We’ve all heard about the importance of having goals. Making plans. Vision boarding. Setting intentions. Roadmaps. Annual strategic plans.

For those people who are wired for sound, setting goals and making plans is habit - it’s intuitive, easy, logical.

For others, not so much. 

For people like me, the traditional model of setting goals feels like a straight jacket. In my previous life as a fundraiser, I spent what feels like YEARS adhering to imposed deadlines, excessive documents and planning simply for the sake of planning. The idea of crunching numbers, writing a plan, glossing it up and allowing it to collect dust makes me wheeze. My boss was always on my case to get my plan for the next year done. And when it was, I rarely referred to it again.

What’s interesting, however, is that I am often referred to as a highly motivated, ambitious, effective person. I consistently met or exceeded my fundraising goal - often blowing it right out of the water. How could that be? How could someone who hated goals so much still do a great job? 

The thing is, most of the time when it’s someone else’s goal, I have little to no motivation to put any effort in. I procrastinate. I put it off to the last minute. I have learned that I really need to resonate with the WHY before I commit my time and energy to something

Do you feel like you procrastinate? You’d be in the minority if you said no. Procrastination is the number one goal killer out there (stat pulled out of a big hunch). It is one of the many ways that our brains keep us safely tucked in our comfort zone - the land of complacency and stagnation. It’s a fail-safe plan to getting absolutely nowhere in life. It’s why we stay stuck. So what can we do to prevail over procrastination?

1) Figure out what you really want. The more committed and invested in WHY you’re looking to achieve the goal, the more likely you will get it done. Paint a picture for yourself of exactly what it would feel like to achieve your goal, as well as the impact that being successful would have on your life/work/clients. Becoming emotionally attached to the outcome will give you something to refer to when you’re up to your eyeballs in data crunching and Starbucks is calling.

It’s coming up to the New Year, and the symbolic closing of a chapter, and opening of another. It’s an exciting time because of the feelings of new opportunity, the chance to start writing a new and revised main character. Who is your main character going to become this year? 

When thinking about your goals for a year, your motivation is very high. You have 365 days to make this thing happen. You write them down, post them, and tell people close to you. The real key to success is what you do next, which will take more time, but is the most valuable. You need to make a plan. The plan needs to be very clear and specific, and has a number of parts to it.

As a Coach of hundreds of athletes, entrepreneurs, students and every other walk of life, I have heard many thoughts and theories on how goals are set and achieved.

Here’s what I have seen – it’s a real crapshoot. I have seen consistent pieces that work. Even though people tell me about their third cousin that once just meditated about more money and then won $50 on a scratchy ticket – I know doing the following steps consistently, will work.

It doesn’t really matter who you are, your age, your experience – if your goals are achievable (hear realistic), make sure you have these steps dialed in. 

ACIM

Awareness. Yes, knowing what you want is important. Why you want it. Don’t underestimate the awareness around your excuses / stopping places / habits. Know thy saboteur.

  
Commitment. If it was easy, you already would have done it. What is going to keep you on track. A clear goal. With a ‘no back door’ commitment should do the trick.

Intention. Having a clear idea of what you want, lets your conscious mind (the one you can control), get to work for you.

 
Mobilization. All the other pieces lead you to this. You actually have to do the action steps that will take you towards your goal. If you want to get in shape – then GO to the gym. 

Helpful pieces…. If you are wanting your goal because you ‘should’ – you are in big trouble. Get clear on an emotional level – what would it feel like to accomplish your goal. Why are you doing this? Get to the feeling.

Even with the best intentions goal setting can be tricky, there is often so many different priorities we want from our lives; from launching a successful business ventures, rocking great health, having financial security, cultivating deep connected relationships, being an amazing parent, just to name a few. Individually all these goals can all be amazing to achieve, but if not looked at collectively they can potentially work against each other cause unforeseen barriers to success in life!

I know I have observed in others and myself when there are BIG focuses in one area of life, others areas will often suffer!

• Go into a new relationship and lose some friends (need to focus on the relationship….my “good” friends will understand and hang around).
• Enter into a new “important” job and have health decline (there will be time later for the gym and eating right….after this project or maybe the next one).
• Start a your own dream business (there is almost nothing we would not sacrifice to see this baby succeed?!).

All of our goals become incredibly focused around the important task in front of us as it feels almost life and death important at times. We convince ourselves that if we achieve this BIG LIFE GOAL all the other “stuff” will just line up and solve itself!

Does this sound familiar? I know it does for me!

I realized that I was taking from one important area of my life to feed another, writing cheques I could not consistently cash in the long term, this was clearly not sustainable. I desperately needed a new and much more conscious strategy to goal setting! It always felt like the classic “one step forward and two steps back” Every success cost me two failures!

So from this place of frustration a few years ago I decided on a holistic goal setting perspective, breaking my life goals into 6 major categories:

1. Health
2. Financial
3. Business/Career
4. Significant relationship
5. Friends
6. Family