3 Reasons Why You SHOULD NOT Share Your Goals

By Nicole Tinkham

It’s totally normal wanting to keep your big, hairy, crazy goals to yourself. Sometimes those goals are just too huge to share with others because what if you fail? You’ll feel like a complete idiot to the rest of the world. It’s just so much safer to keep them to yourself to avoid that humiliation. You’ll also hear people recommend doing the exact opposite by sharing your goals with the world. Many people say that doing this will hold you accountable to those goals. Not wanting to let those people down actually pushes you to achieve your big goal. So what are you supposed to do? Tell people your goals or keep them to yourself? We’ll dive into this a little bit deeper in this blog as we discuss the top 3 reasons why you SHOULD NOT share your goals.

1.    Don’t share your goals with the wrong people. You may not think twice about this when a certain goal pops into your head. You’re so excited about it and you just want to tell everyone what your big plans are. But beware; it’s important that you tell the right people. Go ahead and tell the people who will support you. They are the people who even if they don’t think the things you’re doing are the right choice, have your back anyway. They love you and will be a positive influence on all that you do no matter what. If you have people like that in your life you should, by all means, tell them.

The issue comes in when you tell someone who doesn’t want to see you succeed at your goals. Do not share your goals with someone who continuously puts you down or breaks your spirit. Why would you be friends with someone like that anyway? Also, don’t share your goals with those who you know will try to get you to back down from doing them. Your mother (or anyone you’re close with) for example, may not agree with what you’re doing. She loves you and supports you but maybe she also nags you and tries to steer you in a different direction every chance she gets. If this happens, be polite and continue on with your plans anyway. When you share your goals with the wrong people, you may be holding yourself back from your full potential. You may not even get started at all which is even scarier.

2.    Don’t celebrate too much before you even do anything. When you announce that you’re about to do something big, like quit smoking, for example, people will be excited for you. That’s an incredible goal to improve your life. While it may feel awesome to get congratulated before you even get started, it can take away the excitement of the actual achievement. It’s all fun and games until you have to put in the work, right? Plus, how many of these people will still be there throughout your journey cheering you on? Hopefully a lot of them but you just never know. They could fall off as soon as things start to get difficult, right when you need them most.

Remember that this is your journey. The important thing is that you get started. Worry about that and that alone for now. You can celebrate along the way with every victory but don’t exhaust yourself before you start. Be clear to others that this is only the beginning.

3.    Don’t pretend you’ve already achieved your goals (too much). Talking about where you see yourself in the future satisfies the need to achieve that goal in which case you may never follow through with actually achieving it. The more you talk about it, the more comfortable your mind feels with staying where you’re at and not putting in the extra work. Now I don’t 100% fully believe in this but one thing I do know for sure is that it is incredibly satisfying picturing, dreaming and talking about the life you want to live and the goals you want to achieve. It really is heavenly. The trick is not getting too comfortable and finding it in you to get to work and make it happen.

We’ve talked about why you shouldn’t tell someone else your goals and they all make sense for the most part, right? If you tell the wrong people, they could bring you down and demotivate you. If others celebrate before you even start, it takes away the excitement of achievement. And if you talk about your goals enough as if you’ve already accomplished them, you’re satisfying the mind and feel at peace with where you’re at even if it’s not your reality. But all of these things can be flipped, making telling others your goals a huge benefit for you.

Telling the right people about your goals can lift you up and take you further than ever imagined.

Having others root you on before getting started and throughout the journey can motivate you to keep pushing forward even when things get difficult.

Thinking and talking about your goals often gets you in the right mindset with a clear vision of what you want. As long as you follow through, it can help you make your dreams come to life.

As long as you do it right, telling others about your goals can actually benefit you. Just be smart about it. Tell the right people, know that starting is just the beginning, and take action on those big goals to make them happen. In the end, it’s up to you on how you handle your goals and who you tell about them. Find what works best for you. If that means keeping it to yourself, that’s totally fine. Just continuously look at and work toward those goals. You can do this. Get focused on what you want and get to work!

How To Set Goals In As Little As 7 Days

By Nicole Tinkham

Let us first begin by saying it does not matter when it is; it’s always the perfect time to start setting goals. We’re writing this blog just in time for the New Year but if you’re reading at a later date, that’s perfectly fine! Goal setting is something you should do throughout the year anyway. Our golden rule is to start setting goals whenever you feel ready to do it! We’ll walk you through goal setting in 7 simple steps (or 7 days) but just beware; you do not want to skip one of these steps. Not following through with the activities on each day could result in you not reaching your goals and just feeling frustrated. We’ll start with a mass brainstorm to figure out what your main goals are, break those big goals into smaller ones, create an action plan, take action, keep the momentum going, and then evaluate your performance. Ready to get started? Read on for your day #1 agenda.

Day #1: Brainstorm

BEFORE you get started today, you should get in your thinking zone. Find somewhere quiet with no distractions. Get away from clutter and straighten up the room if you have to. Turn off your phone and anything else that may distract you during this session. You can listen to some calming music, light your favorite scented candle, grab a coffee, and whatever else comes to mind to put you in your happy place.

Once you get in the right mindset, it’s time to brainstorm everything you would like to see happen in your life in the next few years. Write anything and everything down! We’ll be narrowing down this list later so just go crazy with it. Think about health goals, career goals, relationship goals, and financial goals. Anything that pops in your head should go on your list. It may be difficult to think of ideas at first but once you get rolling, the ideas will flow.

Now that you have a long list going, we’re going to prioritize your goals. Is there one thing on the list that will help you achieve some of the others goals you have written down? This would be your ASAP goal, or the goal you’ll want to get working on right away. This should also be a very specific goal. Ask yourself “By doing this, what do I aim to achieve?” This will narrow down any broad goals even further. For example, if you have “I want to become a painter” on your list, you may end up changing it to “I want to become a landscape painter”. Being clear on your goals will help you in the following steps of breaking it down and creating an action plan.

Before moving on, we want you to start BELIEVING in yourself. If you don’t do this, you’ll be doing this entire goal setting session for no reason. Believing that you can actually achieve these goals is the key to being successful. We know this can be difficult to do especially with those big goals you have written down. Some of them might seem crazy! Keep in mind working on your belief is something that you should do daily and it does take some time to switch your limiting mindset. Based on your goal, write down an affirmation. Something like: “I am an incredible landscape painter with amazing skills”. Repeat this over to yourself for at least 10 minutes a day, every day.

Day #2: Break it down

Welcome to day #2! This is our favorite part because now you’re probably excited about the goals you wrote on your list yesterday. That big goal probably seems pretty daunting though, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, we’ll be breaking that goal down into mid term and short term goals which will make it easier for you to tackle it.

Take that main goal and dissect it into several short term goals. Consider the different phases of achieving that goal. What will need to be done along the way?

Your short term goal should be a SMART goal meaning is should be Specific (clear on what you want to achieve), Measurable (must be able to review progress), Attainable (can you get it done with the resources you have?), Realistic (can it actually be done?), and Timely (must have a deadline). Now take that SMART goal and break it down even further into action steps. What is the process you’ll need to take in order to reach that specific goal by your set deadline?

Day #3: Action Plan  

Now we’re getting into the good stuff! This should excite you. You are literally planning for success in reaching your goals. This is where some research comes in. We’ll all have very different goals but you may need to look into different strategies for achieving your goal. Weigh the pros and cons of different ways of doing things to figure out what will work best for you. What exactly do you need to do in order to reach your goal? You may start with learning something about what you want to do. Maybe it’s educating yourself on different nutrition plans or a system for saving money.

Make sure the action items on your list are detailed so there’s no second guessing yourself when doing them. You’ll know exactly what needs to be done. You also want to organize the action steps so you know what you should be getting done first.

Based on your action items, create a daily checklist of what you need to be doing each day. This just narrows it down even further to help keep you on track. You can transfer this to do list to your phone so you always have it on you and can check things off throughout the day.

Day #4: Take action

This is where the magic happens! Without this key step, none of your goals would ever be accomplished. It’s great to have a solid plan in place (what we’ve been doing up until now) but none of that matters if you never get started. We know it can be scary but just start with the first task on your list. Don’t think twice about it, just get it done. There’s no time for procrastination so make this the first thing you get done in the day.

Days #5 and #6: Keep going

Congrats!! You made it through one day following your action checklist. Now it’s time to celebrate your completion. You did an amazing job. Go ahead and do your happy dance 🙂
Now it’s time to move on to the next list. Keep on going!! Each day may only produce small results but those results add up over time. You have to build up your momentum so you can become unstoppable. If there’s ever a time you feel like giving up, remember why you started in the first place.

If you find yourself procrastinating, work on tasks in 25 minute chunks of time. This will keep you focused and little breaks in between will keep you from burning out. Continue to check in on your action plan to be sure you’re still on track and in line with your goals.

Day #7: Evaluate your performance

The final step in this process will determine how quickly you reach your goal. And that last step is to reflect on what you’ve done so far and measure your progress. Without doing this step, you won’t be able to adjust and improve on the areas you are weak in. That’s the whole point of reflecting. To look at the areas in which your strengths lie, where your weaknesses lie, and where your errors were made. From here, you can tweak and improve your action steps. By the way, your action steps are never set in stone. It’s important to update them when something just isn’t working out. It’s ok! Do not give up when things don’t go your way. Make the appropriate changes and move forward.

There you have it; How to set goals in as little as 7 days. But don’t think that your work ends there. Continue to work on your daily check lists and action plans. Keep evaluating your progress and make adjustments when needed. And most importantly keep adding to your list of goals! There’s so much you can accomplish in this lifetime if you put your mind to it. Stop pushing them off thinking they’re too big for you to actually achieve. Following these steps and breaking down each goal makes them more manageable so you can totally do this!