Be Successful in any area! Follow these steps!

Creating goals and achieving them can give us a massive dose of self-satisfaction, confidence and happiness. But many people who set goals, seem to fail at them before they even start. Remember that last diet you went on? The one that lasted 2 hours? Why did it fail? How can you set your goals and actually achieve them?

Well let’s find out!

The main factor behind setting goals, is the desire to achieve something. This may be a bikini body, a promotion at work or to create a family.  Whatever the goal, the driving force behind its creation is a desire.

To keep that desire alive you need motivation.

This is one of the single hardest aspects of goal setting - to gain motivation and maintain it to achieve your goal. Some people have intrinsic (internal) motivation, which drives them to succeed, whilst others may need a little nudge from external sources.

The amount of excuses you create will depend on your motivation. But there are techniques we can use to conquer these.

Common excuses include money, time, being anxious about what people think or scared of failure. I would say that these are really poor excuses as they can be minimised using some simple techniques. From here, it’s really about how much you are willing to sacrifice to achieve your goals and how much you really want to achieve them.

So how can you break down these 4 goal stoppers to help you stay motivated and reach your goal?

1) Money

Money can be a tough one, but budgeting can help, even the lowest income earner, move their funds to achieve their dream. Say your dream was to become a CrossFit Champion. You need to budget your money and spend it on activities and products that will help you reach your goal, forgoing other products or experiences that may be counter productive or that you do not have the funds for. Basically your goal needs to become a priority. In our CrossFit Champion’s case, the money goes towards training at a box, physio, CrossFit equipment or accessories and nutrition.

In some instances, what you spend your money on can really say a lot about what you care about and what you want to achieve. If our CrossFit friend really wants to achieve their goal, it is unlikely they are going to blow all their money on a night out. And if they are, they may need to re-prioritise their goals.

2) Time poor

No time to spend reaching goals? Working an 80-hour week? This really comes down to time management and efficiency. How can you best manage your time to get the maximum amount of work done towards your goal, in the least amount of time. This also really depends on the goal as well and how much you work. Are you working 9-5 then seeing friends for coffee, going home and watching TV and browsing Facebook for a few hours before going to bed? Could you be spending this time towards your goal instead?

Being time poor require discipline and forethought. You need to be organised to make sure you can fit everything you want to achieve, in. Grab a calendar and set time aside for you goals so you plan and do them. A good technique is setting aside a set amount of time per day where you rid yourself of distractions and work solely towards your goal.

3) Concerned what people think

One of the biggest reasons people change or modify their goals is because they are worried what other people will think. They are worried family and friends will judge them if their goals are too high, if they are different from other peoples, or what society expects.

However, if you live your life picking goals you think will please other people, what’s the point? Yes we have pressure from our society to look a certain way, live a certain life and be a particular person but if you aren’t achieving what you really want, why bother? Never dumb down goals to please others or do something because society expects you to. If you are insecure about what other’s think of you, get counselling so you can set and reach your dreams.

You only have one life to enjoy, so go out, make goals that will help you enjoy it! You might be pleasantly surprised at the amount of unexpected support you receive when you make your goals known. If you do have anyone that puts you down for no reason and is completely unsupportive, they may have their own reasons for acting so, but it will not help you reach your goal so don’t worry about them.

4) Scared of failure

The final reason people fail to strive for goals is the fear of failure. Yes failing is really scary, especially if a lot is riding on success. However, you could go your whole life not going after your dreams and still fail at something you didn’t want to be doing because you were scared to pursue something you would rather be doing.

It doesn’t really make sense does it? Don’t let fear of failure hold you back from setting goals and going out and achieving them. Even if you do fail you will have learnt a whole lot about life, yourself and set a course for yourself.

So - stay motivated, be disciplined, don't worry what others think and do not fear your dreams