Is a Lack of Motivation Derailing your Dreams?

Then turn to Your Core, Core Values that is!

When you set a goal do you lack the belief in yourself to attain it? Sometimes I do. I mentioned this in my story “Want More Wins in Your Life? Start here!” which led me to discuss the “Building Self-confidence” Catalyst for Cultivating Courage.

But “Setting a Meaningful Goal” is a Catalyst for Cultivating Courage all by itself.

“Setting a Meaningful Goal” is easy to say. But it can be challenging to define goals that are meaningful. That is to say, that they pack the necessary motivation to get you into action and keep you there. To do this you must look to your primary core values and tie your goals to them.

Your core values are the principles that guide you and motivate you to do what you do. When we tap into them and keep them top of mind as we set and work toward our goals, we can move mountains. Our core values are the “why” behind our actions and efforts.

To set a goal that drives you into action and keeps you there, despite setbacks, you must determine what you want to achieve, ask yourself why reaching this is important to you, and link that goal to at least one of your key core values. But doing this can be tricky for a few reasons.

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Often we have big aspirations like running a marathon, losing a substantial amount of weight, or moving to a foreign country. These are great goals to have, but a meaningful goal that puts you in action doesn’t have to be something of this magnitude. It can be something much smaller than that, something that can help you achieve the bigger goal little by little. So consider breaking your big dreams down to smaller ones. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Second, if we don’t have a bigger aspirational goal in mind, we might not know what we want to achieve. Perhaps you’ve just accomplished a big goal or maybe you’ve gotten disheartened and stopped setting goals altogether. That is okay. You can start by looking at what you are dissatisfied with in your life and what you would like to experience instead. For example, if you are tired of having a cluttered living room, you might set the goal to declutter and downsize items in that room by a specific date.

Finally, we try to “keep up with the Joneses.” We see what others have or are doing, and they seem happy. We assume that if we achieved what they have, then we would be happy too. The problem is their goals often don’t speak to our own core values.

So How #2 to have copious success is “Setting a Meaningful Goal.” Here is the process.

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1. Take a sheet of paper, turn it sideways (landscape orientation), and divide it into three columns. At the top of the first column write “Goals,” at the top of the middle column write “My Why,” and at the top of the right-hand column write “Core Value(s) Supported.”
2. Determine a few things you want to have, do, experience, or be and write them down in the first column. Keep in mind the three caveats from above to make it easier.
3. Next to each goal, in the middle column, write out why achieving that is important to you.
4. Click here to take the Values Assessment to identify your top three to five core values.
5. In the last column, next to each why, list the key core value (one of the top three to five you identified in the Values Assessment) that achieving this goal will honor or satisfy. If a goal doesn’t line up with a primary core value, that goal might not be significant enough right now to propel you into action. It might not be the goal you choose to pursue at this time.
6. Look at your list of goals and ask yourself which objective feels like the one you want to work toward right now. Then set that as your meaningful goal, writing it down and committing to achieving it. (Note: You might want to do this step after you’ve had time to sleep on it.)
7. Then list the first two or three things you need to do to begin working toward your goal and take action!

That is it! How #2 to have copious success and resilience in life.

But there is one thing more that has helped me to reach my goals and live my dream life. I’ll share that in my next article. For now, take a little time and follow the steps to “Set a Meaningful Goal” so that you can reach more of your goals and feel more satisfied with yourself!