The Goal Mindset: The Grind Over Time

Let me start off with the mindset makeup that you MUST HAVE to see your goals come to reality. Get ready for it . . . get ready for it . . .

You have to know that successful goal achievement requires the necessary input from YOU in order to receive the desired output (results) you want to experience. It’s a mindset thing. And, mindset truly matters. In fact, the preceding statement is, perhaps, the most important mindset paradigm you’ll need to embrace. Simply stated, you can’t get something out of nothing. Just look at it as the “you sow what you reap” mentality. The very mentality you’ll need to cling onto for goal achievement, if you haven’t already.

Don’t expect to plant rotten seeds and get yummy plants and produce to come out of the soil. You get out what you put in. Plant healthy apple seeds, fertilize and water them consistently over time with love, and diligently protect them from harmful outside influences (i.e., enthusiastic herbivores and omnivores), while exposing them to positive influences such as the sun. Then AND ONLY THEN, you can expect to reap some wholesome apple goodness from the place where you started sowing.

And did you notice how I just threw in the phrase, “CONSISTENTLY OVER TIME?” I mean . . . I did bold and italicize it after all. But, in case you glossed over it too quickly for it to stick, let me slow things down a bit and dwell on the idea of goal achievement taking time.

You see, in anything you seek to achieve, there is a time factor involved. And, some goals inevitably take more time to accomplish than others. For the sake of this discussion, I want you to think of goals that can only be realized after a matter of weeks, months, and even years have elapsed.

So, here’s another layer to the mindset paradigm you’ll need to adopt, regarding time to achievement . . . get comfortable with patience, because you’re going to need it in spades. Oh, and also get comfortable with consistently doing the same thing over and over and over again. (It’s called a routine.) No microwave get-er-done over here.

And while you’re at it, stop looking for the work that’s involved in reaching your goal to be glamorous and fun-filled ALL . . . THE . . . TIME. Because “the (daily) grind” can be downright nose to the grindstone, “same-old-same-old,” uncomfortable and unpleasant, void of pretty-looking — AT TIMES.

Can you tell I deal in reality?  Hee. Hee.

But if the goal sought is worth it, you’ll turn that DISCIPLINE notch up to 100 and do what you have to do (within reason). Because . . . the grind involved is just a means to an end. Do the work and do that work consistently OVER TIME and get the results. You don’t have to always like the process, but you do have to be willing to embrace it enough to stick with it. Diligence, my friend.

And don’t get me wrong. Working toward goals doesn’t always rest in “the grind life.” In fact, some parts of the goal-achievement process are quite lovely, especially the part where you make it to the goalpost. But, how you navigate the journey to getting toward that goalpost determines whether or not you get there.

So, you have to be mentally comfortable with the fact that the journey will be full of effort (work) required on your part, with that work being done repeatedly over the necessary time needed, and with that work being unHollywood-like in its nature, more often than not.

Ultimately, you need to prepare your goal mindset for every portion of the mental map I just outlined for you. The better prepared you are, the more equipped you will be to maneuver your way through the ups and downs in the goal-achievement process — no matter how long it takes.

And, in conclusion for today’s discussion on The Goal Mindset, let the following be one of your mini goals within the goal-achievement process:

Do not let “grind time” OVER TIME deter you off the path to your goalpost, because IT WILL always show up. Just mind map this mini goal in your mindset makeup and embrace it through your actions.