How To Nurture Your Goals And Dreams,
It’s never too early for dreaming. I was reminded of that when a friend posted on Facebook about her goals for the new year. She set herself some lofty, but realistic, goals and didn’t just hope they happened to her – she is going to take deliberate actions towards fulfilling them this year.
It got me thinking about my own dreams and goals. I enjoy talking about dreams so much that I have a goal to use the word dream at least once in every blog post that I write.
In keeping with one of my blog themes which is to help people flourish in their lives, I am going to write a four part series on cultivating your goals.
There are four levels at which you can nurture your dreams and goals. These are:
Below we will look at each of these levels and how you can start nurturing yours.
Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, but will hopefully give you some ideas for nurturing your aspirations on each of these different levels.
Level One: Define your goal and define the steps you need to take to get there.
Goals are dreamed about; step by step action plans are executed. This is where your goals come from: Defining your goals is a first step. You will start on your journey towards them once you have defined them. The more detail you can put into your definition, the clearer it becomes in your mind and the easier it will be to follow through with it. To help you with this, while we are here in December I recommend reading my Blog Post The three ingredients of goal setting . In it I discuss the key ingredients of goal setting.
There are a number of ways you can do this. One way is to write down your goals, step by step, in big bold letters, on a large piece of paper (or multiple smaller ones) and pin them to the wall of your office or the bathroom mirror or in your bedside table drawer. You could also make it into a list and use sticky notes or Post-Its. Some people like to number their steps, e.g. 1-2-3-4 so they can just pick up their progress list and know at any time where they are up to. You can also use a program such as Excel to list your goals, create mini games to motivate you to achieve them, or use online goal setting tools.
Step Defining: You can also break down each step into smaller steps so that it becomes more manageable and less daunting. For example your goal may be to run a half marathon in the next year. That is a big, lofty dream so breaking it down will make it more comprehensible and you will feel like you are achieving something just by taking one small half-step at a time. The same is true for any goal, e.g. a new business goal like increasing your sales by 20% in the next year. Breaking that down into weekly mini-goals, e.g. to write 10 blog posts this month or to schedule an e-mail and social media marketing campaign or to create a new product will help you stay focused on what you need to achieve this month so that you achieve your overall goal for the year.
Develop a Plan: The other thing about defining your goal is that it also helps you develop a plan for achieving it and progress towards it more effectively. A plan is not as good as taking action, but without one, there is little chance that you will get anything done towards achieving your goals. On this site I have written several posts about creating an effective plan. I have also created a downloadable version of my goal plan that you can use for free.
Level Two: Make sure it’s sustainable
The next level of nurturing your goal is to make sure that it is something you can sustain over time. You don’t want something that will become so exclusive or intense that you burn out and give up on it part way through. This level involves adjusting your goal, as necessary, to make sure it is achievable and sustainable and taking care of yourself so that you can sustain the effort required to achieve your goals over time. Don’t give up too early, but don’t let it get out of hand and unworkable either.
It can be hard to tell if a goal is sustainable or not. That’s why you need to do a bit of planning. See my blog post on planning for more about this and it will give you some ideas as to what things that you can do right now to make your goal sustainable.
Level Three: Embrace the journey
The final level involves embracing the journey itself and enjoying each step along the way. It's not just about achieving your goal any old way, but also about enjoying the process of getting there. If you enjoy the journey you will be more likely to get there because you will be more motivated to make it happen.
Level Three involves what I call the ‘Theory of Doing’ . You may recall from school that Newton’s First Law of Motion is: “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”
This is a good analogy for how to approach your goals. If you are not moving forward, don't try to force yourself, but wait for things to come into your life that move you along towards your goal. When you have a goal, the key is to discover ways in which it can move you forwards.
Level Four: Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
The final level is about embracing being uncomfortable and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. It's about learning to get comfortable with being not just uncomfortable, but extremely uncomfortable in pursuing your dreams and goals.
One way of doing this is by making your goals more abstract. That way you don't feel so tied to them and can let go of them when they become difficult or unpleasant. I would recommend that you take up my free course Achieve More By Embracing The Discomfort Of Change . In it we discuss how to achieve more by embracing the discomfort of change.
Level Five: Learn to be extraverted
The final level is about changing your focus from the “me” to the “we”. It's about going beyond your own needs and taking care of those around you and being genuinely interested in them.
It’s about caring about others, listening to them, connecting with them and building a relationship with them. In short it involves learning how to be more extroverted… Read my Blog Post commissioned by Sydney Business Insights into Practice (BIIP) at UNSW University called: " The Power of Networking : Why You Need To Get Out Of Your Office .
Conclusion
I would also recommend you read one of my blog posts that I wrote last year called Buckets of Happiness . One of the key elements in this post is something called “the five levels of motivation”. It incorporates some things we discussed above such as Level 2 ‘Making sure it’s sustainable’, Level 4 'Embracing the journey', Level 4 'Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable' and Level 5 "Learn to be extraverted".
And I would suggest that you take a look at the world's best selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey , which can help you to shape up and achieve more.