Know What You Want and Success is actually fairly simple.
Firstly, set a goal. Then break it down into actionable activities. Do the activities. Add in some patience, resilience, hard work and discipline, and voila…..Success!
Easy, right?
Well, if it were that simple, we wouldn’t need an entire industry dedicated to motivation, training and coaching.
You’re more than likely going to fall short in one of two areas before Know What You Want:
1. You don’t know your goal.
If you aim for nothing, you will achieve it with alarming accuracy.
Setting a goal, or knowing what you want to achieve is the absolute first step in aligning all your efforts towards a desired cause. If you don’t know what you want or where you are going, how will you know if you’re on the right track at any point in time?
If you don’t have clear defined goals, then quite often you will feel lost, or you will lack motivation.
Do you Know What You Want?
Action: Set a goal that is going to inspire you. If you’ve never ever set a goal, set one for this week. What do you want to achieve? It might be as simple as “Wake up 30 min earlier each morning and have time for breakfast.” Or, “Find 2 new sales prospects this week.” Then prioritize and focus on the activities that you need to do in order to acheive that goal.
- You Don’t Have the Discipline to Stick with the Activities
Yes, the goal inspires you, but the actual ‘doing’ part requires that you change your habits, break comfort zones and work hard on your mindsets and perceptions that have held you back in the past.
You’re a human being, and that means you have a brain. Your brain is designed to keep you safe, warm and comfortable. This creative muscle of yours is the most powerful creativity and visualization tool you have, but if you don’t work on it, it can get lazy.
You’re also more inclined to become impatient when success takes longer than expected, or you will end up quitting too soon when things get tough before you Know What You Want.
3. Resilience is often in short supply with human beings.
Action : Find an accountability partner. Give somebody you trust the permission to hold you accountable to the activities you need to do in order to achieve your goal. You cannot do this by yourself. If you could do it, you would have done it by now.
You can either get a coach and pay for accountability, or you can find a friend who buys into your goal, and wants to see you succeed and prosper.
Believe me, I know all about quitting points In my journey from complete non-runner to half marathon finisher, I probably quit on myself a hundred times. It took me 6 months to run a full 5km stretch without stopping. I had to find a way to distract my mind from its natural quitting points to Know What You Want.
Accountability helped me transform my running in 2 sessions. All it took was getting one good running friend onto the road with me, and before I knew it, I had an accountability partner, and a distraction from my own mind, all in one.
In the following 6 months I completed my first 10km and 21km races.
One final point – choosing your accountability partner is important.
I would recommend that it is not you spouse/partner. At one point or another, your accountability partner is going to have to push you harder than you might expect and in that moment, you cannot afford to be sensitive to a few harsh truths. Someone too close to you might not be willing to ruin a relationship by speaking those truths.
Give it a try. Given someone permission to help you achieve everything to Know What You Want to achieve.
Do it this week.
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