Hi y’all,
In this week’s goal setting chat, I had the chance to talk to Stephanie Gieseke with Sparkle Rise Thrive. Stephanie is a business coach that helps with process improvement and solving complex business problems to help businesses thrive. She had a lot of great goal setting tips, but one that stood out to me was a common pitfall she sees with perfectionism & goal setting. I can certainly relate to this, but I’m trying to work on seeing progress in any positive change even if it falls short of my big, hairy audacious goal. For those that had the goal of doing Dry January, perhaps you slipped back into old habits. It doesn’t mean the whole month is ruined! You could challenge yourself for the remainder of the month for example.
Oftentimes, it’s easy to feel frozen or it’s hard to make progress unless you make a huge, sweeping change. If you struggle with “all or nothing” thinking around goal setting, here are some tips on how to work towards acknowledging success along the way!
- Practice Taking Small Steps – we did a whole blog post on micro goals and establishing small things which can make a big difference. According to Wake Up Recovery, you’re more likely to believe in a smaller goal that feels achievable. “Believing you can do it is the first step to achieving it. Secondly, achieving this “smaller” goal will help you move forward towards achieving the larger goal while providing you a sense of accomplishment along the way.”
- Be Flexible – This was another thing Stephanie talked about which I loved. Adding flexibility to your plan allows for a misstep here and there yet keeps you on track to achieving what you want. Career Contessa says to “shrink the goal, expand the timeline. Set a goal (the Big Bodacious Goal you really want to set) and then cut it in half or double the timeline.” Perfectionists don’t tend to leave room for real-world wrenches so by implementing this methodology, it inherently accounts for those things we may not think about in advance.
- Celebrate Success – This one is hard because we tend to jump from goal to goal but celebrating success is so important to combat perfectionism. I love the idea from Psychology Today, “I have a success folder on my laptop that holds all the praise, positive feedback and images of some of my proudest moments. If I ever feel like I’m not perfect enough, I open up that file and it always makes me smile.”
I hope these quick tips gave you some thoughts around creating space for progress and not perfection! Take care and have a great rest of your week. You got this!
Emree