Achieving goals mindfully

Do you feel the same way? The goals you set at the beginning of the year are now far away in July.

Possibly a slight feeling of having failed spreads… then press the STOP button immediately! Maybe those were not your goals at all.

To achieve goals, it is important that we really want them. We often set goals that are determined by other people. We start jogging, we do yoga, we eat a certain diet because that’s what everyone around us is doing. 

We all succumb to social pressures all the time. For our goals, it is helpful to find out what is really important to us.

With the help of mindfulness, we can set our goals more easily.

“Because mindfulness promotes the ability to see what we deeply value and what we find most interesting and enjoyable, mindfulness promotes carefully chosen goals,” says Kirk Brown, Ph.D., a social psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University and an expert on self-determination theory.

Here are 4 tips to combine mindfulness with goal setting:

• Pay attention to how you feel:  If your goal is morning jogging, observe how it makes you feel. If getting up in the morning is still incredibly difficult after a few weeks, it may not be your goal. Maybe you’re better off running in the evening, or a casual walk during your lunch break is much more appropriate for you. If it turns out to be a grind for you, try something else. It should feel good, so you’ll really look forward to the next time.
• Celebrate every goal (no matter how small): Every stage victory should be enjoyed and celebrated.  Often we are so busy with achieving the actual goal, e.g. running 10 kilometers at a stretch, that we don’t appreciate the actual process at all.  How does it feel to reach the first leg goal (e.g., run a kilometer without stopping)? Pause, step back inside and observe how you feel. Celebrate and enjoy each goal. Noticing how you feel helps make the big goal easier to achieve.
• Embrace uncertainty and take control of the present:  Right now, in these uncertain Covid-19 times, it supports us when we feel like we can influence certain things. We can’t control all situations right now, and we don’t know how the next few months will go. Setting goals means realizing that we can always master parts in our situation. This gives us confidence and strengthens us.
• Sprinkle in a pinch of curiosity: Maybe the first run feels uncomfortable and you want to finish it right away.  Then hang in there and notice how you feel afterwards. Bringing curiosity to a project helps you discover new things and get to know yourself better. I’ve noticed this in my online formats over the past year: Those of my clients who were willing to give it a try are excited. Those who are critical of it have never tested it. Let’s become explorers again, as we often were as children. Let’s bring curiosity into our projects and promote our well-being.

Have fun discovering and achieving with the support of mindfulness!