One of the key components to goal setting is to make sure that you’re doing
the right actions. Because a goal without action is dead. You’re not gonna get there.
If you don’t actually do anything to reach the goal, you’ll never achieve it. This is
what I love to talk about because a lot of times we set goals without actually figuring
out how to get there. And that’s a big pitfall that a lot of us fall into and that’s why a
lot of New Year’s resolutions fall flat but I’m here to HELP YOU OUT! I want to help
you figure out what types of actions are going to get you closer to your goals each
and every day!
So here’s what I’m going to recommend that you do, in order to figure out the
actions that you need to take to reach that big, hairy, audacious goal, all you have to
do is get out a blank sheet of paper and a pen. Then you get to work! What do I mean
by that?
You start writing down every possible thing that you could think of that
could help you reach that goal. For instance, you know you want to go into a career
in fashion design. So you’re considering going back to school in order to go into a
career in fashion design. The very first thing I suggest you do is to sit down with a
clean sheet of paper and a pen or a pencil, whatever floats your boat. And start
writing everything down that you could possibly dream up that would help you
reach that goal.
This is called a brain dump! Literally, this could be internet searches, this
could be figuring out where you need to go. It could be doing research of companies
that are hiring in that career option maybe within the vicinity of where you want to
live. Maybe it’s reading a couple books on attending college and figuring out the
application. Literally writing down every single thing you could possibly think of.
Maybe you know somebody in this industry. Maybe you should interview them.
Maybe you should place a phone call to a friend that was in the same career choice
that you are considering jumping into.
All you do is sit down with a piece of paper and write down every possible
thing you can think of that can help you reach that goal. A lot of it’s gonna be
research and collecting information. But you know what? This becomes your to-do
list! And that’s the beautiful thing about creating that big massive brain dump. Some
of this stuff you might go back through and realize, ‘this doesn’t need to be on my
list,’ or ‘I kinda already know the answer to that one!’ But really the point of doing
this, is for you to create action steps that you can take in order for you to get closer
to your goal.
When you’re creating your big, big brain dump, you’re throwing it out on
paper. It’s kinda like, anything that comes to mind, there is no real order to anything
that happens. However, you know when you’re applying to schools for a certain
career, there’s probably a process that you have to take. Just like anything else.
Usually there are steps or an order that makes sense about things.
After you’ve brain dumped everything you can possibly think of and usually
this takes about an hour but it’s totally worth it! Then, you’ll go back through and
prioritize. Maybe put a star by the things you think should be done first. Put a 2 by
the things that could be done second, a 3 by the things that could be done third and
everything else falls into place.
Here is where the real magic happens! Say you’ve dedicated 30 minutes a day
to achieving whatever big goal you set out for yourself. Now everyday when you sit
down you go to your brain dump list and look at the items in the order. Go to the
number 1’s, the top priorities and you literally do those things first! Then when you
finish priority 1 items, you do the 2’s. And keep doing that each and everyday until
the 2’s are off your list and then the 3’s are off your list. All of a sudden you realize
that you’ve accomplished so much, that you know so much about the goal that you
set out to achieve, that you’re already on the path to achieve it.
So many times we don’t actually take this step because we may look at that
list and feel overwhelmed and think that it’s too much to do. And you think maybe
you’ll just wing it. I’m gonna tell you, that so many of my goals, I’m so glad I never
went out to achieve. Because once I started doing this brain dump, I started to
realize this isn’t really something I wanna dive into…there were a lot of things I’d
have to learn or become an expert in that wasn’t in line with my life or my current
priorities.
So this is going to serve you so well, not only helping you to realize if it’s a
really good goal for you but also in that it will give you the BLUEPRINT for actually
achieving that goal. Then each and every day you chip away at it, a tiny bit at a time
and you get closer and closer to reaching that goal!
I really hope this helped you out and if it did, I would love for you to leave a
comment below and please share with a friend. Thanks so much!
