By Pia Beck, CEO + Coach at Curate Well Co.
When it comes to achieving your goals, manifesting and making things happen are two different things. Both are distinct and necessary processes for growth, and if you’ve failed in the past, you might be missing one. Keep reading for the instinctual and strategic process for creating purposeful and passion-driven action on your goals.
You won’t get anywhere if you spend your time manifesting.
Don’t get me wrong, believing wholeheartedly in the future you want is a key factor of success. But it’s not the only factor. In my opinion, having innate, instinctual faith only works if it’s followed up with strategic action.
And vice versa: strategy only gets you so far if you don’t trust your intuition and instinct.
Strategy and instinct are two equally important (and distinct) pieces of your bigger picture. And when integrated together? They make your goals entirely possible (read: actionable).
Think about the goals you’ve set in the past. How often have they…
- Fallen to the backburner?
- Failed?
- Been forgotten?
Chances are, your goal was missing either a strategic or instinctual component.
So, let’s break it down. Here is the 5-step instinctual and strategic system to goal-setting, that will ensure your goals come to fruition:
1. Write your goals in the present-tense and first-person, as if you’re already achieving them.
Here’s where the manifesting comes in. Instead of saying “I will go to yoga” or “I want to go to yoga ”, try, “I go to yoga”. This supports you in choosing to believe your goal is innately and inherently true, even without any evidence of it’s realness (yet), which is the first step to actualizing your goal. This language also allows you to claim your goal as YOURS.
2. Include specific requirements of success, rather than making a general statement.
This step is strategic. When you create ample criteria for satisfaction, you eliminate the gray area of “success” when it comes to your goal. By knowing *exactly* what goal-fulfillment looks like, you have a clear expectation of what you’re working towards.
Here’s an example: instead of “I go to yoga regularly”, try, “I go to yoga at least 3x/week”. 3x/week is more definable than “regularly” so you’ll clearly know whether or not you’ve met your goal.
3. Include a start date or a by-when.
Again, this step is strategic. Unlike manifesting, which prioritizes surrender and a more passive way of being clear on what we want, setting a start date or a by-when places our goal in the present. For an ongoing goal, you may choose a start date: “I go to yoga 3x/week starting on January 1.” For a goal with a concrete deadline, or quantitative measure of success, you may choose a by-when: “I go to yoga 12 times by January 31.”
4. Include in your goal how you want to feel.
This step is entirely instinctual. Again, describing how you want to feel creates criteria for success by being specific, and in an intuitive way. For example, “I go to yoga 3x/week, starting on January 1, which makes me feel strong, grounded, and connected to others and myself.” Your goal will be more purposeful and passion-driven if you’re clear on WHY this is a goal for you, and describing how your goal will make you feel gives you an intuitive cue to ensure it’s a goal you’re aligned with.
5. Note, for each goal, who you want to tell.
This could be someone who will hold you accountable, someone who will cheer you on, or someone who will be impacted by you achieving your goal. In this way, sharing our goals is strategic. However, claiming your goal by declaring it to others is also empowering, enables for connection, since people know what you’re up to, and supports the behavior patterns required to make your goal a reality.
When you set your goals with these 5 steps in mind, you can ensure that your goal is purposeful (strategic) and passion-driven (instinctual), which is the key to seeing them through to creation.
Ready to uplevel? Here are 3 intuitive ways to verify your goal:
If your goals feel safe, comfortable, or no big deal…they’re not big enough. Your goals should be a bit scary, otherwise they’re just to do’s.
Ask yourself this: does your goal feel risky? Uncertain? Intimidating? Vulnerable? Good! You’re on the right track.
If your goal is YOURS, it’ll feel like a “yes” in your body.
Is your goal coming from someone else’s expectations of you? Someone else’s idea of success? “Shoulds”? Comparison? Trends? Or does it really feel like YOUR goal, that you’re excited about, aligned with, and can’t wait to get to work on? Read your goal out loud and notice how your physical body reacts to it. This will tell you whether you need to edit your goal to be truly YOURS.
Think BIG.
Sure, you can set 1, 3, 6 month goals…but there’s a certain degree of magic that happens when you set 1, 5, 10 YEAR goals. Trust your intuition enough to set long-term goals, then commit to taking strategic action when the time comes to make them happen.
Pia Beck is the CEO + Coach at Curate Well Co. She helps early, aspiring, and established entrepreneurs launch a life they love, without burnout, crazy busy, or chronic chaos. Her expertise is in turning your pain points into action items. With Pia, you gain immense clarity, certainty and confidence, instinctual and strategic support to achieve your goals, and the structures to accomplish your big vision. Follow her on Instagram @curatewellco.