What is your goal? What is the next big thing that drives you? What do you know, down deep, that you REALLY need to do?
- for your health
- for your life
- for your career
- for your family
- for your spiritual life
What is it? Can you see it? Can you feel it coming? Can you envision the outcome? Have you written it down?
There are lots of programs about goal setting. I recommend using Chalene Johnson’s method of starting on your goals and reverse-engineering your goals. But I’m here with one message.
Just Start.
Yes, the image is important. Yes, the end-goal is important. Yes, it’s important to start with the end IN MIND. But don’t let that image hold you back.
Why would it hold you back?
It would hold you back because if you are a perfectionist. a planner, or a control-freak, seeing that image is intimidating!
- What if I fail?
- What if it doesn’t turn out right?
- What if it doesn’t look the way I envision?
So, now I’m telling you to have the image but don’t be married to it. Have some looseness in the outcome. Have some flexibility in how it looks once you start. The end image may change as you dive in and start, and that’s OK. It’s ok to fail in the steps along the way. In every failure is the lesson. The lesson is never “just give up.” The lesson is a closed door in a maze that leads you down a new path. Once you have made this goal, and once you have really envisioned what you need to do, it’s like putting it out there in the universe, for the universe to take care of you. Allow it to shift and mold. Allow it to change you and to move you forward as a person. That new path that you have to take may be much more beautiful than the first.
I’m going to give you a generic example.
Beth wants to lose her baby-weight. She thinks she needs to lose around 30 pounds. She has a cruise coming up in the spring. She is thinking 10 pounds a month is reasonable. She writes it down, finds a picture she wants to emulate, and thinks through all that she needs to do to lose 10 pounds. You’ve been there, right? You get invigorated with the thought of what you can do….and then you get overwhelmed with the process. The fears set in:
- what if I can’t maintain this schedule?
- what if I can’t fix fresh foods every day?
- what if I can’t control my cravings?
- what if I can’t fit exercise into my day?
- what if I try everything and I FAIL?
Can you relate? Do you set a big goal, and then as you start planning, all the fears set in? This is a defining moment for Beth. She has a big choice. She can just say “oh, well, it was a nice thought, but I know I’ll fail, so I’ll give up now.” OR, she can say
“Just START.”
If Beth just starts with one day, Beth has 100% chance of doing better than if she just gives up. Do you get that? Tomorrow, she gets to focus on tomorrow and it starts all over. The bad news is that change is challenging. The good news is that once you train yourself to accept and push against the challenge, you begin to change.
YOU begin to change.
I am a recovering perfectionist. I am a recovering introvert. If I had let these personality traits take over my life, would I be able to run a business? Let’s be real here. If I held myself accountable to starting BIG and taking over the fitness market by a certain date, where would I be? Completely defeated. Retreated. Broken. In my shell. Afraid.
I said “Just Start.”
My business is not perfect. I am not perfect. Things are NOT yet the way that I envisioned. I shape and mold how my business looks every day. I push against the resistance. I push against the negativity. It forces me to grow as a person and to make my business an expression of my beliefs as a teacher: Join the person where she is and take her where she is going.
Are you staring at a goal? Are you afraid of it? Are you afraid to start? Tell me about it. I’ll be your partner. We all need a hand to hold sometimes. Contact me here.