The Simple Guide To Using Gratitude To Supercharge Your Goal Setting

Did you know that gratitude and goal-setting go hand in hand?

Being appreciative of what you've accomplished helps give you the strength to push forward and continue to accomplish more. 

A few years ago, despite my obvious lack of funds and clear desire to be frugal AF, I decide it was about darn time I took a vacation. It'd been almost two years since I'd done anything other than struggle and wonder why I was still freaking struggling. (That was my vicious cycle. It looked something like this: struggle-pity-struggle-pity-struggle)

I planned to spend two days in Chicago (that was all I could afford). I had a deep dish pizza, tried my first chili dog, went on the beautiful architecture tour and meandered around the city. I spent the rest of the time in my room, enjoying silence with a bottle of wine, cheese and fruits I picked up from the grocery store. 

I was so relaxed, I missed my plane to go back home. 

Rather than feeling angry that I'd wasted the money I was fighting so hard to earn, I felt a calmness. I realized that, for the first time ever, I had enough money to buy another plane ticket. I would get to stay another day in this beautiful city.

That feeling was gratitude. 

What is gratitude? 

Gratitude is the conscious decision to appreciate someone (or something) in your life simply because it exists. Many people show gratitude for a person when they receive a gift, mentorship or support. It's also common to express gratitude for a course or program that made a significant life difference for you. 

If we take this idea of having gratitude and apply it to progress towards your goals, you'll see that we become more exited about the difficult journey. 

How Can You Use It For Your Goals?

Accomplishing large goals can honestly feel like a pain in the butt. They drag on forever, one tiny shift at a time and usually we'll make progress without even noticing it because the larger goal is still staring us in the face, mocking us with with it's incompleteness. 

If you're working on a long term goal like losing a significant amount of weight, writing your first book, getting out of debt, or finally socking some money away in your savings account, it can feel like FOREVER before you start to see progress. 

Spending a small amount of your day, even 5 minutes, having gratitude for your ability to inch towards your goal, will change your perspective, increase your happiness and supercharge your ability to crush your goals.

How Do I Get Started? 

Start with noticing that you're making progress. It happens very slowly so it's easy to overlook. To be grateful for your progress, don't overlook the small things. 

Imagine that you have a goal of saving $1000 in your emergency savings account. The first thing you probably did was decide that you were going to do this because you want more security in your life. Maybe you made a budget to start saving a bit of money. Maybe you cut back your expenses to be able to make this goal a reality. 

These small, intangible (damn near invisible) goals might not have made a difference in your bank account (just yet) but they are the stepping stones you'll need to sock away some serious cash.  You can be grateful for them by noticing how much money you'll now have available each month because you were courageous enough to set an important goal for stability, savvy enough to create a budget and strong enough to make sacrifices that would serve your goal. 

Create A Daily Gratitude Habit

The only thing you really need to start incorporating this into your life is a pen, paper and a willingness to give it a try. Start today by simply writing down the answers to any of these four questions on a daily basis to create a gratitude habit:

 

What are you grateful for today? 

You always have something to be grateful for while pursuing a goal. Maybe you can finally fit into that little black dress because you've been eating healthy regularly. You might have the first chapter of your epic novel finally complete - you can be grateful that you only have 36 chapters to go. 

In my story, I was grateful that I was able to pay for another plane ticket. After years of struggling and watching my bank account go negative several times, I started to see myself as a poor person. I started to believe that at my core, I was a person who would struggle to succeed. Being able to afford my plane ticket was a moment of gratitude because I realized in that moment that I was making progress. 

What did you learn today? 

Big goals have a way of teaching us some serious lessons. Sometimes we learn new skills (like that one time when I started paying my student loan debt I learned more than I ever wanted to know about interest rates). Other times we learn new things about ourselves (like how courageous, scrappy and unstoppable you totally are under pressure). 

Whipping out my credit card and dropping and unnecessary $200 on another plane ticket wasn't the greatest feeling in the world, but I did learn that I was on the right path. If I continued to sock away money,  it would add up. It would protect me in difficult times. I would be there when I needed it. 

What did you accomplish today? 

The big win (your end goal) is not the only accomplishment. Each day you take action toward your goal will bring you a new success. If you're trying to lose weight, every time you eat a healthy meal is a win (especially since buffalo chicken wings are so darn tasty). Every time you put on your running shoes and hit the gym is a win. It's your job to recognize it. 

To be perfectly honest, I hadn't even realized that I was accomplishing anything. $5 saved here and $10 saved there felt like a massive failure to the 3-months of living expenses I was striving to save. I didn't even realize that the ability to cover my ass is an accomplishment - and that I'd earned that. 

What brought you happiness today? 

There is at least one reason to be happy in every day and it may have absolutely nothing to do with your goals. You can be happy that you've spent time with family or that you took a peaceful walk around the block. Happiness is everywhere around you, take time to appreciate the little things and you'll find more energy to tackle the big things as they come. 

What Tools Can I Use?

Start a gratitude journal

You can use any blank journal to write down the answers to any one of the questions above on a daily basis. Your entry should describe what you're grateful for each day. Here's an example: 

Today I am grateful for waking up this morning energized to go to the gym. I remembered to put my shoes right next to the bed last night so I didn't feel the urge to lay back down. 

It can be as long or short as you like. Over time as you continue to write about your success, you'll notice it comes easier to you and you start to feel gratitude even when you're not writing it down.

Recommended: The Five Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day, is a proven system based on psychology research to improve happiness by establishing a gratitude habit just 5 minutes every day.

Create a gratitude log

A gratitude log is a simple list of the things you're grateful for and looks something like this: 

I Am Grateful For: 

1. Completing the outline for my first book.

2. Waking up this morning energized to write.

3. Finding a great podcast on writing and publishing a book.

You can continue the list for as long as you like. The benefit of this is it's easier to start because you only have to write a few words.

Being grateful places you in a position to enjoy your journey on the way to accomplishing your goals. With this very simple habit, you'll acknowledge the improvements you're making in your life on a daily basis and you'll feel happier and more excited to keep pursuing your goals. 

What are you doing to have gratitude for your journey? 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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About the author

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

How To Focus On Your Goals When Your Mind Is Busy With Bright Ideas

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Focus. 

I've always been pretty bad at it. 

As a child, I wanted to be a singer, but then my parents told me doctors make a ton of money. It didn't take long for me to stop emulating Beyonce and practicing dance moves in the mirror to pursue the loooooong road of doctor-ing. 

I didn't make it to far down that road though.

Once I read an article on Business Insider that Data Scientist was the sexiest job of the 20th century, I  hopped on the bandwagon. (That is the real story of how I started my career in analytics.)

The distraction party doesn't end there.

When I started this blog, I started working on writing a book and then I heard that affiliate links were more profitable - so I bought an affiliate links course (obviously). After working on my affiliate links for about a month, I decided that I should really be focusing on online courses so I left my affiliate links by the wayside to try creating online courses. (Clearly, shiny objects are my kryptonite.)

I was so busy chasing new ideas that I never got anything done. 

Related: How To Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome and Get Laser Focused On Your Goals

Do you ever feel like your mind is always coming up with new ideas? And when that happens, you must drop what you're doing to try them?

Over my first year of blogging, I found a way to keep track all of my wonderful ideas while still staying on track with my goals by putting my new ideas into my Idea Parking Lot. 

What is an idea parking lot? 

An idea parking lot is a physical location to put all of the random + brilliant + brand-spanking-new ideas. You can jot your ideas down in a journal, a notepad or electronically on your phone or even in a word document. 

How To Create Your Idea Parking Lot

Choose a place to keep ideas

Most people already have a place that they keep their random notes. I've seen everything from a paper notebook to the notepad in your phone. I prefer to use Evernote for my ideas. 

Evernote allows you to create virtual notebooks and you can create as many notes as you want within the notebooks.

On any given day, I can come up with an idea for a new career entirely. I'd think about the name of the website I'd build, the books I'd eventually write down to the chapters that would be in the books.

Evernote is the best place I've found for those vivid ideas that transform right in front of you because you can create several notes and then order them within your notebooks by common themes. 

Create your first note

To get started, create one note called Parking Lot. Do this right away so you already have somewhere to put your next bright idea.

write down (or type) all of your ideas - big or small

When you write down your ideas make sure you give yourself enough information so that if you come back to it and look at your ideas a year later they will make sense. 

Instead of writing "start money blog ", write down "start money blog where I tell the story of my student loan debt pay off." By writing it this way, you'll remember exactly what you were thinking when you originally wrote the note. 

Come Back To It Later

The best thing about having a parking lot of ideas is that you CAN come to it later if you want to.

At the beginning of each year, when I'm creating my vision board and thinking about what I want my new year to look like, I always take a look back at my parking lot.  I look to see if there was something I wrote down that I really want to do in the upcoming year. 

Related: Why Vision Boards Work and Why You Must Create One

You may be surprised that some of the ideas you had are no longer relevant to you. You may realize that the idea you were working on was perfect and you don't need those ideas anymore. On the other hand, you might see that one of your goals is exactly what you need. :) 

Why Do You Need An Idea Parking Lot?

The book Getting Things Done (literally the only productivity book you need in life) has one common theme: Get your ideas out of your head and save them somewhere.

The Idea Parking Lot is my rendition on this wise advice. 

Never lose Your bright ideas

The basis of the parking lot is that you can capture your ideas without having them distract you from what you're currently doing.

That means if you're in the middle of working on one goal (say, starting a blog) and you get hit by an idea for another blog that feels so amazing that you want to get started on it right away, you can write that idea down in your parking lot. 

 

Keep track of the minor details

You can go into as much or as little detail as you want on your new idea in your parking lot.

For example, imagine you have a vivid mental picture of what your new blog is going to look like. You can write down what blog posts you're going to write, what the name will be, what brand colors you want to use, how you're going to monetize it and what tools you plan on using for it.

 

build on it over time

When new ideas come to mind that can supplement your idea, you can continue to add to your parking lot note on that topic. This helps your small idea become more clear and more actionable without ever leaving your goals.

 

Add Some Space.

Have you ever bought a cute shirt at the mall and then got home and realized you really didn't need a new shirt? You only bought it because it was super cute on the mannequin or it was on sale. 

It happens all the time. Experts recommend waiting a day or two before you purchase something to see if you really want it. If after two days you still want the shirt, it's probably a good idea to buy.

Having an idea parking lot allows you to put that same distance between your excitement and your commitment. 

We get super excited about trying them out that we don't consider the fact that we may not even need the new idea at all. Writing your new idea down and leaving it in your parking lot gives you time to think about whether or not you really need it. 

 

Stay Focused On The Present

The best thing about the idea parking lot is that you never have to leave the goal that you're currently working on to chase a brand new shiny object. You can complete your current project AND still have your new idea waiting for you (with as much detail as you want) should you need it. 

Having an idea parking lot might be the key to your problems. You can stay focused on the goals you're currently working on while holding on to all the ideas in your head. 

Happy Dreaming! 

xoxo 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

---

About the author

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

How To Uncover The Hidden Happiness + Wins In Your Life

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

For the past four years, I've been in constant motion, fluttering from one goal to the next. With each accomplishment, it doesn't actually feel like I've done anything at all. In fact, every step up gives me more confidence to go bigger, work harder, do more. 

I struggle to feel "successful" even though I've clearly been able to accomplish more than ever before. 

It is only in the moments where I reflect on the pictures from my adventures or look at the long way that I've come (mostly through my Facebook memories) that I realize I've actually done something I should be proud of. I've become a better version of myself. Even though I'm still in progress... I've made progress. 

Do you ever feel like you're always looking forward to the next goal? The next challenge? The next bit of excitement? 

What if I could tell you that, like me, you already have all the excitement and success you've ever wanted? Sometimes it's right there in the past just waiting to be unearthed and recognized. 

Each month, after you've set goals, worked towards them... right before you jump to your next set of goals, take a moment to remind yourself what you've done this past month. You might be surprised by what you see. In fact, you might be very proud of it, too.

Here are the 5 questions I ask myself at the end of every month to help me remember how freakin' awesome I am - and remind me that even though I have more journeys up ahead, I've already accomplished way more than I thought I ever could. 

 

What did you try? 

Maybe you tried to learn something new for work or took a class in something you thought you might like. Did you try working out in a different way this past month? Or try a new dish? 

It's important to reflect on the new things you tried because it's a great reminder that you do have an adventurous side, that you are capable of learning, and that you are a big enough go-getter that you have the power and strength to try something new. 

Routine is easy. By trying something, no matter how small creates growth. 

That's powerful.

What did you learn? 

Life lessons go hand in hand with every trial and error you face. With writing down the things you tried (even if it was a total fail) you have to write down all of the things you learned from that experience.

This will help you tremendously in keeping track of the things you'll want to do differently when you try those things again. 

Last month, I made a really bad lasagna (like... really really bad). This year, I decided I'd move beyond my simple dishes and sides and explore a few new ones that I've never tried before. A few dishes have been successful, but lasagna surely was not one of them. I ran out of meat, used the wrong sauce, didn't add the right ratio of cheeses. It was a complete disaster. But that list of things I did wrong will stay with me when I do retry that dish. I'll just have to convince my daughter to try it again. 

What did you improve? 

It's impossible to be good at everything, but over time as you continue to explore things you've never done before or dive deeper into the things you're learning, you'll start to get better at them. 

Keep track of the things that you're improving. You definitely may not notice them now, but when you do look back you'll see the far way that you've come. 

Three years ago, I couldn't update my resume without bursting out into tears because I could not identify any value that I added to any company anywhere. Even though I had a lot of good experience, I struggled with validation. I needed someone to tell me I was smart and made an impact because I didn't believe it (and I surely couldn't write it down on a resume). 

Through the tiniest changes imaginable, I've stocked up a full arsenal of tools and resources and huge gains for others that I can re-write my resume in an hour, while watching Netflix. No more tears, no more struggling. That's a huge improvement. 

What progress have you made? 

Dream big, they tell you. Set a goal that seems impossible to reach. 

Have you ever started to work towards a big goal and realized mid-way through that you were screwed. There was absolutely no way you were going to reach this goal?

I'm certainly starting to feel that way with my student loan debt payoff goals. I set a goal to pay off $32K in 12 months. I'm already behind schedule and it's only February. (What in the world was I thinking? Oh yeah, dream big. *cue eye roll*)

Through the pouting and the eye rolling, I've figured one key thing out: Even if I don't reach this goal, I've already paid off more student loan debt in the past three months than I ever thought imaginable. 

Maybe it's not the 6000 I needed, but it's a solid 4500. 

 

What did you accomplish?

Some of your goals will completely come to fruition and all of the late nights or early mornings will have come together to create something that you've only been planning for up until now. 

Write those things down and congratulate yourself for a job well done.

What made you happy? 

At the end of the day, there is exactly one measure for happiness.... Are you actually happy?

We all do have ups and downs, stressful moments and moments of smooth sailing. But if you look at on the 30(ish) days you experienced this month try to remember the things that made you happy. 

I struggle with being chronically single (it's my gift and my curse) but every once in a while I do meet someone where the experience is absolutely phenomenal. While I could be sad that it was short lived, I much rather be happy that I experienced it at all. I was present for the great dates, wonderful conversation and flirtatious smiles. What's not to be happy about?

I bet your life is filled with beautiful things (passionate relationships, fun times with family, road trips you wish never ended) but we often hang on to those moments that are too stressful, annoying or confusing. We hang on to those and allow them to play over and over in our heads that we don't actually notice when we moved mountains, we accomplished the impossible and when we've been happy. Taking a moment to write these things down makes all the difference.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

---

About the author

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

7 Proven Productivity Strategies To Get More Hours In Your Day

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

How many times have you been super excited to seize the day only to get half way through your to-do list?

The daily to-do list may seem like a simple concept.

You have things to do.
Write them down.
Do them.
Rinse and repeat. 

However, many people struggle with getting to the bottom of their daily list. Sometimes we add so many things on to our plate during the day that we end up with more things to do than we started with. (Those days are the worst, aren't they?)

How in the world do you eat healthy, work out, work for 8-ish hours, spend time with family, take time for self care, build your relationships AND get a full night't sleep at the end of the day? 

Simple. You don't. 

The incredibly insightful book 168 Hours: You have More Time Than You Think breaks down exactly why we all should stop planning by the day and focus on spreading all of the things you want to do throughout your week. 

Your week is filled with unlimited opportunities to do everything that you want. However, most people create never-ending daily to-do lists that can often leave us feeling exhausted and unaccomplished by the end of the day.

I'm going to walk you through exactly how I plan out my daily to do list one full week at a time. This simple change allows me to get everything done over the course of a week without feeling overworked or overwhelmed.

 

Plan hard due dates first. 

Some of your to-do list items have a due date that you cannot change. 

For example, if you have a project to due on Wednesday you'll have to work on it on Monday and Tuesday. (You certainly don't want to be like the teenage me, who would be scrambling on Tuesday night to throw something together for me to take to school. One Science Fair I created a project titled Which Soap Suds The Best? I put soap and water in a bucket, swished it around and took a picture of it. #Embarrassing) 

This is where planning your to-do list for you whole week at once really comes in handy because you're looking at a birds eye view of your week and can see further into the future beyond the needs of today and tomorrow.

Plan your essentials.

There are certain thins you have to do to survive, keep your relationships strong and maintain your health. These are things you know you'll be doing every single week without fail. So it makes sense to block that time off next.

Here are some examples of essentials. Decide on what works for your lifestyle. 

• Work

• Grocery shopping

• Cooking meals

• Relationship building (with spouse, friends and family)

• Sleep

• Gym

• (If you have small children) Homework, Reading and Bathtime

As you think about the time you have for these, remember you're thinking about your entire week. It's totally OK if you don't have time during the day to go to the gym 3 days a week. Push it to the weekend. Trust me, it still counts. 

Food matters.

Let's be real... We all have to eat.

While you may not really think about it (because it's really a basic need) food can easily take up 10 hours of your week! There's thinking about what you want to eat, going to the store to buy groceries, prepping all of the food, cooking and finally eating your meal. 

Build that time into your week... and find ways to optimize it. 

For example, I try to make a big meal on Mondays and Wednesdays and eat the leftovers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This gives me more time to spend with my family or get a yoga session in after work on those days. 

Do you see where I'm going with this? If you plan your week all at once, you can see where those pockets of time exists. You can now be intentional where you would've previously spent that extra time wondering what you're going to eat tonight, praying that you have the ingredients you need for that miscellaneous recipe you just found on Pinterest or scrolling Facebook.

 

Events & Appointments

Here's where things start to get a little tricky. Some weeks, you'll have random appointments that throw a wrench into your weekly routine.

It could range from a doctors appointment, parent-teacher conference, networking happy hour mixer or your BFF's Dirty Thirty Birthday Bash. 

Put all of your appointments on your to-do list on the day they fall on. Then move your existing to-do items to around to accommodate these experiences.  

For example, if you have a parent teacher conference Thursday night, you may want to plan to meal prep Wednesday night. 

Set aside daily hustle time.

I don't know anyone that doesn't have their own side hustle these days. I'm using side hustle liberally. You could be running a blog, taking additional courses to boost your skills, building a business or training for a marathon. 

All of these things take time to build if you want to make a meaningful difference. Make sure you block off time to work on them. 

I choose to wake up early on a daily basis before work (from about 5-7AM) to work on this lovely blog you're reading right now. I also block off about 6 hours every Sunday to work strictly on creating products for the blog. 

Don't skip your daily me-time Activity.

When you fail to plan (or plan poorly) the first thing that suffers is the time spent taking care of yourself. 

Use Your weekends

Your week can quickly get stolen from you. When you're early in your career, networking events and working late can steal your weekday evenings. If you have a family, your kid's after school activities can usurp your afternoons.

You can still maintain your productivity and accomplish everything you want by shifting things to the weekends.

You can grocery shop and meal prep on Sundays. You can host a potluck to spend time with friends and family on Saturday nights. You can side hustle, take a class or serve your community on Sunday mornings. 

THREE ITEM MAXIMUM DAILY

One mistake people make is cramming a lot of things into their schedule assuming they're going to work super hard, drink red bull and skip sleep to accomplish their goals.

This rarely works because you're betting on a Sunday that your Tuesday self is going to have enough will power to stay up late. This can be a hit or miss depending on whatever else happened that day.

Have you ever gotten mad at yourself for falling asleep when you had things to do? This is totally irrational, but we've all done it.

Give yourself a three item maximum on your to-do list for any given day. By doing this, you will make sure that you only put the most important and urgent things on your list. (If you're super gangster like me, you only put one thing on your to-do list each day.) This also gives you a fighting chance at finally crossing everything off your to-do list which will leave you feeling accomplished each day and ready to attack the next. 

By planning out your days like this, you have unlimited time and flexibility to move things around like puzzle pieces until they fit perfectly into place. At the end of the week, you'll realize that by putting less on your plate on a daily basis, you will have accomplished more, gotten more sleep, spent more time with friends and family AND took care of yourself more.  The time exists everywhere... it's your job to use it. 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.