How to Set Goals — Tarot Pick a Card

Hello, my soul friends! Today I have a psychic tarot reading on how to set goals. This is not a reading for specific goals to set, but how to frame what you want in an approach that will lead to success.

All you have to do to receive this message is pick one of the piles above using your intuition.

After you select your cards, scroll down to your pile or choose below.

For this reading, I’ve chosen the Tattoo Tarot deck (this is an affiliate link that supports me if you make a purchase). Remember that you have free will. That means you can manifest the positive and avoid the negative of any reading.

Now let’s see how you should be setting your goals.

Pile 1: Giraffe

Too Much In Your Head

Overall, I get the sense that you need competition to inspire you to succeed.

The first card, Ace of Swords, Reversed, shows that being totally in your head causes you to circle the drain. For the less creative, this could mean you simply have bad ideas. For those who are creative, you might seek inspiration in your environment.

Either way, there’s something wrong with looking only in yourself to choose goals and to plan how you’ll achieve it.

A really good example of how to fix this without directly competing with someone is a vision board. What this does is push you to use outside, inspirational images to manifest the vision of what you want.

People who use vision boards often subconsciously correct misconceptions that have about what they want when looking at examples.

I think there’s a good chance that you’re not able to fully articulate the goals you want to set without an external influence. But that external, competitive influence doesn’t have to be an aggressive one: though you’re certainly welcome to find a rival to compete against.

Check Your Progress

You probably jump into things before you’re fully ready. The Magician, Reversed when paired with the last card strongly indicates you start things before you have all the tools you need.

Now, that’s not always a bad thing: sometimes it helps to just get started and then revise your approach or goals along the way.

But I think you have the tendency to be a bit stubborn and not add on tools or revise your approach when you’re in progress. You may find it helpful at the beginning of a project to set time milestones where you review your plan.

Maybe you won’t always need to add or revise something, but just giving yourself permission to stop and think about it will encourage you to be open to the possibility of adding more tools or changing your approach.

You may also find it helpful to brainstorm, research, or ask for input before starting anything major. Then you’re more likely to be better prepared. If you’re afraid of spending too much time in this phase, give yourself a time limit before you must get started.

Choose an Opponent

The final card is the Five of Wands. This is a competitive, but at times playful energy. Did you know that you can have a rival without hating that rival?

Whatever you’re hoping to achieve, keeping a real or imagined rival in mind to measure yourself against will help you. For example, someone who wants to fall in love might imagine the type of person who has their desired partner. What is that person like? What do you need to do to meet that expectation?

Just make sure that your rivals are reasonable. It’s okay to “trade up” rivals when you get better, but you might find that your first stage of success is sufficient for happiness. Whenever you do achieve your goals, it might be time to gleefully retire your rivalship – unless it serves as an incentive to maintain your progress.

I loved reading for you! If it resonated, let me know. You can also leave a tip on ko-fi or book a private reading and get 10% off until December 31 on my Etsy.

Pile 2: Horse

Go for the Goal

You want total victory. There’s a high possibility you set ambitious and sometimes impossible goals. Most people who are like this tend to be Type A or have ADHD, meaning they’re motivated by constraints. So the desire for total victory serves as inspiration and psychological ignition.

The first card, Ace of Wands, does indicate that your ambitious goals come from a personal source. Whatever you choose to aim for, it needs to be based on your personal values. It might be great to be a doctor, but if you don’t want to be a doctor, no amount of success in that field will make you happy.

But let’s workshop more. Imagine a person who loves to crochet and it’s not their career nor do they want it to be their career. How would setting a goal work for a hobby like this?

The person would benefit by creating specific, measurable goals like “crochet one doll per month.”

You’re motivated by victory, so try to model important things in your life using that framework. And for something like a relationship, compete with yourself (not your partner) with how affectionate you can be.

Get Private

Because you’re motivated by victory, you also want to be seen. The second card, Nine of Coins, Reversed, shows a desire to be seen by others and not rest on your laurels.

But this is not a positive expression (otherwise I would’ve pulled the Six of Wands here). You almost have a codependent relationship with others when it comes to success. It’s impossible for you to enjoy simply existing with your rewards.

This is something you can overcome and it will lead you to being satisfied with the goals you achieve instead of immediately setting a new goal.

One way you can do this is to not tie social recognition to your goals, but intrinsic rewards. The crochet hobby from before would not have an appropriate goal like “post a picture of my doll on social media and get 10,000 likes.” That’s because it would create a continuous feedback loop where they’d want to make crochet dolls purely for popularity and not because of enjoyment.

Focus all your goals on enjoying the process or end destination: like crocheting one project a month or crocheting a collection of projects to display in the home.

Make your victory conditions as personal and private as possible.

Don’t Burn Bridges

Your last card is the Five of Swords. For the most part, I think this card is positive so long as you address your desire for social recognition and correct that.

But you need to be aware that your desire for victory will lead you to be competitive – and severe. When competing against people you love, you may be cruel or petty. Think of friends playing monopoly and the super competitive friend being too harsh during the game.

Whenever possible, try not to compete with people you care about or people you need to have a good relationship with. When this is unavoidable, you’re going to need to check your behavior and even be prepared to apologize if you take things too far.

I loved reading for you! If it resonated, let me know. You can also leave a tip on ko-fi or book a private reading and get 10% off until December 31 on my Etsy.

Pile 3: Monkey

Easily Persuaded

There is someone or some force in your life that is a bad inspiration. This person is the King of Wands, Reversed. For some of you, this could be a negative relationship like a toxic boss or family member, but it can be someone you are otherwise happy with.

It’s somewhat normal, especially in some cultures, for people to give unwanted advice. This advice is not always correct or appropriate for the person receiving it, even when all intentions are good.

I often find this is true for introverts. They tend to be more private with their thoughts and feelings, so the people in their lives often don’t know that what they say isn’t received well.

But even extroverts can be negatively influenced if they lack assertiveness or are especially agreeable and naturally default to the expectations of others.

You’re one of these people, so you need to reflect often and write down what your true opinion is when setting goals. That way you’ll never be persuaded out of what you really want because you have a clear idea of what’s best for you already.

Simplify Things

Have you ever heard of Too Many Ideas Syndrome? The second card in your spread, Seven of Cups, indicates you’re experiencing exactly that.

It’s not a bad thing to have a lot of ideas or to even dwell on possibilities. But too often, creative people will entertain a multitude of ideas, including ideas that aren’t reasonable or even good. It’s a natural extension of these chaotic, but bountiful minds.

Some in this pile may also be presented with a lot of ideas or options from the people in their lives – and while their advice is usually unwanted, sometimes someone really does have a good idea that would make you happy.

Regardless, you need to wrestle with the reality that you have too many things to consider and you might make a hasty choice to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

But picking at random is not likely to make you happy. Instead, do a Monty Hall reduction. If you have seven ideas, there is only a 1 in 7 chance that you’ll pick the best one. But if you reduce it to three options, and then decide again based on what’s available, you have a 1 in 3 chance of picking the best option if you weren’t wrong to begin with.

However, as long as you aren’t arbitrarily excluding things, but those which are obviously wrong, then you will pare down the possibilities until you can make the best informed choice possible.

Get Tangible

The final card in your spread is the Knave of Coins. When you set goals, you need to set a goal that can be measured and one that has tangible milestones or rewards.

That makes something like career easy to measure, but what do you do if one of your goals is something like “reduce stress”?

You can choose a process goal, like meditating five minutes a day most days of the week, or you can find a tool that measures stress in some manner, like a heartbeat monitor, blood pressure cuff, or blood work from the doctor.

It may take some time to find what to measure your goal with, but you’ll be more at ease with whatever goal you set once you have that. You always need a “finish line” for your goals and measurements and tangible rewards help to create that.

I loved reading for you! If it resonated, let me know. You can also leave a tip on ko-fi or book a private reading and get 10% off until December 31 on my Etsy.