Do you have ideas of the goals you would like to achieve but never take any action on them or are so afraid that you will never achieve them that you don’t even bother setting them in the first place? You are not alone. On average, 90% of people will break their New Year’s goals and over time, this may cause people to give up and think they aren’t capable of achieving their goals.
What’s up with that?
The dealio is that most people fail to achieve their goals because of a few reasons.
1) They make their goal so large and overwhelming
2) They make the goal to vague
3) The goal isn’t compelling enough that it resonates with them at a deep level and instills the passion and motivation to actually do it.
Here are 3 ways that you can finally make your goals a reality.
Break down your goals into actionable tasks
Let’s just say that you wanted to save 10k this year. Here’s what most people would write if that were their goal. I want to have 10k in my savings account by the end of the year. But then it ends there and they are disappointed when the year ends and they haven’t saved anywhere close to that amount. They forgot a very important step after that, planning how to do that. How do you plan? Start thinking like a Project Manager. When I was a Project Manager, I was taught how to start with the end goal in mind and work backwards to figure out the steps needed to achieve that goal.
It may look like this:
10k per month/12 months = $833 per month
In order to put an additional $833 per month, you could work an extra 33 hours per month at say $25 per hour which is approximately an extra eight hours per 5 day work week which would be approximately an extra 1.5 hours per day.
You see how I took a huge goal of saving 10k per year and broke it down to working an extra 1.5 hours per day. Does that feel more doable?
How about wanting to lose 25lbs in 6 months? Let’s see how we can make that seem not so overwhelming.
25lbs in 6 months is approximately 4 lbs per month. So considering one pound of fat = 3500 calories, if you reduced your caloric intake by 500 calories a day, in one week (not including what you could burn through exercise) you could lose about a pound.
So the actionable goal is to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories a day to lose 4 pounds a month to lose 25lbs in 6 months. You see? Much easier.
In case you’re wondering how I know this, I use to be a personal trainer and fitness competitor too. I’ve worn a lot of hats through the years.
The point is, in order to turn your goals into something you can take action on, you need to break it down into bite sized pieces and then it will feel less overwhelming and like something you can actually accomplish.
Set clear and specific goals
Another reason people fail to meet their goals is because they aren’t absolutely crystal clear about what they want. This might show up in a goal statement looking like this, I want a relationship. Then the question becomes what type of relationship? Do you want a relationship that is committed or just a casual dating one? What type of person do you want a relationship with? Someone who shares similar interest or is your complete opposite? Will you be ok being in a relationship with someone that doesn’t want kids if you do? I know a story of a lady that stated all the things she wanted out of a relationship but failed to mention she wanted a man. Well, she had all of her wants from a person show up, however, in the form of a woman. And you know what? She went for it. Lol.
The bottom line is if you aren’t specific with exactly what you want, you may get a relationship, but it may not be one that is what is in your best interest. And then you are also letting life just happen to you instead of consciously creating it. It’s really magical and quite an awesome feeling to watch your conscious creations come to life. So get specific.
Ok, I may confuse you for a second but just stay with me. There is another side to this. You may know exactly what you want, however, the trick to real harmony, is to release your attachment to how it shows up. Meaning, something much better may come along but if you are too attached to the way it shows up, you may not see a good thing when it’s right in front of you. Make sense?
Make Your Goals Compelling
Getting organized is usually in the top 5 of many a goal list. But if the person isn’t in the space to actually do this, this goal becomes a should packaged in the pretty wrapping paper of illusion called desire. And rather than being motivated by the goal which would compel you to jump out of bed in the morning to do it, you beat yourself up because you just can’t seem to find the inspiration, time or energy to do it. But those are just excuses. Because if you were truly compelled by this goal, you would find a way regardless of any obstacles that may get in your way.
You may want to get organized, but since you aren’t compelled enough to make the investment of your time, money and energy it may be best to either make this a more specific goal to a small area of your home instead of the whole home or to put the goal on hold for when you feel like it really resonates with you. So let’s say you want to feel healthier, you may change this huge and uninspiring goal of getting your whole house organized to say, I want to remove all the expired food from my kitchen pantry and buy the ingredients to make some of my favorite healthy meals.
Now that may be an inspiring enough goal that you may be cooking healthy meals and have an organized pantry in no time.
So if you have failed time and time again at achieving your goals, try using the goal setting techniques above and you may surprise yourself with how much you are able to accomplish. Get more productivity tips here.