Clarifying your Goals

Goals are powerful tools. They give us purpose and hope. They propel us towards becoming the person we want to be. If you are reading this or have joined the BANG challenge, I am going to assume it’s because you have some goals you are wanting to achieve. They may be clearly defined, or they may be some kind of amphoras blog in your head that you are still trying to piece together. I have a few different tools that I use to help me visualize and clarify my goals. Feel free to read this through, and decide what works best for you. 

The first is something I learned from Author and Motivational Speaker, Rachel Hollis. Wherever you may be on this journey I want you to think long and hard about the person you want to be ten years from now. What do you so? What do you wear? How do you act and carry yourself? What are your priorities? Who are you friends with? Allow your mind to wander and dream as wildly as possible. Be as specific as possible. Next, write down everything that you thought of with as fast as possible. Don’t give yourself time to second guess. It doesn’t have to be perfect or pretty. Now, narrow it down to the 10 dreams that if they were to come true would make what you had envisioned a reality. 

Now write those 10 dreams down, as if they have already happened. For example, here is one of my dreams: I support myself financially with writing and vlogging. When writing out our dreams like this, we begin to convince ourselves of the inevitability that it will become a reality. Look over this list of dreams every day. Rachel writes them out in a journal. I have mine taped to my mirror and I read them over while I brush my teeth. Write them down and put them where you can see them. Whatever works for you to remind yourself of what you are working towards. This has helped me tremendously in keeping intentional toward my goals. 

Now that you have identified your top 10. Choose the one goal that will get you to the 10 years from now version of yourself the fastest. That is the goal that you should be focusing on in your BANG practice or going into 2020. Mine is, of course, supporting myself with writing and vlogging. That is why I started End With A BANG. It wasn’t necessarily because I thought I had some sort of ethereal wisdom to impart to the world. I just wanted to get really serious about working towards that 10 years from now version of myself. I knew challenging myself to write something every week would help gain experience and consistency, which are important for eventually making this a career. 

Lastly, I want to share with you one other tool I use to keep motivated. I know this has been around for a long time, but I am a HUGE fan of vision boards. My vision board includes things I want to achieve, as well as people who inspire me. People on my vision board include women like Jes Baker, Nia Jax, and Gabbie Hanna. I have pictures of wedding rings and people traveling. I also have reminders of my accomplishments. I have my VidCon bracelet and my plane ticket to LA on my vision board. Both creating and having a visual reminder has helped me in keeping motivated toward my end goals. This isn’t to say I am always super motivated to do the day to day things I need to keep on track, but it has kept me from giving up every time I falter. Your vision board can be whatever you want it to be. If this sounds like something that could resonate with you, go for it.

Did you find any of this helpful? What was the one goal that you chose out of the ten? What do you do to visualize and stay motivated towards your goals?