For the goal-setters: your current successes

via

As I've been thinking about goal-setting this year I've thought about the variety of people in all walks of life who take time at the new year to set goals.  To me it's a combination of humbling and inspiring to think of people across the world making changes and deciding to improve. Although our circumstances and our goals are sure to be vastly different, I realized that the one thing that unites goal-setters everywhere is faith.

 Every person who sets a goal has to have at least a drop of faith that they can accomplish it.  Every person who sets a goal has at least an ounce of self-esteem to believe in the capacity they have to achieve.  Every person who sets a goal has hope for their future- hope that things can change and improve and be better.  Every person who set a goal has a desire for good things.  

I don't think we often look at the things we already have going for us when goal-setting, and instead just hope for the self-discipline to finish what we've started.  But faith, hope, self-esteem, desire- those are some pretty fantastic attributes you already possess that are sure to help you in accomplishing what you set out to do.  

Goals may seem overwhelming as we think "who am I to... run a marathon, learn to sew, lose x pounds, make dinner every night, get organized, take care of myself, follow a budget, and on and on."  We can easily name our past failures in those areas and become overwhelmed at the thought of trying to tackle those challenging tasks once again. We hold ourselves back. 

I think for all of us it would be much more empowering to realize the positive qualities we have that inspired us to set goals in the first place.  I'm pretty sure we'd all make it a lot further if we focused on those things instead of past shortcomings.  I suppose I can add "focusing on the good" to my to-do list as I set out with my goals this year.