*I am on a semi-blogging-sabbatical while I finish my second book (prayers please!!) While I am away some very generous friends have offered to step in and keep this place running. Sometimes it takes a village to run a blog! Today I am so excited to share the wisdom of the amazing Jacqueline Wolvern. Jackie knows goals and today we all have the opportunity to learn from her deep gladness!
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When I think about our lives I am reminded how brief they are and how being conscious of our energy and time are so important. We are called to be here for just a blink and what we do with that time is all that matters. We can toss it away with addiction, blame and following someone else’s idea of who and what we should be or we can live a glorious simple life choosing each step carefully with just enough room for adventure and mistakes. It is totally our choice and that is amazing.
What I find is that most people are kind of stuck. They want to do something breathless and amazing, but they don’t understand the structure to make things happen. They either try a bunch of stuff, try nothing, or just think about trying – not really getting anywhere with any of those approaches. What they haven’t figured out is the magic of goal setting.
Why Set Goals?
Life is meant to be lived. You are meant to do things. Sure, you might have to make a living that isn’t exactly in your dream life, but that should stop you from learning to paint, traveling to Romania, or mastering the two step! You can make amazing things happen outside and inside your 9-5 if you learn to set goals. Goals give you the prize a the end. You get to win every time to you achieve one. That level of excitement is inside of you without someone from the outside telling you how, when or what to do. It is especially helpful when you don’t feel like doing anything. We all have those days when motivation left for the beach and we are splayed out on the couch in our yoga pants wondering what we are doing with our lives. Having goals lets you get up, do something and reach a new level in the game of your life. I don’t know about you, but I need that. I need to know that I’m my own Atari set.
How To Set Goals
This year I introduced the #9MagicGoals. It is, by far, the easiest process I know of setting goals for your life and business. It is manageable. It is fun. It will take you somewhere.
Take 9 Post It Notes and as quick as you can write 9 things you want to accomplish this year. Make them real. These aren’t lose 100 pound kinds of goals, but instead they are goals that you know in your heart of hearts that if you applied yourself even just a teeny bit you could make it happen. This is about winning folks not about looking back at a road paved with failure.
Write your 9 goals, one on each Post It, and post those somewhere in your life that you will see them every single day for the year. One of the tricks is to not write them down and forget about them. Instead you make them visible to yourself, your family and your everyday life.
What To Do With Your #9MagicGoals
This is bonus work now. You wrote your goals. (Congratulations, by the way.) Now, take each goal and write three steps on how you can make it happen. Make these specific. Call someone, buy the right tool, stop watching TV on Thursdays and do your thing instead – those kinds of things.
Extra extra bonus? Schedule those in your calendar. Make it happen for yourself. I’m assuming that you keep your other appointments. You go to the doctor, pick up your kids from soccer, get your tires rotated and now you can set appointments with yourself to make your goals happen.
Rewards and Wonder
Did you reach a goal? Amazing. Shut the front door. You did it! Now what? Reward yourself. Really. That feeling of reward, whatever it is, will help solidify the process of reaching your goals. You are further ahead then you were at the beginning when you were first sitting in front of your stack of Post It Notes. You did something. You made your life yours and that is a wonder to behold.
A Secret Confession
I feel I should tell you that I really only do 8 actual tangible goals. The last goal is left blank to allow possibilities to come into my life. Life isn’t just about crossing things off. We have to leave room for things we don’t even know could happen and by leaving that last goal blank I am giving myself permission to be open. You can have that, too.
Want to read more? I write about goals regularly and host three goal workshops online a year. You can keep up with all of that at jacquelinewolven.com You can also follow along on Instagram where I give you peeks into this goal centered life I live. Oh, I’m on Facebook, too.
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