Let's talk goals!
How do you set them?
How to achieve them?
How do you know you're moving in the right direction?
For me the word goal is synonymous with the words passion, purpose and dream. They all connect. Passion shapes your goal. Purpose is passion in motion, and that purpose becomes your dream. So start there, what moves you? What are you passionate about? And how can you put it to work?
When it comes to achieving anything I personally believe strongly in "fake it 'til you make it," well, maybe in a more positive light than normal. More of a "see the dream, believe the dream, be the dream," mindset.
When I was younger, 5 years old to be exact, I started playing ice hockey. At the age of 9 I told my parents when I grew up I wanted to play in the NHL. Now of course, those were lofty goals for a 9 year old girl, but, it was my PASSION. Lucky for me, my parents did nothing but foster that dream. Well, they didn't fill my head with over the top support assuring me I would one day play in the NHL, but they did everything possible to make sure I had the means to be the best hockey player I could be.
As I got a little older that NHL dream changed (a little more realistically) to wanting to play division 1 ice hockey and get a scholarship to college, so my parents would no longer have to. I didn't worry or stress over the work it was going to take to accomplish that dream, I just put the dream to work. I lived and breathe everything about college hockey. I was a college hockey player in my mind before I even set foot on the campus at Quinnipiac Universtiy. Nothing, and no one, was going to stop me. I graduated as captain of Quinnipiac's Women's Ice Hockey Team with academic honors and to me, that was just as rewarding as the NHL could have ever been.
At 18 years old I knew I wanted to one day return to my hometown and work with the athletes. Two years into college I started GRIT Summer Hockey Camps for girls in Wasilla, Alaska. I was/am not a celebrity by any means, but the feeling of having a 10 year old girl tell you she wants to be just like you, gives you celebrity feels for a lifetime, my PASSION had created my PURPOSE. I believed I was a teacher and leader in the sport before I was even put on the first line in college hockey. I was impactful, I was powerful. Again, I put the dream to work.
After college I took a job with the Dallas Stars coaching girls ice hockey in Texas. That led me to delve a little bit more into the fitness world. I became a certified personal trainer, a year later became a yoga teacher and began to blend my love of hockey, fitness, the human body and the power of the human mind all in one. I knew I wanted to be able to do it all, but I knew that working for someone else wasn't going to allow me the schedule to do so. I enjoyed the studios I worked in, but knew that somehow, someday, I would be putting my intuition, my knowledge and experience into my own space for the benefit of other people. Making a healthy life (of body and mind) accessible to people in multiple ways. I didn't know how, but I was living as the woman and influencer I eventually wanted to be, before she was even ready to take to the studio, I already was my DREAM.
And now here I sit, in a space all of my own, in my hometown. I took my passion, made it my purpose, and became my dream. By no means was my road a smooth one, it's been filled with setbacks and injuries, detours and wrong turns, but I never lost sight of the most important goal, becoming the person I wanted to be.
We all have different lives, jobs, aspirations and goals. We each can only speak from our personal experiences and these have been mine. It all starts with what's inside. It all starts with what comes from your heart, you thoughts, and your mind.
Your passion. Your Purpose. Your dream.
HERE'S THE DEAL...try not to worry so much about the work it's going to take to get to your goal or dream. Sit down, write it out if needed, any scenario you can think of, your end goal. Then work backwards from that goal as best you can, all the steps and work it's going to take to get there, then you have to decide which route you can commit to walk down. Don't just dream, choose your dream, be your dream and PUT YOUR DREAM TO WORK.
You ALREADY have everything you need and you ALREADY are the person you are meant to be.