As we transitioned from 2018 to 2019, something clicked for me.
Many of us set all these goals for ourselves, saying we’re going to change this year—kicking our bad habits and really committing to what we want to achieve. It’s too easy to just focus on the end result, which makes the journey of getting there…a bit of a drag.
As I was setting my 2019 goals, I started thinking about how what we want to achieve is constantly evolving. As we enter new chapters in life, we grow and, as a result, our goals change. Although we may have grand plans for what we want in the future, once we get to that future, we might want it to look really different.
Knowing where we want to go in life is important, so we can work towards it and have a sense of purpose. With this in mind, I also think a lot of us get caught up in striving for perfection. And when we start to stray from the neat path we’ve set for ourselves, our ability to stay motivated gets complicated.
What clicked for me a couple months ago was my realization that…all we can do is just focus on the next 24 hours. Working for who we are months from now, years from now can be a bit overwhelming and feel impossible when we start straying from the path.
So as I’ve been working on the goals I’ve set for myself, and knowing where I want to go in the future, I’ve been really trying to just live in the moment each day. Do what I can to get closer to my goals, but also not stress about how far away I still am from reaching my “ideal” end result. We can only control what we do now; worrying about what we did yesterday or what we’ll do tomorrow will only make things harder.
I really liked this quote by Jillian Michaels:
“It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s how change occurs.” Jillian Michaels can be pretty intense sometimes, and I’m not really sure how I feel about her methods of coaching/instructing. But I will say, she’s made some statements I find very inspiring and that really resonate with me.
All we can do is work on ourselves today, but when we commit to ourselves each day, magic happens. “That’s how change occurs.”
Good luck today as you continue to work on your goals! I challenge you to really embrace the day and simply do what you can now to get a little closer to what you want to achieve. Yesterday’s over, and tomorrow’s a problem for future you.
