Do Your Goals Support Your Values?

2021-01-04 ~ adminlife

If you’re struggling to be as successful as you’d like to be, there’s a great chance that a discrepancy exists between your goals and your values. If our goals are antithetical to our values, success is all but impossible. We don’t like to behave in ways that are counter to our values. If a mismatch exists, something has to give.

If you’re forever coming up short when it comes to achieving your dreams, your values might be at odds with your goals.

Use these techniques to set goals that support your values:

List your current values. Have you ever taken the time to examine your values? Most people have never given their values a second thought. This is a shame, because a person’s values guide their thinking, decisions, and actions.
- Take 30 minutes and list your values. Put them in order of their priority to you.
- Ask yourself if your behaviour is aligned with your values. If there’s a mismatch, what set of values would actually represent your behaviour?
- Most of us have an idealized impression of our intentions, values, and qualities.

What are you trying to accomplish? What are your goals in life? What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to be wealthy? Get a six-pack? Write a screenplay? Save the whales? Build a real estate empire? The first step to any great success is to identify your objectives.
How do your current values impact your goals? If your values and goals don’t match, the odds of success are dismal without something changing.

- For example, if you believe that wealthy people are fundamentally bad, you’ll never accumulate a significant amount of wealth.
- If comfort is a high priority for you, that six-pack will never materialize.
- Do you value having a lot of leisure time? A goal that requires a lot of work isn’t going to happen.
- Look at your goals and look at your values. Do your goals support those values? Do your values support your goals?

What would be the perfect set of values to support your goals? Imagine you could build a person from scratch that would be perfect for accomplishing your goals. What values and qualities would they possess? How would you be different if you had these values?

- Think about the people you know that have accomplished what you want to accomplish. How would you describe them?

How close can you come to matching those values? How well can you rearrange your values to match that ideal set of values? The closer you’re able to come, the greater the odds of your success.
Reinforce the values that matter. Imagine that your goal is to save $20,000 for a down payment on a home. Let’s suppose that you’ve determined that you need to be someone that values saving money over spending. How can you build this value in yourself and make it a part of you?

- Prove to yourself that you’re that type of person: For example, pick up pennies you find on the ground and save them. Cut coupons. Find new ways of dealing with stress other than shopping. Save part of your income as soon as your paycheck hits your bank account.
- When you keep proving to yourself over and over again that you possess a value, those actions will build and reinforce that value.

Are your goals and values a good match? It’s important that they are. When a mismatch exists, it’s important to either alter your values or your goals. There’s only so much resistance a person can overcome. Success is much easier when your values and your intentions are highly compatible.

To your success

Michael

P.S. If you are looking for more information on confidence and motivation you can join my Facebook groups Developing Confidence in Yourself or Confidence Coaching. For success articles you can join You Are Success Life Coach.

These groups will enable you to learn more about all aspects of confidence, motivation and success.

You can also contact me at michael@coachmichaelw.com to arrange a discovery session to Determine Your Primary Life Goal or to discover your Limiting Beliefs that can help to make your life more successful.

Feature Photo by icon0.com from Pexels

9 Ways to Build Resilience and Grit

2020-12-28 ~ adminlife

You might be skilled, talented, educated, and brilliant. But, if you’re not resilient, persistent, and gritty, you’ll never make the most of those other attributes.

Think about the five most successful people you know. On the average, they’re probably not that talented. However, they know how to get things done and persist.

Resilience and grit might be the missing ingredients in your quest for success.

Try these techniques to increase your resilience and grit:

Stay in contact with others. When times are tough, it’s natural to crawl into a hole and be by yourself. This is a mistake. You’re more capable with a support system. Give up the idea that strong people take on the world by themselves. You’re stronger when you have help and support. Maintain your relationships.
Have high hopes. It’s easier to stand strong when you expect things to improve. Consider every bad time in your life. Haven’t things gotten better every single time? When you know better times are ahead, grit and resilience are easier to demonstrate. Focus on a positive outcome.
Know that the most successful people are those with the most resilience. It might be easy to be wealthy and successful but becoming wealthy and successful is anything but. The most successful people were willing to take on challenges that the average person would avoid like the plague.
Take excellent care of yourself. No matter what is going on in your life, you still need food, rest, love, exercise, and fun. Take good care of yourself and you’ll be in a better position to weather challenges. Most people ignore their needs during difficult times, but this is a huge error.
Be active, not passive. It’s easier to last when you’re doing something to make progress. Rather than passively waiting for things to get better, take steps to improve the situation. If there is something constructive you can do, do it.
Give yourself mental breaks. No matter how resilient you may be, take regular breaks to recharge your batteries. What is your favorite way to take a mental break? You could watch a movie, read a book, or go play horseshoes with a friend. Do whatever works for you.
Remind yourself of all the adversity you’ve overcome since childhood. No one’s life is smooth sailing 100% of the time. You’ve already overcome many obstacles. Remind yourself of your past successes during challenging times. You’ll have the fortitude and motivation to continue.
Live a life that revolves around your interests. If you have a job you hate, it’s hard to have a lot of grit and resilience. It’s much easier to have perseverance while doing something you love. Find a career and hobbies that you love. The need for grit is much lower!
Hang around with resilient people. You become more like the people you spend the most time with. Choose your friends wisely. You’ll become a stronger person if you hang out with strong people. Find some people you want to be more like.

What could you do with your life if you were the most resilient and gritty person you knew? You’d be unstoppable!

Most people spend their time trying to improve their skills. It might be more productive to learn how to apply your skills regardless of the situation. Build resilience and grit into your life and enjoy greater success.

To your success

Michael

These groups will enable you to learn more about all aspects of confidence, motivation and success.

Feature Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Improving Follow-Through on Your New Year’s Resolution

2020-12-21 ~ adminlife

By the time we reach a certain age, we understand the real point behind our New Year’s resolutions. It’s admirable to make real efforts to improve yourself. Yet, for many, making it past February 1^st with your resolution intact just doesn’t happen.

What can you do to ensure you follow through with your New Year’s resolution and ultimately achieve the results you seek?

Consider these suggestions:

Is your resolution realistic, specific and achievable? What about your strategy for achieving it? For example, if losing a certain amount of weight is your goal for the year, it may not be realistic for you to plan on doing it by eating only 1,200 calories per day.

- However, what if your resolution was something like, “Decrease my calorie intake by 10% each week?” Or “Eat 3 fruits daily, one before each meal.” These goals, as you can see, are more realistic, very specific in their plan and frankly, more do-able than simply saying, “Lose 50 pounds” or “Eat 1,200 calories a day.”
- If your resolution or method of achieving it isn’t realistic, change it today for better success.

Think about ways to keep your resolution in mind. Write down your resolution in your journal, jot it on a note, and place it on your refrigerator. Record it in your calendar. You can even keep your resolution written down on a paper on the front seat of your car. When your resolution is in your thoughts every day, you’re more likely to follow through with it.
Ask your spouse or friends to bring up your goal frequently. After all, people close to you want you to be successful in your goals. It can be as non-threatening as, “So, how are you doing on working toward your New Year’s resolution today?”

- Discuss your struggles, plans and daily successes with people who love you. There’s no way you can just forget about your New Year’s resolution when you discuss it often with those who matter.

Start early each day. Set up a resolution so you can do something related to the goal first thing in the morning. Since most people are at their freshest and most energetic in the morning, it’s good to be able to achieve something related to your resolution right after you get out of bed.

- If your resolution has something to do with your nutritional intake, eating a balanced breakfast will get your day off to a great start.
- In the event you’ve resolved to get more exercise, getting in 20 or 30 minutes of exercise would be a great start to your day and respect your resolution.
- Resolutions to delve more into a subject or learn a new language can be achieved by studying for a half-hour first thing in the morning.
- Plan to take a step toward your resolution in the mornings. This way, you’ll start the day off with your resolution in mind and feel positive and successful all day.

Be flexible about your New Year’s resolution. Give yourself permission to tweak your resolution as time goes by. Maybe you’re unable to drop calorie intake from 2,500 calories in a day down to 1,500. So, don’t beat yourself up if you consume 2,200 calories a day. In a few weeks, you can cut another 100 calories.

- Allow yourself to make desired changes related to your resolution gradually. The more flexible you are, the more likely you’ll achieve your resolution sometime during the year.

Staying with your New Year’s resolution as long as it takes to be successful is possible. Just apply the above strategies: make it realistic and specific, keep your resolution in mind, ask friends and family to talk to you about your goal, start first thing in the morning, and be flexible about your resolution to achieve your goal.

Stick to your New Year’s resolution to experience one of your most inspiring years ever!

To your success

Michael

These groups will enable you to learn more about all aspects of confidence, motivation and success.

Feature Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels

Simple Guide to Setting Realistic Goals for the New Year

2020-12-14 ~ adminlife

The New Year is the perfect time to start fresh. If there’s any aspect of your life that you’d like to improve, set some clear and attainable goals for yourself that will help you get there.

Take It Slow

Work towards your goal one piece at a time. It’s important to take it slow and not take on too much at once. The main reason that some people fail when it comes to their New Year’s goals is because they fail to plan out a realistic path.

Follow Through With a Plan

It’s easy to say: “I want to lose 50 pounds” or “I want to learn a musical instrument.” Keep in mind that big goals like these will take some time and effort. Diets are hard to start because you may feel unmotivated or hungry. Musical instruments require time to master, and you may start with weeks of just learning notes before getting to any fun melodies.

Remember that the beginning is tough. Muster up the courage and enthusiasm to continue with your efforts. Remember that most people give up, but you’re not most people, are you?

You’re different because, unlike most people, you’re going to create a clear and realistic plan to take you right to success. If you’re going to lose 50 pounds, define how you’re going to lose those pounds. Are you starting an exercise routine? Are you going to join Weight Watchers or count calories?

You know that you won’t lose the weight quickly; it’s a steady loss that brings success. Even if you’re short a couple of pounds on one of your short-term goals, you can revise your plan and kick up the pace, or just continue on your path because you’ll reach your 50 pound goal before the year is out. That’s what you’ll be able to accomplish with a solid plan in place.

Be Real

You have to stay realistic when it comes to your New Year’s goals. The holidays are a joyful time, and often times you’ll feel motivated to achieve something big. Know that you can achieve big things, but there are also only 24 hours in a day.

Avoid making goals that would take more than a year to complete. If you want to make a long-term goal like this, break it up into parts and give yourself a realistic plan for your first year goal.

Visualize the Outcome

When you run into snags in the road, as you’re bound to in life from time to time, it will help to visualize yourself reaching your end goal. Visualizing it makes it feel real and motivates you to continue to work hard to make it happen.

The Right Attitude

If you’re practicing the right attitude, you can go far. It’s true that all you need to do is believe in yourself. You’ve probably realized that if you don’t believe that you can accomplish something, you simply won’t. How can you expect to achieve great things if you don’t believe in yourself?

An optimistic attitude is critical to your success. Think about how you felt when you first set your New Year’s goal. Chances are that you had an excellent attitude, so try to maintain that mindset throughout your journey to success with your goal.

Once you’ve determined a realistic goal and divided it up into short, achievable tasks, you’re bound for success as long as you take action to complete each step. Go ahead and make that New Year’s resolution, knowing that this year is going to be your most successful yet!

To your success

Michael

These groups will enable you to learn more about all aspects of confidence, motivation and success.

You can also contact me at michael@coachmichaelw.com to arrange a session to talk about what we can do together to make your life more successful.

Feature Photo by Breakingpic from Pexels

A Quick Guide to Setting Effective Daily Goals

2020-12-07 ~ adminlife

Do you find it easy to set exciting goals, but you lose track somewhere along the way? As much as you want to lose weight or earn a promotion, you often find yourself back where you started. Setting daily goals may be your key to success.

Hang onto your long-term objectives but use short term goals to guide you towards your ultimate destination. Find out more about the benefits of daily goals and how to use them.

Benefits of Daily Goals:

Stay focused. It’s easy for your personal priorities to get buried under daily responsibilities. Short term goals help you to remember your purpose. Keep your dreams in sight while you earn a paycheck and take care of your family.
Break it down. A daily action plan also makes big projects less overwhelming. You can pick out one or 2 worthwhile steps you can complete each day. Building momentum will help you to persevere.
Create urgency. What happens when you have a whole year to do something? If you tend to procrastinate, a tighter timeline will help you to move forward.
Adapt faster. Sometimes you need to revise your goals or change your strategy. When you’re operating 24 hours at a time, you can resolve conflicts before they grow into something more serious.

Using Daily Goals:

Clarify your values. Goals that align with your core values will feel more satisfying and compelling. Take time to contemplate what you really want out of life.
Leverage your strengths. Design your goals to take advantage of your talents and skills. Figure out what you like to do and what you excel at. Understanding your abilities will help you to aim for targets that are realistic for you.
Think positive. Identify something you want rather than something you’re trying to avoid. Positive statements create more motivation and less anxiety.
Take control. Outcome goals describe your desired end while process goals refer to the steps you take to get there. You may run into obstacles with becoming an Olympic athlete, but you can choose a sport, find a coach, and start training.
Write it down. Make your plans more concrete by putting them in writing. You can use an app or paper and pen.
Avoid distractions. Maximize your productivity by adjusting your habits and environment. Limit the number of times you check your phone each day. Clear the clutter off your desk and turn off the TV.
Take breaks. On the other hand, some downtime is important too. Figure out a routine that works for you. Use your time off to shift your attention and move around.
Learn from experience. Let setbacks teach you how to enhance your performance. Take responsibility for your decisions and focus on what you can do differently next time.
Earn rewards. Giving yourself incentives can renew your enthusiasm when you feel like you’re in a slump. Pick a treat that you’re willing to work for, whether it’s a new pair of shoes or a week-long vacation.
Reach out. Let others know how they can help you. Ask for constructive feedback and support. Look for a partner who is trying to accomplish something similar, so you can collaborate and hold each other accountable.
Practice self-care. Protect your physical and psychological strength by keeping yourself fit. Eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. Manage stress and aim for at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night.

Just having goals can make you happier and more productive, so make it an ongoing process. Transform your life by setting daily goals and striving to reach them.

To really make changes to your life that last, you should engage with a Life Coach who can guide you through the process and also keep you motivated to move forward. To set up a 30-minute Primary Life Goals Discovery Session, where you will complete a discovery form with me, and receive it after the session, visit “Identify Your Primary Life Goal Discovery Session” to learn more and how to book a time with me. I am only taking 5 people every week for the sessions, so read the post and join now.

You are success

Michael

P.S. If you want to learn even more about being successful, making changes that last and developing confidence in yourself, you can join the Facebook Group Developing Confidence in Yourself or You Are success Life Coach or my new group Confidence Coaching

Michael G. Wilkovesky

Feature Image by Tumisu from Pixabay