I used a daily goal setting journal for a week and this is what happened
By: My Write Time
Tags: Motivation, Journaling, Personal Growth, Goals, Goal Setting

I’m big on goal setting.

I think you have to establish goals for yourself in order to achieve great things. Or little things. Or anything really. You have to be intentional.

Goal setting is nothing new. We know that goals should be planned out and achievable and timely. We know that there are usually smaller micro-goals on our way to achieving the big one.

My thought process has always been that as long as I have goals and I am working toward them in some way, I must be doing alright.

But when I stopped to think about it — that vague notion did not actually translate into daily progress.

Could I articulate what my goals were if someone asked me?

What was I doing each day to make progress toward one or more of my goals?

What was my number one end goal that I wanted to achieve?

I could not answer these questions.

Enter Rachel Hollis. Entrepreneur, author, businesswoman, mama, goal-setting and personal growth queen. I have read both of Rachel’s non-fiction books: Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing.

In Girl, Stop Apologizing, Rachel talks a lot about goal setting. Specifically, she describes her process of using the “Start Today Journal”. Basically, she writes out her 10 current goals every single day. I repeat, Every. Single. Day.

And she writes them out as if she has already achieved them.

Rachel was out there kicking ass and crossing goals off her list left, right and center. I wanted to start doing this too.

I pulled out my journal and started to work on my list. I wrote down all the personal and professional goals I could think of for myself. All of the things I wanted.

It was harder than I thought. I knew I had lots of goals but formalizing them took some time. But it was necessary time. Because until you know what your goals are you cannot figure out the steps necessary to achieve them.

Once I was done I reviewed my list. Some of my goals are ongoing and some of them will likely take a while to achieve. But I took Rachel’s advice and wrote each one out as if I had already accomplished it.

I did not write down, “I want to be a Boston Marathon qualifying runner.” I wrote, “I am a Boston Marathon qualifying runner.”

I did not write down, “I want to work harder at being a good girlfriend/daughter/sister/friend.” I wrote, “I am an exceptional girlfriend/daughter/sister/friend.”

I did this every day for a week.

And you know what? It helped. By the end of the week I actually started believing that even my far-reaching goals (hello NYT’s bestselling author!) were achievable.

And reinforcing them every single day kept my goals at the forefront of my mind. I wrote my goals out each morning and then spent the rest of the day thinking (whether consciously or not) about what I was doing to achieve them.

I wrote more.

I watched less TV.

I helped my brother with something I did not want to do.

I meal prepped.

I kept up my fitness routine.

I was more present. I was more intentional. My goals were real and I was acknowledging every single day that I was going to achieve them.

Try it out for yourself. Once you have your goals written down the first day, each day after that is less than a five minute exercise. But it’s a five minute exercise that has lasting effects.