Do you know how to be awesome?
There’s a commonly held misconception about goals. A lot of people think that goals are ultimately the destination they want to get to. They can be really hard on themselves if they don’t achieve everything that they set themselves to do.
It’s difficult to feel, and be, awesome when you’re busy berating yourself!
So, let’s take you through how to be awesome!
What if people would think about goals in a different way?
If you were to think of a deadline as part of your lifespan, then this is just a small percentage of your life, ideally. It becomes less about being the “be all and end all.”
A goal is more for setting a general direction, like on a compass. It takes you in the general direction of where you want to be while still allowing the flexibility to adapt and change.
It allows you to set an intention without curtailing your creativity or limiting yourself with arbitrary, self-imposed constraints.
The job of a goal is to stay intentional.
In this way, your goals allow you to take advantage and make the most of new opportunities that come up. They help you to find the right path for you. That path may change over time, depending on new information, new opportunities or other reasons to change that may present themselves.
A perfect example of this is picking a niche area that you want to focus on working in.
Your area of focus may evolve over time – you may choose to redefine what are you aiming to do based on the feedback that you’re getting.
You may start by aiming to solve a particular problem, only to find that it is a side-effect of a bigger problem people need someone or something to address.
You may find that there is a big positive response to something that you hadn’t given a lot of focus to before. If so, you may want to re-target and focus your efforts on that instead to make the most of this newly discovered demand.
Make your goal link to what you care about
If you’re trying to do something because so-and-so is doing similar and you think that they think that you should be doing the same, then that’s coming from paying attention to what they’re doing rather than paying attention to your own intention. Your own intention has a much stronger “why,” so pay attention to that instead!
Remember to link your goals to the things that bring you joy in your life. The things that bring you joy are usually strongly linked to your values – things you care about most. If you’re unsure about what the things you care about are, think about the things that irritate you, upset you or wind you up. Your values tend to be roughly the opposite of those things.
Being aligned to your values will help you to be awesome.
A – Ambition
Aim to stretch yourself a little.
Have your goal be something that you can get excited about.
W – Why
Think about why the goal is important to you.
Is it aligning to something that you care about?
What makes it important to you?
The stronger your ‘why’, the more likely you are to do it!
E – Executable
Whatever the goal is it needs to feel doable. It’s important that it is possible to achieve. If you don’t think you can do it then the possibility of you not doing it is that much higher.
S – Specific
How do you know when you will have got there?
What do you need to be seeing, feeling, doing and experiencing to know for sure that you have achieved what you set out to do?
What does that look like?
O – Objective
Subjective is about your inner experience. Objective is about things that you and other people can tangibly see. Objective things are factual.
Starting with the end in mind and working backwards to now, what are the steps that you need to take in order to get you from where you are now to where you want to be? The steps give you your game plan or roadmap, setting out what you need to do and any milestones or deadlines you need to hit along the way.
M – Measurable
How can you track your progress on a daily, weekly or monthly basis?
Taking small, consistent steps will get you there. Recognising the small steps you’re taking and the progress that you’ve made so far are really valuable.
Sometimes we can get distracted and overwhelmed by the main overarching aim of what we’ve set out to do. Don’t worry about climbing to the top of the mountain. You’ll get there. Focus on the next few steps ahead of you.
E – Expiration
Relating to being objective and those deadlines, what is your set timeline? Something that you are working on or working towards can expand to fill out as much time as you allocate to it.
Whenever working with goals everyone seems to struggle with putting a timeframe on it. Decide on the point in time you want to achieve a certain step or milestone by, like a deadline, stick to it and work towards it in a disciplined way.
Then, you know you will be awesome.
Thursday 10th of March 2022 is International Day of Awesomeness.
I hope this helps you to elevate your awesomeness to a whole new level!
(Also, Happy Birthday Chuck Norris.)
Check out the official Day of Awesomeness website
Article written by Emma Ross.
Emma is a CCHA tenant. She has worked as a counsellor for Mind for 7 years, and has also worked in GP surgeries for the Cardiff & Vale NHS in Ely and on an Employee Assistance Program. You can find her on social media @WorkSmartLiveHappy
Disclaimer: All opinions and thoughts are solely the author’s, and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the website or its affiliates.