Do your struggle with reaching your goals? The reality is that most people do struggle. when you set goals for yourself, you undoubtedly have the very best of intentions. You want to succeed with your goals and reap the many benefits that come with making successful and important changes in your life. However, there is something that you may fail to account for in your goal planning i.e. life itself. Just when you are ready to take the necessary actions and make those vital changes; life gets in the way and you are unable to remain focused on your goals. If your cannot remain focused on your goals, you will lose momentum and fail to make the progress you desire. This soon leads to a loss of confidence and motivation.
You may blame distractions such as work, family, or technology and say that's the reason why you have a hard time concentrating on your goals. However, these things will always be past of your life. If you are not achieving your goals and objectives, it is good enough to blame outside factors. When you do do, you are actually giving away your personal power and denying that your success lies within your hands. What you need to do is find a way to manage these outside factors which allows you to stay focused on your goals and, maintain a healthy and balanced life.
Despite your best intentions and efforts, it can be challenging to stay on track, A study at the University of Hertforshire revealed that nearly 50% of people make a New Year's resolution that includes a meaningful goal, but over 78% of people will fail to maintain their focus and achieve that goal. For this reason, when setting your goals, you must acknowledge that focus could be an issue and, make plans which will make focusing on your key goals a whole lot easier.
Strategies to Stay Focused on your Goals
The good news is that are a few simple measure that you can take to help you stay focused on your goals. By implementing these steps from the outset, you will be more focused, more motivated and more determined. You will soon see that your are making progress towards your goals and so, you will be more likely to stick with it and see it through to completion.
1. Break Down Each Of Your Major Goals.
How do you eat an elephant? The answer - One bite at a time. The same strategy is critical for achieving your goals. Large goals can be very overwhelming. This causes you to lose confidence and motivation.
You'll feel less overwhelmed when you break up a large goal into a series of smaller steps, each with specific, achievable tasks. Instead of focusing on the large goal, you focus on the smaller tasks which you need to complete. It will be less daunting and, with each small task completed, you will receiver a confidence boost as you realise that you are one step closer to your goal. This makes reaching your ultimate goal that much easier.
As you accomplish each step, maintain your momentum and enthusiasm for achieving your goal by celebrating your success.
Most big goals are more dreams than goals. They are going to take some time to achieve and, they are not necessarily within your control. These two factors combined, is what causes most people to procrastinate and lose focus on their goals. The key to staying focused is to feel like you are in control. You do this by breaking down the big goal / dream into actions which are within your control.
For example, it is self-employed person wants to increase her income by $20,000 this year; it is not entirely within her control. She cannot make people buy from her. However, she can identify the actions which she believes will give her the best chance of achieving that increase in income. She can then focus on completing those actions which should result in less stress, more focus and better outcomes.
Key point
Goals Can be overwhelming. This should not cause you to change the goal but to avoid the overwhelm; you should break the goal down into manageable tasks which are within your control. You will find it easier to stay focused on your goals and, you will be more confident about achieving your goals.
2. Narrow Your List.
Goals are great but if you have too many of them, you will soon see the one goal is distracting you from working on another. Instead of trying to focus on too many goals, narrow it down to 1-3 major goals for any given period of time. Even on a daily basis, you should have 1-3 goals which you are trying to achieve. These goals should tie into your medium and long-term goals so that each day will see you make progress. This ensures that you aren't spreading yourself too thin and, as result, losing your motivation.
When you are settings goals, you will find that you come up with a large number of goals. Identify the most important goals that you need to work on and put them on a separate list. Don't discard the remaining goals. Instead, place them on a 'Someday, maybe' list. Knowing that these items have been captured for future reference will help you to stay focused on your key goals. You can regularly review this list and see id any of the items on it need to be elevated to 'Goal' Status. Strangely, you will find that over time, you manage to complete some of the items on your 'Someday, maybe' list, without any conscious efforts to do so.
What you need to remember here is that any big goal worth achieving requires a great amount of energy and resource e.g. time and money. If you try to work on too many goals at a time, you divide your time, energy and money too thinly. Each goal gets a small amount of these precious resources but, not goal gets enough to make any significant progress. So, you end up with many goals trundling along but none getting completed.
Key Point
As in most areas of life, less is more. By focusing on less goals at any one time, you have more impact. In the process, you will find that improvements in one area often make it much easier tp achieve goals in other areas.
3. Have accountability partners
As long as the goal is not too personal or confidential in nature; telling people whom you trust about your goal will make you more accountable. You value friends and loved ones and you value the respect that comes with their friendship. When you inform them of changes that you wish to make, you want to be seen to honour your word. Ideally, these people will encourage you when obstacles arise and celebrate your successes with you along the way. This support will help to stay focused on your goals.
When you have an accountability partner, you're no longer on your own in your journey. You're less likely to allow yourself to lose focus and become distracted when you have someone who's encouraging you.
An often-forgotten benefits of an accountability partner is that they are not just there to check in on you. While that may be all that you ask for; the right accountability partner often does so much more for you. Because they are ware of your goal, they will often notice opportunities to help you. That may mean doing something for you or, telling you about opportunities, events or situations which may help you achieve your goal. Either way, it is life having an extra person on your team.
Key Point
Some people won't want to see you succeed so, you should avoid telling them about your goals. However, there are always people who are only too happy to see you success. They often go further and, help you where possible. An accountability partner is a great way to stay focused on your goals.
4. Create either a physical or virtual goal board
To help you stay focused on your goals, you can create a visual reminder of why you created a particular goal in the first place. Take a poster board, bulletin board, or electronic platform (e.g. Pinterest), and fill it with pictures and other images that help you maintain your enthusiasm and focus. Your brain thinks in terms of images so, if you choose the right pictures, it will serve as both enjoyable and effective method to stay focused on your goals.
In effect, it gets your subconscious mind "on board" with your plan to reach your goal. You want your entire psyche working with you to achieve your goal.
There is so much going on around you at any one time that you can't possibly take it all in. If you tried to consciously process it all, your brain would fry. Your subconscious mind filters all that is happening and presents to you the information which it believes is most important to you e.g. if you are in crowded, noisy area, you can till hear someone say your name. That is because your name is important to you.
When you are regularly looking at images of your goals or, visualising your goals; you are priming your subconscious mind. You are telling it that these goals are important to you. Then, if anything which could help with that goal is going on around you, your subconscious mind is more likely to draw your attention to it; helping you to stay focused on your goals. Think of when you change your car and you suddenly start noticing that model of car everywhere.
Key Point
Your mind understands images better than words. By presenting images of your goals to your subconscious mind on a consistent basis, you are planting that image in your subconscious mind. You are priming your subconscious to draw your attention to anything which may help you to achieve that goal.
5. Record, Measure and Document Your Process.
When you set a goal, one of the first things that you should do is decide how you will measure your progress. It is imperative that you know how you are progressing. As you take action, you can measure your process and see whether you are making the desired progress or, whether you need to take corrective action.
Start a journal and write about your experience as you pursue your goal. Writing down your thoughts is a great way to maintain your motivation to the end. Your thoughts and feeling can provide you with excellent feedback on your progress and, if you ever have to attempt the same or a similar goal again, you will be able to review your notes to help you create the best plan.
One of the main reasons that people procrastinate and fail to take action on their goals is that they must be perfect. They lose sight of the fact that what is done can always be improved while what is never done cannot be improved. This is why measurement and, keeping track of your progress, is so important.
If you do not track your progress, you will eventually find out that you are on the wrong track but the time you do; you will probably be so far off track that you are disheartened and demotivated. When you are measuring and tracking, you see at the earliest opportunity, that you have gone wrong. This allows you to make the necessary changes to stay focused on your goals. The quicker you spot the problem, the easier it is to resolve so, it is less disheartening.
Key Point
Without measuring and tracking your progress, you can't be sure whether you are making progress or, heading in the wrong direction. Measuring allows you to make little adjustments, where necessary. This ensures that you don't become disheartened and makes it easier to stay focused on your goals.
