“Fail” is a 4-letter word – I call it the ultimate “F” word. In writing this I wanted to identify the Top 5 reasons people fail and never reach their goals. You may find that some of these or even all five of these, relate to your life and what you have experienced. In order to help, following each reason, are some questions you can ask yourself and attempt to turn these issues around. If you can do that you will start to experience real progress in your life – not just movement that seems to get you nowhere. As you read these, be honest with yourself. Take the time to ask yourself the questions and think about alternate ways of doing things so that 2010 will be a year of massive goal ACHIEVEMENT for you!
Reason #1: People don’t take action. This sounds obvious doesn't it. Surely we all know that we have to take action in order to get somewhere. Even so, you would not believe how many people I talk with who sit there and wonder why their life doesn’t go the direction they want it to. The thing is that they often don’t know what action to take, OR, they aren’t being honest with themselves about whether they really are taking action. Some people are just so pessimistic that they are paralyzed.
Here are some questions to consider: If you had already achieved your goal, what actions would you have taken to get there? What do you feel inspired to do right now? What are 20possible actions you could take? Which ones are the most inspiring? Will this action I’m considering benefit me and/or my business? How do I know? How can you make a game out of taking action?
One of my mentors and I created this plan for myself. I am alternately cursed and blessed by being an incredible idea generator. What I’ve realized is that I get so juiced by creating new ideas that I have to pay attention to actually taking action. My plan is to see how short I can make the time span from the time I get an idea to the time I take an action – any action – toward its completion.
Reason #2: People are afraid. They might be afraid of failure, or of success. And sometimes they are afraid of both. It's a bit of a catch-22.
Usually when we are afraid to go for our goals, it is because of a belief we have about what it means to achieve it, or to go for it and not quite in order to make it. Unfortunately those beliefs are usually based on stories from our past, or even on complete falsehoods. Sometimes fear is created by those around us.
So the solution is to get really honest about the truth of the situation. Ask yourself questions that give you a different perspective: What is scary about having this goal come true for me? What is scariest about going for it and not making it? What am I really afraid of? Where does it come from? Is my fear REALLY true? What’s the real truth about this situation? Do I actually want this goal?
Reason #3: People have poor internal programming. Think of yourself like a computer – whatever you put in affects what you get out. As you set goals and think about achieving them and the actions required to achieve them, what thoughts are you “putting in”? What is the internal dialogue you have running? What do you imagine will happen?
All of these things – thoughts, words, and your imagination – affect your real results. I won’t go into tons of detail here, but here are some questions to stimulate some positive internal programming:
If this goal were already achieved, how would I feel? What would be different in my life?
Imagine yourself (or your business) with the goal already achieved. Imagine it in Technicolor. Describe your experience to someone else (or yourself) as if it were already true. How did it feel taking the steps to achieve it? What did you learn? What did you like best?
Reason #4: People’s environments don’t make success automatic. Most of us have been taught to use willpower to get ourselves to do what needs to be done. While that can work short term, it is also draining and doesn’t usually sustain the change or action. Instead, think about designing your environments to get you to do what you know/think you ought to be doing.
In your physical environment – What are the obstacles/distractions that make it hard for you to follow-through? How could you change or remove them?
In your support/administrative environment – What sort of prompts or triggers can you set up to remind you and nudge you to follow-through on things?
What about your human environment? Who do you surround yourself with? Are the people you hang out with naysayers who don’t achieve their own goals, or are they people who set goals, think about what they want out of life, and then take action toward them.
What other “environments” can you think of? How would you redesign them to support you better?
Reason #5: People give up too early. Yep, while most of us like to think of ourselves as persistent, the truth is most of us give up just before we’re about to have a breakthrough. We let discouragement, lack of immediate gratification and obstacles become barriers, rather than using them as launching pads for the next approach.
What if your last discouragement actually holds within it the key to getting what you want? How important is this goal to you? If it is a “must”, then you can’t give up. That doesn’t mean you beat your head against the wall doing the same thing over and over again, but it also means you find another approach.
How will this action benefit you and/or your business?
If this “challenge” is actually the foundation of an even better solution or goal, what would that be?
What if all of this is perfect and teaching you exactly what you need to know? What would you do then?
What will the rest of 2010 hold for you? How will you take action, transform the fear, and program yourself and your environment so that you will exponentially increase your chances of achieving your goals?
To your success
