With so much chaos and discord echoing around the world, it can become very easy for you to get distracted by all the noise and confusion, and eventually lose focus of your goals, tasks — and even your dreams. In the midst of everything that's going on, how do you stay focused on what your ambitions and goals are? How do you keep yourself locked into your dream, and stay motivated and inspired? How do you keep moving forward with power and purpose toward your plans, and accomplish everything you'd like to?
Below are five simple, but necessary tips to help you stay laser focused:
1. Always Be Alert & Aware... But Don't Obsess!
It's important to be in tune with what's going on around the world, and within your community — from personal issues, to current events on the news. However, it's equally important that you never become consumed by all of the information, news, and rhetoric that dominates our social media pages, magazines and newspapers. Yes, you have to make sure that you stay aware of what could possibly impact your life, but you must be careful not to allow those things to derail your focus, time, and energy away from the very thing you care about the most — accomplishing your dreams. Stay alert and aware of what's going on, just don't become obsessed about it!
2. Write Down Your Goals and Look at Them Daily
Where many people go wrong with their list of goals is that they keep them planted and locked inside their brains. The mind is usually where most goals are born, but it's not a place where they should reside. Once you think of a goal, or dream you want to accomplish, it is critical to transfer them from your brain onto paper right away! This is the best place to sow those seeds of inspiration and ambition, and nurture them into fruition. When you write your goals down, you are infusing the power they need to become a reality. Whether typed and printed, etched into a surface, or written with a pen, goals and dreams will carry more weight and power than when they are merely trickles of lingering thought in your mind. The commitment of that goal to paper actualizes it from a mere thought into a tangible, doable mission to accomplish.
And to further amplify this power, goals must be looked at every day so that you are aware of what you are and are not accomplishing. Like a task list, when people keep records of things they need to do locked inside their head, they run the risk of things being forgotten, and falling through the cracks. You don't want any of your goals or dreams slipping through the pages of forgotten memories. Also, by reviewing your list on a daily basis, you're able to keep track of your progress and process; and ultimately, you are holding yourself accountable for the success or failure of getting your goal list done!
3. Share Your Goals with Your Friends and Family
Sure, it's important to hold yourself accountable for what you have and haven't done. But what would really put some fire under you is to share your goals with friends and family who will also encourage you to stay on track, and also hold you accountable for your actions. Who else do you trust to scold you for not doing what you're supposed to? As true caretakers of your well-being, family and close friends are invaluable assets to have on your journey of success as you traverse the uphill battle of accomplishing your goals. It's important to know that becoming a DreamCatcher requires this collaborative effort and support system.
I encourage you to sit with your family and close friends often, because you may even get more inspired and motivated by their feedback. By exchanging your thoughts and ideas with one another, and inviting participation of your goals with their direction, guidance and advice, you will allow even more possibilities for your dreams to flourish. Be accountable for your own goals and dreams, but don't be afraid to share them with those who care about you!
4. Delete Any Goals Not Aligned with Your True Intention
Just because a goal is written on paper doesn't mean that it should be stuck there forever. When you recognize something that is no longer aligned with your true intentions, it's okay for you to take it off completely, or replace it with something else. Therefore, constantly evaluating your goal list is extremely important. For example, if you have a love for journalism, you may decide to pursue a degree in it. But let's say that once you're in college, you evolve toward a more serious passion of helping abused children. You already know that that a career in journalism pays extremely well — most likely better than a career in social work. But you know for sure that journalism is no longer aligned with your truest intention, and so it becomes critical to immediately evaluate your goal list and make the necessary adjustments to that list. In this example used, the original goal list reflected a love for journalism, but it is no longer your true passion and intention. However, if you were to still pursue a journalism career simply for the monetary gain it offered, you could easily find yourself unhappy and unfulfilled in the future. Most importantly, you would have inadvertently rejected your true passion — and perhaps even detoured from your purpose.
This is why, our goals must match our true intentions, and be aligned with our passion and purpose — and in the best-case scenario, they should all evolve synchronously.
5. Always Create New Goals and Keep Moving Forward
So, you've just about completed every goal you've created for the year. What's next? Do you wait until next year to create new goals? Unfortunately, that won't do. It's important to keep adding new goals to your list, even if you haven't achieved any or all of them just yet. Of course, you don't want to overwhelm yourself, but you have to continue growing. Each new goal that you add to your list should reflect your truest intention and be aligned with your passion and purpose. But it's okay if you initially write down goals that you may be unsure of at first. Just write them down anyway! Remember, you can always DELETE them if they eventually don't fit!
It's important that you don't arrive at the end of your goal list and just stop working, growing and moving forward toward your dreams. The vision of your life and career should constantly be nurtured and expanded by the process of creating new ambitions and goals — especially ones that challenge and elevate you. Don't ever be afraid to keep growing!
...And Repeat
There will always be room for improvement in your efforts to achieve your best life, but if you ever find yourself losing sight of where you are going, or what you want to do, or even how to do it — refer back to these 5 core tips that should help you stay laser focused on your goals for this year and beyond.
For more great tips and much more, please watch my VIDEO on Youtube, and subscribe and stay connected to AntStaffSpeaks! Let me help transform your life with passion and purpose!