There are lots of articles, books, and blog posts floating around about setting goals and making new years’ resolutions, but the essence – the absolute key to successfully achieving anything – is focusing on it as a daily habit. This is why I recommended focusing on no more than three major goals for the year in last month’s Mindful Leader Blog. We can all relate to big goals seeming… well, too big, so it’s important to break your goals down into manageable mini-goals on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. If you’ve been following us since December, you’ve likely already created your plan, so here are some things to keep in mind while you work toward your big goals on a smaller scale.
Producing results happens much more quickly when you implement a handful of daily habits and routines to follow, so if you haven’t yet, take a little time to figure out how to most effectively break down your big goal for the year (you can do this one goal at a time if you have more than one) into quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly action plans that coincide with achieving your goal by the end of the year (or sooner).
Daily Mindfulness Habits to Keep You On Course
Think of breaking down your goals like planning a road trip. You know you’ll get there one way or the other, but in order to get where you’re going quickly, effectively, and without running out of fuel on the one stretch of highway without a gas station for 300+ miles, it helps to plan your trip. Your big goal is like the destination, but if you’ve ever driven across the country, you know that there’s absolutely zero chance of getting all the way there in one day or on one tank of gas.
The same can be said for achieving your goals; the destination doesn’t matter as much as the planning and journey to get there, so why not make the most of that part? Think of your weekly and daily plans and action steps as an atlas or GPS, and your fuel is the motivation and energy you get from accomplishing your mini-goals every week or month and celebrating those small achievements.
Here are five daily mindfulness habits to help keep you on track.
1. Each day, try to be better than you were yesterday. This keeps you focused on the present rather than the future and will help you to continue accomplishing what you set out to from one day to the next, one week to the next, and so on. Depending on what you’re working on, it may only take a week or two to begin seeing results. Those results will help fuel you and keep you going throughout the entire year.
2. Take time to be grateful. Gratitude is a powerful exercise and can mean the difference between having a joyful journey or a miserable one. If you achieve your first week’s goals, celebrate a little! Depending on what kind of project or large goal you’re working on, you may not see results immediately, and those you do see might be small. However, practicing gratitude each day for even the smallest things (and especially for the big things) will bring more things to be grateful for into your life.
3. Forgive yourself for setbacks. I don’t care who you are, you’re bound to experience challenges, setbacks, and unforeseen circumstances. Life throws crazy things at you sometimes – injury, illness, an accident, a sick child… all sorts of things come up, and oftentimes there’s not much you can do about it except go through it and move on. Forgive any work you weren’t able to complete and try again the next day or week, depending on how much time you need to deal with the problem at hand.
4. No matter what you’re doing, do it with joy. Any task – even those you don’t necessarily enjoy – can be reframed and looked at from a perspective of enjoyment. If there’s even one tiny aspect of the task that you enjoy, choose to focus on that aspect and get all the pleasure you can from it. This will allow you to happily accomplish tasks that you may usually dread, and they will get done faster and not seem so bad.
5. Maintain the health of your body. Physical and emotional stress is connected and can adversely affect your body. A large part of being mindful is paying attention to what you’re putting into your body and how you’re exercising and maintaining your body. This doesn’t mean you can’t have a treat every now and then, but that you’re aware of what’s healthy for you and when it’s appropriate to treat yourself. Your body’s health is a reflection of the health of your mind and spirit, and for best results, we recommend taking excellent care of all three parts of what makes you who you are.
For information and resources about the Mindfulness Movement and the International Mindfulness Federation, check out our Mindfulness Resources page:
http://www.executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement
