Let’s face it, we are goal driven women with a continuous desire to achieve and contribute. There is always something on our daily to-do list waiting for us to tackle. We map out activities each month paying close attention to deadlines and how much time is left in the year to make things happen. Our drive to be highly productive, to meet the needs of those depending on us and to accomplish what we set out to do is what makes us so awesome. We know we’re here for unique purposes and assignments nobody else can complete. I love being a woman who is fueled by her passion for goal-setting. What I don’t love is how easily I’m tempted to turn each journey into a race.
Be aware of your own actions and evaluate if you’re working towards goals or chasing after them. There is a big difference between the two so make sure you’re not doing more of the latter. The problem with chasing our goals instead of working towards them? By chasing what we so desperately want, we begin to grip too tightly and try to control that which is not ours to control.
The chase for reaching your goals will make you feel like you’re always two steps behind. The chase for realizing your dreams will make self-doubts scream out to stop because you’re not as fast as the others who are going to beat you to it. The chase for achievement will make you feel like you can never do enough or be enough. It will make you feel like a let down to yourself and everyone depending on you because you haven’t succeeded yet. The chase to make changes happen in your life will try to convince you with all its might that you should learn to live with things as they are because the journey is too difficult.
I’m not suggesting to give up the work you’ve been doing to achieve your dreams, goals or life’s purpose. Instead, I am urging you to give up the chase. This is no easy task and requires great faith and trust in things you can’t control or see with your own eyes. I’ve found the stronger my desire for something, the harder it is to prevent my actions from turning into a footrace against the flow of life. Use these three tips as reminders to keep those running shoes in the closet, no matter how quickly you want to reach the finish line:
1.) Put in the time but don’t watch the clock.
In order to achieve anything, you will need to show up and take action. Carve out time in your schedule to implement necessary actions but realize you are not the timekeeper. Avoid becoming impatient and frustrated when things aren’t happening as fast as you’d like. There will be delays. Trust in the natural unfolding of the Universe and believe you’ll achieve your goal at the best possible time.
2.) Knock on doors but don’t set up camp.
Reach out to people for help in reaching your goals but be prepared for some not to answer the knock. If they don’t, move on to the next without becoming too disappointed or defeated. There will be unanswered knocks. Trust what goes unopened is for your highest good and the right doors will be opened by the right people at the right time.
3.) Play your part without demanding to conduct the entire orchestra.
Nobody can argue the role you have in making your dreams become reality. Yet, always remember there is a much larger force conducting the entire performance. When life starts sounding differently than the score you wrote, don’t stop playing your piece or your best. There will be notes you didn’t anticipate. Trust there is an even better arrangement being made than the one you originally had in mind.
Hastie
Hastie is a writer, speaker and creator of CenterStage! Her program teaches women how to step out from behind the curtains of their limiting beliefs and into their power. She believes women need to discover who they really are in order to live a more meaningful life.
The former pro-figure competitor used to be shy and hid under baggy clothes while working out. After witnessing a woman at her gym exercising with the lights off, she wrote 10 Steps to Become a More Confident Woman in the Gym, which you can download for free on her website. Hastie can be found in Pittsburgh, PA asking every new person she meets who has the best pizza in town. She is super organized and loves colored office supplies.
Meet Hastie at www.Hastie.guru, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or The No Fear Zone Radio Show on WPHT 1210-AM (CBS)
Such a fabulous and timely message, Hastie! I’m struggling big time with feeling like a let down to myself and those depending on me because it’s taking time for business income to roll in. Thanks for the tips and encouragement!