How to Set Goals and Achieve Your Dreams

Hello sweet friends!

This week, I'm continuing to take small steps to overcome my obstacles as a Domestic Violence Survivor and invite you to join me. Every week, I post a recap here about each chapter I'm studying in The Success Principles Workbook. A friend suggested the original book to me and thought it could help me to jump over any hurdles I face during my process of creating empowering videos for other DV Survivors. So far, it's really motivated me and kept me accountable to keep following what I believe is my calling. Maybe it can help you too! So let's dive into Chapter 4: Use the Power of Goal-Setting to Achieve Your Vision.

This chapter starts out with a chart listing the following:

thinking about your goals
writing down your goals
making a list of actions you commit to taking toward your goals
sending the list of goals and actions to a supportive friend
sending a weekly progress report of your results to a supportive friend

The more you do from these bullet points, the more likely you are to achieve your goals.

The workbook really stresses the importance of having an 'accounta-buddy' and I can't pick my husband for the job. So I kind of got stuck here. Because some of my friends who came to mind live in different time zones, and it could sometimes be hard to coordinate a regular time to communicate. I also felt a bit sheepish asking people to be quite honest... because it feels like I'm asking them to check my homework. But I have a Zoom call with a friend so I may ask her if the conversation comes up. :)

I learned that the best practices for writing a goal include "how much" and "by when." Doing so tells my subconscious exactly what it is I want so it can help me get it. For example, if I'm planning to write a book, how many pages do I expect to complete by what exact deadline? Or if I want to lose weight, what number do I expect to see on the scale on what exact date?

I was skeptical about being so specific because I didn't want to let myself down. But this chapter talks about how the biggest payoff for setting and achieving goals is your newly gained knowledge. By striving for more, you're filling your brain with new information that allows you to grow. Another payoff is building confidence, an ability to produce results whenever I want. Even if I don't achieve exactly what I set to achieve, I still would be in a much better position than where I started, because I tried really hard to go in that direction.

The workbook asked me to take three of my visions from the previous chapter and turned them into tangible goals I could achieve within the next three months. It also challenged me to set a breakthrough goal, something that's ambitious and big enough to produce a quantum leap in an area of my life. The timeline for this is one year. This goal should be very compelling to me so that I don't give up if I'm having a bad day.

My biggest takeaway from this chapter is that I have the opportunity right now to change my life for the better. I can avoid future regrets by taking small steps now.

Up to this point, I've been obedient about taking every step. But I found myself pausing at this chapter, unable to call or email a friend with my goals. As I looked at what I wrote down, I felt a bit embarrassed. I still have some 'unworthiness' factors to work on before I can fully unleash my plans to the world.

What about you? How are you handling this week's assignments? If you're in a similar situation, you're not alone!

I'll keep moving onto the next chapter... but I'm making a mental note to return to this chapter regularly and check in with myself to see if it's time yet to share my goals with a trusted friend. :)

Love,

Christine