Positive Thinking Strategies for Goal Setting
Posted on July 22, 2021 by Mandy Irvine, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
How to create a positive action plan that will help you achieve your goals with ease.
With the world heading back into lockdowns and constant stay-at-home notices, what can you do to keep yourself motivated and empowered to keep progressing? The key thing is to keep a moving towards attitude rather than a moving away from mentality. For example, you might be focused on not wanting to be unemployed (moving away). But, instead, you should be thinking of how to get employed (moving towards). Although these may come across as being the same thing, the moving towards attitude is more positive and has a higher chance of success, you are always taking steps towards your goal, and even if that means by only 1%, you’re still moving in the right direction.
When you have a moving toward mindset, you have more options because you look at many possibilities. Think of the example above; when you focus on how to get employed, this creates many opportunities; career change, study options, freelance, consulting, networking, interviews, etc. But on the other hand, when you focus on not wanting to be unemployed, you can spend too much time focusing on how you got to that stage and blaming situations or people for that outcome, which will do nothing for your progress.
So how do you create a more positive mindset right now?
Grab a pen and paper and make a heading with the area of life you want to work on; career, health, spirituality, relationships, family, personal growth.
Ask yourself the question; What do you want in _______ (chosen area)? Then, write down all the answers.
You should be able to tell if you have a moving away or moving towards mindset by the answers you give. If they are all moving towards your goals, well done; you are on the right track. If not, let’s carry on.
3. For the answers you have written down that are moving away, rewrite them as a moving towards statement. This helps you create more options and possibilities. 4. When you have a complete list, start making an action plan for each one and give yourself a timeline for doing each of them. 5. Share your plan with someone; having an accountability partner increases your chance of success.There may be some things on your list that the thought of doing makes you feel uncomfortable, but remember you have to get outside of your comfort zone to grow, it is ok to get it wrong and to find that one of your options wasn’t the right one, but by having many options, you will find something that works for you. Having options, good or bad, is much better than dwelling on the past; remember, you can’t change the past, but you can change how you view it.
Here is an example I have created for myself to keep me on track with positive habits around health and fitness.
1. Health and Fitness
2. What do I want in health and fitness? Energy, To stop feeling tired all the time, better quality sleep,
3. Score out the negative statement To stop feeling tired all the time and rewrite it.
4. By exercising daily, I will feel more energised. I will start today. I will aim to get to bed 15 minutes earlier each night to get a longer sleep.
5. I am sharing my plan here with you.
This is a very basic example, but I hope it helps explain how you can create an action plan for yourself around your chosen area.
I have met many people who struggle to create these action plans because they can’t change their mindset; that is ok; it doesn’t mean that your mindset can’t change; it just means that you would benefit from some external help. That is where I come in; I have worked with many people to help them make permanent mindset changes and have supported them when they have been trying to take those steps to move forward; working with me has helped them progress much faster than when on their own. If you would like to have a chat about how I can help you, click on the link and fill in the contact form.
