Most people have loads of different goals that they want to make progress on and they get frustrated when it feels like it’s not happening for them. When I work with clients during coaching sessions and we start to look more closely at the goal, we find that maybe it’s not the right goal for them, or that they’re not that committed to it or they’re not that excited by it. They can be some of the reasons why people don’t make progress on a goal.
Before you commit to a goal, ask yourself these three questions:
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What’s YOUR reason for wanting this goal?
Understand your reason & your motivation for doing the goal & what are the things that excite you about the goal. The benefit of focusing on this is when times get tough & when you’re slightly demotivated about your goal – you can remind yourself of your reasons for aiming for this. Really challenge yourself on what’s your reason for wanting to achieve this goal? For example, when I was training for the marathon my reason for wanting to train well was not to be in pain when I finished the marathon! I didn’t want to achieve a specific time, I had set myself a goal of doing the marathon AND enjoying it along the way & not being in pain when I finished. That was my motivation for continuing to train & do longer runs before the marathon.
When you have your reasons, check whether these are compelling or exciting enough for you. If it’s not compelling or exciting for YOU, the likelihood is that as you’re moving towards your goal – when times get tough – you’ll stop or won’t take the difficult action or the goal will just fall away because you’re just not that interested in it. Other things will take priority & the goal won’t happen for you.
Make sure you understand your reasons why you are going to make an effort to achieve your goal. Click To Tweet-
On a scale of 0-10, how committed am I to achieving this goal?
Check with yourself, your level of commitment to achieving the goal – 10 represents 100% commitment & focus & 0 represents absolutely no commitment to achieving it. Challenge yourself as to how committed you are to achieving the goal. When times get tough, will you still have the commitment to taking action towards it?
Ask yourself, “what would make me more committed?” Normally it’s our reasons / our motivation as to why we want the goal that will make us more committed. Challenge yourself as to the impact it would have on you if you didn’t take action to move closer towards your goal.
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On a scale of 0-10, how confident am I that I can achieve this goal?
This is to check in on your level of confidence in achieving the goal. Again, 10 represents 100% confidence that we can achieve the goal & 0 represents 0% confidence that we can achieve the goal. If you’re starting off from a place where you think, “I really don’t think I can do this” the chances are you’re going to talk yourself out of it. You’re going to talk yourself out of taking those hard actions & pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone or any big steps that will move you towards your goal.
Check in terms of your own confidence that you believe that you can do it. If you notice that it’s your confidence that is stopping you from doing this goal, then this is what you can focus on – increasing your confidence. How you can do this is practice!!! Practice taking small action steps that move you closer & then keep on moving on from there.
Ask yourself those three questions before you commit to a goal. Once you are happy with this, then formally make the commitment to the goal. In workshops, we sometimes make this really obvious where people would shake hands & make a deal with someone else that they’ve committed to the goal! You can make the commitment with yourself by writing down your goal or starting to tell other people about your goal.
Once you commit to the goal, then start brainstorming some options to get you closer towards the goal.
Once you commit to a goal, start brainstorming options to get you closer towards it. Click To TweetAsk yourself – “What’s one action can I take to get me closer to my goal?” Continuously taking action is what will move you closer to your goal.
That’s where coaching can help – supporting you to get very clear on the goals you want to commit to & then keeping you accountable to moving closer towards those goals is what helps you to make progress quicker than if you were doing it on your own.
If you want to talk through this, schedule a free intro call here.
