“Exercising is impossible.” “Eating right is impossible.” “Saving money is impossible.” How many times have these thoughts crossed your mind?
“How come others are making it and I’m not?” –you may wonder. The truth is that we all have great goals. Good intentions that often stay just that: intentions. But how to make these wishes or goals come true?
Below we offer you 7 tips for you to get closer to your goals. They are easier than you think, and once you incorporate them into your life, you will see that the impossible becomes possible.
1)Goals are not destinations, they are journeys
A destination would be “losing weight,” while a journey would be, “I’m on the path to losing weight”. What’s important about defining your goals as journeys or paths is that you will achieve your goal in the same way you advance along a path: step by step or little by little. Your progress will be gradual, and your destination will suddenly appear.
2) No matter what, just start
Take the first step and don’t stop. Once you take action to achieve something, you make it a reality. Then, the rest of your mind and body line up behind the new reality, and you ride on the path to your chosen goal.
3) Change your inner speech
Positive words change everything. Instead of focusing on the negative —”I have nothing saved,”— focus on a positive, message of possibilities: “I am a person who will save up.” This type of self-talk is actionable and something you can do every day.
4) Do something every day to move you closer to your goal
The best thing you can do is create a daily habit of moving towards your goal. Focus on creating a system and don’t dwell so much on the goal as such. Systems are daily habits you integrate in your routine. If your goal is to exercise more, change your inner speech to, “I’m a person who likes to exercise all the time,” and get into the habit of taking the stairs whenever possible. Also, instead of looking for the closest parking lot, look for the farthest one and walk. If you want to quit smoking, calculate how many cigarettes you smoke every day and eliminate one each week until you get down to a level that is much easier than simply quitting all at once. These are the small daily steps that will get you closer to what you once thought impossible.
5) Congratulate yourself
Celebrate your accomplishments no matter how small. Every quarter you save is a reason to smile because it means you have developed the habit of saving. Install an app on your cell phone to measure your daily steps and get in the habit of increasing the amount each week, even if it’s an additional 50 steps. Never stop thinking that you are making progress.
6) Forgive yourself
Stop criticizing yourself. The only thing guaranteed in life is that no one was born perfect. We all drop the ball from time to time, it’s natural. The best thing you can do in these cases is think, “Well, I slipped up, but I’ll be back tomorrow. These are just a few stones on my path.” Then you make plans for what you’re going to do tomorrow to get back on track.
7) Share your mission with others
The support of others makes a great difference. Find someone who wants to share your mission and share your daily or weekly progress, techniques, discoveries, and accomplishments. This will help strengthen your commitment to your journey. If your goal is to move to a specific area or get a job in a particular company or field, share your goal with others. You’ll see that someone will come along with information or a contact that may be key in achieving what you want.
After you’ve made substantial progress towards your goals, if someone asks you how you did it, give them the key to achieve the impossible: “little by little and with determination.” Start today, we are rooting for you!
