I posted this blog about two years ago, but felt that it was time to revisit it and revamp it.
Over the past few years, I’ve learned A TON in regards to goal setting and how to accomplish those goals. I’m not saying I’m an expert by any means, but I do feel that I have a good understanding of what tends to work and what doesn’t work when it comes to this topic.
Every client I deal with usually has some sort of goal that they’d like to achieve initially.
Let’s look at an example…
EXAMPLE: Tommy’s goal is that he wants to lose 10lbs of body fat in 2 months.
Now in an example like this, if we look at the average Americans success rate of achieving this goal, the odds are stacked against Tommy. Why is that? It’s easy. It’s not that he doesn’t want to. It’s not that he can’t do it. The real reason is that Tommy has never actually been properly taught how to achieve goals. Sounds crazy, right? Well, not so much.
Typical logic tells us that if you haven’t lost those 10lbs of body fat, then you are not yet successful, because we tend to see success as goal achievement, dependent upon the outcome.
And that right there is the problem!
SUCCESS IS NOT AN OUTCOME, SUCCESS IS A BEHAVIOR.
SUCCESS IS BEHAVIOR DIRECTED TOWARD A SPECIFIC OUTCOME.
That is why most people don’t accomplish the things that they hope to achieve.
Think of New Years Resolutions…you pick an outcome that you desire to achieve, but then completely fail to ask “HOW am I going to achieve that?!”
We have to figure out our gap.
THE GAP IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OUR CURRENT BEHAVIORS AND THE BEHAVIORS THAT WILL GET US CLOSER TO OUR DESIRED OUTCOME.
Once we figure out the gap, we have to figure out HOW we are going to close that gap through actions.
If we go back to our prior example of Tommy wanting to lose 10lbs, HOW will Tommy lose those 10lbs? Will he do it by just willing it into existence? No, of course not! We have to identify what behaviors are hindering him from achieving that weight loss.
Maybe Tommy doesn’t track his food intake and doesn’t even realize he’s eating 500 calories extra per day. Maybe Tommy doesn’t workout at all. You see, it’s looking at what you are currently doing and looking for ways to make improvements upon those actions that ultimately make the difference.
The most important thing to remember at this stage of goal setting is that it is not how much we can change right now, but rather how much we can consistently execute over time.
THE MAGICAL RECIPE OF SUCCESS IS DOING A SPECIFIC BEHAVIOR THAT MOVES YOU TOWARDS A SPECIFIC OUTCOME CONSISTENTLY OVER X AMOUNT OF TIME.
Remember, if you are doing ANYTHING in the direction of your goal, you are BEING successful.
Having that “NO QUIT” attitude will likely take you farther than you could have ever imagined.