🏊🏽Olympic Goal Setting🏊🏽

 So, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Olympic’s that’s going on at the moment in Rio. These people participating in the Olympic’s have incredible determination and commitment. They sacrifice relationships, social life and work life. Training is long, intense and sometimes soul destroying. Olympians are truly inspiring individuals. Their spirit and drive can be mirrored to achieve your own goals and dreams. I’m sure these Olympians had aspired to one day participate in the Olympics and didn’t stop until they got there. So here’s some tips to achieve your goals like an Olympian:

1. Visualize it

 Picture yourself achieving your goal. At the start of this year I visualized myself driving a car. I would dream about it often and I could nearly feel my hands on the steering wheel and how the breeze felt when I had the window down driving at high speed (Ok, bit weird?). Imagine how you feel when you achieve this goal. What thoughts come to mind when you achieve it. What emotions are you experiencing? THIS WORKS! If you visualize something you really want to achieve you will eventually achieve it.  Oprha Winfrey and Conor McGregor are big believers of this! Those of you who have read The Secret will understand The Law of Attraction. Basically ‘Like attracts Like’ and by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life. By focusing on the goal you want to achieve you can also bring this experience into your life. I’ll dedicate a post to the Law of Attraction very soon.

2. Make it YOUR OWN Goal

 Ever go to the doctors and  they’ve told you ‘You need to cut down on this”You need to lose a few pounds”Stop drinking’. You’re like o.k grand I’ll do that. Someone other than you has given you a  goal to reach and it’s not your own goal so you’re not really a***d achieving it. You might take the rebellious teenager approach and refuse to take advise from someone that is not yourself. We are more committed and motivated to achieve a goal we have developed ourselves. Ensure you are working towards a goal that’s for you.

3. Enjoy the journey towards your Goal

 You have to enjoy the process along the way or you’ll be miserable until you achieve it. It can hard work and tiring but its about understanding and accepting this. Embrace the hard work and it will make it more enjoyable. Keep telling yourself why you’re doing it and again visualizing how you’ll feel when you achieve it will keep you focused and make the journey a lot more fun!

4. Congratulate yourself after each small step

Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to reward yourself. Keep yourself motivated by recognizing each small step and achievement. Buy yourself something small or treat yourself to something you like. Allow yourself to feel good about each and every step. Sometimes it can be a looooong wait until the end result. Who wouldn’t love a little present  on the days leading up to Christmas. Eh, me please? Thanks.

5. Positive mindset

 Changing your wording when speaking about your goals ‘I will get a car”I will get a promotion”I will go to the Olympics’ as opposed to ‘I’m hoping to drive soon”I want to participate in the Olympics one day’. Words motivate us! Look at Obama with his ‘YES I CAN’ campaign thingy. Very optimistic and very positive. You have to believe you are going to reach your goal. You have to believe one day you will reach it or why are you even making the steps towards it in the first place? Olympians are well known for their positive mindsets.

6. Stop comparing yourself to others

The winner focuses on winning, the loser focuses on the winner

 Comparing yourself to others can be demotivating and cause you to become stressed. You cannot control how other perform and achieve. We can only control ourselves. Be in control. You lose energy obsessing over how other are doing. Keep all your energy for yourself. If someone is achieving higher grades or being promoted in work, be happy for them. Jealousy will also drain you of energy. If an Olympic runner was focused on the how others were doing they’d lose concentration and fall off track.

7. Find a good coach

 Every great Olympian has a good coach! They have people behind them who motivate them and help keep them focused. Surround yourself with people who have a similar strive in life, are motivated and want you to do well. Family, friends, partners, colleagues or even life coaches.

S.M.A.R.T Goals

Break your goals into small steps.

Small. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic. Time

 On your first day of learning to run, you won’t be able to run a Marathon. Start with a 2 minute run followed by a 5 minute run etc. These small goals are easier to achieve. Don’t set yourself up to fail. Huge  goals can be over overwhelming and can demotivate people. Taste success along the way. Don’t leave it all to the finish line. Fuel your appetite alog the way.

8. Prepare for hurdles

 Take control of the the hurdle by anticipating the challenge and plan any strategies for tackling it. Mentally prepare for challenges. Acknowledge that there will be challenges along the way and be aware of what they are. Don’t let them demotivate you. Get back up and keep running towards your goal.

9. Develop a positive stress ritual

 Have you ever seen teams before games and they all huddle around and usually have a positive mantra they chant and they might throw their hands up in the air together. These are pre-game rituals. For example before an interview I ensure I have meditated beforehand, no coffee, use positive affirmations and mantra’s. If I began to think of what could go wrong and how under pressure and stressed I felt, I would freak out and do s**t in the interview. Get into focus. Bring yourself to a level of calmness and maintain that. Visualize the positive outcome of the situation: winning the game or getting the job.

 So basically, Olympians come across as amazing individuals with all these fabulous skills but there is method to their madness.  Adopt these 9 motivational strategies and you too can make gold-standard achievements!

J x

 

 

🌜A Year of Living Mindfully: Week 1🌛

 

‘A year of living mindfully’ by Anna Black is a workbook I bought recently to help me introduce mindfulness into my everyday tasks. Inside are 52 easy to follow exercises to guide us how to bring mindfulness into our daily lives.

 Mindfulness is something that everyone does each day without realising. It’s about paying attention to each experience we encounter without judging it. Children are the most mindful of us all! They focus on whats happening now in the present. When they play games they are only concentrating on the game and the majority of the time stay in the present moment. As we get older we begin to daydream, ruminate about the past and worry about the future. Technology has also impacted on this, as we tend to take pictures of experiences or text our friends about them instead of being present as it happens as we visually and mentally capture it. A few weeks ago I was in Croke Park at a Beyoncé concert. She stood directly above me and the first thing I did was whip out my phone to video it. I regretted it instantly as I barely looked at her face as she stood there. Instead I was staring at her through my phone. She came close by again a few songs later so I kept my phone in my pocket and just stared up at her as if she was God (which she is) and had a much more fabulous time. 👑🐝

Mindfulness is paying attention to an experience as you experience it. It is being aware of your surroundings, along with both your inner and outer experiences. Awareness of your breathing, emotions, feelings good or bad, sounds, senses, smells, scenery.

Week 1: 

Writing as practice: Exploring intention 1

 It is important to start off with our intentions for wanting to practice mindfulness. This can be done by writing down some reasons you want to start and some goals you would like to achieve by bringing this into your life.

 The first activity involves sitting and asking yourself “why do I want to practice mindfulness?” Sit with this thought for a few minutes whilst inhaling and exhaling slowly. Concentrate on each breath. Inhale through your nose and hold for 5 seconds then exhale your mouth slowly for at least 5 seconds (I’ll do a future post dedicated to breathing  exercises as it can be a bit more complicated than just breathing in and out). Set a timer for 3 minutes, get a pen and paper and write down any thoughts that come to mind whilst following these rules:

1. Don’t stop. Keep repeating ” I want to practice mindfulness because…”
2. Don’t edit your words or cross anything out.
3. Don’t read what you are writing until the timer sounds.

Here’s what I wrote:

 I want to practice mindfulness because…. 

Live in the present, remain calm in stressful situations, mindful eating (I inhale my food), comfortable doing things alone, stop being dependent on others, happiness, stress free, content. 

 I’ll continue to post each exercise as I complete them over the next while. The main thing I like about this book is that there is no pressure to complete the exercises. It’s all at your own pace. If you want to complete two in the one week you can or leave the book down and not touch it for 3 weeks that’s perfectly OK too. These books aren’t for everyone and I’ll probably lose interest after a few weeks and look at it again in a few months but it’s nice to know it’s there when you need it ⭐️

J x