Your Goals Are 24/7, Not Just 9-5.

For some time now I have been setting goals. But it is only recently that I have really understood the importance of this and how to do this effectively. Although I am yet to master goal-setting and still have a lot to learn, I have learnt one thing, and that is that achieving your goals is not a 9-5 job, it’s a 24/7 job. This was my first mistake.

When I was younger, my goals, not that I would have called them that, were: go to uni (no one in my family had done this before), travel to Europe (Santorini with the white building and blue roof tops was my dream destination), see the pyramids, get a successful job, be on 6 figures before 30, and own a property, also before 30. I saw these things as what I wanted to have happen in my life, not goals. Looking back now I can see that they were my goals, but ones I achieved (pretty happy about that) without a real plan. Now I have bigger goals, I have needed to change my approach.

I currently have 2 big goals:

1 – To be stage-ready in 16 weeks, in the best shape I can be in, ready to compete.

2 – To have a successful coaching business, working in education and health and wellness.

These goals also have little mini goals propping them up, but are the main goals I am striving to achieve.

Now you have a background story, here is the real message…

YOU CANNOT TREAT YOUR GOALS LIKE A 9-5 JOB!

In the past when trying to get to my ideal weight, create the body I was looking for, or to grow my business, I can honestly say I treated it like a 9-5 job. Monday to Friday I was kick-butt. Food was weighed, meals were prepped and eaten at the right times, minor slip ups did occur at times (not weekly though), and my diary was packed with meetings, networking, clients and business preparation. Come the weekend though and it was like I was on holiday. My diet, while still mostly healthy, was whatever I felt like, meals out were enjoyed along with a milky coffee, and usually some chocolate, ice cream, or baked goods, even bread. None of this would occur Monday – Friday. Ever. And in my business I didn’t do a thing. No reading, no study, no clients. In my head it was the weekend, and that meant from everything.

At some point, I realised, if I really wanted this, if it was my goal, I needed to start treating it like that all the time, 24/7 not 9-5. Things had to change. I had to change. Once this realisation happened I started to treat my weekend as an opportunity to really work on my business. The diet though, has been a struggle.

To me, weekends are a time for social events, relaxed brunches, and late night snacks. Or they used to be. Now that my goal is driven by a pretty empowering “why,” an event at the end keeping me accountable, and that I have you as part of this journey, my diet is now 24/7. Because if I really want this to happen, and if you really want your goal to happen, you need to make a commitment that it is 24/7, not 9 – 5.