My first joy-based goal was to read 30 books in 1 year.
Can you guess how many I read?
28. Yup, I was 2 books short of my goal! So, technically I had failed… but that’s where the magic happened. I had learned so much more about myself and about goal-getting throughout the chasing of my joy-based goal that not achieving it didn’t even matter.
I started creating my own resources for identifying goals that I wanted to achieve and tools that would help me work towards those goals. I also started to create resources for common challenges that I would face in the pursuit of my goals and I packed it all up into a 12-week course.
Over the past few years, the course has evolved into what is now called the Goal-Getting Method.
Hi, I’m Jessica Orchard. A woman who woke up at the age of 25ish to realize that I was going through the motions of a life I wasn’t super jazzed about. I had been numbing my feelings for years with alcohol and couldn’t remember what happiness or joy really felt like.
*Please note that my feelings about my life are based on me. I had friends, family, and a boyfriend who I enjoyed spending time with, but other people cannot solve your internal feelings. Feeling unfulfilled in life does not mean that the people in your life are not enough, it just means that you haven’t been chasing meaningful or joy-based goals.
In 2016, I desperately wanted to bring some joy back into my life and I set my first joy-based goal.
Before University, I loved reading books.
During my University days, reading was required for all of my classes, which meant that the last thing I wanted to do after reading for a class was open up a book to read for fun…
I’d gotten out of the habit of reading for fun (but not out of the habit of buying books that looked interesting to read).
I had a shelf full of books, but I felt like I didn’t have time to read them.
I decided to figure out how to make the time. I set up a very basic sheet of paper with all the months of the year and a few lines underneath each month.
Over the course of the year, I made a lot of changes to my reading list.
I failed to hit my reading goal, but I sparked a fire for goal chasing that has led me to start two different businesses, create the Goal-Getting Method and The Daily SIFTT, and work with tons of amazing clients to help them achieve their life and business goals.
That’s the beauty of chasing your goals with the 4-step Goal-Getting Method.
You achieve incredible things along the way!
If you’re tired of setting goals and never reaching them, or you’ve given up on goals and resolutions entirely… it’s time to learn the Goal-Getting Method with the support of The MORE Society.
To learn more about the Goal-Getting Method, click here.
How was The Daily SIFTT created? Great question… There’s a bit of a story involved so grab a cup of tea and settle in.
As an introvert with a fixed mindset, I didn’t realize the negative path I was on until a decade of self-hate and yo-yo dieting left me feeling numb to life.
I was the queen of quick fixes - but that also meant I was the queen of yo-yo dieting and losing weight only to gain it back again eventually.
My obsession with weight started in grade 10 (at the age of 15) when I decided that I was “fat” and that being “fat” was the reason I had zero confidence. I shamed myself into a round of harmful tactics like deprivation and over-training, constantly telling myself that I didn’t deserve to eat until I was a certain size.
I thought that being “skinny” would make my negative thoughts, feelings, and challenges go away - Ah, to be young and naive.
After a year or so of being “skinny” I still felt like I wasn’t enough.
Despite what advertisements, magazines, and movies will tell you - your worth doesn’t come from how you look!
Then, I got it in my head that in order to be confident and desirable as a woman, I needed to have big boobs - so my obsession with putting weight back on began.
I went through this awful cycle for over 10 years… always waiting to be the right size so that I could finally feel happy and confident.
I’ve tried diet pills, breast enhancement gum, breast enhancement cream, running outside, running on treadmills, personal trainers, workout books, workouts that I saved on Pinterest/YouTube/Instagram, at-home DVD workouts, TRX, Thigh Master, sleeping in a corset… YOU NAME IT, I’VE TRIED IT!
None of these things “worked” for me long-term. I got so tired of my own bull**** and eventually gave up altogether. I started just going through the motions of my life instead of really living it.
It wasn’t until many years later when I was told that my godson’s sister, who was age 11 at the time, acted a little bit like me that I finally took a good hard look at my life.
That is when the hammer dropped for me.
I thought to myself, “Sh*t. If she is similar to me and walks a similar walk as me, and develops the same thoughts as me, how can I sit here wallowing in self-pity instead of working to show her that there is a better way to live? I don’t want her to hate herself and feel like a waste of space.” And I realized that I wanted to find answers to the question “How did you get through this?” just in case she ever asks me.
I finally decided to stop giving up when it felt hard. I had to decide to try everything again, and keep trying, and die trying if I had to because I already felt dead inside anyway - I literally had nothing to lose.
We’ve been trained by the media to believe that the next thing is going to be THE thing that works. It’s not your fault that you can’t stick with anything long-term, because you’ve probably never seen it done and it certainly isn’t sold to you in the same sexy “quick-fix” way as all the other things I mentioned above.
See, the thing is, over the course of 10+ years I had literally tried E V E R Y T H I N G. That’s a big reason why I eventually gave up. But then I met someone online who was putting in work every single day to better her mindset, health, heart, and soul. She was doing similar things that I had tried, but she wasn’t using the all-or-nothing approach that I used. She was building positive habits into her life one at a time. And that’s when it clicked for me.
To feel good in my body, to feel happy, to believe that I have self-worth… I have to identify ways to improve myself and work on it every day.
I created resources for myself to figure out how I could improve myself and track my progress. It got a little bit crazy there for a while with a lot of paperwork for me to sift through in order to keep track of my wellness goals and progress. In order for me to share what was working with the women inside The MORE Society, I had to keep simplifying what I was doing. And I knew that I didn’t want to create a step-by-step process because each of us is unique and will require our own customizable plan.
After a few years of testing what actually helped me create wellness and feel more fulfilled in life, I’d narrowed it down to the 5 Pillars of Wellness. I played around with the wording of each pillar a little until I had the perfect acronym: SIFTT.
To learn more about The Daily SIFTT, click here.
Now, I know that’s not what you wanted to hear. We all want to hear that we can lose weight fast and keep it off by doing a 4-week program, or taking one small pill, or having surgery done.
But if you’re doing something, like a diet or workout or retreat, that you cannot implement into your life every day to create a lifestyle - you’re eventually going to stop doing it. And when you stop doing it, you're going to stop seeing the results from doing the thing.
It can be very lonely working on something every single day that other people around you may not understand. I needed a supportive community that I could easily show up in every day to gain courage, motivation, inspiration, and so much more.
The MORE Society was created as an online community where we can show other women what it looks like to build confidence in themselves, to build self-esteem based on what they are capable of (not what they look like), and to do the small actions each day that lead to lasting results.
When one of us shows up for ourselves, it inspires all the others to do the same.
Whether your goal is to have MORE energy, MORE focus, MORE self-love, MORE joy, MORE community – YOU belong as a member in The MORE Society.
xo, Jessica
Gain access to two proven methods that help you figure out what you want most and create the plan that gets you there with support and accountability from other goal-getters inside The MORE Society. You get to pick where you start, and with The Daily SIFTT or the Goal-Getting Method, you can't go wrong! Please note that there are no refunds and you can cancel your membership at any time.