Confident Goal Setting Is A Skill You Can Learn

I first wrote this post about confident goal setting about four years ago. I came across it recently and loved the message of being persistent and confident in your goals if you really want to achieve them. So, I’m sharing it again. Read on to learn how my dogs helped me to learn more about persistence and confidence in my goals.

They are so determined!

I’ve been watching my dogs for the past few days and I’m learning from them.

You see this past week they’ve discovered that chipmunks have built nests all around our yard. They’ve found a nest under my kids’ old playset, under the heat pump, under bushes and the list could go on. While listening to them bark and bark over the past week what strikes me most is their persistence and confidence.

My dogs are very persistent in their pursuit of the chipmunks. They go after those chipmunks over and over throughout the day. Unless they are made to come inside the house, their persistence of this goal is nonstop.

They are so confident. They’re convinced that if they just stand at the entrance to the nest and bark long enough and loud enough, then the chipmunk will come out of it’s hiding place. They are just positive they can achieve their goal.

Do I have confident goal setting skills like my dogs?

This has me thinking about my own persistence and confidence. Do I pursue my goals in this way? Or, do I give a little bit of effort and if things don’t work out like I expected, then just move on to the next thing? Am I confident in my own efforts so that I continue forward even when I don’t see the payoff right away?

I know what I like to think about myself. 

I imagine that I’m as persistent and confident as my dogs are with their chipmunk hunting.  If I’m honest though, there are times when that is true, and there are times where that isn’t what is happening in my life.

Why do I give up so easily sometimes and keep going at other times? 

I think the difference is that sometimes the goals that I’m pursuing are really important to me.  Other times the goals that I’ve set really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.  I know if something is really important, then I will work diligently to accomplish it.  If I’ve been able to clarify what it is that I actually want to achieve or do and if that goal is actually attainable, then I’ll pursue it with persistence. That persistence will lead to me having the confidence that I can achieve my goal, and sometimes like my dogs have been in the past week, I’m sure I’m overly confident.

In reality though, isn’t that the only way to pursue something?  Do it completely and with all your heart.  Give yourself over to your goal if it’s really worth pursuing.

If you can’t give yourself completely in the pursuit of your goal, that’s when I think that it’s time to start to reevaluate that goal.  Confident goal setting is so very important in moving forward in life.  Setting a goal gives you something to work towards and a purpose in life. A goal can give you direction when you’re trying decide which path to take next.

Your goals need to be realistic in order for you to achieve them.

I believe those goals have to be realistic as well.  I mean I might like to swim but no matter how much time I spend in the water, I will never develop gills.  Setting a goal to grow gills isn’t realistic, but setting a goal to swim a particular distance or time is.

Going back to my dogs, no matter how much they bark at the chipmunks, they aren’t going to convince the chipmunks to come out of the safety of their nests.  So, yes my dogs were overly confident and persistent but they weren’t pursuing a realistic goal.

Do you pursue unrealistic goals sometimes?

How often do you find yourself acting like my dogs?  How often do you set goals only to realize that the goals you set aren’t realistic?  They might sound good when you first set them, but the route you are taking to achieve them or the actual goal don’t really work for you. This means you’ll most likely not achieve these goals.

When you have that disconnect between your goals and your reality how does it feel?  For me, this is when I don’t achieve my goals.  That disconnect is felt in my actions and my thoughts.  I lose my confidence and I am not persistent in achieving those goals.  I basically give up.

How do you reconnect to your goal and make it more realistic?

I find that I can reconnect to my goals when I reconnect to my body.  A little time by myself to really listen to how my body feels and what it’s telling me can usually help me to find clarity again and redefine what I really want to set as my goal.  When I’m more aligned with my goal, then I can be persistent in pursuing my goal and confident that I will attain it. It’s a confident goal setting process.

This is what I can help you do in a yoga therapy session.  I can help you reconnect to your body and your inner wisdom so that you can set realistic goals that you can achieve.  You too can be persistent and confident in your actions in achieving your goals.  It just takes a little time and awareness to connect to what is really important to you. Your body already know what’s important. Take the time to listen to it and reap the benefits of your internal wisdom when setting your next goal.

They finally gave up!

By the way, my dogs did finally give up on the chipmunks.  Thank goodness! I was tired of hearing them bark. It took them almost a week though.  When it suits them, they have an amazing memory.  They went back to the chipmunk nests over and over. Those chipmunks were never going to come out and play. For my dogs, an amazing amount of persistence and confidence didn’t pay off because their goal wasn’t actually realistic.

Don’t act like my dogs! Be confident and persistent in your goals. Just make sure you set realistic goals first. If you need help setting your next realistic goal, then set up a free chat with me. Let’s discuss how yoga therapy can help.

This Tip of the Week talks about how to set a SMART goal. Check it out!

And remember…it’s never too late to live healthier & happier!