Weekly Happiness Note August 29, 2024

5 Mindful Ways to Stay on Track with Your Goals

“Staying on track with your goals is about what’s happening right now, not what might happen in the distance.”

Happy Thursday! 🌞

Do you find it challenging to stay on track with your goals? Perhaps you have a busy schedule, and you’re juggling a lot of responsibilities. As a result, do your personal goals always end up at the bottom of the list? If so, check out this week’s happiness note, now available to all subscribers. It’s “5 Mindful Ways to Stay on Track with Your Goals.” You’ll receive some of my favorite practices to help you remember that it’s always better to get to where you’re going when you enjoy where you are right now. A timely topic with the start of September.

Check out this week's topic below and consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive the weekly planning prompt and framework for September 2nd - September 8th. ❤ Emily

Here is a short 90-second video that highlights this week’s topic, and for the rest, read below:

This Week’s Featured Topic:

5 Mindful Ways to Stay on Track with Your Goals

Do you have a big dream you want to realize? Do you find it challenging to turn your goals into reality?

We all have hopes and dreams for our lives, no matter how far off on the horizon those dreams appear. It feels good to create goals and dreams. Whether our goals relate to our health, happiness, relationships, career, or level of adventure doesn't matter. When we allow ourselves to create an exciting vision for our future, our sense of enthusiasm and joy feels childlike and free.

When we step out of that joyful space and into our everyday lives, we often forget to bring that sense of hope and excitement with us. Our elevated appetite for life is essential—it helps draw in new experiences that match the same feeling we had when we created our initial goal.

Staying on track with our goals is about what’s happening right now, not what might happen in the distance. To be on track means to be in step with, in tune with, or in the now. It’s all about presence.

A new adventure and journey unfold because we focus on what feels exciting and possible. The thrill isn’t meant to be saved for the end; it’s meant to be enjoyed by us each step of the way. Our adventure happens because of our goal, and our initial goal eventually gets met because of our adventure. It’s a partnership.

So many of us miss the whole point of having dreams and goals in the first place. Our dreams can help us open up to the magic and joy available to us each day. When we stay on track with our goals, our everyday moments are injected with passion and love for life.

Here are five practices I regularly use to stay on track with my goals. These practices help me remember it’s always better to get to where I’m going when I love exactly where I’m at right now.

1. Stay Open and Receptive

The best way to stay on track with your goals is to maintain a passion for life. The easiest way to keep your passion and fire going is to ease up on the big picture of your goal. Instead of worrying about how you’ll ever achieve your goal, be open and receptive to life right now.

Think of the excitement you felt as you created your goal or dream. Give yourself a gift by feeling some of that excitement every day. Open yourself up to receiving joy in all moments, not just the shiny ones.

We can get caught up believing life is hard and happiness is only for some people. But that’s not true. Life is a gift, and when we are open and receptive to viewing life as a gift, we feel better. When we feel good, it’s easier to maintain momentum. Let go of the big, overwhelming picture of reaching your goals. Instead, focus on seeing what is amazing about life right now.

2. Use Your Feelings as a Guide

When we understand how valuable our feelings are, we will stop questioning ourselves at every turn. Your dreams and goals are your own, and how you reach them is by your design.

You can reach your goals while being blindly caught up in worry, doubt, discouragement, and fear. You can also reach your goals while using your feelings to guide you. When we trust our feelings, we trust in ourselves. How we feel is supposed to be the most essential part of the journey.

We can use our feelings to course-correct and get back on track. We can use our feelings to enjoy the day and journey as best as possible. It all comes down to understanding we are in partnership with life. How we feel right now helps us see how on-track or off-track we truly are.

3. Dance with Your Dreams

Enthusiasm is contagious. So is pessimism. The choice is yours. When we dance with life before us, our energy and attitude bring more of the same. When we push against life and make everything more challenging than it needs to be, we end up exhausted and overwhelmed.

I’m not saying reaching our dreams will always be easy, but for the love of all things, what is the point in making life more complicated than it needs to be? You don’t get extra points for reaching your goals the super hard, painful, and lonely route. You just get there feeling more weathered, worn, and sad. Remember, the journey and adventure are the wins. How we journey and adventure is the badge we end up with.

We move with life when we make the most of what is before us. It’s easier to stay on track with our goals when we know what brings us joy, and stick to it as best as possible. Dancing with life is way more fun than pushing against life—dance, dance, dance.

4. Get Used to Saying No

Why is it easier to say yes to others and no to ourselves? It could be for many reasons. I don’t know the answer, but it’s something worth shifting. Staying on track with our goals means we can’t be everything to everyone. It’s challenging to enjoy life when we are overcommitted and give more energy out than we allow back in.

Get crystal clear on what your definition of success and happiness includes. Who are your people? What does a successful day look like to you? What gets in your way? How does it feel when you aren’t sticking to your plan? How does it feel when you are true to yourself and your definition of success?

Healthy boundaries require saying no more than we say yes. There is no sense venturing through life carrying the load of others at the expense of our happiness. Saying no doesn’t mean we stop serving others or don’t lend a helping hand. Saying no is really about saying yes to ourselves first. It’s about being accountable for our happiness and staying on track with our goals.

When we say yes to ourselves first, we open ourselves up to say yes to the people and experiences that mean the most to us. When we say yes, we simplify life, and it becomes much easier invite joy into each day.

5. Tiny Steps Every Day

When we spend too much time focused on reaching our end goal or dream, we can get overwhelmed. The bigger the dream, the more self-doubt and worry we can allow in. Feeling overwhelmed and stuck often prevents us from taking any steps forward.

It’s always in our best interest to focus on making tiny steps each day that are in line with our dreams. Taking small steps forward from a place of presence is exactly how we stay on track with our goals.

We get to choose whether or not to make each day our adventure. We can choose to say yes, please, to our adventure with small steps every day. When we say yes to each day, we are on track to loving the life of our dreams.

How will you stay on your track and love your life today?

❤ Emily

This Week’s Quote:

Limited on time or don’t feel like reading

Check out this week’s Video instead:

Unlock your weekly planning prompt, including a printable planner for the upcoming week of September 2nd - September 8th. Subscribe above.

Planning for Next Week📝:

Use the framework below to plan your upcoming week: September 2nd - September 8th. Some people like to map out their forthcoming week on Friday to ease into the weekend, knowing they are ready to hit the road running on Monday. Others (like myself) have a Sunday planning ritual. Do what works best for you. Over the years, in supporting many people in their planning and goal-setting, it seems to work best to pick a day of the week that’s easy to stick to so that your weekly planning becomes a habit and ritual.

What are your wins? Before you organize the upcoming week, ‘September 2nd - September 8th’, reflect on the week you are wrapping up. What are your wins (big or small)? What is something you are grateful for? What have you learned about yourself this week? Record your reflections in your journal or the Notes section of the Planner Printout. Feel free to comment below (others in this community will also be able to see your comment) or hit reply to this note and share directly with me.

Planner PDF printout: This printout is from the ‘Fall in Love with Your Life, Seasonal Planner’ and will give you the framework and planning system to help you organize your upcoming week: September 2nd - September 8th. Click here to access. You will need to enter a password to open the PDF. It’s in all caps: FILWYL

Accountability: If you’d like an accountability check-in to support you in making the weekly planning ritual a regular habit, just hit reply to this email after you’ve organized your week and let me know you’re organized and complete. Feel free to share your weekly intention/power word. I’m always happy to be the check-in support and would love to celebrate your wins.

Instructional Video: Get free access to this mini 20-minute video course. It will show you how to efficiently use the ‘Fall in Love With Your Life, Seasonal Planner’ method of organizing your week. Go here to access the free video course.

Priorities: What are your top three priorities for the upcoming week? What are some of the daily ways you will prioritize yourself? Remember to balance your energy output with energy input. Think: What has been energizing me lately? What has been draining my energy?

Connect with Nature: Staying connected to nature on a daily basis has many benefits. Sometimes we get out of the routine of using nature as a healthy way to unwind or to de-stress. Instead of reaching for your smart phone or watching tv after a long day, lace up your shoes and go get some fresh air. One way to start limiting your time on your devices, is to change the habit with something else that feels good. Being in nature and breathing in fresh air feels good. Give it a try this week, especially when you feel the urge to zone out on your devices.

Journal reflection points prompted by nature: Reflect on how you feel before you go outside for a nature break, compared to how you feel after you’ve connected with nature. What might shift in your life this week, month or year, if you built nature breaks into your regular routine?

Share your intention for the week of September 2nd - September 8th. What are you calling in? What is your power word/phrase?

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Disclaimer: The advice and strategies this newsletter shares are for informational purposes only and do not constitute professional advice. While we strive to provide accurate and useful information, we cannot guarantee outcomes or be held liable for any consequences resulting from using or misusing the information provided. We encourage you to seek professional advice or consult with qualified experts for specific guidance related to your particular needs.