Now What?

Have you ever felt relieved and deflated after achieving a huge goal? You ran your first marathon, hit your mark on achieving your fitness goals, sold a business you started, or had a record sales month in your job or business. Once that initial celebratory buzz and emotions are over, you start relaxing, even contemplating what's next.

First, realize this: It's natural to feel this way. After all, you put all your emotions, focus and energy into ensuring your actions were consistently moving you forward toward your goals and probably put other parts of your life on hold. And also, the achievement wasn't as fulfilling as you imagined.

Understand you've sacrificed a lot. You've achieved a large goal, and it's really useful to understand that you may get complacent. The complacency may be because you're relieved that you were able to achieve it.

After reaching a big goal, complacency is almost certain. Here are a couple of tips to help you stay consistent with the most important relationship you keep - with yourself so read on and enjoy!

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When I got out of the military there were a lot of things going through my mind. Being I working in Military Intelligence (I know it's an oxymoron lol) I had seen a lot of things from different perspectives and all I wanted to do was get out, settled down, have a family, get a great job, and enjoy life.

And I did that.

Five years after leaving the military I had accomplished all that and I remember sitting in my cubicle in a corporate job looking out the window wondering about life and was that all to life; was I living to my fullest potential? Complacency  creeped into my life and had me thinking what's next? Now what?

What I'm trying to say is that the message underlying my emotions was that it was time to follow my passion and do what ignites me. So that started the journey of the man that you see before you today. I walked away from a great job to do what I love, making certain that every day was lived out with the understanding that my life is more important than just living, but rather living abundantly on my terms and what matter most to me and the relationships I keep in life.

My testimony here is merely cliff notes because I've had A LOT of situations and experiences throughout my journey; There were sacrifices; there were lean years; there were many failures, but I have to say that when you follow your passion, it holds the true power to your unlimited potential. Take your time and figure out what are you passionate about with the understanding that you can't force it. Look for the spark; Seek to show yourself proven, and when you decide to follow your passion, that's when you'll start moving forward.

So here are some strategies and best practices that helped me regroup, move forward, stay on track, and not fall into complacency because I've allow myself to let outside influences distract my focus on what really matter.

1. Focus on the Journey. Get a gratitude journal and focus on the journey, both the good and bad and focus on the experience or lessons learned. This will keep your focus on what matter and allow your mind to focus on solutions and not the problems. This will help you celebrate your mini accomplishments along the way to reaching a big goal.  See the gratitude journal that I purchased.
2. Challenge yourself every week and notice your improvements. When you set up weekly to do list and monthly not to do lists, it allows you to keep from being distracted, improves your time productivity, efficiency, and discipline to stay consistent. 
3. Take a break after reaching a big goal. Don't push yourself into the next goal. Take some time for yourself to heal physically, emotionally, psychologically, and intellectually. Allowing yourself time and space to look over what you have done so you can choose something else to work on.

Remember...real success is doing the thing you know you're on this earth to do. Everyone definition of success is different and if it is meaningful to you, that is your purpose.

One of my mantras is I am making an impact on the world through my STRETCHYOURSELF brand. And up until my last physical I realized that you can't ignore your relationship with yourself in pursuit of achieving your goals...watch my video where I talk about my blood pressure (200/160) and my stress.

Your turn…

What would you add to this list? What do you do to keep complacency from creeping into your life, whether you are in pursuit of a goal, or you've just achieved a big goal? How do you keep the balance with the relationships you keep?

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts with the STRETCHYOURSELF community.

Thank you for reading this and I hope my experiences move you in the direction with strong commitment and focus and I look forward to connecting with you soon