Part of developing reasonable goals is to create goals that work and learn how to make SMART goals. A SMART goal is a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. If a goal is all of these things, it will be a reasonable goal that is possible to attain. During the goal-setting process, though most people will tell you to dream big. That’s great, do dream big, but don’t dream so big that you fail because what you dreamed was not possible for you right now.
For example, let’s say you want to go to Law School, but you don’t seem able to get a good enough score on the LSAT to get into the school that you want to go to. At first glance, it may seem as if the goal of going to law school itself is impossible and not reasonable, but that’s not true. Instead, you need to step back and attack this goal from a new angle and now set your goal to get a better score on the LSAT.
This may require that you take a year off to take a course and study your heart out, but if you don’t give up, you will eventually pass. It’s not really impossible, just not probable for you to succeed until you’ve spent more time studying.
But let’s say you have a goal of being six feet tall, but you’re 35 years old, and you’re only five foot two. Guess what, you can be six feet tall in the right shoes, but you may look ridiculous. The truth is, you’re never really going to be six feet tall. It’s vital to differentiate dreams from possibilities that can become your goals.
When you are in the goal-setting process, you’ll want to ensure that your goals are reasonable and not over the top and, therefore, impossible or not probable for you to succeed now.
Maybe you don’t have enough capital to invest in the idea right now, so you need to step back and find that money. Perhaps you just don’t have the skillset, so you’ll need to step back and get that skill. Whatever the reason is that you cannot reasonably reach that goal yet step back and set a smaller target at the level previous to the harder, more improbable goal.
Write down all the things that have to happen for the goal to happen. Can you do those things? Do you need to go back to an even earlier step and goal before that one? If you cannot see a way to reach the goal realistically and reasonably that meets your personal timeline and life, no matter how much you step back, you’ll need to adjust the goal.
The old saying that you cannot swim until you learn to tread water applies here. There is no reason to burn yourself out, trying to reach for something that is never going to happen. At the same time, don’t limit your potential either. Go through the goals you’ve set and create a step-by-step path to achieve them even if you have to step back several paces to make it work.
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AT IS SELF LOVE–AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT FOR CREATIVE WOMEN?
Being a businesswoman isn’t just about being “good at” or “smart about” business.
It’s also about being able to handle your business – and life – and not let the speed bumps you encounter permanently affect you, your business or your idea of who you are.
Because TBH? On the path to running a successful online empire, you’ll encounter lots of snags, slip-ups, hiccups and moments where you’ll want to give up.
That’s where self love comes in.
We get that creative women in particular can be ridiculously hard on themselves.
Have you ever poured your heart into a social media post that literally no one commented on–and assumed it was because your ideas were bad or stupid?
Or helmed a launch that didn’t quite turn out the way you’d planned it in your pretty Day Designer–because clearly you’re just not “cut out for” this?
Yep–we’ve all been there.
The good news? The more you truly love yourself, the better you’ll be able to navigate these tricky (and unavoidable) situations–and the faster you’ll be able to pick yourself up, dust off your Lululemons & get back to doing the good work you do in the world.
No matter what’s going on “on the outside” – whether it’s a client who refuses to pay on time or a program launch that totally flops – real self love will help you navigate anything our crazy world throws your way with (way) more ease, grace and resilience.
Bonus? When you learn to love yourself, you’ll also have more love to extend to others – including your friends, family and–of course–lovely paying clients.
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