3 Powerful Tips for Goal Setting Success Pt 3

Here we are in Part 3 of the Tips for Goal Setting Success series.

Maybe you’ve already started setting and progressing and are far enough along in your journey to be enjoying success in some of your short term goals, or at least making progress, gone through the worksheets and even made adjustments.

I’ll just add links to the previous posts and the worksheets here, just in case you haven’t yet begun.

CLICK THE IMAGE AND GET THE GOAL PLANNING WORKSHEETS!

Tips for Goal Setting Success Part 1 and

Tips for Goal Setting Success Part 2 in the series.

But today, let’s do a quick review and then talk about acknowledging your successes and celebrating those achievements.

A Quick Review

So far in our series, we’ve gone over Tips 1 and 2, which are Setting Strategic Goals and Tracking Progress and Making Adjustments. And a quick outline of my overall process of goal setting successfully is:

Acknowledge

And now here we are at what might be my favorite part of the goal setting success process.

Yes. Even more than celebrating.

There’s just something about that step of recognizing that you’ve reached your goal, whether short or long term.

But you’ve got to be paying attention to your progress. Your long term goal might be to declutter your house in 6 months, and you’ve just finished donating and disposing a bunch of the overwhelming piles of craft supplies and kids toys and 50+ mid-century empty picture frames from your Great Aunt Susan.

Now your guestroom, the room you were worried about decluttering, is neat and tidy and decluttered.

So pause! Take a breath and take it all in.

Acknowledge what you’ve accomplished and savor it.

Yep!

That’s the feeling that’s my favorite part of setting goals.

Some of the opportunities that we’ve enjoyed acknowledging a goal reached have been when we’ve:

• changed what we’re eating to ease gut issues and we realize we no longer have heartburn or nausea after meals
• realized that lab numbers have improved because of healthy changes we’ve incorporated into our daily lives
• recognized we’re more relationally happy and supported when we’ve been more consistent in our church attendance
• realized I needed to drop a clothing size because I’ve lost 10 pounds
• achieved 7+ hours of sleep consistently when we eat healthier and earlier and avoid stressors at night

Acknowledgement of a goal achieved:

• puts fuel in your gas tank to motivate you to keep moving forward
• lifts your sense of self-worth and personal awareness/acknowledgement of ability
• inspires continued teamwork when working on a goal with others

Also remember that actual acknowledgement and praise is powerful.

This will, of course, look different for every person and possibly for goals too, but when you’ve accomplished a goal or maybe made progress, consider how you can acknowledge it like:

• checking off an accomplishment or somehow mark that you’ve made progress
• having an accountability partner (maybe your spouse, a friend, a coach) that you can talk with about your progress

When I first used a Franklin planner, their training recommended putting a dot by the items I had made progress (but not yet finished) and a checkmark when something was done. Since I’m a very visual person, these little marks were powerful reasons for me to enjoy internal celebrations a lot and stay motivated to keep moving forward.

Celebrate

In some instances the line blurs between acknowledging and celebrating (like my Franklin planner example), but sometimes celebration can be more distinct.

Particularly when the actual celebration is a powerful motivation tool to keep you progressing further towards a long term goal.

You decide.

But if you set a goal to lose 24 pounds within the next 12 months, and 13 months from now you’re celebrating with your husband in Hawaii. Now that would an awesome celebration!

Or maybe your celebration is feeling great and actually having the energy to play in the fort you just built with your grandson under and around the dining table.

Not so formal, but definitely a celebration.

Boundaries?

And be sure to think about the boundaries you set for yourself along the way, in order to achieve your goal. And now look where you are!

Maybe some of those boundaries, that were initially challenging, are now Non-issues and maybe even preferences.

I know one example that I had with this personally was regarding almond butter.

Yes. Almond butter, something I had never thought about before. I don’t even remember noticing it in the grocery stores.

After being taken off gluten by my doctor, I decided to explore further. I began a 21-day elimination diet of the 7 top problem foods (which included gluten) and just see what I noticed.

Peanuts were 1 of the 7, so I tried almond butter as an easily accessible alternative.

Peanuts ended up not being a problem for me, but I never went back to them.

I Love Almond Butter!

Now almond butter is all I use, including for one of my favorite snacks of sliced apples with almond butter and cinnamon dip.

My way of thinking had changed.

You might experience something similar like:

• starting off begrudgingly exercising and end up loving the opportunity to focus, lower stress, and pray during a daily run
• expecting to not enjoy the taste of whole foods prepared differently but end up preferring the easier prep and clean-up for a bigger burst of flavors that you never knew existed
• assuming simple stress management changes won’t make a difference but then noticing your anxiety problems are way down

Stretch yourself a bit and enjoy celebrations that will fit the new you!

What Goals: Yours…Mine?

And now that we’re at the end of this goal setting success series, I am really curious about you and the goals you are considering.

I know one personal goal that I’m really excited about this year is my plan to read 1 non-school, non-work book each month. I’ve collected quite a collection of books over the last few years that I haven’t even opened, so reading those as a relaxing, new, nightly routine is definitely going to be a goal I achieve and celebrate!

That about you?

Do you have a goal that you are considering?

Why not share it in the comments below?

And again just click the images to check out Parts 1 and 2!