Setting and achieving aligned goals
Are you one of the vast majority of people who set new goals alongside the new year and run out of steam before they have a chance to take off? You’re bursting with enthusiasm and excitement in the beginning, but as the months roll on, your motivation starts to disappear, and you just can’t be bothered anymore?
You’re not alone. Research suggests that only 8% of people who set New Year’s goals actually achieve them. That’s a staggering 92% of people who are left feeling frustrated and disappointed year after year - unsure of why they failed to achieve what they set out to. Unsurprisingly, this often leads to a lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem.
To break the cycle, we first need to understand what stops us from achieving our goals and then learn how to overcome these hurdles using strategies that work.
Common Tripwires
Over the years, I’ve found that the main reason people keep slipping up is that:
They’ve set unrealistic goals that were not measurable or achievable. Because their goals weren’t properly thought out or defined, people often start enthusiastically but quickly lose their motivation.
Their values, which we hold at a deep unconscious level, conflicted with their goal.
They hadn’t allowed sufficient time in their schedule to work towards their goal.
Overwhelm and fear set in because they didn’t know where to start.
So, what are the 8% of people who are achieving their goals doing? They are setting goals that are specific, challenging, realistic and measurable.
Getting SMARTer with goal setting
The more specific your goal, the more clarity you have about what you want to achieve, and the steps required to get you the results. To help guide goal setting, I like to use the well-known SMART system which has been hugely successful since the 1980s in business and personal pursuits alike. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely goals allows you to know where to place your focus and how to take action to achieve your desired outcome.
When writing your goals, use the below guideline to ensure they are SMART.
S - Specific / Simple
M - Measurable / Meaningful to you
A - As if now / Achievable
R - Realistic / Responsible / Ecological
T - Timely
Once you have set your SMART goals, the next step is to create the necessary change in your life, so that you can successfully achieve them. The three main prerequisites are:
Time
Focus
Action
Finding the time to progress and achieve your goals
To create change, you must allow space to welcome the new and to say goodbye to the old habits and routines that no longer serve you.
One of the biggest excuses I hear from people who aren’t achieving their goals is that they ‘simply don’t have time’. But often, there can be a discrepancy between the way they actually spend their time and the way they think they spend it.
A time audit is a perfect tool for reviewing where your time is currently occupied and where you can make room for achieving your new ambitions. I encourage you to take the audit by filling out the table below. You’ll discover how you spend your time during an average week and where you still have space to work on your new SMART goals.
Getting laser focussed
Where your focus goes your energy flows. Our unconscious mind takes the path of least resistance, so focus on what you want in order to move forward. Some people find moving on incredibly hard because they haven’t let go of their ‘baggage’. This baggage can appear as negative emotions and limiting beliefs – neither of which are conducive to achieving goals.
When your focus is on your goal, you will be more open and awake to opportunities that will make achieving it a reality.
Taking action
Once you’ve progressed through the thinking and preparation work, action is the thing that will help you to reach your goals. Without action, you are not changing your beliefs, and the more you take, the more doors will open for you.
To create any kind of change in your life, you must start doing things differently. Growing up, my Dad would always say, “Do something and something will happen, do nothing and nothing will happen.” And he was right – achieving your goals won’t just happen, you need to consciously and diligently take action towards reaching them.
It may not be easy, but with the right plan in place, you’ve got a roadmap to success. My advice is to take it one day at a time and take the time to do it properly. It’ll be worth it in the end.
