How to Set Kind Goals You CAN Achieve

The Importance of Being Kind to Yourself as You Set New Goals & Intentions

Dear friend,

As I write this, it’s during a season of reflection back on a year that brought some crazy things that no one saw coming. But it is also a time of year where we are all looking forward and asking what 2021 might bring. As we do both the reflecting and the gazing forward, it’s really important to be kind, give grace, and to allow ourselves to dream.

If we’re honest, there’s likely this mix of fear & anxiety combined with excitement & hope. There’s the possibility of the unknown along with the possibility of things finally shifting and changing. It really all depends on how we look at it.

But wherever you are in the mix of all that’s gone on this year, there is hope in store.

Whenever you’re reading, watching, listening to this, I encourage you to reflect back with kindness and look forward with hope.

Can you set goals, or intentions, in a way that is loving, kind, and full of grace, but also empowering and exciting for you?

How do we do this?

LOOKING BACK

In order to look forward, it can be really helpful to look back through a lens of grace and gratitude.

Reflection time of 2020 (or your past season):

- What was this like for you?
- Have you taken time to heal?
- Have any limiting beliefs been created out of what’s happened?
- What can you celebrate and lean into gratitude?

Looking back:

- What can you learn?
- How can you extend grace to yourself?
- Can you look back with a lens to see and celebrate the positive?
- Take some time to find all that you can be grateful for.

LOOKING FORWARD

What does Kindness look like?
- Did you know that kindness actually reduces stress in our lives?
- Are they kind to your heart, to your emotions, to your current lifestyle?
Are your goals, or intentions, really doable?
- Often we set goals that are WAY out of our reach. They sound good, but in the end, they aren’t really even doable for us.
Do they bring you joy and excitement?
- A benefit to picking something you enjoy is that it increases performance success by 46 percent. You perform better when you pick something you think is fun.
- Keep in mind that the shortcut isn’t “find something fun”; the shortcut is “make it fun if you want it done.”
And is your mindset and belief actually empowering you toward wholeness and life as you set these goals and intentions?
- Check-in: What would a goal look like that is actually kind and felt empowering and led to joy?

Checking in again:

What would a goal look like that is actually kind, doable, feels empowering, and leads you to joy and excitement?

What is your dream, intention, or goal for this upcoming season?
Take a moment and walk through some of these steps below to make it achievable:

Get specific and detailed.
Make sure it’s doable in your current lifestyle.
Sprinkle in joy and excitement in your “why” as you create it.
Does it stretch you ever so gently, but isn’t so far out of your reach you can’t do it?
Can you break it up into smaller bite-sized chunks that you can hit?
What’s the time period you’d like to do this in?
Visualize yourself on the other side, already completing it.
How does it feel once you’ve gotten there? Hold that feeling in your body and mind.