by Bryan Goodwin | Featured Contributor
March, whew! Time is flying one-fourth of the year is here and where are you at on your goals? Yeah, your goals, those tasks, and objectives that you want to complete before the year ends. So, how are you doing with those goals? Looking for your goal list right now aren’t ya. If you are like me, you hit February and your goals start to disappear from your memory. Even if you have, the goals listed in a journal or on post-it notes on your mirror.
Why do we forget?
Why do most people have such a difficult time remembering goals? Well, the answer is we are both creatures of habit and we get busy. Many times by February, we are having conferences we are trying to attend. There are impending deadlines that are looming. Then there is life and if you have kids in school, February is when the school routine starts to focus on the end of the school year. There are so many different activities and the kids need your attention. In addition, you are human, you want to believe you are Super Girl but sadly, you too have only so many hours in a day. Therefore, something often has to give. That something is often the focus on your goals.
Yet there are ways you can remember your goals even when you come to the February wall. Now, this does take a bit of practice if you haven’t done this before, the trick is to put your goals in with your affirmations.
The power of affirmations
Maybe you have heard of affirmation. Maybe you haven’t. If not affirmations are thoughts and beliefs that you reaffirm in your mind. Many people from the ’80s hear affirmations and they think of Stewart Smalley. This was a skit on the sketch show Saturday Night Live. Now the skit was to try to show the absurdity of using affirmations because at that time affirmations were kind of the fad of the self-help world. Many times it was thought that you just say positive thoughts to yourself and poof walla! You had a better life. Well, that is how it was often sold. There is some key point when not applied can cause you to be just a Stewart Smalley saying, “I’m Good enough. I’m smart enough, and doggone it people like me.”
Key points about affirmations
The biggest aspect of affirmations is you have to believe what you are saying. If you look in a mirror and all you see is a fat person, it isn’t going to do you any good to have the affirmation of, I am my ideal weight. If you don’t believe the affirmation it is not going to work. You can work to that affirmation though. You have to take baby steps but if you do see yourself as overweight and you are wanting to be content with that weight then start with a small bit of truth. Start with the best feature you have. You may start by looking in a mirror and say I have nice eyes. Keep that up until you can say you have a nice face. Eventually, you will expand to, “My body is alright”
You do have to see the truth in the affirmations before you get the benefit of it. If you say, “I choose Happiness and love no matter what the circumstances”, and you believe it then you will choose happiness even when the circumstance isn’t as favorable.
Another point is that the affirmation needs to be said in your own voice. Also depending on who you are it may be better if you personally read it aloud. You may even say it into a mirror but I don’t find that really necessary. It does need to be in your voice. You can read it yourself or you can record yourself saying the affirmations. Then play it back as you are driving or washing dishes.
A good app to do this is Think Up. It is for both Android and iOS. You are able to record your affirmations and then you can play it back with or without music.
Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash
Personal note
I rarely do the playback of me reading my affirmations and that is because I often lose focus on what is being said so I am not hearing each affirmation. When I read my affirmations, I am actively listening to each word and the power that it has. So take that for what it is worth. Maybe you are a better listener than me and you can pay attention to each affirmation as it is stated. If you can’t, do not sweat it. Just read the affirmations to yourself.
If you would like to find some great affirmations to use, there are lists all over the place. Here are a couple of sites that contain affirmations you can use.
Affirmations and goals
Now here is the punchline for that whole affirmation overview. If you have the habit of reading your affirmations daily, then this a perfect opportunity for you to remember your goals. Insert your goals into your affirmation list. This way since you are paying attention to your affirmations you are also reading each day, and you are also hearing each of your goals be read aloud by you. This allows you to stay focused on those goals so they don’t fade out in February, or May, or September. So try this little trick. It that may help you keep your goal a bit longer so you have a better chance of achieving it and reaching the level of success you hope and dream for.
Have you ever tried mixing your goals in with your affirmations? Have you had better success with your goals by doing so? Do you read your daily affirmations? If not please share why in the comments below. I would love to talk more about this.
Featured Image Photo by Marc Rafanell López on Unsplash
I am men’s life coach and blogger. I help people see their limiting beliefs and lead out of their patterns of self-sabotage, by getting them outdoors into nature. Doing so allows these folks to reconnect with the fearless child who thought they could do anything. They could be a mermaid or a banker. I want to show people that the American “can do” attitude isn’t dead but strong powerful and very much alive.
If you had a dream when you were a kid that dream is still waiting for the go-ahead even today. Make the goals that will help you reach your innermost dream. Those aspirations never died but are dying to get out. It isn’t too late. You can be what you want.
You can find my blog The Relaxed Male-outdoors leadership
