Plan, plan, plan, goal set, and make resolutions. We’re told everywhere we turn to plan, create goals and set resolutions. All of which will help you reach your final destination from weight loss, to career goals and even relationally. Plan to get your life back.
But what if this fails? What if nothing goes as planned?
Planning is an essential part of life. It helps center our mind and create focus so our action is intentional and not off the cuff.
Yet, all in the same breath, planning also creates expectations. Expectations that determine our emotion and our joy. Expectations that can leave you in full celebration or complete brokenness.
More commonly unmet expectations leave us with a sense of brokenness that is almost un-containable inside of us. Hurt, fear, worry, anger and resentment for when our expectations don’t go as planned. When life doesn’t go your way and everything seems to crumble beneath you.
ending expectations but not dreams
If we’re honest with ourselves goal setting, resolution making and planning are often times just great thoughts. In my own life I’ve experienced this on one too many occasions. Spending hours planning but never following through with the plan.
Or better yet, setting unrealistic expectations (a.k.a. goals) that will never have a possibility of getting met. Last year was a great example. I was going to conquer the world. Okay, maybe not the world, but I had set some pretty high goals that weren’t necessarily unrealistic. I had ultimately set an expectation that this was going to be my year.
I even bought a shirt that said those exact words, this was my year (because that makes if official). Yet not two weeks into the new year my life began to crumble around me. It happened slowly at first but quickly started compounding until I found myself nearly breathless and hopeless in a heap on my bathroom floor sobbing.
From there I spent one too many months in this heap of hopelessness questioning my purpose. Wondering how and if I would ever move beyond this point and seeking but never managing to find joy. I was broken, shaken and beat down.
My plans were crushed, my to-do list growing but getting me nowhere. Ultimately my unmet expectations had ruined my life and what seemed like my dreams.
Yet there was still light.
the answer to achieving success
I know I’m not alone in this battle. The battle of fearing unmet expectations. Of disappointment when life doesn’t go the way you had planned. When you seem to be getting absolutely nowhere but drowning in a sea of things gone wrong.
The good news is there is a way. A new direction an answer to this madness. To finally get your life back.
It starts with self awareness which creates belief.
With knowing yourself, knowing the God-given vision for your life and attaching your true emotion to these things. It means developing belief.
Wait. Hold up. What?
I know this sounds all woo-woo and your sure this will not happen, but this is good stuff. It’s called growth and stretching. Sure, it can be a scary place. Allowing ourselves to be true and honest and feel emotion can be scary. Walking into brokenness is not necessarily a fun place, but it is a healing one. Ultimately, it is the route to success and abundance.
So stick with me.
The best way to achieve success, whether that be;
- Reaching your health goals
- Losing those last 10 pounds
- Deepening your relationship with your spouse
- Being present with your kids
- Balancing your work plus life
- Saying no more
Whatever you’ve set out to do, the only way you’ll achieve success is by knowing where you want to go. Not where you think you should go or where others are telling you to go but deep down in the pit of your heart, in your soul, through the Spirit knowing where you ARE going. Then you can find success.
It’s not found in wishy-washy ideas, thoughts, plans or resolutions.
Success is found in the knowing, believing and running through the action created behind the plan.
The action comes through the emotion and the emotion is formed through the vision. Sometimes that means feeling the emotions of brokenness so that you can feel the success of abundance. To fight through the insecurities at the gym. To drive a crappy car so you can get out of debt. To forgive your spouse 100 times over and choosing love over being right. To eating well and living well not for a number or for happiness but to ultimately restore your health.
This is the emotion, the passion and the belief that creates the action.
the beginning steps
How do we create the emotion that creates the action that creates the success? By knowing you. Opening your eyes, seeing beyond what you’ve thought to get to what you believe.
I’ve recorded a podcast (along with my friend and mentor Mikaela Kate) to help you walk through this journey. To get your life back even when nothing seems to go as planned. It starts with emotion, with knowing and feeling where you’ve come from and creating a vision and an emotion for where you want to go. This is how you meet your dreams. This is how you find success.
It’s not through good intentions. It’s through purposely living. Doing everything with a purpose.
Listen to the podcast and get my own story, my redemption story, and the initial steps you can also take to get your life back.
Listen on iTunes | Listen on Stitcher | Listen on Google Play | Review the Podcast
freebie for you
My friend Mikeala also leaves us with five questions to help you start the process of knowing yourself and creating plans and actions that will lead you to success. Click here to grab those five questions.
I want to end with a quote from Mikaela:
We must fight to BELIEVE the BEST this year. To live in HOPE and FAITH for what’s to come and be expectant that opportunities and change is at your doorstep.
There may be fear lurking in your mind, doubt pouring out your soul, and even anxiety creeping up. BUT there are changes ahead and coming for you and so much of this starts in your mind.
What you choose to believe, where your faith stands, there also is your success. Make it your first priority to know yourself, create an emotion to where you want to go and then make plans and action based off of that.
Just believe. Run hard and don’t look back.
Don’t forget to grab those five questions and get started on taking your life back now!
rate and review
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