First thing – how did reading the title about being in ‘alignment with your goals’ make you feel? Are you so pumped to dig into this article, or kind of pissed at me for writing this and reading on out of spite?

And guess what… your feelings right now, in this moment, are indicating your alignment! So let’s dig into what alignment is, and how it relates to your goals. And of course, I’ll share with you some practical steps to take to get yourself more aligned. Because hey, who says goal achieving has to suck the life out of you? Not this girl!

What is alignment to goals?

Alignment means your thoughts and emotions about your goal match the way you want to think and feel when you reach the goal. Alright, let’s break that down.

First off, do you have a goal? If not, some great questions to ask yourself to get you started here are:

1. What lights my heart on fire?
2. What would stretch me to learn, be, do, and become someone I haven’t been yet?

Once you get super clear on what you want, I suggest a timeframe of 6-12 months so that it’s close enough you don’t lose steam!

Assuming you have a goal, the next thing you want to spend some time on is getting really clear about how it’s going to feel to accomplish your goal.

Yes, put yourself at the finish line. At the top of Mt. Everest. Start to imagine yourself – in the clothes you’ll be wearing, around the people you’ll be with, the physical location you’ll be at when you cross your own personal finish line. 

If this is a new action to take, then give yourself grace. Even spending 1 minute a day starting to emotionally attach yourself to your goal at the moment of completion puts you in the 3% category of people achieving goals. 

Along with getting emotionally involved, you’ll want to get mentally involved too. So that means asking yourself, ‘what will I be thinking at the finish line? What are the thoughts I will be thinking as someone who has accomplished this goal?’

Now putting this all together, alignment with your goal means that you are practicing everyday getting emotionally and mentally attached to the you at the finish line of your goal. You become aligned. 

 

Why Alignment to Goals Matters

Now that we know what alignment to goals is, why does it even matter?

Well, great question friend! You see, everyday you are either helping your goal achievement, making the journey to your goal easier. Or you’re making it harder. Pushing, stressed, burning out. 

Another word for alignment in this context that I use is momentum. That’s why I wrote my first book called ‘My Momentum Journal.’ It’s a daily journal to support you in checking in on your momentum to see if you’re making life easier or harder. 

This isn’t about the action you’re taking, it’s about the emotion behind the action. So for example, let’s say you sit down to write a post on facebook to advertise your new product or service. And you’re nervous, anxious, and worried about what others will think about it. In that moment, you’re momentum is making this harder  for you. And you know what? Your audience reading your post are actually going to be picking up on your emotions. Crazy, huh? But so true. 

You see we communicate on three planes of understanding. What we see, hear, and feel. That’s why you can walk into a restaurant, have people saying and doing the ‘right things’ and yet feel that the place is ‘off’ and you don’t want to eat there. 

Now what about the person who writes that exact same post and they are excited, passionate about their product/service, and beyond excited to share this awesome news with the facebook world? I pretty much can guarantee that all things equal, they will be more successful. 

So that means not only did they have more fun taking action toward their goal, they also get a better result. Ding ding, winner winner. 

So, how do I change my alignment?

Great question, I’m SO glad you asked!! 

Here’s 5 practical steps to tuning in and changing your alignment. Let’s make sure your journey to achieving your next goal lights your heart on fire instead of stomping out the flame.

1. Check in everyday: make sure that you are checking in on where your momentum (thoughts + feelings) are that day around the topic of your goal. 
2. If your momentum is awesome, proceed with the actions you’ve outlined that day to achieve your goal
3. If your momentum is less than, pause and realign before taking action. Activities to reset your momentum could be taking a walk, meditation, even taking a nap if you need a hard reset (plus lots more ways to reset! More ideas are in the Momentum Journal).
4. Spend time everyday, preferably early on, to get aligned with how you are going to feel when your goal is achieved. Bonus: write out four emotions that you associate with the finish line. For example: ‘I will feel abundant, joyful, in appreciation, and proud when I accomplish my goal’
5. Spend time everyday, again preferably early on, to get in alignment with the thoughts you’ll be thinking when you achieve your goal. AND if you can start thinking in that way throughout your day, your goal is going to feel that much closer. Which lends to more  momentum. Which lends to more awesome things happening to you! So for example, if you know at your finish line you’ll be more patient with difficult clients. But then a difficult client writes you a silly billy email today. Instead of reacting and getting pissed off, take a breath, check yourself, and ask yourself how ‘patient you’  will respond. 

You see, the elegant brilliance behind alignment is that you actually start to become that person. It would make logical sense that you have to be the person who succeeds at your goal, before you actually succeed. You don’t become the person after the goal is accomplished. You become the person first, and then you accomplish the goal.

If you have any questions, I’d love to hear them! Share them below or shoot me an email at hello@christamolter.com.

Cheers goal achievers!

Xx,

Christa

PS Need help creating a plan to achieve your goal? Check out my article here on Creating Your Business Plan in 5 Steps

PSS want to learn more about how Meditation Can Grow Your Business? Check out my article on that here!