Perspective and Patience.

Setting and achieving goals hasn’t always been difficult for me, but I have noticed over the past two years how it has become a challenge in my life. Prior to the past two years I would set short term goals and achieve them with ease, same goes for long term ones as well. Lately, I have noticed that the main issue has been that I am taking long term goals and wanting to achieve them in a very short amount of time.

I can attribute this to the unknown in my life and how the stress and loss of control have ruled over me. Without the certainty of a set plan, I am constantly thinking of new ideas, what’s next, and how I am going to be successful in this life. That is the entrepreneur in me. Sometimes it haunts me and sometimes it’s my saving grace. Either way my tendency to want instant accomplishment of new ideas has really challenged my perspective and my patience.

A little less than a year ago I became a certified personal trainer. As I was studying for the final exam there was a whole section dedicated to goals. As I was thinking about this blog post my mind continued to go back to that section I was studying and how it relates to life goals and not just fitness goals. In the study material it talked about timely and attainable goals. These are so important to clients being trained because when the client sets too lofty of goals and puts an unrealistic timetable on those goals this, more times than not, results in a client quitting the program or exercise all together.

This really got me thinking about how I have been feeling over the past two years. Simply discouraged. I realized I needed to reevaluate my goal setting just as I preached to clients about setting fitness goals. The discouragement came from constantly being disappointed in myself because I wanted a huge goal to happen overnight.   

Taking this back to my new commitment of balance has created a whole new perspective for me and I encourage you to do the same. Balancing short term and long-term goals can be challenging but is something that can be so rewarding as well.

By setting more timely and attainable goals I have noticed my perspective has changed. My day to day has become more enjoyable because I have goals that may be far away, but I know I am working towards each day. I am not so discouraged each day because I know the short-term accomplishments are adding to grand scheme of things.

My patience has also been greatly affected by my perspective. With a new perspective on my goals, my patience has improved. Sometimes in life we are faced with failures, really challenging choices, and things that do not go our way but with patience we are able to overcome these things. I believe patience and balance go hand in hand as balancing our emotions and responses to these failures can be the difference between moving forward or giving up.

Don’t give up. Don’t lose your balance. Stay driven. Stay authentic.