“Move Toward Your Goals” by Joan Y. Edwards

This year is a year for you to take a giant step forward to reach your goals. Take action to head you closer to your dreams. Move toward your goals. Here are 7 ways to help you keep moving to your goals.

1. Be Thankful
2. Accept Yourself As You Are
3. Relinquish Control
4. Have Faith in Yourself
5. Exercise
6. See with Different Eyes
7. Celebrate

1. Be Thankful

• Albert Schweitzer quote: “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
• Buddha quote: “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”
• Thornton Wilder quote: “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
• Yogi Bhajan quote: “Gratitude is the open door to abundance.”

If you want something other than what you have, be grateful for what you have. If you are unhappy with the situation you are in, be grateful that it’s not worse, and believe that it will get better. Focus on what you want. Be thankful for what you have.

2. Accept Yourself As You Are

For the last four years I studied Hale Dwoskin’s Sedona Method about letting go. Letting go of expectations allows you to enjoy the moment as it is. Letting go of wanting and trying to get control of the people in your life, frees you to enjoy the gifts another person offers to you. They might not have the gift you demand and expect from them. When you put a block out and don’t accept others as they are, you may never recognize the gift they reach out to hand you. Because your Mother or Father was a certain way, you may think a prospective mate might be that way. Look for the good in people. Let go of your unreasonable expectations in yourself and others.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t set goals for yourself. It means to stop spending all of your energy resisting the way things are. When you take back your energy, then you make a better pathway for your new and improved life to enter.
I think a lot of unhappiness comes from not enjoying things as they are and wanting something else.
The saying is very powerful and healing: “It is what it is.” Accept it. Make plans to improve the situation in which you live. Love. Reach out in kindness. Look for the good in others. Look for the good inside yourself.

3. Have Faith in Yourself

The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen…Frank Lloyd Wright

• Don’t feed your mind with negative thoughts. If you do, you will come to believe them…Catherine Pulsifer
• If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning…Gandhi
• It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action…Lin Yutang
• Believe in yourself and try not to take anything personally…Chris Kattan.
• Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string…Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Believe in yourself. Your belief will take you to your goal. When you stop believing in your ability to get there, something happens. You crumble. In order to meet your goal, you have to stabilize your belief system so that it gets you where you want to go.

4. Relinquish Control

It’s amazing how much human beings want control of things. When you don’t know how it’s going to turn out, you are afraid to venture into the “unknown.” If you know it’s going to turn out okay, then you are willing to take a chance. When you get your belief system straight, you realize that all events lead you to your goals. They may be interesting detours, but if you reset your beliefs and restate your goals, you will get there. Why do I say that? Because inside your mind, you have an automatic success mechanism. Maxwell Maltz explains this in the Psycho-Cybernetics book. Like airplanes with automatic piloting systems, when you set your goals and believe you can do it, your automatic success mechanism goes to work and takes you to your goal.  If you stop believing, it takes you in the direction of failure. Believe in you and your goals. Believe in you.

5. Exercise – Move your body

When you move your body, you also help your mind. This keeps your emotions from going haywire. It keeps your body in shape. It keeps your mind’s gears moving smoothly. Do what you can. Move to your own rhythm. Dance, jog, walk, sit and move whatever you can. Just move it. You’ll get ideas to solve problems. Your stress levels will decrease. You’ll be healthier. Try it. You’ll like it.

6. See with Different Eyes

It’s possible to get to your goals, you might need new skills. If you’ve lost your zest for your goals, perhaps you need to find a path that’s fun for you.  Look at things differently.  You need to look at the situation with a different eye. Talking with a good friend sometimes opens up possibilities of ways to get there that you have never heard of. New roads can be built to your goal. Build them in your mind. They will take you where you want to go.

7. Celebrate

It is great to celebrate any time and every possible moment in your life.Oprah Winfrey said, “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”
Help others celebrate, too. Fill yourself with as much joy as you possibly can. There’s one thing about joy, it is contagious. It spreads from you to another person. Have you ever noticed what happens when one person starts laughing uncontrollably. Oh my goodness! That is such fun. Others who are close to them will also start laughing. Pretty soon, endorphins (good feeling healing chemicals are dancing inside your body and mind. Try it. Here’s a recording of me laughing. I hope you start laughing with me:

Record a spontaneous laughing session with your whole family.  Record you and two of your friends laughing. Play it back on days when things are tough. It’ll help you remember that good things are coming your way.

• Have a picnic on your living room floor.
• Read your favorite book.
• Call a friend.
• Sit at the edge of your yard and watch for wildlife.
• Sit at a window and rejoice that you are comfortable.

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I hope you’ll leave a comment.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Copyright © 2013-2023 Joan Y. Edwards. All rights reserved.

Other Resources:

1. Brainy Quotes.  “Believe in Yourself:” http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/believe_in_yourself.html#8WmP1bXCydDPA7xX.99

2. Brené Brown.  “The Power of Vulnerability:” http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

3. Christina Diaz. “Thankful Quotes:” http://www.the-benefits-of-positive-thinking.com/thankful-quotes.html

4. Darcy Pattison. “Shame, Vulnerability and Hiding:” http://www.darcypattison.com/writing-life/shame-vulnerability-and-hiding/

5. Joshua Clayton http://ezinearticles.com/?How-It-Is-Said,-How-It-Is-Done&id=5684116

6. Maxwell Maltz, Md. The New Psycho-Cybernetics, edited and updated by Dan S. Kennedy and the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation, Inc. http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Psycho-Cybernetics-Maxwell-Maltz/dp/0735202850/

7. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance