Building Momentum

It’s February and nearly 30 percent of the people who set goals for 2016 have already set them aside and have returned to their old habits. By the time April rolls around, over 50 percent will have given up on the majority of their 2016 goals. We do this in both our personal and professional lives, but not you. Taking time now to get curious and ask, “What’s the greatest risk to fulfilling my goals, aspirations and dreams and how do I counteract this?” is key to creating the results you long for this year.

In business, the demands to maintain the current level of service while handling the inevitable obstacles present the greatest risk to fulfilling new goals. In other words, our “day job” gets in the way of advancement. In our personal lives, it’s much the same. The current demands of life and the minor emergencies that arise push the vacation out another year or shelve our dream to write the book, spend extra time with family, save money or embark on new health practices. Soon our “new” goals fall by the wayside.

In short, the demand of the urgent overrides the promise of the possible.

To complicate matters, advice for fulfilling our goals and aspirations varies from one author to the next. Most articles advise you to write down your goals, but one article says to read them daily, while the next article firmly states to set them aside, asserting that reading and re-reading your goals is likely to be overwhelming and experience feeling stuck.

Focusing on the success process helps us make sense of this. When broken down to its simplest, there’s only one path to lasting success. Know what you want. Decide it will happen. Act upon the decision.

Know what you want. Clarity has power, so write your goals on paper rather than simply think about them. In other words, “Don’t just think it. Ink it.” Research in neuroscience shows that when you “feel” the positive feelings linked to accomplishing your goals, you’re EIGHT times more likely to achieve them. Let’s add, “And link it to your feelings.” This requires imagining your goals as if they’ve happened, and they come to life!

Decide it will happen. “Decide” is from the Latin word, dēcīdere, which means to cut away. Making a decision cuts away the possibility of turning back. In short, you put a stake in the ground for your new future. When distractions, obstacles and setbacks arise – and they will – your decision supports you to “lean into” the promise of what’s possible. Notice that making a decision doesn’t require knowing HOW. t simply requires a definite decision.

Act upon the decision. Now it’s time to act. You may find yourself in one of two camps, depending on the level of risk you’re willing to assume. Those who assume a high level of risk often act with insufficient clarity. Those with a low tolerance for risk try to figure everything out before they begin. Either approach decreases the probability of success.

There’s a third approach to managing risk that includes a high level of clarity for WHAT you want, and a high level of TRUST that you’ll discover HOW along the way. What keeps us going and what keeps us growing is being willing to “lean into” the unknown. We build character and we’re most creative at the border of all we know. Certainly, we learn from others; nevertheless, your inner compass trumps the guidance you receive from a good business plan, book or strategic approach. Your focus on your goals, resolve to learn and to make course corrections yields success. As you recognize success along the way, your feeling of success builds a positive feedback loop that supports you as you move toward your goals, aspirations and dreams.

So the first step in overcoming the inertia of the status quo and building momentum toward your goals is to clarify what you truly want.

#homeessentials