“I Will Reach My Goal” and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves

"I Will Reach My Goal"

Last year, I asked my co-workers to help me lose weight. I set a goal to lose thirty pounds in ninety days. At the weigh-in, I'd only lost 25 pounds! Though this was moderate success temporarily, I faced two consequences: 1) the deal with my co-workers meant they could shave my head if I didn’t reach the goal and 2) my unrealistic approach wasn’t sustainable, so I gained all the weight back.

Why is it so hard to reach our goals? It doesn’t seem to matter if they’re career goals or personal goals. While technology for tracking tasks is helpful, you will never achieve your goals or maintain them without a clear roadmap to get you there.

If you’ve ever tried to set a goal, you probably know how hard it can be to pinpoint the specifics of that goal. Do you want to run a seven-minute mile or a six-minute mile? Do you want to become the CEO of a company or a brilliant physician? If I were to guess, most young adults (less than 25 years old) struggle with the answer to these types of questions.

A friend of mine recently shared his thoughts on this topic, and it inspired me to share some ideas on how you can improve our goal reaching ability:

#1 - Recognize Your Potential

"I know what I'm good at, and I know how to best leverage these skills," said the laughably naive college version of me. I thought I wanted to be a theater teacher. Listen friends: I had no idea what I wanted to be. Some of you know early, but you are a #blessed exception. This is also true of work projects, new ideas, or team goals. We usually don't hit the mark without some trial and error, or lots of analytical, strategic thinking.

USA Cycling did a survey of almost 8,000 of their members. Guess their average age: It was thirty-nine! Cyclist don’t really commit to the sport until they’re past their late twenties. Why is that? Is riding bikes just too cost-prohibitive for younger riders? Maybe.

 However, if you look at the top reason for participating in a bike race—regardless of region—the number one reason is always “personal goal/achievement.” Just like the cyclist example, I believe most of us struggle to figure out who we want to be until we are past our early or mid-twenties.

If you want to start making lasting changes in your life or in your organization, try some of the following ideas:

• Start observing what gets in the way of who you—or your company—want to be. As you start to understand yourself better, you will see opportunities all around you.
• Start experimenting. Shadow others or try new techniques. If something sounds valuable, interesting, or inspiring, find out how to experience it. 

#2 - Capture the Vision

King Solomon coined the proverb, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Once you finally know what you want to accomplish, start visualizing it. Sketch it or write it down. Writing down your goals makes them significantly more likely to be achieved. Handwriting is one of the best ways to burn a goal into your brain. If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll know that OneNote, Office Lens and ModNotebooks have really helped me blend my physical and digital worlds together. You can have the best of both.

#3 - Fuel the Fire

"I'll remember to go to the gym today," you said two weeks in a row before you got sucked into the latest season of the Bachelorette and never went to the gym again.

We do the same thing with work! "You know what? We should start to [insert goal/process/idea here]," you tell your team before promptly handling an emergency fire with a customer and never implementing the idea.

How do you stay motivated? It’s easy to let an ugly, messy problem distract you. It's easier still to become fixated on the next shiny new idea, making you completely forget about your original goals. This is partly why capturing your vision is so crucial. You also need to get buy-in, so know your story. Build a case for your vision with reasoning, inspiration, and by setting a destination that seems possible to reach. If a goal seems average though, it what inspire anyone, so be bold!

For example, have a sales dashboard projected on a monitor at your office or hang a picture of the bike you want to save up to buy. Share successes too. You need to see and be reminded of our vision or it will fade, fizzle, and burn out.

#4 - Make a Plan

If vision is the rudder that keeps your ship pointed at your destination, then planning is the propeller that moves you towards it. Every visionary goal requires daily actions, so plan out the steps that will get you where you want to be. I like to work backwards. Let’s say I’m a sales rep that needs to hit a quota of $50,000 per month. I might think about it this way to identify key behaviors:

1. My average deal size is $15,000. I need to close four to five sales to be safe.
2. I close about 80% opportunities that get to RFP. I need to send six to seven RFPs
3. I send an RFP to 25% of my demos. I need to deliver twenty-eight and thirty demos
4. I usually deliver ten demos from web leads, and five from my sales development team. I need to generate between thirteen and fifteen demos myself
5. I will use LinkedIn, referrals, cold calling, dormant contacts, and devote x-hours per week to each.

It’s difficult to know how realistic your goal is until you think through the plan. It might help to make an Excel worksheet to calculate your actual numbers or a simple task list in a tool like Outlook Tasks or Wunderlist. For team projects, you can use tools like Trello or, coming soon, Office 365 Planner for simple project management.

#5 - Get to Work

I’m not wasting words here. It has to be said, and it' not as obvious as it sounds. Be engaged.

If you need some help,The 10x Rule, The Power of Habit, Change Anything, Influencer, or The Slight Edge come to mind as suggested reading. If you have any other books you’d like to suggest share them in the comments.

#6 - Recognize Your Progress

Look back at your successes. Reward yourself for progress. Congratulate your colleagues as they move the needle. We all need to visualize accomplishments to help us see the finish line up ahead.

Caveat: You’ll have to Iterate

Plans change, and your target may move or be replaced altogether. I understand that too. Make sure you are ready to adjust when hurdles are put into your path to ensure you keep moving forward. 

Good luck out there. "Maybe, I'll finally lose that 30 pounds this year!"

Lie?

About the Author: Todd Kirk is an end-user advocate and trainer from BrainStorm, Inc.

Previous Posts: 

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