The Power of Goals

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Summary

The power of goals has been lost. Get excited when you set a new goal that has the potential to get you further or achieve that next great thing. People tend to set a goal and then oftentimes have no plan to back it up and take it to completion. It almost seems like goals have taken on the look of a new year’s resolution, which in looking at it, really is just a long-term goal that seems to have great strength on January 2nd but by March has lost its sexiness, or we have forgotten that we ever set it in the first place as we have moved on to what we feel are more attainable goals.
You are probably thinking, this is kind of a downer. Where is the cheerleading and the “You can do it chants”? You can get there but you have to be real about what is happening. Find out what steps you need to take to get back on track to having goals that you actually get excited about and have a plan that you can execute. Then you can see the completion of the journey.

Full Transcript

It seems like lately whenever I talk to my coaching students about goals, I can almost see them get 2 inches shorter as their shoulders slump and their heads drop.  When did goals become such a downer?  I always got excited when I set a new goal that was going to get me further or achieve that next great thing, but I think since goals and accountability have become buzz words in the coaching venues the power of goals has been lost.  People tend to set a goal and then oftentimes have no plan to back it up and take it to completion.  It almost seems like goals have taken on the look of a new year’s resolution, which I suppose in looking at it, really is just a long-term goal that seems to have great strength on January 2nd but by March has lost its sexiness, or we have forgotten that we ever set it in the first place as we have moved on to what we feel are more attainable goals.

I know you are probably thinking  "geez Leigh, this is kind of a downer…where is the cheerleading and the ‘You can do it’ chants”.  We are getting there I promise, but I think we have to be real about what is happening and why and what steps we need to take to get back on track to having goals that we actually get excited about, have a plan that we execute, and we see completion of the journey.

If I think about my own life, especially going back to my childhood and teens it comes across glaringly apparent of how goals were a large part of my life and how not achieving them was never an option.  I will get back to that in a minute, but what it did make me realize is that the way we looked at goals and how we set ourselves up was much different from what I am seeing in my coaching students today…which by the way, we will be changing up how we deal with that and I can guarantee that success rates will go through the roof.  So back to my example.  Many of you know that I was an elite gymnast with a pretty rigid schedule as you can imagine.  My days were pretty lined out with no room for wasted time if I was going to get schoolwork, chores, and 30 hours a week at the gym, as well as competitions on many weekends.  This is where goals became critical to my success.  Typically, they were gym goals for a particular skill or routine.  Looking back here is what the difference was in my opinion compared with many of the goals set today.  First of all, we did not set goals for things that were assumed would happen.  Goals were big and challenging…they pushed us, often beyond our comfort zone.  This is good though, we want to step outside the safety net as that is where growth occurs, whether it be in sports, business relationships or any variety of areas in our life that are important to us.  Here is where the rubber meets the road…once the goal is set, it can’t simply be stated as a goal, it must be followed up by a plan that is measurable and accountable.

I am going to go over 3 steps that I feel are critical when setting a goal for yourself that will ensure success at a much larger percentage.  After all we have all heard that a goal without a plan is just a dream.

Number 1 – Set goals that are needle movers..  That are going to take you in a direction that improves your world, or the world of others, whether that be professionally or personally.  Make this big…It is ok to have small goals like getting the laundry done, but really do we need to design a plan around it?  I think probably not.   This goal should be one that you are excited about.  I want you to tell people about it, so that they can get behind you and support you and above all test you to make sure you are doing what you said you were going to.  It should be something that you will be so disappointed in yourself if you don’t make it happen.

Number 2 – Design the plan.  Take a step back and look at your goal…it’s big and may seem like achieving it is a long way away.  This is where the plan comes in.  Likely there are many smaller things that need to happen along the way to see success.   For example when I knew that I wanted to write my first online course, this was incredibly daunting and intimidating.  I knew what the course was going to be on but I also knew that I had no idea how to get it out there from a technology side, how to shoot it, edit it or produce it.  What I found out later is that there were also about 20 other things that had to be learned that I didn’t even know were necessary.  Classic example of not knowing what you don’t know.  Once I decided we were going to do an online class, the next step was to brainstorm all of the things that we knew needed to happen such as the platform to market it, the equipment to shoot it etc.  Each one of these items became a step in the process and honestly each one of those had steps.  Such as, learning what equipment we needed, then evaluating the reviews of equipment, then pricing, then ordering the equipment and then learning how to use it once it got here.  So you get it…each major component had many below it.  What this did though once we got this mapped out was give us small pieces that were attainable on the way to the bigger goal.

Number 3 – Now that you have your roadmap, this is where you should be excited because you are not looking at this big monster with no idea how to battle it.  You have bite size pieces that you know how to address.  You will get quick results and many times instant gratification each time a piece of the plan is completed.  This is where you need to celebrate.  So many of us hold back and don’t see success until we achieve the huge goal.  This makes it difficult to keep the motivation high as it feels like you are doing nothing but trudging up a very steep hill with no downhill to reset and get your wind back.  Celebrate each piece of the process as you complete it.  I know that we struggled with this as the whole process took much longer than we expected as we were going through the learning curve.   What kept us going though, was looking back at where we started and how much more we know now then when we began.  Keeping things in perspective is critical in your success to large goals, otherwise getting frustrated can become easy.

I hope this has given you a path to follow as you look at your big goals.  Make them meaningful and life changing.  You can do this, follow your heart and make a plan and always remember that it is your choice to Focus Forward.