I’ve taught goal setting and achieving for years. I’ve had a lot of success with my course participants having accomplished many targets they set themselves. But you know the story about plumbers’ taps? Yep. I’m not as good at setting and achieving my goals as I would like to be.
Actually, that’s not true. I set goals. Lots of them. I know my targets. What I am challenged with is keeping on to achieve those goals.
It reminds me of a Henry Ford quote.
A lot of solopreneurs have this challenge. There are so many daily obstacles to reaching our goals. When you DIY all the way, the obstacles seem greater.
For example today I realised I hadn’t submitted one of my new blogs to the Google directory. It’s been a while since I’d done it so I checked my procedures and things had changed some. So I needed to research how to do it again. Then once I’d done that, I thought about Bing and so had to dig around to get listed in their directory. Doesn’t seem like much but took 45-60 minutes out of my day. Which meant I didn’t get my daily goals met. And that means my weekly, monthly and longer term goals get nudged back.
It doesn’t take much to put you off course. A new process or system you need to research and learn, a technical glitch or worse, a shift in the algorithms, a family or social situation that needs your attention.
For me the most common obstacle is having to learn or re-learn a process. I am documenting my processes though they can get out of date if not using them. Take the cessation of YouTube’s keyword tool recently. If you relied on that tool as part of your arsenal you need to rejig how you do things, and that takes time.
The best way to stay on goal is to keep your goal top of mind.
- Having a visual reminder close by
- Writing out your goals
- Reading your goals each morning and night
- Planning and scheduling your day to achieve daily goals
- Stopping every 60-90 minutes and checking you’re on target
When you focus on the goal as Ford says, you tend to not see the obstacles as problems but as something to be moved through/over/around.
Like today. I was heading out on a dirt road to a National Park site. The road wasn’t too well used and eventually after a few kilometres I screamed to a stop. There was a tree fallen down in the recent wind gales that was blocking the road. Now I could have just focused on that fallen tree and thought “how in heavens will I get to the site” : how can I move this thing” “it was never meant to be” – you know how obstacles can set your mind into a tailspin downward?! Instead I just turned around and backtracked to find another route to the site. Problem solved. I lost maybe 15 minutes in my journey and that ws it.
Now wouldn’t it be lovely if all our obstacles could be so easily overcome. Some obstacles are real and challenging ot surmount. Many I content though are wrangles with our mind and typical thought patterns. Develop better thinking strategies and you’ll find less obstacles derail you.