Two Overlooked Actions You Need to Take to Maximize Your Success in Achieving Your Goals

January 15, 2021
Category: Achieve Consistent Business Success,Be a Highly Effective Owner,Define Your Vision and Plan,Techniques and Solutions

The beginning of the new year is when most of us reflect on the year gone by and set goals for our business and life for the year to come. Despite all of our good intentions, research shows that only 8% of us achieve our personal goals, and only 5% of small businesses achieved all of their goals.

There’s been a lot of research and articles written about what you can do to increase your chances of achieving your goals. I’ll save you a lot of time. Here’s a quick summary of the key points:

1. Create specific, measurable, written goals.
2. Break your goals down into smaller midterm goals (e.g., If you want to lose 12 pounds in 6 months, that’s 2 pounds per month.
3. Create a step-by-step action plan for how you’re going to achieve your goals.
4. Track and measure your progress.
5. Follow through relentlessly.
6. Get some people who will support and encourage you and hold you accountable.

But even if you follow all six of the key points above, there’s still a good chance that you won’t achieve your goals. That’s because you need to take two additional overlooked steps to maximize your chances of reaching your business and life goals. You need to:

Have a Compelling “Big Why“

When I was working in the corporate world, and through the first few years of my coaching business, I used to say that “I never met a goal that I couldn’t ignore.” Sure, I set goals (or had goals set for me in my corporate days), but I just wasn’t committed or excited about achieving them. So, I just ignored or forgot about them and, as a result, I usually didn’t reach them. As one of my clients said, “If the want isn’t there, you’ll never achieve your goals,” and I didn’t have “the want.”

The “Big Why” is your compelling reason for achieving the goals that motivates you to take action. Your “Big Why” keeps your goal top of mind, causes you to jump out of bed every day, raring to take the next step to achieve it, and keeps you moving forward when the going gets tough. It wasn’t until I started setting goals with a “Big Why” that I started achieving the goals that I set.

Try this out:

Choose a goal that you’d like to achieve this year. Got one?

Now, answer the questions below to find your “Big Why” for that goal.

One thing to keep in mind as you’re answering these questions – your “Big Why” needs to be something that you personally think is important.  Doing it because my ____________ (significant other, parents, friends or coach) said I should do it is not a “Big Why.”

So, spend a few minutes answering the questions below based on what’s important to you.

• Why is this goal important to you?
• What’s the impact of achieving it?
• How will your life be different if you achieve this goal? How will it impact areas like your wealth, relationships, health, business, your employees etc.?
• What will it mean to you if you achieve it?
• What’s the cost or impact of not achieving this goal?
• Out of all the things that you’ve listed, what’s the most important reason why this goal is important to you? This is your “Big Why.”

Ok, so you found your “Big Why.” This will improve your chances of achieving your goal significantly. But, sometimes, having a compelling “Big Why” isn’t enough to ensure your success.

To maximize your chances of achieving your goal, you also have to:

Identify and Remove Inner Resistance                         

When you set an ambitious goal, there’s an unconscious part of you that may have some resistance to taking action and an underlying sense of fear, self-doubt, discomfort, or other emotions come up. The basic principle is this: it’s easier to move toward your goal if the resistance is understood and acknowledged first.

Here’s an example from a client of mine, Joe. When Joe hired me, he said his goal was to double the size of his business from $1M to $2M, and he had a “Big Why.” So, we started working through a coaching plan to grow his business.

But Joe rarely put in the effort to improve his business. Instead, he procrastinated, made excuses, and said he’d get things done, but he made little progress. Joe’s behavior was a good sign that there’s some inner resistance.

When we got to the root of the problem, we found that Joe was resisting because he believed that if he grew to $2 million, he would have: more problems and fires, less control, more headaches and stress, more chasing money, more cash flow issues, more demands and less free time for himself and his family.

With a future like that looming in front of him, who would want to grow!

Try this out:

Take the same goal that you used to answer the “Big Why” questions earlier?

Now, answer the questions below to find possible sources of inner resistance for that goal.

The intention of the questions below is to bring the unconscious resistance to your awareness. Having an understanding of your resistance is a powerful first step to working with it.

Note: Some of the questions may not elicit anything interesting for you. On the other hand, other questions may turn out to be a ripe area for exploration about things that are holding you back.

When you think about achieving your goal: (Write down your answers)

• Do you experience any resistance, fear, self-doubt, discomfort, or other emotions?
• What (if anything) might you lose that you value if you were to achieve your goal?
• Would any areas of your life be harmed if you achieve your goal?
• Is there a price you would have to pay for accomplishing this goal?
• Who else in your life might be affected if you get this outcome?
• Are you aware of any problems or difficulties that might happen if you had that outcome right now?

Congratulations! You’ve taken a big step toward achieving your goal!

In addition to the six key points for achieving your goals, I summarize at the beginning of this blog post, finding your “Big Why” and removing your sources of inner resistance will maximize your success in achieving all of your business and life goals.

Give it a try this year, and have a successful year!

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