Here’s the thing about big goals, in order to work towards them, in order to achieve them you need a lot of energy. Energy is a limited resource, therefore it must be used wisely and strategically allocated in the right places in order to accomplish what it is you are trying to do. If not, your minimal efforts will be for naught and your frustration potential will be significant. Minimal effort may slowly lead you toward meeting minimal goals, but big goals must be pursued through big efforts. They must be prioritized and attacked with precision and continuous reassessment of the steps that are being taken to make them happen. If during this reassessment you realize or recognize a potential impediment to this forward progress, you must not be afraid to correct your behavior and to redirect back on course.

This can be difficult because the impediment may be something you would also like to work towards or a welcomed distraction, but at the end of the day it’s about priorities. Goal setting is not a linear process it’s a flow chart that requires constant re-evaluation of what you are doing, where you are going, what you want and a constant check and balance of if those things still align. If not please return to the goal setting stage, if so please return to the tasks setting and accomplishment phase and proceed en route to your goal.

However, what’s important about this process is the ability to discern what it is you want versus what you think you should want, what other people think you should want, and all the other things that can cloud our judgement. There’s a reason Lose Yourself won so many awards, Eminem had it right if there’s something you want more than anything else, something you want so bad you can taste it, you have to give as much as you can to it. I won’t say everything. There’s a balance, but when you recognize wasted energy do not be afraid to cut out the source that’s draining it from you. It’s too valuable a commodity to not be careful and concise with whom and what you choose to share it. To not feel guilt for freeing yourself from those people or things who drain it leaving it depleted to the point that there is no longer enough to utilize for positive accomplishments towards your goals. If you don’t you will watch yourself move further away from your goals rather than towards them.

I’ve let so many things cloud my judgement at times the last 5 months, but my fear of not reaching my goals supersedes any other fear that I may have let distract me.

Do not be afraid to prioritize and pursue without apology. That is when I have been my happiest, it has only been when I’ve let myself become distracted or defined by something other than my own abilities and strengths that I’ve become hindered and filled with unhappiness. Unhappiness from the fear and knowledge that I am no longer giving the energy I need to the things I’m supposed to be. Whether it’s conscious or unconscious it’s apparent to me now, I’ve allowed myself to get way off track only going through patterns and habits without truly being attentive to this process, and for me, for the goals I have set, that isn’t enough.

So in light of this epiphany I am going to make the necessary readjustments and return to that relentless drive and pursuit of what I know I need and want with a renewed dedication to my goals and a clear vision of what it takes to meet them. I am not pursuing minor things, therefore I will not let minor things keep me from reaching my maximum potential.

Xoxo,

Ashley