MaXIMIze - Intentions and Goals

In our office safety meeting last month, I gave a presentation that included the following information:

Recognizing your sphere of control, your sphere of influence, and those things outside of both that you can do nothing about. Once you realize the only person you can truly control is yourself - and that is where you should put your energy, and you can make the distinctions of control and influence, you can let go of that which you can't control and focus on that which you can.

This will help with setting intentions and being able to achieve your goals.

Another thing that helps with doing this is being able to set realistic goals. Realistic goals follow the SMART model:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Results-Focused
Time-Bound

Examples I gave included losing weight, saving money, posting to this blog, and publishing a book or several books based on the my posts from 2012 to 2017. Each of those is broad enough to be considered an intention, until you apply the SMART model to it. We'll use losing weight as an example:

Intention: Lose Weight

Specific - how much weight? 20 pounds

Measurable - Did you meet your goal at the end? Are there milestones you can set/track?

Achievable - is this achievable during the timeframe set?

Results-Focused - Are you making progress toward your goal in the timeframe set? If not, what do you need to do to get back on track and move forward? Or, do you need to readjust your target?

Time-Bound - By when? December 2018

Once you've laid out your intention, and turned it into a goal (or goals, depending), then you can focus on the actions you need to take in order to work toward the desired result. Those are the concrete, measurable steps you can take and track in order to meet your goals. One foot in front of the other, as the saying goes!

Also, in order to reach your goals, you want to focus on reward, not punishment. You want to recognize your milestones along the way, and celebrate those successes. And, if you fall behind, you want to simply start again by getting back up and taking it one day at a time. If need be, reassess your goals and adjust them.

I will close this post with something I found on Twitter today, posted by Mindfulness Wellness (@HealingMB):

S - see your goal
U - understand the obstacles
C - create a positive mental picture
C - clear your mind of self-doubt
E - embrace all challenges
S - sacrifice free time
S - show the world you can do it
F - feed your focus
U - utilize all opportunities
L - learn from all failures

Coming up in future posts, we will talk about Manifesting Your Vision!

Until next time, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Eating the Elephant in the Room

Another two months gone since I last posted...this has been a very fallow year for my writing, which is okay. We all have peaks and valleys and elephants that appear who need to be eaten...

What is your elephant in the room?

One of mine is that I'm tired of renting and want my own home again, one that I can decorate any way I want and where I can plant a garden and not worry about having too much stuff to move when it comes time to do so.

The bigger one, and the one that I can do something about right here, right now, is that I've lost my creative drive somewhere - I have all these great ideas to pursue, books with my blog posts on certain topics in them, books of fairytales with talismans, fetishes if you like, touchstones even, to reinvigorate one's belief in oneself, one's knowledge, one's intuition - I know I should just suck it up, buttercup, and start putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving down the path instead of taking one small, shaking step and halting.

It's like the hiking we just did - one step in front of the other until you reach your destination and see what it is you came to see.

Sometimes I feel like I've taken too long of a break to ever start again, and then I read something and CLICK - I can begin again and move forward from right where I am.

So, what steps are you taking to begin again and move forward with your dreams and ideas?

Until next time, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Working on That Swing - Developing Your Follow-Through

Follow-through - goes right along with the previous post about falling off the wagon. We need to develop ways to keep that light that is our goals firmly in front of us and to keep trekking down the path to that light one step at a time.

In my coaching practice, one of the tools I develop for my clients is a vision statement - a written and oral focused compilation of what the client's future will look, smell, taste, sound, and feel like when his or her best life is being lived.

Here is the vision statement I developed for myself as part of my training program:

"Beth, as you awake to feel the arms of your life partner enveloping you, you are aware of and amazed by how far you have come over the last year or so because you developed all the skills, talents and tools that you need to easily achieve the goals you have chosen for yourself…your confidence and belief in yourself increased as you grew, banishing the persistent procrastination and enabling you to show your true gifts in the area of financial well-being and coaching acumen. As you stretch and run your mind over your client list for the day, you realize that you easily create the life you want because you have a clear vision of what you want to be and have and work positively and diligently toward those goals with confidence and self-assurance, grounded in your knowledge base and secure in your relationships with others in your life, both personal and professional. As you get ready for your work day, you look forward to working with your clients to coach them to bring into their lives the success you’ve brought into yours. Your ability to see the big picture as well as handle the devilish details has increased exponentially as you incorporated more regular exercise and more healthy eating habits into your daily routine. Your debt load is minimal and you are checking things off your bucket list (and sometimes adding to it!). Your commitment to do the work necessary in all these areas and your extraordinary follow-through has led to a greater sense of well-being and peace in your life overall. Life is good!"

I listen to this at least once a week, more often if needed, to keep my focus on what living my best life means to me - and to keep that light in front of me.

To use a baseball analogy, this is my way of keeping my eye on the ball and watching the bat I'm swinging connect with the ball and knock it out of the park.

If we keep our eyes on the prize, on achieving our goals in life, and continue down the path toward those goals - that prize - our follow-through will develop naturally.

There is a line from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - the Claymation version from the 1960's - that goes along the lines of, "Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor." Follow-through is simply the act of continuing to put one foot in front of the other and walking down the path to our best life now.

Next week, we'll discuss walking through fear. Until then, namaste!