LFCounseling, LLC

Getting Clear on Your Business and Life Goals

1/10/2019

How Vision Boards Work

A vision board is a planning tool that allows you to unleash your creativity and daydream in a tangible format. By collecting images, words, and phrases that represent your biggest goals and keeping them within sight, you’ll be better able to focus on the next steps to take to reach them.
Not only that, but vision boards can serve to keep you inspired when boredom strikes (as it inevitably will), and remind you of why you’re working so hard when all you want to do is take a nap or numb with social media.

If there’s one thing that keeps people stuck, it’s a lack of clarity.
You want to take a beach vacation, but you aren’t sure where to go—or how to make it happen.
You want to grow your business, but aren’t even sure what that means.
The truth is, with ambiguous “goals” such as these, in five or ten years, you’ll still be stuck right where you’re at today.
But with a little clarity, you can achieve any goal you can conceive—and even some you cannot yet dream of. And the first step is to simply visualize what you want.

How to Make a Vision Board

Creating a vision board is fun! You can create yours with paper, magazines, and other art materials, or digitally using one of many online apps, Pinterest, or even Microsoft OneNote or Evernote. While digital boards are definitely more portable, physical boards are often more inspiring. There’s just something about engaging all your senses that makes a tangible vision board more effective.

To create your board, start by collecting images that represent your biggest goals and dreams. Photos from a favorite family vacation, ads for a dress you want to buy, a playbill for a Broadway show you want to see, or even a dollar figure representing your desired bank account balance are all good ways to visualize your goals. Add them to your new vision board.

Next, be sure to include phrases and quotes that inspire you and keep you going even when things get tough. Sometimes a few words of wisdom from someone you admire is all it takes to get you back on track after a rough spot.

Finally, remember this: Your vision board is a living document. Your dreams and goals will change. Some you will achieve and remove from your board to make room for bigger and better dreams. Some you will decide don’t matter so much anymore, and you’ll trade them for some others. It’s your vision, and it’s completely up to you what dreams you choose to follow—just be sure that you do follow them.

Seek Your Own Goals for Greater Fulfillment

1/9/2019

0 Comments

Consider these ideas as you start aligning your actions with your own goals:

1. Set meaningful goals. Aim to achieve things that will bring you personal satisfaction.
· What would make you happy? Is it something you can realistically achieve?
· Set smaller goals that lead up to the larger goal. This will help you feel like you're making progress as you accomplish each step.

2. Avoid comparing yourself to others. It's extremely difficult to successfully compare your situation to somebody else's. No two lives are exactly the same. Instead, evaluate your current life and see how close it aligns to the life you want to live. Then, work on the areas that may be lacking based on your personal standards.
· Are you pushing yourself hard enough? Are you doing whatever it takes to achieve your goals?
· Comparing your situation to somebody else's isn’t productive for either of you. The other person is busy enjoying their life, while you’re beating yourself up because your life is different from theirs.

Leave Comparison Behind: Seek Your Own Goals for Greater Fulfillment

Succeeding in life can seem like an uphill battle. You're probably striving for the same things as everyone else.
Especially now with social media, there seems to be a certain standard as to what’s an acceptable measure of success. But think about it.

Don’t you think it's time to take a step back from comparison, ignore what the world is saying, and pursue goals based on what’s important to you – not someone else?

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

3. Live your truth. It doesn’t matter if your college friends are all married with kids. That doesn’t mean you should be living the same way! It simply means that your timing is different.
YOU ARE EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE!

· Take a moment to consider what you've done that your friends haven’t. Each person’s plan is unique.

· Take a relaxed approach to achieving your goals. As long as you put in the work, it will happen. Believe in yourself and your goals.

4. Find happiness in simplicity. Some of the greatest joys in life are the simple ones. Yet, it's easy to overlook their impact. Instead of striving for complex victories, start with the simple ones. You'd be surprised at how happy they can make you.
· Maybe you love going out for ice cream on a Sunday afternoon. As trivial as it sounds, this may bring you more happiness than buying a brand name handbag!

· The absence of complexity often leads to a stress-free existence. You might think you want a vacation home and a portfolio full of great investments. But, it’s okay if those things aren’t in your life because you can avoid the added pressure of having them.
It's unlikely you'll ever be truly happy if you continue competing in the rat race and comparing yourself to others.

At the end of the day, happiness is what you're aiming for. Forget about competing against the world. Instead, compete against yourself. Push yourself to do more. You'll soon realize that you can achieve more success than you ever imagined.

Affirmation: "I choose to be happy and grateful."

0 Comments

Improve These 5 Skills to Increase Your Happiness

1/5/2019

0 Comments

Improve These
5 Skills to Increase Your Happiness

Want to be happier? Most people do! The good news is that there are some simple practices you can do right now as soon as you finish reading this article.

Appreciate
Appreciating people for what they have done for you helps improve your level of happiness. It strengthens your relationships and draws more positive people to you. Studies have shown that people who show gratitude consistently live a healthier life. They don’t have constant ups and downs in emotions, they sleep well and have fewer health problems. Start with a gratitude journal. Write down 3 things each day that you appreciate or are grateful for. Click on my favorites tab for links to gratitude journals.

Give
Sharing what you have with people who cannot afford to own such things not only makes them happy, it also makes the giver happy, abundant and fulfilled. Merely showing simple acts of kindness boosts people’s trust in and love for you. Studies show that those who show kindness felt happier than those who didn't. Having the desire to share your time and resources with others starts with acknowledging and appreciating the positive things you have in your life. When you start practicing gratitude consistently, you’ll naturally want to give more.

Empathize
Lots of people fail to appreciate the fact that putting other people’s point of view into consideration keeps them happy. When people discover you understand them, they become closer and free with you because you make them feel good about themselves. Making others happy makes you happier indirectly—it’s a beautiful cycle that keeps on going around. Empathy helps you turn negative characters or features in a person into positive ones by helping them see new ways of approaching them in their everyday life.

Aspire
Are you hopeful? Believing that the best is yet to come brings you joy that no material thing can. Hope regularly relieves the mind of stress, and a mind that’s free from stress makes you happy. Being hopeful creates a vision for the future in which you know that you are living for a purpose, which brings you a wellspring of ongoing joy. When you aspire to great things, you help others do the same.

Savor
Savoring the positive is the best way to free the mind from stress. When you continually place your mind on the good things you have achieved, it increases your happiness levels. This boost makes you more hopeful for greater things to come and also inspires you to do more. Savoring the present moment and all that we have in our lives helps us be the happiest and healthiest us we can be.

0 Comments

How to Set SMART Goals for the New Year

1/2/2019

0 Comments

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I KNOW that 2019 is going to be your BEST year yet!
One of the best ways to guarantee goal-setting success is to ensure that each of your goals or New Year's resolutions fits the SMART formula. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. When your goals have these characteristics, you are much likelier to achieve them.

Goal Setting Success
Setting short term, medium term, and long term goals for yourself is a key to success in your life. If there are things that you want to achieve or ways that you want to grow, setting goals as stepping stones is an important part of getting there.

Follow this strategy to set SMART goals:
1. SMART goals are specific. This means that your goal should be numbers based, or have a specific goal in mind. A smart goal may be "Go from journaling 1 time per week to 2 times per week," or "increase my reading time from 15 to 30 mins per day." Both are specific goals without any vague phrasing left open to interpretation.

· The more specific your goals are, the clearer it will be when you finally achieve them.

· Break your large goals into smaller short-term and medium-term goals, with each smaller goal phrased just as specifically in order for them to be attainable and achievable.

2. SMART goals are measurable. This is another reason why smart goals are numbers based. To know whether or not you achieved a goal, you must be able to measure your progress. SMART goals are goals that you can track and measure that have a clear end or point of attainment.

· Being able to measure your progress is really important in goal setting and goal achievement. It helps you determine whether or not you're moving in the right direction, since you can clearly track and measure both positive and negative progress along the way.

3. SMART goals are attainable. Smart goals are goals that you can actually attain. They're not extremely farfetched goals like "Running a record breaking marathon in 1 week" because if there's no way to achieve the goal, why set it? SMART goals are goals that you're physically and mentally capable of achieving.

4. SMART goals are realistic. SMART goals are not only attainable, but they are realistically attainable. They are a combination between a specific achievement that you can reach and a time frame that realistically coordinates with that achievement.

5. SMART goals are timely. Smart goals have time frames, and realistic ones at that. When you put a realistic time frame on your goal, it gives you something to work for. To simply "Start journaling," without a time frame lacks motivation. "Journal 5 times by February 1st" has a realistic time frame that gives you something to work for and a date for completion.

Bottom Line
Setting SMART goals is the best way to guarantee success at setting and achieving goals for what you want in life. By setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely, you can and will achieve the success you deserve!

I have a fabulous worksheet you can use for your SMART goals. Send me a message and I will get you a copy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!