Nobody likes to feel uncomfortable, but nobody likes to look back on their life feeling unaccomplished either. I explain 3 things you can do TODAY to help get you closer to identifying your goals, avoiding the self-sabotage trap, taking action, and achieving success.
Lets face it, change is hard. Especially when you care about the result(s).
Why?
Because change is crucial to achieving our goals, especially when it involves a change in behaviour and developing new habits.
And lets face it, habits are hard enough to break...never mind creating new ones. Especially when those new habits contradict old ones.
So let's dive right in. Here are 3 strategies you can start doing RIGHT NOW to help you with achieving your goals:
"Goals must be specific and focused on the activities and behaviours that will deliver the result(s) you want, not on the result itself"
SET THE RIGHT GOALS
Goal setting can require very little effort.
For example, "I'm going to lose 20lbs". Done. Goal set.
However, we typically under value the importance of setting proper goals.
Ensuring that we set the right goals is important. If the goal is too easy, then your not really challenging yourself to change behaviours and build new habits. If the goal is too lofty, they become "unachievable" because you perceive them as too difficult or impossible to accomplish.
To be effective, goals must stretch your capabilities allowing you to build new skills or habits, yet still be realistic.
Lastly, goals must be specific and focused on the activities and behaviours required to deliver the result you want, instead of the actual result itself. Another way to think of this, is to break down your goal into a series of daily or weekly accomplishments.
"The more time you spend in your head, the bigger the chances of self-sabotage"
GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD
We have a tendency to overcomplicate things, especially when we are attempting something new.
This can be demotivating.
When we spend too much time in our heads, we start to think (and believe) how "impossible" or how "difficult" it might be to change behaviour, build new habits, and accomplish our dreams. This is because our brains are pre-programmed with hardware called the "Flight or Fight Response", and its job is to keep us safe.
When something feels impossible or difficult, our brains process this uncomfortableness as a threat and will create a sense of "fear" in order to steer us away from the source of the uncomfortableness and back towards safety. Unfortunately, safety is back inside our comfort zone where growth and development is not.
Creating meaningful change in your life is an uncomfortable yet rewarding process, but this flight or fight response causes our brains to process the feeling of being uncomfortable as being "unsafe", and we begin to fear change. Once we feel fear, we instinctively want to "runaway" from the source of that fear, leading to self-sabotaging thoughts and actions.
So the more time you spend in your head, the bigger the chances of self-sabotage.
Recognize the signs of self-sabotage, and get out of your head.
"Commit to something that forces you to take action"
COMMIT YOURSELF TO ACTION
At the beginning of changing behaviour and developing new habits, your must force yourself to action now, but in a big enough way that it commits you to further action in the future. The key is not to say you'll do something just because it sounds good, but to make sure it is something you can follow through on.
By "investing" yourself into the commitment, such as scheduling a meeting with a potential client you won't miss, setting a date that you will have to hand a project in regardless of whether it's ready (so you make sure it's ready), sharing your goals with others, or putting up some cash, are just some examples of how you can commit yourself to taking action.
Another good strategy is to have a friend or family member check-in with you regularly, to help keep you accountable for your commitments as well as provide you with support and feedback where needed.
Don't have a friend or family member you think can help? You can also use a Personal or Development Coach to help you with creating and sticking to your goals.
FINAL THOUGHTS
When it comes time to make a change in your life, whether it be because you feel unhealthy, need or want more money, or you realize that you haven't been following your dream(s), it's really important to avoid spending too much time inside your head contemplating "What to do".
By having clear and effective goals, strong commitments that force you to take action, and knowing when to get our of your head, you drastically increase your chances of successfully stepping outside your comfort zone and achieving your goals.
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