Don’t get me wrong. Goals are great. Goals are integral to understanding how to break down the big picture into achievable steps to realize your vision.

However understanding and having clarity not just about WHAT you want to achieve but being able to clearly articulate HOW you want to FEEL every day after achieving your goal or vision is in my opinion, even more important. It’s also what will help you maintain your newly found success.

Motivation can be so fleeting and difficult to maintain when your goals are challenging and require time and a lot of effort. Motivation can also come and go depending on the challenges and opportunities that might oppose the direction your goals are taking you.

For me there are a few key steps I like to take to help me stay present to how I want to feel when I reach the outcomes of my goals.

1. Establish very clearly for yourself the root cause to why you want to achieve this goal. Write it down and keep it in a place you will see it every so often.

2. Be clear about the way you might feel when you achieve his goal. Use descriptor language to help yourself along. Perhaps you want to feel worry free, happy, warm and ready to smile when you wake up. Or you want to feel clear-headed and strong when faced with adversity.

3. Find an example of people around you who are further down the path towards achieving the same or similar goal as you. Their support and guidance will be valuable in keeping you focused.

4. Remember every bad day eventually finds its good day again. Rely on the above to help you towards success. Remember that the bad days are challenging you to find solutions towards the aspects of life that may also try to throw you off track once you’ve achieved your goal.

Focusing on the feeling keeps us present to the small changes and actions we can make every day. This has been the differentiator for me in my own journey towards every goal I have ever set. From falling in love with my husband, finding a home we want to share, having our daughter, learning about fitness and health all the way to the types of roles I have taken on.

While there’s always going to be a pragmatic approach to goal setting, the process, securing some motivation and then success. That should be balanced with visualizing the feeling of your success from the start. Let your mouth water with desire for that success. Let your mind already recognize that success. Create the feeling of success before the success has even become yours. Why? So you can recognize it all the more quickly when you succeed.

So, what’s your feeling?

Jordanna