You don't have to justify your ambition to anybody

Today is the beginning of a new decade. Your ambitions are set high and you know you’re going to change your life this year. That’s incredible.

When you set your ambitions high people are going to start asking WHY.

“Why would you want to do that?” or “Why are you being so greedy?” or “Why are you being so unrealistic?”

But guess what? You don’t have to justify your ambition to anybody.

You don’t need to justify your ambition for a lot of money with “I’ll give so much away!” or your ambition to lose weight with “I’m not doing it to look good, only to be healthy!” or your ambition to be a famous singer with “I’m only it in for the art.”

You can just say:

“I want to make a million dollars.” FULL STOP.
”I want to lose 30 pounds.” FULL STOP.
”I want to get a housekeeper.” FULL STOP.
”I want to start a business.” FULL STOP.
”I want to win an Oscar.” FULL STOP.
”I want to go to the Olympics.” FULL STOP.

Be unapologetic about your ambition. Ambitious people change the world.

December Goals Review

Hello beautiful people! It’s the last day of 2019, can you believe it?

It’s time for a review of my December goals:

I will easily get to 50 push ups in a row by December 31st, 2019.
SO. CLOSE. I got all the way to 40 before I sprained my wrist and then came down with an illness and spent the last 3 days of the year in bed (when I was supposed to be getting from 40-50 push ups). I’m still going to keep going as soon as I’m fully recovered and get back on track. Persistence, whatever it takes!

I will easily put on an online workshop by December 31st, 2019.
DONE. I worked on it almost every single day, even if it was just for 5 minutes. One of my biggest takeaways from 2019 (and my new motto) “If it matters, do it daily.” And it worked, I got it done!
Introducing… my Impossible Goal Setting Masterclass! Check it out here!

I will easily meditate without guided audio every day of December, 2019.

DONE. This one was harder than I thought because I’m used to doing guided meditations. It felt good to get back to just breathing. However, I think my optimum is switching between the two depending on my need that day.

The reason I believe this month was so much more successful than last month (where I didn’t achieve ANY of my goals!) is that I set goals that were exciting and felt slightly scary. It kept me on the ball, and never too relaxed about achieving them. Importantly, I had to think about each of them every single day. As Brendon Burchard says “Touch your dream every day.”

Looking forward to sharing my 2020 goals with you soon.

Happy New Years Eve everyone, thanks for making 2019 amazing, and I can’t wait to serve with you in 2020.

Why you aren't achieving your goals

Are your goals spectacular, impossible and electrifying?

If not, don’t even bother. Boring goals yield boring results.

It’s why we can’t get ourselves to the gym 3 times a week, but we can climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
It’s why we can’t stay consistent on Linked-In but we can have six-figure launches. 

You’ve got to be inspired by your goals.

Before you set your goal in stone, ask these three questions:

1. Is it spectacular? (Is it going to change your life?)

2.  Is it impossible? (Does it feel like it’s beyond your current capability?)

3.  Is it electrifying? (Does it make your whole body pump with excitement?)

 Now you’ve got a goal worth pursuing.

Will achieving your goals make you happier?

Something I hear a lot is “It’s superficial to set goals. You won’t be any happier with a fancy car or house or when you lose weight, so why try?”

Nah uh, honey! It’s true that your capacity for happiness isn’t going to increase when you reach a specific goal. You won’t suddenly have the ability to feel better when you have a new house. Your capacity for happiness is already at its peak.

You also won’t necessarily feel happier just by having achieved something or owning something new.

However, an essential ingredient for happiness is growth (according to theories in positive psychology), and goals give you the opportunity to grow, and therefore be happy along the way.

You won’t be happier THERE than you are HERE. But because having goals forces you to grow, working towards goals will make you happier NOW.

That means setting a THERE and working towards it is essential to being happy NOW.

Short version: The pursuit of the goal will make you happier, not the achievement of the goal.

Everyone Has a Secret Goal

Everyone has a secret goal. A goal they’ve been hiding away from the world because they were told it was unrealistic, or are afraid of being shot down or laughed at. Whether you’re 5 or 95, there’s always a secret goal brewing inside.

Today I visited my Grandad’s cousin and she told me her secret goal is to become an aquafit instructor. But then someone told her the course would be too difficult and had tried to put her off.

Bullshark. She is a total boss, and she knows she is highly capable of crushing it as an aquafit instructor. But she’s been putting it off because now she’s confused about what to do and where to begin.

Here’s the thing: confusion is a goal-paralyzer.

When we think we don’t know what we want or we believe we don’t know how to get it, we just do nothing. We give up before we’ve started. I know, because I’ve been there, and it sucks.

So she and I created a plan.

There are three main things you need to achieve any goal:

1. Clarity on exactly what it is you truly want

2. A simple plan of attack that includes daily action

3. Accountability to keep you taking that daily action no matter what

These three steps put people in LFM (aka: laser-focus mode).

At 71 she has:

1. Got clarity: Become a brilliant aquafit instructor in 2020

2. Created a simple plan for daily action: Go online to find out the requirements and sign up to a course – then take daily action to complete the course

3. Accountability: Agreed that I will phone her in June, and will be expecting her to be well underway to achieve her goal in 2020.

It doesn’t matter what your secret goal is – what matters is that you admit it to yourself and start taking daily action towards it.

What is the secret goal you’ve been stuffing inside your sock drawer?

Well that escalated quickly

Today I did push ups ON our flight from Tenerife to London… in the seat aisle!

I still have to see if I can hit 32 today, I’m about to head off and do them now. If you’d like to closely follow my progress, I’ve been sharing a lot on my instagram stories: @saraharnoldhall

I’ve also been trying to add in other elements to my workouts, like core and holding plank positions and variations such as this:

Do you have any top tips for workouts that will strengthen the muscles that don’t involve actual push ups?

Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear!

Push Ups Update & Training Routine

Day: 129
Push up ability: 26

Today I hit 26! That’s my personal best and over 1/4 of the way to my 100 push ups goal.

I’ve been getting so much advice from so many people across my social platforms, it’s been awesome to feel so much support. I’ve had people creating short videos with advice for workouts, mindset coaches reaching out with tips, people suggesting nutritionists and personal trainers offering to help. The power of community is beautiful.

Today my goal on the calendar was 30 push ups. I hit 26 before collapsing, but I’m impressed that I managed to do that many because my arms have been super sore from intense training during the last couple of days.

Now what I’ve been doing is pushing myself to exhaustion at every workout (my arms are even shaking a little as I type this!).

Now my training routine is:

1. Doing as many push ups as I can in a row
2. 20-second rest
3. Doing as many knee push ups as I can in a row
4. 20-second test
5. Doing as many floor drops as I can( I’m sure there’s a legit name for this, I’m talking about where you get in plank/push up position and lower yourself fully to the ground very slowly, then get up and repeat it).

I’m excited that my body is beginning to feel challenged, I’m noticing it’s a lot sorer (in a good way) recently. I once heard someone say “muscle pain after a workout is the feeling of getting better looking.”

Now as well as making sure my form is correct, I want to start truly going as deep as I can, because they are currently quite shallow push ups (I’m not going as far down as I could).

Looking forward to updating you again soon!

Why You Need to Set 2030 Goals Now

What are your 2030 goals?

While everyone else is worrying about what they’ll do in 2020, now is the time to think bigger. Where do you want to be in a decade?

A decade ago today, Instagram didn’t exist, and now it dominates our lives (can you imagine going back to before social media?!). The iPhone wasn’t mainstream. Justin Bieber wasn’t famous.

In one year, you might get some stuff done, but when you’ve got a decade to play with, you can think properly big, seriously impossible.

Think 2030, then take your actions from 2020.

I’m off for my own 2030 journaling session now.

What Is Your 2020 Needle-Mover?

A needle mover is a task that will propel your project or area you are working on to the next level.

I once heard a story about a man who had a whole raft of issues – he was severely overweight, in a troubled relationship, his career was on the rocks, he was a chain smoker and he also chewed gum. He finally decided he needed to make some serious changes in his life – so he chose to stop chewing gum.

Huh?

You have all of those issues, and you chose to use your limited daily willpower to stop chewing gum?

The thing is, this dude clearly had good intentions, and he was ready change his life. He just didn’t stop to think about the actions that would truly propel his life forward. But he was making a crucial mistake: the change he was making wouldn’t propel his life forward to the next level. He needed to focus on one thing that would truly make a difference. Perhaps for him, it was losing weight, leaving his relationship or getting a new job.

If you could only work on ONE thing in 2020 that would propel you forward – just ONE, what would it be?

For me, it’s getting the word out about my members club, Impossible Incubator.

In other words, my sales funnel is my 2020 needle mover.

What is the most important needle-mover for 2020?

Push Ups Update

I’m back in the game to get to 100 push ups. If you read my November Goals Review, you’ll know that the reason I didn’t achieve my goal of 30 push ups is that I was already at 25. I set the bar too low, and made the mistake of believing “I had time” to work up to it.

But I broke my own rule #1: Don’t set realistic goals.

Realistic goals are boring, and I have no motivation for them. Impossible Goals get me fired up.

So I’ve decided, instead, this month I will reach an impossible goal: 50 push ups.

Ooh, it gets me excited just thinking about it!

Here is my workout routine:

I only started it yesterday, but I am READY to make this happen! I’m going to accelerate them a bit, as I can definitely do more than 5 push ups. Tonight I managed to comfortably do 10 in a row, which is great because it’s actually the 7th day of the month! So I’m going to continue training at the rate of aiming for 50 push ups by the 31st of December.

I’ll keep you updated – make sure to check out my Instagram Stories as that’s where I’ll be posting most!