How to Use Reflection to Influence Your Goals

The text read: Would you ever do Ragnar Tahoe again? 

My heart skipped a beat. One of my dearest friends was asking me to join a trail running event. Not just any trail run but the one I completed 2 years ago that was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I reread the message and my heart sank.  It’s a 24hour team relay event that was planned on my son's 12th birthday.

I texted back, “OHHH I would do it again but that’s Chase’s birthday…let me think on that one.”

I wanted to hold onto the dream of experiencing that trail run with one of my besties for a few more moments.  In my heart, I knew my answer had to be NO. Ragnar Tahoe will be there again next year but I could only celebrate my son’s 12th birthday once. 

Ironically if you look at my goals for 2022 I’ve listed finish another trail race. But when the opportunity presented itself, I had to make a choice, and the option to choose this trail run conflicted with my value of being the best mom I can be for my kiddos.

It’s choices like these that clarify our values.  Goals not tied to values will leave you feeling empty.  Let’s explore a few more ways you can use reflection to make your goals achievable, inspiring and powerful.

• Think about a time when you had to make a difficult decision. Like my choice to pass on Ragnar, tough choices are indicators of where your values lie (if you are being true to yourself)
• Did you take time to reflect on 2021 in the last few weeks? What were the moments that made that highlight reel you posted on Instagram? What goals can you set to repeat these experiences more this year?
• What progress have you made towards your long-term goals? How can you build upon this progress more quickly in the future? 

It’s a short post this week because COVID took me down.  

The good news is that I’m going to continue to explore goal setting with you for the entire month of January.  Make sure you sign up for my email list to get next week's post about shiny object syndrome.  You know those things that distract you from what you want to be focusing on.