A goal is defined as “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result”.
Goals are very important in life, because they push us to do something we otherwise may not have attempted. But they can be tough to accomplish.
Working with clients week in and week out has given me a chance to see this in many different aspects. The client may want to lose X amount of weight, to feel comfortable in a bathing suit, or be able to run around and play with their kids.
But, I have found that two things prevent someone from getting there.
- Fear
- Focus
They’re all in at first, doing whatever they can to accomplish this task. But then, they either become afraid of failing or they become so busy they lose focus and and place their goal on the back burner. Their once achievable goal soon becomes nothing more than a pipe dream.
I believe this happens to the majority of people. Everyone has a goal, whether it is fitness related or not. Everyone has somewhere they are striving to get to. But they allow something to stand in their way on the path toward great success.
It doesn’t have to be this way though. Everyone, and I mean everyone, can crush any goal they create for themselves.
They just have to do two things.
1. Be ok with failing
My wife is a middle school history teacher. I was talking with her the other day, and she told me how Thomas Edison made about 700 light bulbs (could be more depending on your source) until he finally created one that worked.
Can you imagine that? Creating something SEVEN HUNDRED different times and having each one fail? When asked about it, Edison simple stated “I have not failed, I’ve successfully found 700 ways that will not work.”
Failure is a natural part of life. Yeah it’s scary and it can suck, but it must happen if we are ever to succeed.
It’s all about how you look at failure though. This is something I have to remind myself of as well. We can look at failure in a negative light, telling ourselves we might as well just give up. Or we can take the Edison approach and tell ourselves we have only found ways that don’t work.
The choice is always up to you, but what you decide will have massive implications on the accomplishment of your goal. The latter will always be more productive than the former.
2. Focus on one thing at a time
Distractions will always happen in life. If we want to be successful we need to recognize this.
Since there will always be something vying for your attention, the easiest thing you can do to achieve any goal is to break it up into smaller goals and focus on one step at a time.
We’ll use a nutrition example here. Let’s say your goal is to fit back into an outfit you were able to wear about 1 year ago, but have since gained some weight. You eat fast food often, don’t eat vegetables, drink 3 sodas per day, and have a hard time saying no to dessert.
Which goal seems more manageable?
a. Stop eating fast food, eat vegetables at every meal, stop drinking soda, and never having a dessert again
or
b. Drink 2 sodas per day
Obviously, the second would be easier and more manageable.
Weight loss is all about taking in less calories than you expend each day. So in our example above, we would start by decreasing our caloric intake to accomplish this task.
Sure you can do that with option A, but the rate of success would be extremely poor because there are so many variables. But with option B, by drinking just one less soda per day you are decreasing your caloric intake by 150 calories. That’s 1,050 calories per week!
And once that becomes easy, you could change to 1 soda per day. Eventually, once you stop drinking soda, you can work on decreasing fast food. And just work your way down the line.
Breaking a large goal into bite-size pieces is one of the easiest things you can do to help you succeed. Once your focus is shifted to one thing, you drastically improve your chances of accomplishing it.
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These two strategies are the foundation of tackling any goal. So go ahead and set big goals for yourself. Yes it will be scary and at times frustrating, but remember you can crush it. Implement these two steps and you will be well on your way!
Photo Credit:
- http://cuddlebuggery.com/blog/2013/07/02/cover-reveal-giveaway-sekret-by-lindsay-smith/
