Alright, let’s be real. How many times did you set a list of goals and didn’t get around to finishing them? Maybe you haven’t even gotten around to start them! I hear you friend! ALL OF US have struggled with this. WHY CAN’T WE FINISH THEM?! What keeps us from hitting our goals?

After such a long time of starting so many projects, dreams, ambitions, (whatever you want to call them), only to not see them come to fruition, I had to sit down for myself and figure out why the heck I couldn’t make them happen. I’m a goal oriented person. I’m not afraid to put in the work. So what’s going on? What would keep me so stagnant?

Many times, we get hung up on the excuse of “I don’t know how”. Thing is, it’s more than that. I realized this because there were certain areas in my life where the “how” never stopped my determination before. So what makes me so determined to finish one thing over the other?

It really boils down these things…

First things first, have I truly envisioned myself succeeding in those goals? If I haven’t connected with them, I can’t believe in them. What does that mean? Well, if I really believed in them, if I deeply connected to the “why” I was setting them in the first place, my actions would reflect my beliefs. My daily habits would reflect my belief that I, without a shadow of a doubt, could make whatever it was I wanted to happen. So how do we connect to the visions we have for ourselves? We have to ask ourselves, “Why do I want to achieve this? Does this reflect the best version I see myself as?” Once we’ve come up with the reason “why”, then we can’t take or give any excuses for ourselves. We have to change the narrative we tell ourselves and focus on taking one action step at a time.

So even if I establish action, what would still prevent me to “connect to” and develop a strong passion for the established goal? Here comes number two…

Are my goals truly intertwined with my purpose?

So often, the ambitions we set for ourselves have been influenced by someone else’s purpose and what they have done before us. We see others become successful at a particular thing, and they seem happy, so of course we desire to have that as well. We convince ourselves that because it could potentially bring us joy, maybe we should do it too. Here’s the thing, it may be A joy, but not THE joy for US.

So how do we know if our goals are aligned within our purpose? Thing is, we won’t for SURE know until we keep pursuing and taking action. As we work on our growth and betterment every single day, we will be drawn to things that spark passion. We will know those things when we experience them. It’s fine to set goals, but we don’t realize that through our growth and experience, those goals may change. They very often morph into something much bigger than what we originally envisioned, ESPECIALLY if we stay in tune to allowing God to lead us through prayer.

This my friends, is where you start to weed out the goals that don’t belong. Last year, I set particular goals and ambitions and I wrote them down every single day to focus my habits around them. Through taking action and being aware to invest in my growth, as I would make my way to making those things happen, I suddenly realized I had a perspective shift of them. Many of my goals started out to be more self-focused. Things like making a set amount of money, achieving a certain weight, saving for a particular vacation, etc. Yes, some I set were aligned with my purpose, but so many were not.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to set more self-focused goals. You have to start that way in order to be led to the bigger picture. Setting those particular goals allowed me to focus on self-betterment. It’s all a part of doing better with each day. My point is, so many of the times we don’t hit some of the goals that we set for ourselves is due to the fact that we weren’t met to hit them in the first place. Yep, you read that right. I’m here to say, THAT IT IS OKAY. If we don’t recognize that this could happen, we will mistake the fact that we don’t hit them for a flaw in ourselves. We will get discouraged and become stagnant even more.

We get so caught up with becoming laser focused on the achievement itself. Think of any New Year’s resolution we make. We write down this huge list of achievements we want to do. What happens is that we overwhelm ourselves with everything that needs to be done to get there. We know it takes work and it stunts us to take the first step of action because we lay out so much down at one time. Yes, writing down goals is a direction to start headed toward. Thing is, knowing the direction won’t actually get you there. It’s the steps you take every day within the habits you practice daily that will.

It’s being present in each moment and focusing on what you are currently doing. It’s appreciating the growth you are receiving from what you are presently working at. With each step of action you are taking, you are seeing and feeling a result from it. Each result felt will prompt you to take the next step. Slowly, you begin to peel back what it is you are suppose to be doing. That’s what it means when people say, “it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey”. Because guess what, the destination can change when you start to see things that may be better to head towards.

Don’t put your purpose and fulfillment within the ambition and goal you set for yourself. Place it in the present, and invest in being better in the moment you are given.

Here’s another thing, when we seek out answers through prayer and reading scripture, God will also lead us and fulfill us in the moment. Psalms 20:4 says, “May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose”. Sometimes within the journey, we may not be receiving or seeing things happen right away. We may have gotten disconnected to the true desires of our heart (because we based them off of others around us). However, when we consistently pursue God’s goodness faithfully through those hard times, He begins to show us the true desires of our heart (which is His heart). He knew what we needed and wanted before we did.

So go ahead, set those goals, work toward them, but focus on the present growth and promise to do and be better instead of all the work ahead of you. If you do that, you will soon realize that you are capable of anything and the fact that not hitting certain goals wasn’t because you weren’t able to, it was because you chose something better.

YOU ARE CAPABLE OF ANYTHING MY FRIEND SO MAKE YOUR ACTIONS REFLECT THAT!

If you want to catch the live video on this topic, check out The Whole Lifestyle Momma Facebook Page! You can also watch it on the YouTube channel as well!

Stay tuned to next week’s topic, “The Key to Consistency” on 8/30!

PS. This week I announced the release of The Whole Lifestyle Academy! Click here, to read all about how you can have access to resources that will help you to eat cleaner and budget easier!