I say that because half of the people who set goals at the beginning of the year abandon those goals by the end of January.
And by mid-year, many people who continued with their goals in February have either given up on them or let them fade away.
The result?
They fall back into old habits and continue to get the results they so desperately wanted to change at the beginning of the year.
I don’t want that to happen to you this year. So today, I’m sharing five strategies that will help you refresh your goals and put you squarely back on the road to realizing them—perhaps by year’s end.
However, there’s one thing I think it’s vital for you to understand. You should be aware of what’s really going on when you abandon your goals. Otherwise, you will continue to fall short of achieving them.
You may think you know why you have difficulty reaching certain goals. However, if you’re like most people, you are lying to yourself.
Here are the three underlying reasons you may sometimes find it hard to stick with your goals.
Reason 1: You Don’t Believe You Can Do It
I want you to think about something: You are God’s highest form of creation. You can use your thoughts to create almost anything you seriously want. No other creature on earth can do that.
Unlike any other being, you have an imagination that you can use to create something that has never existed. Something that changes the world.
And you can break performance records, write best-selling books, live in the house of your dreams, build homes for families and schools for children in need, and make all the money you want.
You can do all those things and much more. But you have to believe in yourself.
The question is, why don’t you believe you can achieve your goals and dreams?
The truth is much of it is not your fault…
Many of the beliefs you’ve been programmed with have been around for hundreds of years. Those beliefs might have made sense a long time ago, but they are absurd today since we live in such a different world. So, many of your current beliefs must be upgraded to align with what’s possible in today’s world.
Leland Val Van de Wall said, “Our belief system is based upon our evaluation of something, and frequently if we reevaluate a situation, our belief about that situation will change.”
So if you don’t believe you can achieve your goal, it’s time to reevaluate some things, such as…
- who you are
- why you do what you do
- what makes you tick
- your feelings and behavior, and
- where you are getting advice (only accept advice from someone who has already done what you want to do).
Belief is a prerequisite to accomplishing anything of any consequence. It doesn’t matter how much you wish you could reach a goal or how hard you work. If you don’t believe you can do something, you will not succeed.
Reason 2: Your Goal Doesn’t Inspire You
If you abandon a goal, it may be because it’s not exciting enough for you to put in the effort to reach it. While it might be something you feel you have to do or should do, it may not inspire you.
Instead of setting uninspiring goals that you think you can achieve with just a bit more effort, permit the thought that you truly are God’s highest form of creation to flow through your entire being.
Give yourself a new title: Director. Realize that as the director of your life, you can make any movie you want. Decide what story you want to tell, what scenes you want to shoot, and how you want the movie to end.
Let your mind go and write down several things that you’d really, really like to be, do, or have this year.
Then, pick one big and beautiful idea as your goal—something that will inspire you. Otherwise, you will be far more likely to give up on it when the road to its manifestation gets rough.
Reason 3: You Try to Change the End Result
Many people struggle to reach their goals because they set a goal without changing how they think.
For example, a salesperson with low sales will set a high-income goal for the year but give up on it within a few months.
Or someone may decide that this is the year that they’ll finally get in shape. So, they start running five days a week, lift weights three days a week, and change their diet. However, within a few weeks, they stop exercising and go back to eating the way they’ve always eaten.
Year after year, these people fall into the same old patterns that keep them from making the required changes to reach their goals.
But why?
They are trying desperately to change their END RESULTS. However, the RESULTS they get are and will continue to get will be determined by their ACTIONS, which are always motivated by their mindset.
An unseen enemy stops these people because they do not understand that their mindset is the actual cause of their results.
This is a common error that you may also be making. You may identify with your present results because they are in harmony with your current mindset.
Make Success Inevitable
Whenever you have failed to reach a goal, it was primarily due to one thing: what was going on in your mind at the time.
So, this year, practice the following to shift your mindset to align with your goal:
1. Visualize. Hold an image in your mind of a goal that truly inspires you (if the one you have now doesn’t excite you, build a new one).
2. Think about the mindset you need to achieve your goal and act as if every day.
3. Make personal development a priority and listen to people who have already done what you want to do.
4. Push past your discomfort and stick to a habit (such as doing one to three goal-oriented tasks) that will move you closer to your goal and the life you want.
5. Get an accountability partner and report to them regularly.
You will bring more of yourself to the surface when you develop these habits. And, over time, you will realize that reaching your goal becomes not merely “possible” or “probable, it becomes practically inevitable.
To more and better,
Sandy Gallagher
P.S. Here’s something else that will help you move closer to your goals for 2022. Use the report card to help you see where you’re doing well and which areas need improvement.
