If you’ve been around for the last few years you have heard me share time and time again about the power of goal-setting and how using it effectively can literally change your life! You might even remember episodes like Behind The Scenes: Summary of My First Quarter where I literally took you behind the scenes and let you see my quarterly goal achievement process and shared real wins and failures. My friend, we have come a long way!
Now as the countdown begins for the 4th quarter I want to give you a head start by sharing some of the hurdles, mistakes, and obstacles I faced (and things I’m currently working through) so you can learn from my challenges and mistakes to gain insight! You ready! Hit play to dive in!
If You Fail To Plan You Plan To Fail
One of the biggest things I’ve learned is without a plan failure is inevitable! For a long time, I felt stuck in a cycle of knowing exactly what I want, but not knowing how to get there. My ability to plan and structure my goals effectively sucked…big time! I would plan and fail, plan and fail and this went on for a long time (longer than it needed)!
This struggle was not only for big, long-term goals. Oh no, my friend! This included the small, mundane, daily goals like trying to read 12 books in a year or getting my driver’s license. I would start the process (dream, plan, etc) but never finish (execute, delegate, etc)!
Why? What was causing me to self-sabotage even in the simple things? If you haven’t guessed it, I’ll tell you! I gave myself way too much time to…. and here’s what I learned. Having the best intentions doesn’t make you successful. You need a plan and you have to follow through on that plan!
There’s a popular quote by Benjamin Franklin you’ve probably heard a thousand times. He says, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” This means right now if you don’t have a plan for your life, business, time, family, finances, health, etc you will hit that goal (absolutely… nothing). So here’s something to consider how can you expect to live a purposeful life without clear, broken down goals, the best strategy, and accountability? My friend, without these things you are setting yourself up to fail!
What Is The Best Goal-Achievement Method?
A question I hear people ask all the time is “What is the best way to go about achieving my goals and how can I improve my discipline and actually get things done?” So let’s take a look at the data! According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, we experience flow or the highest level of pleasure when our mind is stretched to its limits to achieve a specific goal. So based on this we know that if we want to engage our mind in the process and experience growth beyond a change in our situation we need goals that stretch us. These goals put us in a state that I call being in the zone. You might call it staying in your lane, working in your zone of genius, or operating in your purpose! Now here’s where things get interesting.
In the book, Psycho-Cybernetics Maxwell Maltz describes the brains’ ability to help us succeed as our “built-in success mechanism”. We use our forebrain (which is the logical, thinking side of our brain) to set and achieve goals, but that side of our brain is not creative and resourceful because it’s not designed to solve problems. It usually creates them.
How To Manage Stress & Anxiety?
This is why as we are planning our goals it’s easy for us to feel excited about what’s possible and nervous about the potential to fail (among other things)! We tell ourselves, “this is great! I can’t wait to do this!” then on the flip side we’re thinking “…but what if…I fail…it’s too hard…I’m not disciplined enough…this process is probably going to suck!”
But check this out! Jesus said, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” Being double-minded in this way and having one foot on the gas while maintaining one of the breaks only leads to anxiety and unhealthy pressure that can turn into stress, the fear of missing out, and so on.
This is why it’s important to detach from the outcome of your goal! I know this sounds totally backward because we’re taught to fight for what we want and stick with it to the end but trust me when it comes to achieving audacious goals that completely take your life to the next level…less is more!
The Easy Way To Achieve Your Goals
Alignment
Many struggling goal-getters spend years dreaming about the day when the life they see on the outside aligns with the aspiration they have on the inside but no matter how hard (or long) they try, they can’t seem to bridge the gap between the two worlds. They stress, cry, and worry about when their dreams will come to fruition but here’s the thing. Goal achievement doesn’t have to take long and it doesn’t have to be hard.
We know this because having systems and routines in place help to make our goals obtainable and sustainable! This is why F. M. Alexander said “People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits, and their habits decide their futures.” Think about it. How many times have you seen someone struggling to lose weight week after week, month after month, year after year. They stock their house up with all the healthy food they can find, exercise when they want, and still, they are carrying around an extra 10lbs of weight they don’t want. Why?
Because it’s not about what we do once in a while, it’s not about who we pretend to be or who we want people to think we are. This is about the being doing the doing (if this does not make sense hit play, I break it all the way down for you!). If you are not healthy on the inside you won’t be healthy on the outside. If you are not deeply in love with yourself then your relationships will reflect it. There are endless examples we can pull from, but here’s what it boils down to.
Everything around us is a reflection of what’s within us. This is why I teach my 6-figure business clients and students of 90-Days: One Goal how to create success from the inside out! When our deepest desires align with our choices and actions then we’ll experience transformation, growth, and everything else. And believe it or not, right now you are practicing alignment. Even if you don’t have what you want, your life right now is reflecting who you are (not your good intentions or future goals). This is why we need self-awareness and personal reflection while on this journey of fulfilling our purpose and crushing big goals!
Here Are The Facts:
- 25% of people quit on their goals after one week (I used to be apart of this group!)
- 60% of people abandon their goals after 6 months!
- The average person makes the same New Years resolution 10 times without success
If you don’t wanna join them, listen carefully! The traditional way most of us have been taught to set goals doesn’t work. Telling yourself over the next 12 months you will work towards hitting specific objectives gives you way too much time to procrastinate, overthink, and avoid following through.
For so many of us, 12 months seems so far away that we figure we can always start tomorrow and that’s why our goals stay on a wish list! But when we practice quarterly goal-setting we get a clear vision just far enough into the future that challenges us to take inspired action and keeps us motivated long enough to get things done.
The Role of Motivation
Motivation is the gas in our car that helps us get to our destination. It leads to quick wins and big progress in a short amount of time! Without motivation we become passive, lazy, procrastinators who lack the energy and enthusiasm needed to enjoy life and get the most out of it!
High Level Goal Achievement Process For Struggling Goal-Getters
So here’s a high-level overview of things to keep an eye on as you plan and execute your strategy over the next few months to finish the year strong!
1. Begin With The End In Mind
What do you want and where are you going (and make sure you write it down). It’s so easy to overlook this step! Research shows that only 3 out of every 100 people write down their goals and because of this they end up drifting through life aimlessly and wondering why their life lacks purpose and significance. Writing your goals down is powerful!
Writing Down Your Goals Is The First Step In Getting It Done
- It forces you to clarify exactly what you want
- Helps you to articulate your intentions for the next 90-days
- Gives you a clear vision of what you’re working towards
- Lays out what you’re going to do
- Provide a filter for other opportunities
- Helps you stay on track with YOUR priorities
- Gives you something to track and review
- Helps you overcome resistance/challenges/obstacles
- Do I need to say anymore?!
This is your big picture planning phase. Here you want to clarify your vision. Get specific about what your destination looks like, how it will feel once you arrive, and exactly what you’re creating over the next 4 months. Then normally the next step would be to break your goal down into 90-day chunks but in this case, we’ll break it up over the next 4 months, and wah-lah! You have an effective life plan to help you create some progress over the next 4 months!
2. Your Next 90-Days/4 Months
Now we know that as wonderful as planning and writing down your goals is, your goal will not achieve itself. You gotta work your plan. So your next 90-days is all about follow-through on your plan, tweaking it where necessary, showing up as the person you want to be, and allowing yourself to make mistakes.
This is the part in the journey where most people give up because it requires diligence, patience, and focus. In order to go from being a struggling goal-getter to becoming a trailblazer, you have to answer the question. Would you rather invest the next 4 months of your life learning from your mistakes, taking a new approach to achieve your goals, getting things done, seeing progress, and becoming the trailblazer you always wanted to be vs sitting around, overwhelmed, doubting yourself, and avoiding your goals?
If there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you don’t quit (so I’m sure your answer is YES!). So over the next 4 months be committed to your growth. Don’t allow life, distractions, circumstances, or events to take you off your path. Write the vision and make it clear to understand so that over the next 4 months you can bring it to life!
3. Performance & Results
Here’s the thing about goal achievement. It’s all about your performance. The results you get (or lack thereof) is a direct reflection of what you do or don’t do. This is why it’s important to develop a few key skills including
- Time management
- Resource management
- Delegation
- Mastering your 5% activities
- Increasing your effectiveness
- Developing your character
- And so on
As the visionary you want to make sure you are making the most of your time, working on the things that only you can do, and focusing your energy on getting results. This is not about working yourself to the grave or pushing yourself so hard that you feel stressed and burnt out. Instead, this is about being committed to the outcome you wrote down (your goal) and steadily working towards it so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Just like you go to work every day and are rewarded with a paycheque for giving them your time and energy. You will experience the same consequence when you invest your time working on things that are moving you closer to the fulfillment of your goal instead of sitting around wishing you had started sooner.
That’s A Wrap
This was fun! As always I am only here to help so I hope you got something out our time together! Reach out on the gram and let me know your thoughts, any topics you have in mind, or simply want to say hi! I love you and I mean it. Until next week, stop dreaming, start doing! Xo.
