3 Steps to Crushing Goals
There's no greater feeling in the world than crushing a goal! Not just reaching the finish line, but finishing strong! I have a BIG goal of running a quarter marathon in October. The thing is, I just can't wake up on that Sunday morning and run 6.2 miles. I have to train. I have to have small goals along the way. Right now I'm working on running a 5K at a certain speed. Everytime I get on the treadmill I push the pace up just a little. And today I crushed it! And I sprinted for a few minutes too! I was pumped.
But you know what happened to me right before I finished mile 2? My mind started trying to play tricks on me. It was saying, "You don't need to finish the 5K today. Don't you feel your legs they're starting to hurt. You can do it tomorrow. It's not a big deal." And that's where I have lost the battle time and time again. In my own head. But not today! I checked my breathing, it was fine. My legs were fine. Yeah, they hurt a little but not enough to quit. Then I started thinking about my goal of running the 5K at the faster speed. And then my big goal in October. And right there, in the middle of Planet Fitness I told my mind what was gonna happen. I was finishing and I was finishing strong!
So what is the goal that you want to crush? Here is my 3 Step Plan to Crush a Goal
- 1. Make a plan
It’s great to have that big goal. But have you mapped out how you’re going to get to the finish line? I have found that the small goals along the journey are the only way I can conquer the big one! One of my biggest goals is to get down to my goal weight. Running this quarter marathon is actually just a smaller goal to be down to a healthy weight that I honestly can’t even remember ever being. I get excited just thinking about that day. And that’s what pushes me.
Have you ever made a goal poster? It’s one of my favorite things to do! It combines my dreams with arts and crafts! What could be better? I have 2 goal posters for the year hanging in my bedroom. I look at them every day. One for my weight loss journey and the other for my Mary Kay Business. On them I put the daily, weekly and monthly goals that I want to achieve to reach the dreams that God has placed in my heart. I have a plan. I know we’ve all heard this, but when we fail to plan, we plan to fail. Don’t let a lack of planning keep you from crushing your goals.
- 2. Capture Your Thoughts
So you have a plan! Yes! You’re trucking along and all of a sudden your own fear starts creeping up and before you know it you are starting to talk yourself out of doing the daily steps you lined up in your plan.
What is it about fear? Why do we let it take hold? I can look back and see so many times where I let fear win. But you know what? Fear is a big fat LIAR. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. You are more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ. The bible talks about taking every thought captive! Here is what it says in 1 Corinthians 10:5-6 in The Message
“...We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity."
I’m tired of letting fear and the enemy win in my life. Aren’t you? You have the authority to speak to your fears and tell them to SHUT UP! God has incredible things in store for your life. Stop letting the enemy use your own fears against you to stop you from the God dreams in your life. And if you have to take your thoughts captive every day, do it. God has given you the strength but you have to do the work. And sometimes the hardest work we do is in our minds. But you can and will win! You will crush that goal!
- 3. Get Back Up
Alright, we have a plan, we’re capturing our thoughts and BOOM! Life happens. You get injured. There is a death in the family. There is an unexpected expense. Someone close hurts you. Or any of the other millions of things that can happen in this thing we call life. Or maybe we’re just not hitting those daily or weekly goals we set in the beginning and we feel like a failure. I heard this quote from a John Maxwell lesson years ago and it has stuck with me. “Failure is NOT fatal." Let those words sink in. Failure happens. But the only thing that will stop you from crushing your dream is quitting. So get back up!
Sometimes you have to adjust the plan. I had a goal of losing 10lbs every month and guess what? My weight loss stalled out. I hit that dreaded plateau. I wanted to be down 40lbs from January to the end of April. As of right now I’ve lost 21lbs this year. I’ve got 1 more week to go, so maybe I’ll hit 23! But you know what? I’ve lost 21lbs this year with 9 weeks of stalling!!! That’s amazing! I have to adjust my overall goal for the year. But that’s okay. I didn’t quit. I’m not going to let failure be fatal to my goal. I’m going to crush it. And you can crush your goals too if you will get back up. And determine the next time you fail that you’re gonna get back up again and again and again.
My goal with my blog is to give you hope and inspiration. God has placed destiny in you. You can and will do what He’s placed in your heart to do! Keep Shining!
