Success can be measured in many different ways, from living a full, happy life surrounded by family and friends to creating a multi-million-or-billion-pound business, becoming renowned for doing something you love or dedicating your life to others. Perhaps your version of success is a mixture or a little of all of the above, either way your goals will be unique to you and can only be achieved with effort on your part.
Whether you write your goals down on paper or not, everyone has ambitions that they wish to achieve, and often attach a time limit to these as a way of inviting some gentle pressure in order to get the job done. However, often this isn’t enough as there are many factors in life that can get in the way of success – most of which you can work around, some you cannot. Confidence issues, personality traits and life events can all get in the way of succeeding to the level you had hoped, but if you work on those areas of your life that may be holding you back, you may find that you are able to achieve just what you set out to.
Being happy, successful and achieving your goals isn’t a one size fits all approach. Read on for three ways to do this if you find yourself in need of some inspiration.
Think positively
With recent research suggesting that humans have more than 6,000 thoughts every day, it is easy to see why our brain can spiral into a negative state, given that half of those thoughts are likely to be negative. It is good to have a range of feelings, but if you suffer with stress, anxiety and/or depression, you will have times where negativity prevails. Make sure you address any of these issues and work on actively trying to embrace some more positivity into your life.
Try to replace every conscious negative thought with a positive one, for example, if you catch yourself in a mirror and a negative thought about your appearance pops into your head, stop and think about a part of you that you like. Creating an abundance mindset is important as it allows you to focus on what you have as well as the opportunities that are available to you, and surrounding yourself with positive, like-minded individuals will good for you, too.
It is also helpful to list the positive elements of your day before you go to sleep each night – there will always be something good about your day, no matter how small. Similarly, think about what you are looking forward to about the following day or few days ahead, and when you wake up set some positive intentions for the day ahead.
Set clear goals
Before you set any major life goals, ask yourself why they are important to you – attaching a meaningful reason to any target will be a great motivator in helping you to reach that end goal.
Ensure that your goals are clear as this will help you to work out a clear path to help you achieve them. ‘Own a selection of villas in Corfu’ may very well make it to your list of ambitions but think about how you are going to achieve this. Break it down and set a clear path of smaller objectives that you need to achieve along the way to reach your main goal.
Mood boards are a popular tool for goal setters as they are often placed in a prominent area of your home to be seen every day and manifested. They can be changed up as often as you wish and usually incorporate a selection of images to inspire you. You could be more specific and create a five-year plan and check in regularly to see where you are striving and where you aren’t quite meeting your ambitions.
Remember to appreciate what you have along the way rather than focusing too much on the end goal, as you don’t want to miss out on, or sacrifice, too much for the end result. Often your ideas on life will change and you can switch up your priorities. This is good, it’s your life and the objective here is to be happy with whatever you are doing.
Be active
You’re in a good headspace, your goals are clearly set, and now is the time to get to work. If you need to, start building your expertise, network, extend your contact base and put some of those well laid plans into action. Don’t allow yourself to procrastinate, do something, anything – even a small step towards your goals is a step in the right direction.
It’s also important to accept that there will be bumps in the road along the way. This is a good way of learning how much you want something, and it might just give you that drive you need to re-evaluate or achieve your goals in another way.
