As a mental health professional and business coach, I often see people who constantly fail to achieve their stated goals. Frequently there is a vast disconnect between what people say they want and the effort they are prepared to make to reach that stated goal. Maybe you know someone who is having these difficulties.
- Are you someone who starts things and then never finishes them?
- Do you complain that you have been unlucky and that is why things don’t work out?
- Why do other people seem to achieve their goals and you fail?
- Which times can you remember that you just did not turn up for meetings?
- Have you ever considered you may have a poor attitude to creating your own stated goals?
Let’s get something out of the way immediately:
Life is not meant to always be easy. At times it will be really hard, painful and a lot of work. If all you are looking for is an easy life, you will likely not achieve your goals.
If you are seeking to avoid any form of pain, discomfort or hard work you will never achieve your goals, even if that goal is to achieve an easy life.
You see, you grow from the things you experience, not from the things you avoid.
If we never experience any discomfort we do not have to learn any new strategies, make changes to our lives or reach out to achieve new goals.
To be successful in achieving a goal you need to follow the examples of people who do achieve theirs. Examine the formula they use and the way they execute those formulas and strategies.
Here’s how to maximise your chances of achieving your goals:
1. Open yourself up to new learnings.
Understanding that what you know is not enough to reach your goal. Arrogance is your worst enemy because it shuts down your ability to learn. Understand and accept you have to learn knew knowledge and skills in order to achieve the new goals.
2. Find people who know how to do what you want to be able to do and hang out with those people so you can learn their strategies and formulas for success.
This is called modelling. You might not do things exactly as they do but you can learn so much from people who have already achieved those or similar goals. If you have to pay people to teach you, that is what you do.
3. Turn up and do the work required to make that goal happen.
If someone who has achieved something tells you: “This is what you to make that goal happen”, you do it, on time, without excuses. The formula of knowledge plus strategy plus work raises the probably of a positive outcome.
4. Devise strategies to achieve your goals.
Devise a planned number of actions that you need to take to make that goal happen. Tick off each action as you progressively move towards the completion of the whole goal. Devise your plan at the beginning and be sure to build in a timeframe by which you will need to complete each action.
5. Do not be a whinger or whiner.
Take responsibility for your actions. Do not complain when you have to put a great deal of effort into making something happen and achieve your goals. Life is not free. You have to do the work to make your life happen and achieve your goals. When you say you want something and then continually do not do the work to make that happen, other people lose interest in you and may see you as a self-imposed victim who is not reliable. Ultimately they lose interest in helping you.
Be flexible and continually assess your progress in moving towards your goal. If something is absolutely not working, change your masterplan and devise new strategies to take you towards the goal. Life changes, so at times you sometimes need to change actions in the middle of your master plan.
Most of all, follow through with your actions – if you say you are going to do something for yourself or others, do it.
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