Achieving Personal Goals

Be careful though, many times we make switching goals a habit, rather than a choice for clearly understood reasons. If this is something you’re truly no longer passionate about, then by all means let it go. But if you have simply lost sight of the original vision and benefits you saw when you conceived it, and you still have those benefits as a high priority in your life, then it’s time to remember what the valuable outcome you saw when you set the goal was, bring that back into focus, and the commitment may just appear.

Solution:
Lack of commitment is generally due to a failure to fail to remember or keep in mind the benefits of achieving your goal. There was some compelling thing you wanted, or felt needed to change, or needed to improve. If that’s still the case, then you just need to remind yourself how that’s going to feel when the change is made. Tying yourself to that emotion will help restore the commitment necessary to cross the finish line.

Problem #4: Lack of knowledge about how to achieve the goal.
You’re not sure what to do It’s not unusual to want something, but not know how to achieve it. Happens all the time, frankly. But the answer is really pretty easy, especially in 2009: Find someone else who knows how to do what you want to do and get their advice. Whether a mentor, a formal training, books, blogs, seminars, networking …. whatever you need to do. If you ask for help earnestly and long enough, you’ll get it. The truth is that most people love to help others, they just need to know that you need their help or advice.

Solution:
Start seeking out people who are successful in the endeavor you’ve chosen. Start talking to people, writing them, emailing them, whatever. Hire a teacher, an instructor, or a coach. Find credible, expert websites on the topic and begin your research there. The most efficient time and money you can invest is in identifying someone who has traveled down the road you’re starting, to help guide you along the way. Just remember, you still have to do the work.
 
Problem #5: Lack of Resources (time, energy, money)
If you’ve set an important goal that will require a significant effort, and you’re trying to work it into your schedule along with everything else that you do, you’ll end up overwhelmed. It’s a simple fact that there are a limited number of hours in the day (time), we all have a limited amount of income (money) and we don’t have the energy to do 10 things at once (energy).

This realization can be a hard pill to swallow, but it requires that we make smart choices about how we use our available resources. As you evaluate your available resources, this is where taking a long-term perspective pays off.

Remember: Your life will be exactly the same 3 or 5 years from now if you don’t make a change. If achieving this goal is important, the smart choice is to give up something in the short term, so you can enjoy the benefits of your goal for the rest of your life. And making a this-for-that decision is the smart choice, because it will let you pursue your goal without the stress and guilt of constantly not being able to “do everything”.

Solution:

1. Decide exactly what resource is holding you back (time, energy or money).
2. Determine how to get more of it. If it’s time, you’re going to have to eliminate something. If TV’s a big player in your life, the choice may be easy. If not, you may have to look at little harder. If it’s money, you may have to consider finding a partner who can share in the investment, or maybe you decide if it’s worth digging into the savings. Remember, a piece of something’s much better all of nothing.

Whatever you decide, don’t set yourself up for defeat by trying to move forward when you don’t have the resources to get the job done.