Let us start with an important basic question: why set goals? Why spend time thinking about your goals, and then writing them down? It is not as if you have not set a goal before, felt excited, started some action, and then dropped it because you became overwhelmed, frustrated, or bored with the process. So, why bother this time?
The fact is that goal setting changes your life forever! Goal setting leads to the unfolding evolution of who you want to be, what you want to do, and the life you deserve to live. Setting goals is a powerful thing to do because you create an opportunity to sort out what is important from what is irrelevant in your life. It is an opportunity to give yourself a specific direction and give your energy a precise focus. It becomes easier to prioritize your time and say “no” to certain requests when you know what you want to spend your time doing. Overall, the process of setting and achieving goals leads you into a new maturity that allows you to live a more fulfilling and happier life.
1. You Get to Decide Your Destiny!
Goals teach that you cannot continue fighting your life, your body, or your habits and expect a happy future to unfold. You have to get out of the rut and find a new path to happiness. When you set a goal, you take charge of listening to your body, spirit, and intuition, and making new making decisions. Out of all of the unlimited choices available, you decide what you intend for your life. Wow! You get to decide your destiny!
2. Goals Erase Feelings of Helplessness
To achieve the success you desire, you must first choose a brand-new life direction and then develop the skills and beliefs to make your dream come true. Creating the change you want is difficult because it involves confidence, certainty, and strong self-leadership skills beyond what you currently posses—at least in this area of your life. In essence, change means that you are asking yourself to be more than you believe yourself capable of being.
However, there is good news! Following the process of setting and achieving goals allows you to overcome any adversity you may meet, build the self-leadership you desire, and show you that you can live a better life. Goals bring to life the exact obstacles, struggles, and failures required to cultivate new beliefs and bring hidden strengths. As you move through the process of achieving your goal of ending overeating, you will wash away old beliefs that suggest the following:
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Things are beyond your control
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There is no point in trying because nothing ever works
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You are a victim of life
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You are helpless
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You can’t have what you want
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It is not your place in the world to have more
Goals allow you to challenge what you believe about yourself and your capacity to change your future. In essence, you not only wipe the slate clean, you begin again!
3. Goals Help You Make Peace with Your Self
Almost everyone experiences self-defeating thoughts at some point in their lives. Most of us deal with damaging patterns of self-doubt, self-criticism, and guilt in some area of life. Problems develop when these thoughts become repetitive in nature. Automatic, continuously negative thinking reinforces a distorted view that something is wrong with you. In the end, this self-criticism sabotages your success.
While your initial unhappiness with your current situation may spark awareness of your desire for change, it is love of self that allows you to move in a new direction. You want to set a new course for your life that includes motivating yourself without harsh criticism. Goals show you how to apply heart to your journey of creating a more fulfilling and rewarding life for yourself. This new path includes compassion, honest feedback without unforgiving self-judgment, and self-respect.
4. Goals Teach You How to Feel Better Today
Are you enjoying life right now? Are you happy in your relationship with your self ? You can lead an extraordinary life, and turning your challenges around is possible. But there is a catch: It will not happen on its own. If you want to enjoy greater inner peace, contentment, and fulfillment with your life, you are going to have to shift your focus from everything that is going wrong and place attention on what you could do right now to feel even a small bit more confident or hopeful. Setting goals helps you do this by helping you define your dreams, gain a sense of purpose and direction, and then choose an action step that makes you feel a little better right now.
It is wonderful to anticipate the arrival of your goals; however, goals teach you not to postpone self-love and happiness until the end of your journey. It is necessary to experience them now. Instead of focusing on what you want to banish from your life, goals teach you to focus on actions and choices that add to your life. Goals also show you that to allow good things into your life, you must find yourself deserving. You can become your own best friend and unwavering supporter of yourself.
Goals help you discover how to make daily decisions that allow you to reprogram yourself to believe that you are deserving of having what you want. You are deserving of feeling good in your body, worthy of focusing on success, and worthy of your own love and appreciation. Although it may require effort and perseverance, you can determine how you want to feel and then take daily actions that promote those feelings.
This article is based on the book, “Body Redesign: Goal Setting Secrets for a Thinner, Happier You.” Don’t just start another diet, start a new life!
Discover the secrets to losing weight, staying slim, and falling in love with your life all over again! Body Redesign: Goal Setting Secrets for a Thinner, Happier You will teach you how to make meaningful and thoughtful decisions that feel right—in your heart and in your bones!
Author Resource: Want to learn more about how to live consciously, love deeply, and laugh often? Come along with Annette Colby and learn the secrets to creating the life you’ve always wanted to live! Subscribe to her blog Divine Self! today.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Annette,
I am achieving some of my goals and getting rid of old beliefs is #1 on my list. What I once thought was beyond my control, no longer is—-all it takes is a change in attitude. Works wonders! No one is helpless. Did you ever watch wheelchair athletes perform? Wow! Kind of blows your mind.
If what you think you want is definitely beyond reach for one reason or another, then simply change what you want. So simple! All a matter of choice.
No “funk energy” here today! lol
Toodles, Kathleen
Hi Kathleen,
There’s a truth that states, “Change may be simple, but it’s not easy.” Creating a fulfilling life and achieving our goals is possible, the steps to success can be outlined, but the process of change is far from easy. One essential step to success includes developing a self-supportive, can-do attitude. As you stated, with the right attitude what was once out of reach becomes accessible. I wish to acknowledge the tremendous strength and fortitude within you. Because of your determination, you are now aware that change is possible, your goals are within reach, and you are the person who always held the key to making your dreams come true. What appears simple in retrospect was not easy to achieve. If you haven’t already done so, give yourself a deep round of applause!!
I have lost twelve pounds and am on the road to achieving my weight! With the skills learned from Body Redesign, I am now in the process of writing out goals to help me step into my own business. Will let ya know – thanks for the Book!
Hi Annette, Thank you for positive comments. To Micheal—–keep looking straight ahead and all will be yours.
kathleen thanks for your support. In a way we are all wheelchair athletes, at least those of us handicapped with negative beliefs. Most of the time we watch on the sidelines giving others our wow while we do nothing. Kathleen take that WOW, that tremendous feeling of your admiration, and give it to yourself, from you to you. For me my wow is to stand up straight and lose the weight…actually its about me becoming my own man.