Recently, a client emailed me after she heard me speak on One Great Goal (based on my second book) and she said something to the effect of, “What does it really take to reach your One Great Goal and your other goals? Do you have any tips on how to stay motivated and keep going?”
I loved her questions. And, she made me really think. What do I do that makes it fairly easy these days to reach my goals? I’m working on my fourth book right now, The Belief Zone, so a lot of this material is front of mind. I realized there are three key steps I take regularly that keep me on track to reach my goals.
Before I dive into those three steps I want to talk about the Powerball for a moment. We just went through a record-breaking Powerball that reached over a billion dollars. Yes, a billion dollars! You could feel the excitement in the air and on television (and at the gas stations) as people talked about the massive Powerball opportunity and what they would do with the money. I heard some say, “Quit my job!” Others said, “Give it to family and friends and live an amazing life!” And still others said they would keep things pretty much the same, but know they would never want for anything again.
In the event you’ve never heard of the Powerball lottery (maybe you were out of the country for a long time), it’s the biggest national lottery in the United States of America. Not every state is involved, but many are. And you have to pay $2 to buy a ticket to play.
And, in case you are wondering, yes, I play Powerball once in a while. I have some favorite numbers I like to play and it’s for fun. But what I know in my life is that I don’t need to win the Powerball to have a lot of money or create an amazing life. I create those things every day, and so can you.
The day after the Powerball drawing, you could just FEEL the disappointment in our country. I read a story about a young woman who sold everything to buy as many Powerball tickets as she could and then had to set up a crowd funding page to try to get her money back. (They made her take it down). I don’t know if the story is entirely true, but I do know this—the fact that someone would use all of their money to purchase as many Powerball tickets as possible means she didn’t believe she could create money in her own life or reach the goals she really desired.
That’s where we have to begin on this journey—with belief. Without further delay, let me share the three steps that help me reach my sales and other goals on a regular basis. I hope the simplicity in the steps will inspire you to write your goals down. Statistically, most goals can be accomplished by writing them down, even if you don’t look at them again. So, imagine what will happen if you actually take action on them.
Step #1: The #1 thing I always keep in my bag is my goal journal. I am constantly revisiting my goals to make sure they still feel like they are in alignment with my values and highest good. I “practice what I preach” by keeping my list of goals updated in a journal and I take it with me everywhere I go. In NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), we call this an “anchor” because it anchors the feeling. In other words, it reminds me of a time when I felt super positive and focused and it helps me keep that feeling so I stay excited about my goals. When I am excited about my goals, then the magic seems to happen because I move into a feeling of expectation. I expect those goals are going to happen. To clarify, I write down my top 50 goals for the year in my goal journal. I then narrow them down and continue to prioritize until I have my One Great Goal figured out.
Step #2: From there, I also have a “Task List” on a small legal pad that I carry everywhere I go and I update it daily. This task list is tied to my One Great Goal list and it is where I write down all of the next “to do’s” that move me closer to my One Great Goal or my secondary goals. I sometimes have visual reminders as well (like a vision board), but not always. For me, the most important anchor and reminder I have is my goal journal. However, everyone is different, so you need to find what works best for you.
Step #3: I regularly check in on my beliefs ABOUT my goals. I notice the thoughts that are coming up and how I might shift them. What do I need to change? What would my new belief be and how will that allow me to move forward faster toward my new goal? The truth is, once you write all of your goals down, your limiting beliefs usually show up regarding why you can’t achieve them or why you don’t deserve them. Plus, you can easily fall into old habits and behaviors that move you away from your goal, rather than toward it. That’s usually because it’s linked to a limiting belief. The key to changing the limiting belief is first becoming aware of it, then writing down three things that aren’t true about the belief, and then rewriting a new achieving belief.
After I emailed this information to my client, she emailed me back to say that this was very helpful and she felt much more empowered to go out and set and achieve her list of goals. So, I hope this information has helped you, too! My encouragement to you is to not wait. The time will never be “just right” to reach the goals you’ve been dreaming about. We can always put it off until tomorrow, but as we all know, we aren’t guaranteed a tomorrow. We have to live life to the fullest now. Mark Twain once said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
