Could The Reason You’re Not Achieving Your Goal Be Because You Don’t Really Want It?

When The ‘Action’ Part Is Missing.

Life is full of hustlers. It’s seen as noble, successful, admirable. We go through life working towards the next goal. We want to achieve, we want to climb the ladder, we want to be at the top of our game.

The great Tony Robbins himself said,

“If you’re not growing, you’re dead”.

Whilst this can be very motivating, sometimes I think we can miss the point. We can become so focused on what we want to achieve next that we forget to see what we’ve achieved thus far, and worse still, end up steaming towards goals for the sake of moving on up, without giving any thought about whether it’s what we truly want.

What Makes A Goal?

Setting and achieving a goal, in theory, is very simple. You decide what you want to do, put a plan together outlining how you’ll get there, and you follow the steps. Easy right? If we plan right and the steps are realistic, we should all be achieving our goals daily. So why aren’t we?

When Your Goals And Desires Don’t Align.

How often have you set a goal and not achieved it? On Saturday you might be full of good intentions on how next week will be the start of a new healthy lifestyle. You’ve been shopping for healthy food, you’ve got an exercise plan, and come Monday, you’re going to kill it.

Except you don’t…

What Stops You?

It’s not the preparation, you’ve been shopping and got all the food and recipes. It’s not the plan, you have an exercise regime that will bring back those abs. It’s not that it’s unrealistic, you’ve built in steps that are totally achievable. So what is it?

Could it be that you don’t actually care enough to follow through? Deep down, what are your reasons for doing this? Are they for you? Are you fully aligned with the goal you’ve set yourself?

I work with lots of clients who have set themselves goals for big promotions and sometimes, no matter how much they plan and push, they just can’t seem to do what they need to do to get to the next step. When we work on it, often we discover that actually, stepping up isn’t really what they want deep down and something in their subconscious is sabotaging any progress.

The All Important Action

We are so conditioned to strive and progress, especially when in senior roles, that sometimes we just naturally push and push without considering what it is we really want. When we do this, we miss out on the biggest part of the goal process that is vital for any success- ACTION.

Commitment Is The Prelude To Action

Taking action involves some solid commitment and without that commitment, the action doesn’t come easily. Think about goals you’ve achieved. How badly did you want them? I’m willing to bet that the biggest achievements in your life come from that sheer determination to succeed. If you want something badly enough, you give it your commitment and you follow through with massive action. If you really aren’t aligned with your goal, action is more difficult.

Only when we fully commit, do we dedicate ourselves to the process of achieving our goal.

Take Home

So, next time you set a goal, including in the process some work to discover what it is that you really want. Are you setting a goal for the sake of it or do you really want it? Are you going to fully commit to the process? If not, you’re only going to waste time. Instead, find the time to reflect on what you’ve done and where you’re going. Life isn’t always about achieving the next milestone.

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