7 Ways to Reach Your Goals Now

1. Have a strategy in place. People often fail in reaching their goals because they never really thought through how part of their goal. What is it going to take, day by day, week by week, to reach your goal? For example, what are you going to do to have a healthier diet? What food choices are going to have to be made? Or what is it going to take to have a better social life? Who are you going to call, or where are you going to go to meet people? Do some research! 

2. Visualize success. And speaking of success, what does success look like? Take the time to create a clear picture in your mind of what success will look like. And then take time every day to sit with that vision in your mind. The more clear the vision is, the more likely your mind is to wrap around it and, subconsciously, find ways to achieve it. Don’t forget that your mind is working on helping you to get what you want even when you aren’t aware that it is. Why do you think we have dreams? 

3. Watch your self-talk. If you find yourself wallowing in doubt and self-criticism, give yourself a pep talk, if not a stern talking to. Remind yourself that change is a process, that you are doing what you can, and that you need to be on your own side if you are going to reach your goal. How about a little compassion for yourself, along with some tough love? 

4. Be ready for a redo. Life sometimes gets in the way of our goals, and what we think we need to do to reach them. And sometimes we find that what we thought would help us to reach a goal isn’t going to work so well. It may be time to develop a new strategy. A setback is an opportunity to take a look at what’s not working, and to figure out what we may want to do instead. Again, this is a process. So be flexible! 

5.Give yourself rewards along the way. A pat on the back is always nice but a reward is even nicer. Even the simplest things, like taking a break and having some fun. Or calling a friend to brag. Take time to celebrate yourself. 

6. Enlist your support team. As I always say, don’t go through this alone. Letting people who care about you and can be supportive – and not critical – can give you an additional boost in reaching your goal. Your support team might also be able to help you by asking for some accountability, maybe an occasional check-in to let them know you are doing on what you said you’d do. 

7. Have faith, whatever that means to you. And enlist your higher power, whatever it is you believe in. This is definitely a time for spiritual support.