Goal setting is huge.

Goal setting is something you hear so much about.  People create courses on how to set goals. You can get journals set up just for goals.  The goal section of the book store is full. If you search goal setting on Amazon books, you will find over 10,000 books listed.  I think that validates my point. But, do you set goals? Really set goals?

I have talked about setting goals…lots.  I have talked about it for the same reason so many people write books, courses, make videos and everything that goes with it.  Making goals is really important and yet most of us simply don’t do it. We tell ourselves that we do. We think about goals. ‘I am going to get in shape for summer’  ‘I am going to start Christmas shopping early this year’ ‘I am going to get organized once and for all’ ‘This is the year I finally stop eating junk and get healthy’

We have all made these types of goals.  But, the truth is that these are not really goals.  These are hopes and dreams we tell ourselves to make us feel better.  But we never really do them and as a result, we don’t feel better, as a matter of fact, we most likely feel worse.

Sound familiar?

Sorry, if that kind of hurts.  It bugs me too. I get so frustrated that year after year, season after season, time after time, nothing seems to change and here we go again.

Well, maybe it’s time to do something different.  I am no expert on goal setting. I too set fake goals and then get upset when I never seem to reach them.  But, the one thing that I do know is that it is never too late to start again and make a real list of goals this time.

If you are still breathing, still moving, still thinking, then it is still possible to make goals and actually achieve them.  I have had the goal to be a certain weight for as long as I can remember and I am still not there. I reset my goals, I do different things, I try, I fail, I reset, I begin again, but the underlying thing here is that I haven’t given up.

One day I will be at that ‘goal weight’.  Or will I? I may never actually achieve that particular goal.  But that too is ok. So, as I go along with new and different things I set new and different goals.  I set goals that 5 years ago were never in my mind. That is more than just ok, it is actually the best thing.

As I look at the fact that I have lost some weight, put it back on, I have also learned so much about myself.  One thing that I have learned is that after years in the gym surrounded by people who have an amazing ability to be thin, I am not made that way. I will never look like a tall thin model. It is simply not in my DNA. I am ok with that because one thing that is in my DNA is the ability to lift heavy things.  

Over the years in the gym, I was told before that I could lift heavy, but until recently I didn’t really care about that, I just wanted to be thin.  I still want to weigh less than I do, but I am actually really enjoying the fact that I am strong. Yup, I am strong. For my age, especially, for being a woman, for not being a lifelong athlete, for trying something new.

Last year Doug and I joined a local Crossfit gym.  New goals came out of nowhere. I started watching people doing things that I have always admired, but never dreamed that I could do them.  

One of the goals I had set, with no particular timeline, was to be able to do a handstand.  It always amazed me how people could do that. Our son Josh has been able to do that since he was a kid.  He would just push off and stand there and then one day walked across the grass. Show off. But, here we are so many years later and I began to think, maybe that is something I could actually do.

Our gym has an ever-changing board on the wall.  Yearly goals, and monthly personal records. So you can see what people want to learn and you can see what people are accomplishing.  There is everything from movements to weights that people are working toward and actually doing.

This last week, I did it.  I did the unthinkable, I did a handstand.  Not just once either. And then I did it again a couple of days later.  I have been working toward this for months. The trainers have so many different movements that are progressive and get you closer with each movement to get to the handstand.  I am still blown away that I did it, that now I am looking at all sorts of other things that I want to be able to do.

The goal of a handstand was never part of any real goal list that I have ever made.  As a matter of fact, it was kind of one of those things; ‘one day I will go to …the pyramids, Fiji, Buckingham Palace, learn to surf, write a novel.’ But, I can’t explain how this accomplishment makes me feel.  I feel amazing and that nothing can stop me now.

This goes back to the goal setting rules that says make small achievable goals.  Now, I understand why. The empowerment that has come my way is crazy.

So, buy that book, keep that journal, put up those post-it notes, do whatever works for you to make and keep your goals.  Type goals in the search spot on our blog and you will see so many posts on goals you should be able to find something that is helpful for you.

Then;

• go and do a handstand.  
• Get up and do it.
• Or a meal plan.  
• Go for a walk.
• Clean out the fridge.  
• Track your meals.
• Whatever it is for you.  

You are way more capable than you think and when you set your mind to it, you too will do it.

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.  Zig Ziglar