Goals are achieved slowly, one step at a time. When did you last hear about someone becoming a millionaire in a day? It’s the accumulation of money over time that builds a millionaire.
Another common goal is weight-loss, but you don’t usually lose 10lbs in a week. People will sometimes lose two pounds in a week and then gain one back the next week and then lose three the week after that.
Hitting a goal is never linear, or a perfectly straight line. Patience is key. Sometimes it is demotivating to see the small steps not add up as quickly as we want. This can cause people to stop working toward a goal, even after a long effort.
Forget Motivation
How do you stay motivated even when it’s looking dire? Forget motivation.
Success happens when your goal aligns with your values.
An unaligned goal is a distraction. If you have a goal to lose 10lbs, ask yourself why that is a goal? Is it so that you can play with your kids or grandkids again? Is it so that you will look like a model? Why is that important to you? If you really value your family, you will likely be able to adhere to your plan to get healthy. If you don’t actually care about looking like a model, but you feel society’s pressure to look like one, you are not in alignment with the goal and you will probably not succeed with that goal. It's better to forget that goal and find one that aligns with what you really care about.
What Are Values?
Common values are generally a combination of these: Family, Health, Finances, Career, Relationships, Spirituality, etc.
If you’re unsure about how to know your top values, look at how you already spend your time. Where you spend the most time is the area(s) that you currently care about most. Then look at what you want to do or be. Does your goal align with your apparent values? If not, find a new goal. Or, if you realize you're not currently spending time on the things you really care about, this may be an indication that you're on the right track to realigning to your true values.
Once you have the goal that aligns with your values, you can figure out the steps that will get you there and you do one of those steps frequently (daily or weekly, etc). That is discipline. Discipline becomes much easier when you are acting according to your values. Then it’s just a matter of scheduling. You will feel the dopamine rush that comes from achieving the small steps along the way.
Electra Chiropractic leads a series of health workshops for businesses and organizations in Tokyo. If your company or group would like a goal-setting workshop, please reach out here. Dr. Ariel Thorpe is a native English speaking chiropractor in Tokyo, licensed and registered in Japan, Hong Kong, and the USA. Her previous speaking engagements include EY, Uber, Lululemon, international schools, and more.
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