In business and in life reaching our goals is something we all strive for whether we find ourselves struggling or easily reaching out and grasping what we desire. When setting goals for myself I have learned a number of lessons from my own successes and failures as well as from fabulous business women and writers like Leonie Dawson  and SARK. 
One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that when we set goals, the ones we more easily reach usually have 2 common factors - steps to reach the goal and a due date of sorts. 

None of these have dates set by outside sources like the marathon above and all of them have steps that will be individual to each person and no one right way to do it. With so many intangibles and variables, it is easy to see why achieving these goals feels almost impossible at times. 

There are ways, however, to reach these goals as so many successful and amazing people have proven! 
To reach those we must make sure we have the details in the steps. Baby steps and big steps should be recorded and planned. 
I suggest keeping a journal to anyone and everyone, no matter what your goal is. Writing in that journal daily or weekly can be one of your baby steps! In that journal keep lists of your steps, what you do each day or week to achieve them, the good times and the bad, and resources that aid or inspire you. 
Journals, at least for me, help me keep my brain de-cluttered by holding all those bits of information for me so I can focus on something else or just rest at the end of the day. Journals also help with another very important part of goal-reaching - Making Our Steps Achievable and Check-Off-Able (yes I made that last word up but it works). 

Nothing feels better than checking off a step or something on the to-do list and seeing yourself that much closer to achieving your goal. Its a rush of encouragement and you are all the more likely to reach the next step because of it. Gold Stars and Highlighters are my favorite ways of checking off my lists, btw. 
Plan due dates for when you will reach that next step. Making goals workable and tangible is how to make them real. 
We might not be able to set a due date for that final goal, however, we can set a due date for that next step. I might not have a due date for when my business brand is built and well known, however, I can set a due date for creating my social media accounts or talking to graphic designers in my area about making my logo. 

By setting due dates for these steps, each one is more likely to be achieved and put into action. 
I recommend keeping a planner and writing your Goal Steps in it. Have a Monthly, Weekly, and even Daily goal list. This planner can be online in Google Calendar or a physical one that you keep with you (I prefer the latter as physically writing down and checking off my goals is more inspiring to me). 

We all need a little encouragement (or a hand to hold) sometimes. Picking out a support list of friends and family with your goal in mind is a great way to reach your dreams! Be sure to pick them accordingly. If your goal is to get married I wouldn't add the cousin who has been divorced 7 times to your support group list without a really good reason and the same with building a business and adding your kid brother who has never so much as run a lemonade stand to your support list. 

Lastly, don't be afraid to call in professional help. No, I don't mean a psychologist for your insanity (though, they can be super helpful too). I mean if you are training to release weight and get in better shape, consider hiring a trainer or nutritionist. If your goal is to write a best selling novel, hire a terrific editor! We all could use a little help sometimes and accepting this is a great step towards achieving our goals without additional stress and adding some self-care to our lives (See: Why the Psychologist has a Psychologist). 

A final note: Tarot can be a great way to plan out, work on, and seek help for your goals. There are tarot spreads and readers for every kind of problem imaginable out there. If you are looking for a reader to help you work through the challenges you're facing in achieving your dreams, please feel free to message me and schedule a reading.

To me this is a curious reason to not have a reading (and yes I understand that sometimes it is only an excuse for not wanting to pay for a reading). I wonder if they truly never seek out readings from someone other than themselves. I personally cannot imagine relying solely on my own reading abilities, especially when problems arise in my life that feel bigger than me or what I can handle (and we've all been there, I know).

When I had my miscarriage in 2013, I went to a psychic friend of mine, needing answers and advice. I had talked to family and friends and while their words were kind and loving, they could not clear my mind of the pain and guilt and trauma I was going through. My friend, the psychic, had exactly the right message for me - "Just as women on this plane of existence have a choice in whether or not they want to have their child, our babies have a choice in whether or not they want to be born. Sometimes a being comes to the physical plane and cannot bear it. They see the life they will live and get scared or feel they are not ready. So they decide to stop before they even get started. They may come again later, in another form or the same, when they are ready." (I share this here because someone else might need to hear these words, as I did, and be comforted by them.)

In my experience, Professional Readers seek other Professional Readers for aid more than any other type of querent. 
I first had the discussion about tarot readers getting readings from others when I was studying under my tarot mentor, June Wright. June and I would swap tarot readings not only so that she could see my progress but also so that she could have a reading done by an outside source. At other times she would swap readings with Damon, who does not use the tarot but his intuitive and psychic abilities to read others. When I asked June why she did this rather than just read for herself she explained to me that having a fresh perspective from someone outside of her problem was sometimes just what she needed. She did readings for herself, and often, but this sometimes left her in a slump of the same answer without any other advice or ideas. However, when I pulled the cards for her, I would point out symbols and messages she hadn't seen yet. 

I do not hold to the myth that tarot readers cannot read for themselves. 
I think this is not only a silly statement but a detrimental one to someone just starting out with the tarot. Reading for ourselves is necessary to build a relationship with the cards whether we're doing a daily one card pull or elaborate spreads to analyze an event or problem in our lives. Yes, we do bring our own personal biases to the reading table when we do this, which can show up when we read news that we don't want to hear and blow it off only to risk further problems down the road. This is merely a lesson we all must learn and if you feel that your own biases are limiting your reading - all the more reason to have your cards looked at by another knowledgeable person. 

I believe that the best explanation as to why a tarot reader should see another reader is my sister-in-law pointing out that most psychologists, therapists, counselors, etc see someone about their own problems, usually someone within their own profession. 
They do this as an act of self-care. 
They acknowledge that they too have problems, just like their clients, and that their profession is a great way to find help. 

Needless to say I am glad I sought help from another reader. I think I see where some readers are coming from - fear that going to another of their same profession or practice will somehow be giving the competition a leg-up on us, but this is far from the truth. 
I'm not much on competition. Cooperation games are more my gig and when I am among competitive people I usually just sit back and enjoy watching them instead. 
In readings and business, I feel the same way. We could all compete with each other like gas stations lowering and raising our prices by pennies...or...we could be a brother and sister-hood that helps each other out. I like the second idea best...plus its far less work than trying to keep up with the Joneses. 

So, if you're a reader that up till now has only read for yourself, go get a reading from someone else. There are groups on Facebook that are all about Tarot and other forms of divination and members are all the time offering to give or trade readings for those interested. I've also been known to trade readings and give out freebies when I get a wild hair...or is it hare...like riding off on the Ostara rabbit! 
I hope that this little ramble has helped you to see that we all need help sometimes, and that is perfectly ok...hell, better than ok, it lets you connect with other people who might also need a reminder that they too should be taking care of themselves and not just others. 

Much Love!
December

When it comes to someone like this (even those not in the reader community for I see this with healers, teachers and other professions) I ask "what happens when you're too tired or sick to do this anymore? Who will do it then, when you have not taken care of yourself and you just stop because your body and mind can take no more?" You can only give so much when you are run down and you're of no benefit to others running at half capacity or less. 
I can't tell you the number of readings where rest, self-care, and stepping back from those they are helping comes up because someone gives and gives and gives to others and never takes a moment to give to themselves. I also can't tell you how sad it makes me to see these clients get up from the tarot table and I know either intuitively or by something they say that they will not heed the words of the cards and will probably run themselves until they are sick. Wonderful people don't stay wonderful very long without some help. 

It is that time again - Mercury in Retrograde! For many this time means communication disorganization, technology failures, and grumpy goblins possessing normally happy and chipper people. 
Books and websites and blogs on astrology and magic often notes that this is a time to avoid new endeavors, important paperwork, and communication and technology in general. If Mercury in Retrograde was a tarot card I'd name it The Hermit in reverse - forced solitude and the crotchety bastard next door. 
Of course during this time period, I got the urge to do everything I was advised against! I don't know if this is because I love Mercury's trickster side or if its because of my ornery Sagittarian nature. So, instead of avoiding communication and technology, I cling to it. I created a website, work on my social media accounts, call my mom long distance, and sit on my stack of pillows, cradling my laptop against my pregnant belly and WRITE! 

Today I spent the morning tending my herb garden, sunbathing while making notes in one of my aromatherapy books and journaling. I texted and called Damon, my mom, and my sister in law over nonsense things like "remember to buy sponges" and "how goes the house cleaning?" Then I ate a quart of strawberries and wrote 2000 words on the book I'm currently working on. I pulled out one of my favorite writing inspirations - SARK's Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper and read for an hour to avoid cleaning house. Between chapters I grabbed some water, cleaned up a little, lit a lavender candle, then grabbed my laptop to write yet another book idea up along with some notes. After exhausting that idea, and procrastinating further on cleaning, I returned to SARK's book. Here I read a wonderful note about writing is part creating words to write and part moving the tools (actual writing). SARK said something about a pen with wings and this triggered an idea...

Often Mercury or Hermes is depicted with or just as the symbol of a staff with wings - the caduceus. What if Mercury's symbol for me was not the medical staff but the tool of communication - a pen with wings! 
So I doodled in my journal a bit, drawing the pen my midwife gave me in my birth center swag bag, which is a wonderful peaceful and communicative blue and added some wings to it. I drew this, of course, with the pen that I was depicting. 
As I drew, and breathed in the lovely aromatherapy of my lavender candle and listened to the cranes bicker outside my window, I wondered what Mercury would think of me during this crazy time of retrograde. would he think I'm too bold and is preparing some crazy computer crash or miscommunication to knock me off my course? Or does he like my brash nature and grin down at me from his winged heights as I type away on this blog post that is already too long to be allowed. (I hope it is the latter)

Another thing SARK says in her book is that writing is a Daring process. It is preposterous that we put our words out there with the audacious idea that someone might actually want to read them! GASP! 
What is mischievous Mercury but DARING! He is the god of thieves and tricksters! He dares to fly when others walk or crawl. He dares to be the message bearer even when the message doesn't want to be heard! So perhaps, retrograde is a great time to dare a little with communication...

I think about how daring I must be to write a book...much less a book about a topic on which other books have already been written! I think about what my lil baby in my womb might think and even ask "Lil Caleb, is your mommy crazy to be writing?" I wonder what he will think about his paper and ink sibling when he emerges into this wild world. I wonder what he will think of Mercury in Retrograde; if he will be a grumpy goblin or daring the insanity like his momma. I think about how daring it is to write about writing here on this blog post. Little voices ask "what if you never publish?" or "what if they hate your book?" and here I'm writing about this book as if it is set in stone that it will be created. I dare to dream that it is already in my hands, created and published and being read my hundreds. 

I can't help but smile a little when I write and I light my candles and send up a little prayer to the god of communication, thieves, business, and trickery. Ease my self-doubts about writing. Let me be bold and brash like you and wave my freak flag merrily as I send my words out to the world. Give me many many winged pens that I may move my tools without care of criticism. May I keep my grin even when others are grumpy. Give me aid as I risk the stars and reach forward to communicate. So may it be.