The unworthy Rat Wheel — Learn How to Set life goals and achieve them
Stop losing time and energy, and start making real your desirable life
Have you ever found yourself in a continued cycle of misunderstanding paths, each one with the same ending, without context and purpose? It’s more common than you may think, as many people rush through life paths based on external role models. One thing that shows up in that pattern is a simple question:
“Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?”
Question marks swirl around this inquiry, and that is understandable because of culture.
The actual mid-age population grew up in a model where success was predetermined by external models that were similar to robots. This structure, which I call the “Rat Wheel,” disempowers people from thinking outside the wheel and compels them to rush through their lives in a survival mode, leaving behind the self-centered manner necessary to build meaningful lives.
Introducing goal setting to your personal life is the most practical way to jump into the future you desire to build for yourself and your loved ones. Clear statements lead to evident achievements and influence your self-worth.
Therefore, I encourage you to follow this new series of entry blogs to learn about goal-setting methods, how they can impact life transformation, and how to implement them through baby steps.
Let’s start with goals that follow the SMART methodology, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This method is designed to create desirable criteria when establishing goals. To understand the SMART concept, keep the following principles in mind:
- Specific: simple, sensible, significant
- Measurable: meaningful, motivating
- Achievable: agreed, attainable
- Relevant: reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based
- Time-bound: time-based, time-limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive
All of these principles focus on building solid foundations in goal-setting. Common procrastination is triggered by not having deadlines in personal goal statements. The same happens with a lack of motivation, triggered by non-specific and non-measurable statements in goal design. These scenarios nurture dopamine decrease and amplify all wrong behaviors that hold you back in the rat wheel.
So, how can you start transforming your life goals in meaningful ways? Here are some guides to help you. Once you set a new goal, make sure to keep these prompts in mind to follow the SMART methodology:
- What do I want to accomplish?
- Why is this goal important?
- Who is involved?
- Which resources or limits are involved?
- How much?
- How many?
- How will I know when it is accomplished?
- How can I accomplish this goal?
- How realistic is the goal, based on other constraints, such as financial factors?
- Is this the right time?
- When, exactly, will I complete the first steps toward the goal?
- What can I do today?
- What can I do six months from now?
Be sure to keep these in mind and take advantage of tools that help you define and follow the progress around goal achievement. The Consistency Template is one that I designed that helped me center all the goals I used to keep in mind or messy papers around my office onto a single page. It allows me to be as specific as I want in goal design and to access it from all my devices.
Now, I invite you to take some solo time and reflect on your current reality. Is this what you desire now? If not, take a deep breath and allow yourself to connect with the vision of who you want to become. Keep those senses in your body and write down that vision, then start making it SMART.
It would be amazing to know about your experience. Please feel free to share it in the comments below. Remember, you are not unworthy; you only need to set your goals and actionable steps.
