The High-Achiever's 7-Step Guide to Setting Crystal Clear Goals

This new year my family did something we never have done before. In an effort to spend more time with their adult children who have gone from smiling children to stressed out college students with on-and-off relationships and the occasional all-nighter, my parents planned a trip to the Poconos for the holidays. (As a family who is deathly afraid of the cold and own zero snow gear we gave a hard side-eye to the snow-infused activities and spent most of the time in the house playing Uno. #TravelFail)

2 hours before the ball in Times Square dropped signifying yet another year my mother had a trick up her sleeve. She wanted to spend one hour talking about what we did in 2017 that we were proud of... and another hour talking about what we're going to do in the new year. 

But there was a twist. 

Rather than allowing people to simply call out their New Year's resolutions, the family was given an opportunity to ask questions about each person's goals.

Through that process, we encouraged each other to think deeper about the pie in the sky goals we were setting and confidently walk into the new year with a crystal clear vision.

You don't really need a whole committee pelting you with questions to get clarity on your goals (though my family did take joy in interrogating each other). Instead, you can take your use these seven tips to think through your largest goals.

Step 1: Know Your Why

Your goals become more powerful the second you attach a significant meaning to them. Your "why" is the reason you want to accomplish a goal.

Anyone can set a goal to lose weight, pay off debt or make more money, but what does that change mean for you in your life? If you can take a step back from the actual goal and think about how your life will be impacted by this action, you'll be able create more powerful goals. 

For example: 

Your Goal: I want to pay off my student loan debt.
Better Goal: I want to pay off my student loan debt because: 

1. I will have more disposable income.

2. I can save more for retirement.

3. I can be a better role model for my daughter.

4. I can focus on investing and creating a better financial portfolio.

Having a goal is great, but understanding why you want to accomplish that goal is even better. If you can pinpoint a few good reasons or great side effects of accomplishing this goal, then these reasons will help you continue to commit to the goal when times get rough. 

Step 2: Quantify it

Quantifying your goals means to attach a number to it. This means breaking down how much weight you want to lose, how much debt you have to pay off or how many times you want to get deep tissue massages. (Just me?)

For example:

Your Goal: I want to pay off my student loan debt. 
Better Goal: I am going to pay off $32K in student loan debt. 

The benefit of quantifying your goals is that you can clearly and easily articulate exactly how much you have to go on your goals. 

Step 3: Add in a due date

Do you remember being in high school and the teacher tells you you have a paper due at the end of the month, but you'll wait until three days before it's due to start studying? Due dates add a sense of urgency. It can give you the kick in the pants that you need to get moving on the goal. 

Your Goal: I am going to pay off $32K in student loan debt.
Better Goal: I am going to pay off 32K in student loan debt by December 31st. 

Always set a concrete date for when you want that goal to be completed. Otherwise, you might be reaching towards the same goal every single year because you did not give yourself a definitive date to get it done. Your goal for the year becomes a "someday" goal.

Step 4: Add in the how

Your "how" is your action plan. Breaking your big goals into the simpler goals it'll take to accomplish the goal, you make the goal more tangible. You give yourself an opportunity to mentally break down what it will take to get there. 

Your Goal: I am going to pay off $32K in student loan debt.
Better Goal: I am going to pay off $32K in student loan debt by December 31st by lowering my living expenses by half, sticking to a strict "fun money" budget and creating online products.

This step is one of my favorites because it forces you start talking in terms of action. 

 

Step 5: Think about the frequency

Every week on Sunday, I head down to a coffee shop and get to work. I can sit there anywhere from 4-6 hours (like a legit 9-to-5) and that is the day that I'm most productive. When I first started doing this, I would pull myself out of bed, shower and have breakfast then (after a half hour of convincing myself that this was good for me) I'd head to the coffee shop. After weeks of doing this every Sunday, no matter where I am or how I feel that day, my body pulls me into a coffee shop to work. 

Adding in the frequency that you will perform an action that helps you reach your goals (whether it's daily, weekly or monthly) will help you develop a habit over time. 

For example:

Your Goal: I'm going to work out more. 
Better Goal: I'm going to work out three days a week. 
Best Goal: I'm going to work out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 

Getting super clear on your on when you will work on your goals - and sticking to it over time - will increase your ability to accomplish your goals because over time you'll develop habits.

Step 6: Make Your Goal Present On Your Schedule

Chris Hart once said

"Show me your calendar and I'll show you your priorities."

It basically means that we all make time for the things that we want to do and the things that we value in our lives. If you want to be a high achiever, you simply have to make your goal one of these priorities. 

That starts with giving your goals a definitive time on your calendar. 

For example:  

Goal: I'm going to work out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 
Better Goal: I'm going to work out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after work.

When you have time slotted for your goal and nothing else can take that time, you become unstoppable.  

Step 7: Speak as if it's already done

Your brain, while incredibly complex, is also pretty easy to trick. That's why we do vision boards annually and look at them daily - the more your brain sees something, the more it believe's it's already done. The same thing goes for what you say. 

Changing your goals from something you will do in the future to something you're currently doing not tells your brain that you are committed to doing this NOW - it's not something you're putting off to a later date. 

For example:

Your Goal: I'm going to work out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after work. 
Better goal: I work out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after work.

Bonus: FOCUS on one goal at a time

My last piece of advice is to focus on one large goal at a time. If you're trying to do five things at once, you're putting 20% of your energy into 5 different things. While you might be incredibly busy, you may have nothing to show for it at the end of the day. Choose one goal that will make a huge difference in your life - and once that goal is completed - move on to the next one. 

Happy Goal-Crushing!

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.

 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 Turn Your LARGE Goal Into A Super Legit Action Plan

Are you one of those people that starts looking around in December wondering wtf you're going to do next year? In your head you know that you want this year to be different than the last, you want to break from your shell, do something EPIC... but you don't really now where to start. 

My first year doing a vision board was something like that...

I didn't know what I wanted to accomplish. Heck, I didn't even know what I was capable of. (At that time, I had only successfully accomplished a worthless degree, years of waitressing jobs and overall failing at adulting.) 

However, that was the year I was determined to turn my little sinking ship of life around and (even though I had no idea what I was going to do) I created an action plan that would ultimately help me figure it out. 

START WITH A PIE-IN-THE-SKY GOAL. 

Your pie in the sky goal (I also like to call this your dream goal) is a goal that is very large if you look at it from where you currently are. This is a goal that you'll need to step out of yoru comfort zone to reach. You might have to learn a new skill or leverage the help of a team to do something that you've never done before. This is a goal that, over the course of a year will stretch you. 

In my life the goal was simply to stop failing and figure out what I wanted. I planned on pursuing this to the fullest extent of my abilities and with all of my time.

When you've been doing the same thing over and over again for years, it can be hard to find a different version of yourself that is actually succeeding. However, if you take some time to believe that you can achieve more than you currently have, you'll get there. 

BREAK DOWN YOUR PIE IN THE SKY GOAL INTO MINI GOALS.

You can't eat your great-grandma's sweet potato pie in one bite... and you wouldn't try to conquer a large goal all at once either. (I know, I'm so corny, but it's true!) Reaching this large goal can seem very daunting, but to make it more manageable (and easier to navigate) you'll want to break that goal down into small pieces. These mini-goals are smaller goals that serve as checkpoints on the way to achieving your overall goal. 

In my example where I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, my mini goals would be to: 

1. Take classes in different areas to decide what professions interested me.

2. Join meetup groups to start networking in different industries.

3. Choose a graduate program to continue my education.

BREAK DOWN YOUR MINI-GOALS INTO ACTIONABLE ITEMS. 

You'll notice that each of these "mini-goals" are relatively large in itself. That's a good thing! Your mini goals can be broken down even further to the daily action items you'll need to make in order to move forward on the goals. 

In my example, to take classes in the different areas to see what professions interest me, I would have to: 

1. Research free and paid courses that would expose me to new areas.

2. Register for a new class and put effort into taking the classes and practicing the exercises and doing the homework.

3. Re-evaluating how I felt about the program and the field as a whole.

4. Determing whether I wanted to continue taking more of these classes or try out a different professional program.

Not only is the work of learning about different programs tedious, it would require me to continuously walk down paths, conquering challenges and learning new things with no idea whether it would be a worthwhile journey. However, these are necessary steps to follow if I wanted to figure out what I was good at. 

Breaking your mini goals down into smaller action items will help you see the smaller, daily actions you can to take to make your dreams a reality. That way you can start implementing them in your life asap!

The new year is a great time to re-evaluate where you are in your life and where you want to go. Starting your year off with a large goal will put you in a great position to crush your year!

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.

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

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 Set THE RIGHT Goals In Every Area Of Your Life

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

How many times have you looked at your life only to realize that there are a TON of tiny, little things you have yet to pay attention to. 

For example... 

• Your back has been hurting for about 6 months (but it's not THAT bad)

• You haven't called your wonderful great grandmother (but you SWEAR you'll get to it soon!)

• Your room (over the last few weeks) has become a hot mess - so bad you don't know where to start

• AND.... you kinda have to make more of an effort in your work (because you've been slipping)

Sound familiar? 

I hope not, because that's MY story right now (and to make matters worse, I could easily add 5 more, but I don't want to start a pity party on a goal-setting blog (Can I give myself a #SideEye?)).

The truth is, no matter who you are, it's pretty easy to get stuck in one of those life ruts where your life slowly (but oh-so-surely) becomes a mess over time. Balls get dropped.

After a while, it become the new norm... #OwnIt

But with each new day comes the opportunity to say "it's time to make a change" and actually make an effort towards changing the way you do things.

How do you know what goals will be BEST for you? Like anything else, it all starts with a plan. 

 

STEP #1: Self Assessment: Reflect on Every Area of Your Life

Your happiness hinges on several different areas of your life. (If you're a rockstar at work, but your family is falling apart, I highly doubt you're feeling completely fulfilled in your life.) There are five key areas I like to focus on: 

Educational/Professional Development
Personal Finance
Family/Relationships
Self Care
Health/Fitness

Start with thinking about the last twelve months of your life. If you had to rate every area of your life on a scale of 1 to 6 (six being super happy!) what would you rate your overall success in each one of these areas? 

Once you know quantify how you performed in each area, it's easier to see what areas in your life are high as a kite and which areas are suffering and need resuscitation.

 

Step #2: Make a list of fulfilling activities in each of these areas

Next, brainstorm which activities that make you feel like you are living your best life in each area. Imagine you were creating a highlight reel (or basically curate your social media feed) to showcase the best moments of each of these areas, what would you include?

For each area of your life, make a list of every activity that brings you happiness, joy and every random activity that you look back and think "why did we stop doing that?" These are the activities you'll want to try to incorporate into your life. 

Step #3: Decide on what you want to focus on

Now that you have a full list of all the things that you COULD do to make you happy in all areas of your life, it's time to decide what you're going to focus on. You may not want to do them all (because ain't nobody got time fo' that) but focus on a few activities in the areas that need serious improvement and the areas that you're most passionate about. 

For example, if you have an area of your life that's severely suffering because you've spent more time in the past focusing on other things, you may decide that it's time to give that priority. On the other hand, if you're deeply engrossed in one area of your life and are happily accelerating that, you may also make the decision to continue only focusing on that one area. 

The only thing you must do is make sure that you choose to focus on the areas in your life that are most important for you. 

Step #4: Intentionally decide on performing these activities (and put time on the calendar for them)

It's not enough to come up with the activities you want to accomplish - you must also plan on doing them and make time for them. Take out your trusty planner of choice and take a look at when you will incorporate these activities into your life. 

First think about how often you'll do it. If you plan on taking a family trip, that that's likely something that will happen once in a year, but you want to also plan out time for planning the trip, researching the activities and booking everything. Put those things onto your calendar ahead of time. The moment you do this, it becomes real. 

If the task is more recurring, like date night with your s/o, then you'll want to put that time into your calendar, too. 

Next, think about what day of the week (and you can even get as granular as what time in the day you're going to take to make this happen). Giving your goals a time on your calendar makes it real - and you even start planning for making them happen. That's what makes them inevitable.

This approach to goal-setting takes into account every area of your life and gives you the chance to reflect on it and choose what's most important to you. Once you've made a decision on what's important and how you're going to enhance it, it's totally up to you to set the goals and create the change you want to see in your life

Happy Goal-Setting!

xoxo

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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!

10 Life Changes To Crush The New Year Like A Boss

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

The beginning of the year makes most people feel like they need to re-evaluate their life! This week, my friend started a social media post that encouraged us to look back at our entire year and talk about the highlights of our personal life and biz life. To my surprise, this one post gave me so much energy!

I started to list off all of the things I did over the course of one year. (Then I went back and read it and thought... DAMN, girl! You totally killed it!) 

Here's what I wrote: 

The more my friends celebrated my success with me (and added their own), I realized that I'd also went to a women's event in Atlanta, GA, where I also had a family trip to the CoCa Cola Museum and visited the aquarium. I went to Mardi Gras for the first time and stood my my best friend as she married the man of her dreams. (That was all icing on the #girlboss cake.)

I was shocked by how much I personally did in one year. (I mean, it's just 12 months... Seriously, where did I find the time?) 

So, let's get to the nitty gritty... 

How do you create a year that brings to you health, wealth and super rich relationships with people around you? 

Here are my 10 things to do before the new year begins to make next year your best year yet. 

 

Decide what's important to you

Knowing what's important to you will help tremendously in being about to focus on what you need (and what you need to get rid of) in your life. 

As we become more and more connected on the internet, we are able to see others living out their best lives. We sit back (with glass of red wine in hand, cell phone in the others) scrolling through images and videos of our friends and family traveling, getting job promotions, becoming physically fit, financially stable and building families. It's very easy to wonder why you're not enjoying the same quality of life or accomplishing the same things. 

Deciding what's important to you will put you in the position to always make the best choice for you in each moment. Additionally, it will help guide you (through non-stop ads and social media #FOMO) in the right direction. Rather than chasing after every shiny object, you'll have a better handle on what you want out of life. 

Create A Vision Board

I've created a vision board every year since 2015. After seeing tremendous growth in my life, I couldn't imagine starting a year without it. A vision board is a visual representation of everything you want to accomplish in your life. 

My favorite way to create a vision board is getting together a small group of friends, a lot of wine and a few small bites and hosting a vision board party. Vision board parties are a way to bring together your best friends, share your vision with them and to learn from them as you build your vision boards together. 

 

Start A Side Hustle (Or Start Taking Your Side Hustle Seriously)

I recommend that everyone have a side hustle - something that is their own to grow, build and nurture through the years. Not only is a side hustle a great way to create a new source of income for yourself and make an impact on the world, but you can also create a space for you to continue learning and grow your expertise in any industry you want. 

If you already have a side hustle that you're not taking very seriously at the moment, maybe it's time to pick it back up and create an action plan. 

Get your money right

No matter how deep of a hole you're in or how long you've been avoiding your student loan payments, you can start getting your money right at any time - and in any way you want.

I've spent the past few years focusing on different areas of my money, depending on which was most important for me at the time. At first, my main focus was making more money. Once I had enough money coming in, I wasted to create a budget and understand where my money was going. In the process of creating a budget, I started to save money. After that long process, I finally had the strength to ask the real questions about my out of control student loan debt and start making payments towards them. 

When I first began my journey, I didn't have two pennies to rub together but over time, as I got a higher paying job and finally had enough cash to pay my bills, I was able to focus on other things like saving and investing.

Before you start the year, take some time to find out where you are in your money journey - and what will move the needle for you.

Find a mentor

Mentors can make the difference between trying to figure out life yourself (banging your head up against the wall), to having all of the answers at your fingertips when you need them. I've made it my mission in life to keep my eyes open for new potential mentors AND to always help out other women by mentoring constantly in my free time. 

Pro tip: Look for mentors for all areas of you life. I have work mentors, professional mentors, entrepreneurship mentors, as well as relationship mentors and general life mentors to give me all the tips I need to navigate this things called life.

Find an accountability partner

Your accountability partner is a person that makes sure you're working your way towards your goals. I have monthly calls with my accountability partner to talk about what progress I've made on my goals and set new goals for the upcoming month. This ensures hat I'm always working towards those goals and making a conscious effort to reach those goals. 

You can find an accountability partner anywhere, including meetup groups, your current friends groups and online communities like Facebook groups where you can meetup with people and talk about the goals you want to accomplish. 

Plan at least one trip.

This past year, I traveled to New Orleans to experience Mardi Gras with one of my best friends to for her bachelorette party. While it can get pretty expensive to travel to a new place and try out all the local must-do's, we found lots of ways to make it accessible to everyone. First, instead of taking a plane that would've cost us $600 each, we all took the train. It took 24 hours for the entire trip, but saved us $350 each! (Pro tip: We made it even more cost effective my hitting up the Total Wines and stocking up on alcohol before the trip - and bringing flasks!) 

We stayed in an Airbnb, which cost us about $30 a night, once we split it five ways for all the ladies on the trip and we had an entire house to ourselves for all the debauchery we desired! (Side note: If you haven't used Airbnb before, click here for $40 towards your trip!)

Rather than getting a car (which would've definitely drove the price even higher) we opted to take Uber everywhere and split the bill for each ride. 

Taking a trip with friends gives you an opportunity to deepen your relationships, visit somewhere new and create new memories with the people you love. #WorthIt

Spend time with friends and family

Your life will only be as rich as your relationships (and no amount of money will be able to tell you otherwise). Community is what makes life worth living (period). Stop what you're doing and call up your family and friends - make sure that in the upcoming months you have time allotted on your schedule to pay them a visit or chat on the phone. 

A few years ago, a friend of mine called me randomly on a whim and I forced him to meet with me to talk in person since we hadn't seen each other in a while. The next day I learned he'd been in a terrible accident late that night and passed away. I felt at peace knowing that I was able to see him and have a great memory of our friendship to hold on to. I'm not always morbid, but when I am it's for good reason. Make sure you see your friends - we shouldn't be only seeing friends and family in person at weddings and funerals #DoBetter. (Okay, I'm off my soapbox. #IPromise)

Make time for self care

With an ever-growing culture of creation and focus on monetary success, it can be very easy to stop paying attention to taking care of yourself, but I want to encourage you to place a focus on making time for you. Get a massage, get your hair done, take a day off just because - reclaim your time... because no one else will do that for you. 

Start journaling.

I recommend journaling to all of my goal-getting friends because being about to journal about your goals helps you clear your head.

Every time I journal, it's a free form, no time limit brain dump. I can get all of my emotions out into the open (knowing that my faithful journal will not share my deepest, darkest secrets). I can brainstorm about things I want to do in my biz or in my personal life. Your journal is your safe space to focus on yourself. (Where else can you really do that these days?) 

Journaling, even if it's just for 5 minutes a day, is a great habit to pick up in the new year.

Each new year is an opportunity to set new goals, reach new heights and become the best possible version of yourself. You get the choice in who you want to become. #ChooseWisely

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.