Achieving our Goals
I believe goals are healthy things to have if they are realistically achievable ones. There is no harm in stretching them a bit further than within comfortable reach, but too far will only dishearten you and make you feel like a failure effecting your self esteem. They can be anything from getting up half an hour earlier in the mornings to prevent that hectic rush and inevitable lateness you occur each day, to running your first ever marathon. From being more patient and polite with other people, to standing up yourself more in situations you are not comfortable in. From finishing that project that has been left ideal for the past year, to starting something new with your spare time.
The list could go on and go. For me all those listed above are all achievable goals, if you set your mind to them they can be done, and will spur you on to try other things in your life you might like to tackle, all the time building on a positive self esteem. The harm is when you set yourself up with too hard a goal in too short a space of time. You will attempt it, inevitably fail, feel useless and abandon your hopes and desires.
It can then have a knock-on effect where you stop yourself from trying other, perhaps more obtainable goals, as you now believe you are incapable of achieving anything. So start small, achieve it, congratulate yourself and set another one. Positive repetition is great for the mind and will give you more confidence to try the harder goals down the line.
The Chinese have a saying
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"
Self esteem plays a huge role in what you can achieve. If you feel capable, confident and positive within yourself, demonstrating a good self esteem, then you are more likely to take on goals and achieve them. If however your self esteem is low, you will find it more difficult to take on new goals possibly believing before you start that you are not worthy or that there is no point because other people are better at it than you etc etc. So if this is the case the first thing you need to work on then is your self esteem, and a good way of doing that is by setting yourself small achievable goals.
Affirmations really do work, if you repeat a positive affirmation to yourself everyday and believe your affirmation, it will have a beneficial effect on your outlook. Visualisations also help. Place a photograph of what it is you want to achieve to help keep you focused. But again be careful with this one. If your goal is to lose weight do not put up a photograph of a model on the fridge door! Instead have a list of affirmations on the fridge door saying things like "I am getting healthier", " I am feeling happier", "I am feeling fitter" whatever works for you - and then don't have the fridge full of temptations!
Going from that topic, eating properly will also help. Here I go again - "we are what we eat". But it is so, so true. If you properly nourish your body, you will feel better inside giving you more energy and capability to take on your goals. Take time out for yourself. If you are constantly running around looking after everybody else, how do you expect to find the time to achieve those goals. Delegate, let go, you will be surprised how life can carry on without your input.
If you need to, try doing up a plan for your day, schedule your time for where you really need to be, and see where somebody else can help out instead, or maybe a certain something can wait until tomorrow. If you are constantly on the go nothing really ever gets finished, so setting yourself a goal in amongst that type of a lifestyle is not going to have the desired outcome. Slow down, take time out, realise that this is your life, and think about what is it you would really like to do with it. Enjoy and have fun achieving.
