Increase Your Goal Achieving Success
In this episode I'm going to do a continuation of episode #65 where we talked about planning your great year, the reason why I am doing that is that we are now in February. The statistics state that over 45% of you have already given up on your new year's resolutions or goals that you've set for this year.
So it is my mission on this episode to give you 5 strategies that will increase your chances of success in your goal-achieving, if you have fallen off the wagon so to speak here are some strategies that can help you revisit them and check to see if the goals you've set are right for you and to look at some strategies to increase your chances of success.
If you are someone who is still on track or starting to wobble a bit. These strategies are also going to help you get more focused and increase the likelihood of achieving it.
I am going to share with you 5 strategies that I believe will dramatically increase your chances of success and we're going to explore them in this episode.
So let's get cracking…
Emotional Buy-In.
When you’re setting your goals, there are times especially when it’s around New Year many people set their goals without really thinking about it they’re set out of frustrated.
The big ones for the new year are commonly getting fit, loose weight or something like that and that normally is because of our indulgence during the holiday season you've eaten all that lovely food and drink, as a result you find that your not fitting into those clothes anymore all of a sudden they are so tight they are stopping the blood getting to your brain or you notice more your out of breath out of frustration you declare in your quiet voice like you may have done every year “This year I am (fill in the blank).
What I often find is that over a short period, and the statistic seems to agree that there is a very quick fizzle out of motivation because the realisation of its hard work hits you between the eyes, One of the big reasons for this is that there is not enough of emotional buy-in. You have not identified a good enough reason to achieve your goals, while frustration is a good ignitor to your flame of the desired outcome it needs more to fuel that flame beyond the ignition point.
I am sure you have heard that people either move towards or away from pain to motivate them, I think this is true as an initial motivator, and you need to use what kicks you in the ass to get moving, but I think it’s really important to collect the positive reasons why achieving this goal is so important to you.
Assess your positive drivers; this simply means think about what are the good things that will come out of achieving your goals, for example, if your goals are around weight or fitness the positives might be:
- Feel more confident
- Boost Self-Esteem
- Look good in your swimsuit
- Improve your body image
- Be able to play with the kids without feeling knackered
- Enjoy your walks with the family
- Increase Life
The list is endless, if you have set other goals like increase sales, earn more money, get a promotion or perhaps quit your current job to start out on your own you need to think about what the benefits are when you achieve this, you have to acknowledge of course that there are going to be challenged on the journey don’t be naive. Get a piece of paper and write down your goal and below that write the question how is this going to make you feel when you have achieved it, below that list how this goal will change how you feel, what you think you will be able to do and experience.
If you have not done this type of thing before it can be difficult but if your goal is really important you will keep at it and start building that list, if you stall walk away and doing something different and then revisit, as you write this list your mind has to visit the result in order for you to sample the result.
I found this strategy extremely useful when I was recovering from my illness, I thought my goal achieving was for other people but the more I understood that if I focused on the huge benefits that result in recovering from illness would give me I became so focused, I knew it would be hard but I kept moving forward.
Your Feelings lead to thoughts, and those lead to action if you need to deepen your relationships with family, kids or friends or hit sales targets to be able to enjoy a family holiday just stop and think how that would feel.
Identify the obstacles:
It's all very well saying okay this is what I'm going to achieve this month or year but if you don't stop for a second and really think about what are the obstacles that you are going to face and acknowledge that life will go through you some curve balls your momentum will be stalled or completely stopped in your goal achieving efforts.
By Identifying the obstacles, you are proactively looking ways to avoid them and preparing for those possible circumstances that stop you in your tracks. A big question you need to ask is how does this goal fit in your life ecologically, because if your goal does not fit in with the people and things around you, then this needs to be reviewed and assessed whether your serious about achieving your goals and you need to implement actions straight away.
An example might be if your wanting to lose weight and you have a circle of friends that like to go out all of the time to bars and restaurants that don’t really serve the types of food that is going to help you reach your target, if they are good friends then you can suggest other places to go, but if you face peer pressure and feel forced than some difficult decisions may need to be made or new strategies to deal with this need to be implemented.
If you want to start your own business and the people around you are not supportive or seem to continually ridicule you and your dreams, then you need to have a conversation with them to stop or choose another group of people that believe in you and want to support you in your dreams.
Other obstacles might be that you lack the knowledge at the present moment to achieve your goals, fine then a stepping stone would be to invest some time in learn that new skill, this might seem obvious but I have lost count how many people have just given up because of an apparent obstacle that they didn’t prepare for.
The expectation is another obstacle often you may not have given yourself enough time to reach a specific goal, many of us don’t take into account the learning curve, or we forget that it takes time to become competent at new things. People want to learn the piano and think they should be able to play Ed Sheran or Bach in a few weeks; patience is something many of us need to learn when achieving our goals.
If you want to get fit and healthy, assess what foods you need to restrict in the fridge, remembering that there are others around and I am sure your kids would not appreciate having some of the nice foods removed but it is about striking a balance and healthier eating may also be great for the family.
Also, it is worth identifying your excuses and finding ways to move around them; I am sure you have come coming ones most of us do when you have written them down start looking at creative ways to change your habits.
Share Your Goals
Your goals should not be a secret. You know if you are proud enough to make these goals whether it's losing weight do get exercise increase income whatever it is you should not be ashamed of your goals. It's something to be bloody proud of, you're setting goals to better your life in some way, by sharing our goals with others it no longer stays a secret, and you have other people holding you accountable, this is useful because the majority of us hate letting other people down.
Back in episode #65 I talked about the fact that I had procrastinated on writing my book because mainly because of fear I had not accomplished my book, I had written it a few times in fact over the years I have probably written over 200,000 words but out of frustration deleted them.
I brought it up on the show to tell the listeners, and to my mastermind group I shared it with them, and they held me accountable and said okay enough excuses let's get it done, they knew it was a significant obstacle for me but told me that they wanted to see it completed in draft form by the next meeting, all I could think was holy crap, then I replied ok. Now what I can report is that after several years of messing about and not getting it done I have written the first draft in eight days, I can’t believe it, but it's done. I like you have fears and obstacles, but by having the right motivation and support, you can surprise yourself with what is possible.
There is considerable power in sharing your goals with others, the caveat to that is that you have to make sure that you're sharing it with the right people. There is no point sharing with someone who is just going to take the piss out of you I mean what's the point. What you need to do is you need to share it with the right people the ones that are going to cheer you on, the ones that are going to say Come on you know you can do this.
Team Effort
Success is not a solo sport it requires a team effort, so part of your success strategy for goal achieving is to create or find ways to develop a stable support structure. There are many ways to do that here are some suggestion to assist you in finding the right support for accelerating and increasing your success.
Support Groups or Meet Ups
Despite what some people think about slim groups I have found them useful to be in an environment with other people who like me are wanting to lose weight, they will all have there own reasons for being there, but they all are in the same boat working to improve themselves. They may have had similar struggles and overcame them, they are normally happy to share, and from that, you gain insights of how to get the results you want.
Of course it doesn’t just need to be weight loss groups, fitness groups are another great resource for you a bit of friendly competition will be good for you, just make sure you choose a group that supports people who are at all fitness levels as there is nothing more demotivating than being the worst in the group, unless of course, that is a motivator for you to improve.
If your goals are more business-focused then one of the best ways to increase your success and one I am always talking about is masterminding, this simple is a group of like-minded people focused on supporting each other to reach their targets, they should hold you accountable to be focused on challenging you to reach your potential.
Then, of course, we have to coach, if you feel you are serious about achieving your goals then a coach could be a great investment, coaches don’t have to have knowledge of your industry their skills are focused on supporting you in overcoming your challenges, hold you accountable and assist you in dealing with limiting beliefs and habits that need to be changed, there are many different types of coaches from health, life, success and business you need to find a one you can trust and develop a relationship with.
Rewards
We all like getting prizes so why don’t you link this in your goal achieving process, set yourself trigger or progress rewards that when you reach them you get something special, I prefer experience rewards like trips away or taking the kids out for the day the reason for this is because I find they have more emotional juice behind them. A gadget or a dress reward is short-lived but if that's what floats your boat go for it.
When you set your goals you should of set a completion date, work backwards and set trigger points and what rewards you are going to get when you achieve them, start small and them get bigger as your progress, this gives you something to work towards as well. If you have set up a group with your friends, create rewards of progress and of course there can be huge benefits with a bit of friendly competition.
I hope you have found these strategies useful and start implementing them to increase your success rate, I would love to hear what your goals are and the strategies you use.
More ways to get involved
If you have found anything useful on this episode, then please leave a comment and rate the show. If you would like to ask Geoff a question or suggest a topic to cover on the show, please email him at podcast@geoffnicholson.co.uk
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