Coming into the festive season is always a good time to take stock and look towards the new year and what you’re wanting to achieve.
Now what I’ve found over the years is that SOME people like to set goals, whilst others will cruise through life not having too much direction.
Which one are you?
Today I wanted to give you a few life tools that you can use to maximise your success when setting and reaching your goals.
1. BRAINSTORM
What do I want to be? What do I want to do? What do I want to have?
These little three questions can relate to a whole range of areas within our life. Having a power brainstorm about these is really critical. Some of us haven’t thought about what we actually want to be and do since declaring our ‘grown up’ profession to be ‘an astronaut’ in Kindergarten! So I would suggest that it’s time to put some real, deep thought into it. You may be surprised at what comes out. Perhaps the goals you’ve tried to reach in the past haven’t aligned to who you are now? A lot of people say to me “Why did I set some goals and didn’t reach them?”. There are a couple of solid reasons. Firstly, 80% of goals are driven from ‘internal’, not ‘external’ factors. Causes being generally either lack of skill, lack of drive, a lack of knowledge. So the most important thing to take from this part is counteracting those three areas. Looking at how and if you can overcome these blocks before looking externally with your goal setting.
2. HABITS
These are much more important than the actual goal itself.
What’s one of your daily habits? Brushing your teeth? Now think of the subconscious goal as a result of this. Pretty major! Saving thousands on dental work and having strong pearly whites to smile and chew with simply by doing this regularly, each morning and night. Have you ever run a marathon? I’ve run a few marathons in my life and those who I’ve spoken to who have also run them think the same – they have a 12-month working goal leading up the race they’re running and plan out the training program they’re going to be doing in the lead-up. And they do it habitually, each and every day.
3. FORCED ACCOUNTABILITY AND DISCIPLINE
Tell a friend!
A great way to ensure you stick to something is by telling people around you that you’re going to achieve that goal. That always puts the onus back on you – especially from a discipline point of view. Nominating the date or the event that you’re going to run in is great, but more importantly the habit leading up to the event is just as critical. What exactly does habit mean? It means what am I going to do on a daily or weekly or monthly basis to achieve that goal of running the marathon, walking on the moon ;-), or even purchasing a property in the area I want. We then get to one month out from the event and we know that we’re fully focused and ready to smash it as opposed to grabbing that goal out of our drawer one month out and kicking yourself for giving it a half-hearted attempt and not achieving it. I’m sure you’ve all done that in your lives. I know I have.
So by changing or including these few things and creating daily habits around your goals, just like cleaning your teeth, this will ensure that hitting your goals are going to be a given in most areas of your life.
Want more? Book a 60 minute FREE coaching session with John Pidgeon and kick off your New Year with clarity, direction, and confidence.