Many of you may know this but I lead a team of over 200 skincare consultations for a living. It is the best job I could have ever picked for myself and I am honored to be able to grow such an amazing team of micro-entrepreneurs! One of the biggest topics we talk about as a team is setting GOALS and so I thought I would share my philosophy on goal-setting here and how it can truly change your life.

Let’s start with at the beginning.

A goal is a dream or wish you PLAN to attain. Notice my verbiage there. A goal is not something you WISH to attain, it’s something you PLAN for. A goal is something that takes planning and preparation. I think a lot of times we get our aspirations and our goals mixed up. For example, stating that you would like to run a marathon is an aspiration; actually training for that marathon, is a goal.

I think a lot of people think that they have goals, but they really just have aspirations. Dreaming and aspiring to do great things really is awesome… until those things never happen because you lack preparation and planning. Through owning a business and building a lifestyle brand, I have learned the power of goal-setting. There truly is so much power in writing out your goals and working hard to achieve them!

I explain goals to my team in this way: If you don’t have goals, you are like a fish swimming in a fish bowl. You may swim round and round and round but you will never really get anywhere. When you have goals for yourself/business/family/ etc. you are like a fish in the ocean. You have SO much more opportunity ahead of you because you have a road map.

Setting goals for your life can be simple, they don’t have to be extreme. Simply setting a goal to drink more water is a great place to start… And then actually come up with a game plan on how you are going to drink more water. ;)

Below I have my fool-proof goal-setting strategy. If you set these parameters around your goals, I truly believe you are setting yourself up for future success!

MY GOAL-SETTING STRATEGY

This is my system on how I effectively set goals:

1. Write out what you would like to achieve, get better at, accomplish, or excel at in life

2. Write out what you are already doing to achieve your goal

3. Write out what you could be doing BETTER to achieve, accomplish, or excel at your goal

4. Plan out specific times in your calendar that you will be working towards achieving your goal

5. Lastly, give yourself a time limit on how long it should take for you to achieve your goal

When you set goals this way, you are planning for success. You aren’t leaving your goals up to chance or luck, you are MAKING THEM HAPPEN with your action! This is how goals can be truly life-changing!

Obviously, things don’t always go as planned and so if you don’t reach out goal at your allotted time, don’t beat yourself up about it! The most important thing is that you are working towards what you want to achieve in life. If your goals are worth it enough to you, you will do what it takes to achieve them! Remember, effective goal planning is only the first step. After you make your goals, it’s time to turn your plans into ACTION!

It’s time to RUN after your dreams! I truly believe that you can create massive change in your life by setting goals & working hard to achieve them!

Comment on this post and share one of your goals with the community! Let’s all help motivate each other to effectively plan and reach our goals!!

Your friend,

Lauren

Hey, friends! Today I want to talk a little bit more about self-care, why it's important, and how to easily implement it into your daily routine! The topic of "self-care" is really popular right now and for good reason, it is so important to take care of yourself! In this age of hustle and bustle and the glorification of "busyness", it's so important to not lose sight on the most important thing, your health.

From experience, I have learned that I can only love and serve others if I have loved myself first. This is not in a selfish way AT ALL, but it's in a way of treating myself with love and care so that I can love and care for others fully!

I am naturally a people pleaser and I HATE saying "no" and so that is the hardest part for me in practicing self-care. I also love my people a lot. My family and my friends have my whole heart and when they need me, I will legitimately put my entire life aside to be there for them. I know that this is a good quality, but I have learned that I need to create healthy boundaries around my heart because oftentimes, I will take responsibility for things I shouldn't take responsibility for. I will also take in the emotions of those I love. If a loved one is hurting, I am hurting. It can make for an emotional roller coaster for me and so I have been learning how to love others in a way that is authentic but not debilitating to my emotions. I'm not sure if that makes sense to any of you but this is just something I am currently learning about myself in this season of life and so maybe some of you can relate!

Anyways, back to self-care... I want make self-care simple. Self-care doesn't have to be an extensive list of to-do's, expensive, or extremely time consuming. Self-care can be 15 minutes of reading your favorite book or a five minute walk around the block. This week I am challenging myself to practice self-care in the form of unplugging. I know how freeing it can be to log-off Instagram or Facebook for a bit and so the week my goal is to "unplug" a couple hours a day. This may not sound like much for many of you, but for someone who works online, this can be life changing!

I made this list of ways you can practice simple forms of self-care. I hope that it resonates with you and encourages you to spend some moments for yourself each and every day!