Tips to Help You to Create Goals and Achieve a Personal Vision this Year

Tips to Help You to Create Goals and Achieve a Personal Vision 

 

So, what are your plans right now and what would you like to achieve this year? What are you going to do to make your life amazing and as you want it to be; how will you start that journey?

 

I’m not talking about New Year’s resolutions you may have set. I don’t believe they are that helpful! I believe they create more of a block than a path for people. Not because they aren’t good to have, but because of how we go about creating them and the psychological pressure a New Year creates to achieve them. When we make New Year’s resolutions despite our best intentions, it becomes very difficult to stick to them.

 

‘Resolutions’ what are they really? The meaning of resolution is a firm decision to do or not to do something. Basically, we are deciding to make a change, create or break previous behaviour, a habit. You are committing to be different somehow, but without realising what those entails.  Without being clear on what you need to change.  And even more importantly it’s not just about stopping or starting something.

 

Tips on creating a goal

 

When we are creating a goal or focusing on an outcome, it’s about how you make this happen, what you are actually going to do, not necessarily just the end result.  And it comes down to:

• Having a clear outcome
• A plan of action
• Being consistent in your approach
• Taking it one step at a time until you get there.
• It is also about knowing that this goal will be a good and positive thing for you in your life
• And that it is entirely your goal to make happen.Most people blame their failure to fulfil resolutions on a lack of time, resources, or motivation. Many people actually give up within the first 6 weeks because they are not clear on what it is they want – the outcome. They have no map or plan of what they are going to do to get themselves to their destination and how that will happen for them.

 

Would you really start any journey without a clear idea of where you are heading for, what route you plan to take and what you might need for that journey. I’m guessing most would want to know these things before they set off. So why don’t we do that for our own personal goals and vision.

When it comes to making plans, creating goals and having some direction in our life we tend to find it can be difficult to navigate any journey as we struggle to balance what our brain is telling us with what our heart wants for us. That’s just a part of being human. Often, though we can let our emotions drive us and emotions are powerful.  They tap into your deepest thoughts, feelings and beliefs about ourselves. This can really pull you back into a place of frustration, anxiety, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, inadequacy and feeling unable to move forwards. Filling our head with all sorts of notions that divert us from creating and more importantly achieving our personal vision for the future.

 

Tips to Help You to Create and Achieve a Personal Vision

 

• Create yourself some clear goals and outcomes you want to have achieved and focus very specifically on them. Not too many maybe 2 or 3, you can always create more. Focus is important.

 

• Visualise being there having achieved the goal or vision already. What does that look and feel like to you? What can you see and hear around you. What do you feel like as that person, as if you are there right now having achieved your goal or vision? Now look backwards at how you got to that point, what did you do that got you to that point of success.

 

• Create a plan based on having achieved the goal and identify what steps you needed to take to get you there.

 

• Small steps are easy steps. This is very important! Make sure you take small steps along the way. Imagine the steppingstones to cross a river. If the steppingstones are too far apart, you will start to feel a little anxious about taking each next step in case you falter and slip. The closer the stones are the more control you have and the easier the steps are. So, make them small and easily achievable from one to the next.

 

• Remain committed, even if events take you away from your plan for a short while. There is no one judging you except yourself. Your goals, your timelines! You can adjust the path and the pace you are travelling as you see fit. Journeys always take twists and turns that are unexpected and that’s ok too. The person that is flexible will be the most resilient. The key is to stay on the path moving forwards and to keep going.

 

• Remember it is your goal no one else’s! And that means you keep control to succeed. It must be your desire, your goal, and you must want it to happen. It cannot be someone else that wants or needs it for you. If they want you to be someone different, do something different, then you don’t own the goal. It is not your vision, it is someone else’s vision for you.   You are who the goal is for, and it must be yours alone.  You can have lots of help and support, and there are lots of ways to create resources for yourself to help you on that path and allies to enable you to move forwards, but just remember you are accountable for your own success.

 

• Always come back to the why? – Remind yourself of what you want to achieve and why you want it. Your why is your purpose, your desire, your motivation. Without knowing why you want something, why it’s so important to you to make that change for yourself, it loses its power. Finding your why is critical to achieving your goals and your personal vision.

 

• Challenge your own self-limiting beliefs The greatest barrier to achieving our goals and becoming who and what we want to be is our own limiting self-beliefs. Limiting beliefs are any self-deprecating thoughts that hold you back from growing as a person. From verbal beliefs to psychological defence mechanisms. Doubt is a nagging voice in your head that will resist personal growth with every ounce of its being. The only way to defeat doubt is to believe in yourself.

 

 

Examples of limiting beliefs

 

• I’m not good enough
• I’ll never be successful
• I can’t do that
• I’m never going to be able to do that
• I don’t have enough experience

 

These types of beliefs come from a place of fear, and everyone has them. The goal is to learn how to identify and combat limiting beliefs, so they don’t prevent you from getting out of your comfort zone and making the changes you want to make.

 

We all have limiting beliefs and doubts. But some people find it easier than others realising they are there, hearing what they are saying and then challenging them.

 

It is so important to listen to the noise inside our heads rather than just hiding from it.  When you can be kind to yourself enough to allow yourself to listen and hear what it is that you are saying to yourself and believing or not believing about yourself, you can then challenge it.  Because it is, for the most part, almost always riddled with false hoods, negative thoughts, generalisations and just plain untruth!

 

Why is that?  Because Limiting beliefs are caused by a number of factors but they all stem from the same place: your brain’s desire to protect you from pain in the future.

Your brain is working very hard to protect you from harm. As a species we have developed a biology from our earliest ancestors to protect us and to keep us secure and safe.  As we have developed higher brain function and intellect over time, we have developed the ability to live in our modern human world. A world without being eaten by a sabre too tiger or speared by unfriendly foes. However deep within the most primitive part of our brain structure, our brain still defaults to this fundamental yet very complex process connecting mind and body, that puts us on alert when it senses a threat. It triggers fear and uncertainty and our body responds through chemicals and neurotransmitters into our blood system to create a fear response.  We feel physical changes within us if something feels different, uncomfortable or unfamiliar.  Our heart races, our blood shifts from extremities to our vital organs, our hands sweat and mouth dries, muscles tense and we stop thinking clearly. Our body is shifting into a state of readiness for action not thought. The state we call ‘Fight or flight’.  And this happens when you decide to do something new. Because it can be scary to do something different and your brain offers you thoughts to keep you in your comfort zone and away from possible harm.  You start telling yourself you shouldn’t or can’t do things. And these thoughts can and should be challenged if you are going to succeed and make the changes you want for yourself.

 

When you challenge your own self beliefs, you take control and you free yourself from negative thoughts to create more positive ones that allow you to move forwards.

 

Working with these principles whether in your life, in your workplace or in your business will help you to have a more positive impact on your own development, your performance, and future goals and vision. You develop better resilience and this will allow you to achieve what and who you want to become in your future vision as you move positively and powerfully into this New Year.

 

I wish you every success going forwards.  Keep an eye out for more insights.

 

If this post has got you thinking and you would like to know more about it or want to have a chat about how I can help you create your goals for 2023

 

 Drop me a line on 07929 264499 or send me a message and I’ll get right back to you.

 

I offer home visits and online support, meeting at your home, a mutually convenient venue, or you can always come and see me if you wish.

 

 visit my website www.lucid-coaching.uk