Around, Over, and Through: Goal Setting Part 2
Zion National Park, November 2017
Last week, we discussed reframing our thinking as we head into 2020. We talked about the dismal statistics regarding New Year’s Resolutions, and how quickly they are abandoned. So rather than resolutions this time around, I’m encouraging us to focus on goal setting.
We looked at a study showing that if we write down our goal, we set ourselves up for greater success, as compared to people who don’t write the goal down. What’s more, we set ourselves up for even greater success in achieving the goal, if we take the one little extra step of sharing our goal with just one friend.
If you are jumping in fresh this week, or just need a refresher, start right here:
Grab your training journal, and free write some goals you’d like to achieve in 2020 for just 5 minutes.
Reread what you’ve got, and circle the one goal that you’d really love to focus on for the year ahead. Put that goal on a new page and tack it up where you can see it daily (ideas include: refrigerator door, inside your closet door, above the washing machine).
Share the goal with a friend. And please share it with me too!
Writing the goal helps us to be clear about what we want to accomplish. Now that we have our goal written down and shared with a friend, let’s talk about how we are going to take action to achieve that goal. Ask yourself, how am I going to accomplish this goal? On a new page in your training journal, free write for just a few minutes on the steps you think are involved in achieving the goal. These can be small steps or large leaps. The important part is the exercise of writing this all out. You can order these into logical steps after you have it all down on paper.
I find the next part kind of fun. For each step you have written down to achieve your goal, write down some possible barriers and pitfalls you might experience along the way. If we have them written down, we can troubleshoot them so much better than if they are just hypothetical or in our heads. For the last part of the exercise, after each barrier or pitfall you’ve identified, brainstorm and write down at least one possible way around, over, or through the barrier.
When I first write down a big goal, my brain has sometimes offered up the thought, “Well how on earth am I going to accomplish THAT?” For me, the brain likes to offer up a lot of doubt. Later in the process, my brain will certainly come up with many thought barriers at each of my smaller steps. This is where I pause to consider why my brain is coming up with these thoughts. It likes to go to a place of safety and familiarity. Big goals can be way outside our comfort zones, and quite simply, our brains like to keep us in the safe zone.
Now that we recognize why our brain may offer up some doubts at our stated goal, we can note those doubts and move on, by helping our brain to get past these speed bumps. And, this is what we have done in the above exercise! We get to the big goal, by breaking it down into smaller chunks, smaller goals. We think ahead of time on the hurdles we may have to jump over at each step in the process, and therefore, if a hurdle should come up, we are prepared and can navigate ahead.
So here is this week’s writing challenge, as we head into 2020:
Write your 2020 goal at the top of a page in your training journal. Then, write down the list of steps (small and large) involved to achieve your goal, and leave two lines under each step.
On the first line under the step, write down a possible barrier or pitfall you might experience in accomplishing this particular step.
On the line under the barrier, write down one possible way around, over, or through the barrier.
Once you write down the big goal and put it on the refrigerator door, your brain will come back to it each day and maybe multiple times a day. This will keep the goal at the forefront of the mind. With the exercises above, you have laid the bricks on the path toward achieving your goal.
I am excited for all that 2020 has in store for us! Please head over to the MindfulMarathon Facebook page, and share your big goal if you haven’t already!