (“Exercise Daily”), and post it up on your wall or refrigerator. Post it at home and work. Put it on your computer desktop. You want to have big reminders about your goal, to keep your focus and keep your excitement going. Commit publicly. None of us like to look bad in front of others. We will go the extra mile to do something we’ve said publicly. Commit to your goal on social media, with friends, family, and co-workers; create a blog or a social media page specific to your goals.

9.) Stay focused. Nobody becomes great without working their rears off. It’s nice to believe that you’re naturally gifted and you’re totally great at everything you do, but let’s be serious. There’s no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice. Greatness isn’t handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. The best people in any field are those who devote their time doing “deliberate practice” or activity that’s intended to improve performance on a specific task that has specific guidelines. Remember, consistency is crucial.

10.) The only real failure in life is quitting something you truly want to do. If what you‘re doing doesn’t seem to work out the first time, it just means you learned how NOT to do it! Try to find another way. With that being said, knowing when to quit is also necessary—it doesn’t mean that you have to quit the entire goal, just that approach.

Now go after your goal–what do you want to achieve?