By now, your year is well under construction whether through conscious effort or not. Not deciding on a direction is still a decision and still a direction. Most people, though, have goals, whether in their business lives or personal. But actually achieving them is less common. Whatever goals you have under construction, if you feel blocked, these are five of the main but surprising reasons why:
1. Using willpower over motivation
It might sound like a good idea to have as much willpower as possible but it is a constant battle to maintain it. You have to consciously deploy it and, let’s face it, most of us have enough going on in our minds as it is. Motivation is an internal drive which allows actions to flow. It requires an inner shift and makes the process of change more enjoyable.
2. Creating away-from goals
An away-from goal is something you want to avoid. If you focus on what you want to avoid, it is uppermost in your mind and is like having your foot on the breaks and accelerator at the same time – it keeps you stuck. If you have an outcome-focused goal, it signals to your unconscious the direction you want to face. Think of the difference between “To avoid coming bottom of the leader board” and “To be one of the top three on the leader board”. They will generate different energies, actions and results.
3. Process versus vision
A lot of people have process goals rather than vision goals. For example, “to monitor my progress”. Monitoring progress is not the goal you want but a means to achieve it. No-one is excited by a process but a vision is compelling. Always make your goals vision-focused and your process will naturally evolve from it.
4. Negative self-talk
What you say to yourself in the privacy of your mind has a big impact. Consider the difference in how each of the following harness goal-oriented action: “this is so difficult” versus “what’s my next step?” The first makes every action heavy and laboured. The second liberates your creative mind and your actions have more flow.
5. Secondary gains
This is a big one. Secondary gains are the unconscious benefits that you have to not achieving the goal. Nearly all of my clients say that there are no benefits to staying stuck, but then we find out what there are, and it’s a huge ‘aha’ moment. Two of the big ones are fear of success or fear of failure. But there are many, many more. And the interesting thing is that most people are completely unaware of them. Uncovering them is the first step to overcoming them.
Hopefully these have given you some insight so that you can start to remove the blocks and moving forward. But, if you want extra help to remove those blocks so you can get quicker and better results, do call 0345 130 0854. You’ll be glad you did.
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