Bridge the Gap|Goal Setting

What are your unfulfilled goals for 2018?
Are you letting past failures stop you from pressing forward?
Have you reinforced habits that help to develop the skill set you need to achieve success?
What’s holding you back, is it you?

Manifest your Vision

At the start of this year, I hosted my first vision board party. I always wanted to host one but lacked the motivation to execute the idea. After reading “You Are a Badass”,I was inspired to pull off the event. Sincero discusses the concept of materializing your vision by “Feeding your mind full of images of the things and experiences you want to manifest”. I agree that placing an image of what you want is “hugely powerful because your mind sends that image out to Source Energy, which begins the process of pulling it.”

Back in 2014, I placed an image of a house in my cubicle and I would look at it every day to keep me focused. I opened a separate savings account, my second dream basket, a suggestion from financial guru David Bach’s book “Smart Women Finish Rich”. I started saving aggressively to one day fulfill my dream of home ownership. I did not set a target date since I wasn’t expecting to purchase until I was 30. Shockingly towards the end of 2016, I found myself needing to decide if wanted to continue funding someone else’s lifestyle or to build my own equity. Of course, I chose the latter. My two-year-old dream basket covered my down payment and my closing costs were acquired from my other assets.

Goal Setting
Have you heard of the saying “A goal without a plan is just a wish”?My peers often share their goals of going on vacation or becoming a homeowner. However, when asked about the details of when and where they have no clue. Through failure to plan, we plan to fail.

I discovered, I too was lacking in this area. I vividly remember mentioning to my boyfriend at the time that I wanted to move out, but I didn’t know when or how. I later stumbled upon the Self Care bible titled “The Success Principles” by Jack Canfield. This book changed my whole outlook on life. Canfield harps on the concept of specificity and explains

“Once you know your life’s purpose, determine your vision and clarify what your true needs and desires are, you have to convert them into specific, measurable goals and objectives and then act on them with the certainty you will achieve them.”

Here are a few things I learned from Canfield when goal setting:

Create a measurable goal
This means being very detailed.
If you want to go on vacation start out by specifying where, when, and how.
Are you going to use a travel agent, can a well-traveled friend assist, or will you book yourself?
Will you stay at a hotel, hostel or Airbnb?
Want a new car? When do you plan on getting it?
Are you going to lease or finance your car?
How will you fund these goals? Will you withdraw from your savings account or create a specific savings fund? Will you use your income tax money or will you sell some items you have in your closet?

Reread your goals
Close the gap of your current reality and the vision of your goal by reciting your goals to yourself daily.Keep your goals in a notebook by your nightstand or your phone, somewhere nearby to increase your motivation and “heighten your awareness of the resources that can help achieve your goals”. I write my goals monthly in my planner, which is kept on my desk. My yearly goals are printed and placed in my home office. I try to read and adjust my goals weekly. This keeps me on track with any habits that are not aligning with my goals. Sometimes life happens and we lose focus, which is completely fine as long as you Reflect, Re-adjust and Refocus!

Remain Consistent and Persistent

“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats”- B.C. Forbes (Founder of Forbes Magazine).

One of the things I’ve noticed with my generation, including myself, is lack of consistency and persistence. Often times we get excited about an idea but after a week or two, we lack the concerted effort in bringing the idea to fruition. For example, I got the idea to start a blog back in the spring of 2018. I didn’t start working on my blog until August. I still lacked the consistency of working on it weekly. With a full-time job, I felt I could only work on the blog whenever I had a chance, which was the wrong approach. My habits were not aligned with my goals.

In Jack Canfield’s “The Power of Focus”he discusses the importance of the consistency circle. “Your consistency of performance automatically creates your better future. It’s an endless circle.”

1. Making better choices every day
2. Develop better habits
3. Builds better Character
4. Makes you more valuable
5. Attracts bigger and better opportunities
6. Allows you to give more and contribute more
7. Brings you bigger and better rewards

“When you consistently make better choices you create better habits. These habits produce better character. When you have better character, you add more value to the world. When you become more valuable, you attract bigger and better opportunities. This allows you to make more of a contribution in your life.”

• Take a moment and look at your goals, are your daily habits aligning with your goals?
• Do you want to start or go back to school for Fall 2019, but have yet to register for an open house or meet with an admissions counselor?
• Do you want to move out into your own place, but every time your friends mention vacation you jump on the opportunity?
• We have all been here. We want to do everything, but our actions do not align with our goals.

Habits determine your success

“In reality, life-defining events are the culmination of hours, days, weeks, months, years and decades of small decisions which either make it easier or harder depending on the daily habits we keep.”

In order to be successful, we must create daily habits that will give us the skills to achieve our goals. Take me for example, I want to become a better writer. While undergrad did prepare me by writing 10–25 page papers, it did not help me become a well-rounded writer. This goal led me to become an English minor and start reading books daily in order to expand my vocabulary. I made it a habit to listen to daily podcasts, read 3–4 books monthly, and at a minimum 2 news articles a day. In retrospect, I look at my writing from junior college and can see the growth in my writing.
I urge you to look at your goals and write the skills that are needed to fulfill those goals and start the daily habits to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Here’s a quick podcast that reinforces this concept: The Missing Element to Achieving your Goals and Expanding Your Potential

Have you set your goals for 2019? What methods do you use to track your goal progress? Share your thoughts below.

This story originally appeared on MILLENNIALJ.COM