Setting Mediocre Goals

We are at the start of a new year and with that comes all manner of intentions and expectations. We set goals for the year ahead that don’t always align with who we currently are as people. We ignore our own personality traits or tendencies and we create in our minds an image of the person we think we should be and then we assign this fictitious person a set of goals that we think should be obtained for the year and then we expect current selves to match and excel in this expectations and do so without any form of failure. We are only after success and we have no room for any setbacks. 

So we set the most unlikely stage for success. If we dissect how we set intentions for a new year and take a closer look, the formula is one created to insure that what we desire has as many obstacles in its path as possible. We set ourselves up to fail and then we beat ourselves up for it and drop all goals and this can happen in a matter of weeks if not days.

One of the reasons this can occur is because we decide that we would like transformative goals, big glossy shiny ones, just like the baubles that we have just put away from our Christmas decorations. They need to be bold, make a statement and show progress that the whole world can see. And really you require yourself to become a whole other person to accomplish them but you ignore that part. You just go about finding the biggest and juciest goal you can think of and it feels good. In fact, each time you think of it, you get a buzz of excitement running through you and feel motivated to get going. You can envisage all the ways it will feel great when you reach this dizzying height and you imagine all the ways you will celebrate and live out your new life. And then after setting the intention and creating a vision board to match, you awaken the next day in your regular life, as your normal self and you now must go about making this goal a reality. And in no time at all, the sense of defeat greets you. The small steps you took towards that goal seem redundant, it feels as though no steps have been taken that even match slightly to your desired outcome. And just like a helium balloon, you begin to lose air; and this is the problem with lofty goals. 

I am not advocating that you don’t have them, but I am in favour of setting some mediocre goals that are not sexy or shiny but are possible in your everyday life and from which progression can be made that set you up to reach your desired destination albeit in a way more mundane way without all the glitter. 

Because big goals can lead to a burst of motivation that dies out and leaves you neglecting any ideas you held for a new year or a new habit you wanted to create. Whereas creating the medium to small goals are actually the gamechangers. They are the ways that you can turn tides and they come disguised in the everyday, they could even be deemed boring. They don’t create any bursts of excitement or adrenaline, but they do create a sense of  possibility and that is what we are really after. A plan where the intention is met with possibility. 

Exponential leaps are far more alluring and slow and steady is far more mundane, but the latter is a mystical place that is deceptively productive. It allows for space and clarity, it doesn’t require you to undertake a rapid transformation that you cannot maintain and it makes way for you to take action with ease. It enables you to be effective with your intentions and that is what we all want in the end. There is no point in having ideas we would like to manifest but feel impotent to do so because they seem so gargantuan in size that scaling that mountain requires a level of input and energy you can’t always maintain. We want a sustainable model for those dreams we would like to come true so that we give them the best chance of arriving into this world. 

So I am advocating for small to medium sized objectives. Remove the glitter and the gloss and downsize them. Once they reach a size that makes you feel like they are within your remit to achieve them, then you can set about planning the actions you are going to take. 

This can sound like a lesson in thinking within limits and boundaries and feels way less appealing than the big manifestation goals soundbites that are littered all over social media. But the magic is in the creating in small incremental steps because from this place, you will create momentum, trust in yourself and you will see outcomes, small, steady ones and all this combined will incentivise you to keep going and your goals will have the snowball effect, they will become bigger and greater but at a pace that you are maintaining and a momentum that you are creating. You will make big things happen from the small steps you are taking. This is where the magic lies and it is hidden in plain sight, within the small and the simple. Within the steps that you can take today and the actions that are possible within your everyday life. 

Let this be an experiment, if you have tried the lofty goal approach and been left demotivated by the 4th day and your intentions left to wither by the second week, then you have nothing to lose to try the mediocre method. It doesn’t create a rush of adrenaline upon hearing about it, but who cares if within it lies the seed of actually creating your dreams into reality. It is not spoken about because it isn’t an easy sell. Offering up and everyday, ordinary sounding solution is not great marketing. But it is what actually works. Nobody wants to have goals that feel good initially and never get to be created. It is better to set yourself up to create your desires in a manner that not only supports and manages to manifest those dreams but also does so by developing your skills in taking action and building trust and faith in yourself too. It’s a win win.