How To Create A Successful Yoga Career: Six tips for staying focused on your goals

This is part 3 of a three-part series. To read part one of the series on goal-setting, click here. To read part two on Taking Action, click here.

Goal setting is a critical part of achieving what you want in your personal and professional life. Taking steps to accomplish your goals is incredibly powerful and cultivates a sense of personal responsibility, pride, and confidence.

But what happens when you map out a clear goal, take consistent action, yet the results don’t show up in the time frame you planned?

It happens, and it’s frustrating.  

But it also allows an opportunity to reflect and make shifts in the present. Often we focus so much on building for the future we neglect the opportunities are right in front of us. Too much focus on the future also breeds stress and negative thinking. Achieving your goals requires flexibility when things don’t go as planned as well as being open to reassessing your goals.

Eckart Tolle summed it up perfectly when he said:

“Nothing has happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.”

Tips For Staying Focused

1. Realize the present is all you have right now.  The past is history, and the future is entirely unknown. You have today. Now. Don’t squander it.  
2. Remember life is unpredictable and you can’t control everything that may happen in the future no matter how much you plan and prepare. Don’t waste valuable time and energy focusing on what might happen.
3. Be open to not knowing and discovering new opportunities. Some of the best opportunities present themselves after a big disappointment. Sometimes it takes hardship to shake you up and realize your strength and capabilities.
4. Focusing too much on the future is stressful. Although some stress can help to motivate you, the importance of not living in the present can be detrimental to your emotional and physical well-being.  Trying to over plan and control the future just prevents you from living in the present.  
5. Pay attention to your thoughts. Our thoughts are often so clear and specific they feel like facts – although they haven’t even happened yet. When you notice yourself projecting or worrying about the future, realize they are just thoughts and not reality.  Once you are aware of your thoughts, you can redirect your attention.
6. Flexibility is crucial. Often the most significant results happen by not achieving precisely what was planned and being flexible enough to spot the win.

I would love to talk to you about your goals!  If you’re interested, click here and schedule a complimentary 20-minute coaching session.