How to Find Clarity in Your Life Goals

Finding clarity. It sounds easy. In fact, most people will read the title of today’s blog and think that it is no big deal.

But finding clarity in your goals and in your plan for your future is one of the most important things you can do for yourself!

I’m excited to talk about this because while clarity and goal setting is not an uncommon topic, putting it into action can be a whole other story.

Unfortunately, when most people set goals, they don’t follow through. I’ve been guilty of this.

I’m pretty sure if we are all honest, we can admit that  we fell short with our goal to lose 15 pounds or read 10 books or save x amount of money.

Here’s why I believe we struggle with goals- we know the end goal that we want to see happen, but we do not have the clarity in how we are going to get there. 

And that is why this is so important to read and truly grasp. While I’m not perfect by any means, I wanted to share some of the insights and tips I’ve learned about finding clarity and goal setting with you.

Be Honest With Yourself

Establishing clarity in  your goals is probably one of the most underrated exercises that anyone can do. 

So the first step we need to take when we think about finding clarity is truly being honest with ourselves about our goals. 

Do not allow yourself to sugar coat it!

We’re in goal-setting season right now as we prepare for the new year in just a few weeks. And it’s exciting!

But in order to truly have clarity in your goals for your future, reviewing and tracking your goals should be done on a regular basis.

Here’s a few questions for you that I want you to answer honestly:  When was the last time you sat down and wrote our serious goals you wanted to pursue? When was the last time you reviewed your goals to make sure you were on track to hit them? Have you looked at your goals recently to see if they were even still the goals you wanted to pursue?

I believe that this should become a weekly habit. Set a reminder on your calendar or in your phone on a Sunday or Monday to take a solid twenty to thirty minutes to review your goals.

One of the “random round’ questions I ask all my guests on my show, Build Your Network, is about their morning routine.

While their answers are vast, many will state how they review their schedule for the day to see how it aligns with their overall goals.

So let’s be honest with ourselves first and foremost about setting goals. Make it a habit by setting an alarm or reminder to focus on your goals at least once a week. 

Why We Need to Find Clarity in Our Goals

Let’s look at the worst possible scenario for setting goals.

Let’s say you have a goal to hike the tallest mountain that is close to you. You’ve been training for weeks, and the morning arrives.

You prepare the food, water, and clothing you need for the hike, and start your trek.

Hiking a mountain is no easy feat. You have put in the work, and when the pain comes, you push through it.

As you are making your way up, you get this second wind because you know you are getting so close to accomplishing your goal!

But as you get to the top, instead of feeling wonder, amazement, and excitement, all you feel is disappointment and regret. 

Why? Because once you have reached the top, you look over and realize that you are on top of the wrong mountain. The tallest mountain that you wanted to climb is just across the way. 

You put in the work and climbed a mountain, but it just wasn’t the one you actually wanted to climb.

It’s the same thing with goals in life and business.

Too many people are chasing after something that other people have told them is important. And they haven’t even honestly thought if it’s important to them. 

Do not put in work, effort, and sacrifice for the sake of work, effort, and sacrifice. Because you may just end up on the wrong mountain.

Having clarity is not just about recalibrating to figure out if you are on track to hit your goals. It’s about asking yourself if these goals are really what you want to pursue for your future.

Finding Clarity is Not an Excuse to Quit

One of the pitfalls that we can fall into when we ask ourselves these questions about our goals is we use it as an excuse or cop out.

If we can honestly say that the goal we had originally set is not the goal we still desire to see happen, it should not be a reason for us to give up on our dream.

Your dream is the end destination, and the goals are the individual paths along the way to get to the dream. Clarity helps us know when we are on the right path versus the wrong path. 

Finding out you’re on the wrong path does not mean you sit down and stop. It simply means you pivot to the right path!

We as humans can be tempted to use clarity in our goals as an excuse to quit simply because we are not seeing the progress we desire.

Goals are progress-driven! Allow clarity to help you determine early on in your journey that you are working toward the progress you wish to see. 

Let’s go back to hiking. Clarity would have helped us know sooner that we were on the wrong path. But once we discovered this, it would have been ridiculous for us to simply sit down and stop moving.

We would have taken what we learned and applied it to the following day as we began the hike up the right mountain.

How to Find Clarity in Your Life

We’ve talked about why it’s important, but let’s get down to the practical steps we need to find clarity in our goals.

If you have never taken time to be honest with yourself about your goals and dreams or it’s been a while since you have, take some time today after reading through this to think through these four categories.

1. Current Status- the truth about where you are now

Self-awareness is one of the most important aspects in life. Self-awareness is the ability to look at yourself and ask if you are where you want to be. And if you’re not, where are you now? 

I want to be careful here because this is not a time to tear yourself down. Self-doubt and bashing yourself for not being where you want to be will not ultimately help you. 

When you sit down to write this out, make sure you are in a clear factual state-of-mind. This is simply the truth. Facts.

What is the current status of your fitness, health, finances, job, relationships, etc. Be honest, and be understanding that this is important. If you do not have a clear vision of where you are starting, it is difficult to find clarity in where you are going.

2. One Year Goals

The second category you want to focus on is your one year goals. 

Now it’s important to make sure that when you set these goals that they are not goals you are looking forward to but rather goals in terms of looking back from next year.

What do I mean by this? Instead of thinking “where do I want to be in November of 2021”, put yourself in the mental, physical, and emotional state of November 2021.

You have fulfilled all of the goals and dreams you had that year. You are feeling fulfilled in your purpose and happy that everything went according to plan.

So now that you have put yourself there, what needed to happen over the year to make you feel that way? Think about it in every aspect of your life. Write out your goals according to that method rather than writing down random goals that just sound good,

When you think about your goals as if you have already accomplished them, it gives you a better perspective on how to write those goals clearly.

Here’s an example. If I write my one-year goals looking forward, I may say that my goal is to have a successful year in my podcast. If I write my one-year goals looking backward, I will say that I will feel fulfilled if my podcast has impacted my audience and grown it’s reach. 

See the difference? And now, working back from that goal, you more clearly see the steps you need to accomplish such goals.

3. The Why

What is the reason for this goal? Why is it important? 

Having goals just to have goals is not a reason. Having a goal because society tells us to, or because a book recommends it, or because some guy in a blog post says to, is not a real reason.

Determining the ‘why’ behind your goal will help not only make good decisions for your goals, but it will help you when the inevitable snag happens.

Here’s the truth of it. You are six months down the road, and you are on track to hit your goals!

But suddenly there is a bump in the road. You’re facing an obstacle. A wall you weren’t expecting. 

This is when the “why” comes into play. The reasons behind your goals are going to keep pushing you through. They are why you are not going to allow the wall to break you. 

Your why is going to be the most important part of this whole process. If you have a strong enough why then you will be strong enough to overcome. 

You will always find the “how” if your “why” is strong enough. When you know and believe in your “why”, you figure out how to make it happen. It’s the fire that burns within.

Here’s a thought on writing down the “why” behind your goals. Ask yourself why the goal is important to you at least three or four times. Every time you ask “why”, you get deeper into the real reason.

Why is it important that I make money? “I like stuff.” Well, why do you like having things? “Because it makes me feel good.” Ok, why do you want to feel good? “When I was a kid, we didn’t have a lot of money, and it didn’t feel good. I don’t want to feel like that again.” 

Now, you are getting to the root of the reason behind your goal. This may seem like a simple example, but it’s important to peel back the layers of your reason to truly understand the reason why your goal is important to you.

Because if the “why” isn’t that important, then it will not be big enough for you to push past the hard, difficult challenges that come up while pursuing your dream.

4. The Capabilities Needed

The last step is writing down the capabilities needed in order to achieve the goals listed. 

When you’re writing out goals for yourself, it’s important to understand and be self-aware enough to realize that maybe you are not the person at this juncture in life that’s capable of reaching some of those goals.

Now it does not mean that you will never be that person, and that’s precisely why I think it’s important to write it down. 

This will help you see the journey you need to make to become the person that is able to achieve these goals.

If you are reading this today as a business owner that has never broken the six figure mark, the truth is right now it would be impossible for you to run a profitable billion dollar company. 

At this moment, you are not that person. The capabilities and skills needed to run a billion dollar business are not yet in your grasp.

But this does not mean you cannot become this person! When writing your goals take into account the time and action needed to improve and gain the capabilities needed for the goals you want to achieve. 

If you set an astronomically high goal and give yourself a limited time to reach it, the only result will be disappointment.

This is why this is a crucial step in the process. The good news is you are able to become the person who is capable of achieving your goals! 

Understand your current state, understand where you are going, and then understand the capabilities you need to get there!

If someone has done it before you, you can do it too!

Understand the Big Picture

So you have taken the time to go these four steps. What’s next?

Do it again! Just for your five and ten year goals. And depending on where you are in life, take the time to write out your twenty, forty, and sixty year goals. I mean it.

Have some fun with this dream about the future! Write it all down. Then make it a habit to continuously review and adjust as needed.

Are you on the road to achieve what you want to achieve? Having your goals for one, five, and ten years is beneficial because it puts you in a position to know if what you are doing now will get you where you want to be in the long run.

See, you could be doing something right now that makes complete sense. But it may not be leading you to where you want to be in ten years.

And the sooner you realize it, the sooner you can change so you do not waste valuable time!

When I started podcasting, I knew it was a step backwards. I knew I wouldn’t be making as much money when I first started as I was in door to door sales. 

However, I did know that looking a decade in the future, I wanted to be a seven figure podcaster. If I didn’t start on that trajectory at that moment, I knew I’d end up on the top of the wrong mountain in ten years.

See at the time, it made more sense to keep the door to door sales gig. I was making more money. And no one would have thought that using my spare time to record podcast episodes would be profitable.

But I knew what I wanted to be doing in ten years, and I did not want to get there and realize I wasn’t doing what I truly wanted to do.

Your direction is set by the goals you set for yourself. It forms your life’s trajectory. You can’t end up in England if your ship’s direction is headed toward Zimbabwe. 

Sometimes the adjustment is small. This can be a blessing and a curse.

A blessing because making small changes seems easier to do, but a curse in that we can often miss them or overlook the changes we need to make.

Some adjustments will be grander in scale. Either way, having a habit of checking your course regularly will help you get where you want to go without squandering valuable time.

Conclusion

Finding clarity in your life sounds easy. And it can be if we really take the time to focus on our goals.

So be honest with yourself. Write out your goals. Understand why they are important to you. Work to become the person that is capable of achieving those goals.

And here’s the kicker- take some action and move toward your goals! As you take action, you will see more clarity in your life.

I believe when you have clarity and take action it is a direct correlation to the amount of fulfillment and joy you will have in life. 

I think we can all agree that no one wants to get to the end and look back on life regretting what you did and realizing you climbed the wrong mountain.

Full transparency- it’s my worst fear. 

So be honest with yourself, take the time to write out your goals, and follow through with action.

Let me know in the comments below what some of your goals are! 

Here’s to leaving every relationship better than you found- see you next week!