It was Earl Nightingale who penned the now famous phrase -
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.
You will notice that there is no mention of what exactly
you’ll achieve by being ‘successful’. This is because we all have different
definitions of success. We all have different goals, different dreams and different
paths to take to achieve those goals and ideals. However, one thing that many
people DO have in common is that they fail to achieve those goals and ideals.
Here are some of the most common of those reasons:
Own Your Goals
One of the biggest reasons for failing to achieve our goals
is because we don’t actually own them. Think about it – you may have gone to
University and obtained a degree but whose goal was that really? Yours, or your
family’s? You may have then been expected to go on to do great and wonderful
things in ‘your’ chosen career but again, whose ideals were those?
If they
weren’t yours then chances are you bombed out big time and either did something
else completely different with your life or have never gone past the stage of
‘average’ achievements. Because you simply weren’t interested in those goals.
If those goals were yours however then you’re more likely to be right on target
to achieve them. That’s the difference between owning your goals or working to
realise someone else’s. It’s far easier to remain motivated if the goals are
your own and they’re goals you care about.
Be Prepared To Take Risks
Often achieving goals is just as much about taking risks as it is about achieving said goals. At
some point most successful people took a risk. They did something without any
guarantees that it would work out. Whether it was quitting a job they didn’t
like or investing every spare cent they had into something, they gambled on it
paying off for them. Often it did, sometimes it didn’t. But the truly
successful ones never let failure stand in their way. They picked themselves
up, dusted themselves off and started again.
Prioritise Your Time
Time is of the essence, which loosely translated means you
don’t have the time, aren’t willing to find the time or have underestimated the
amount of time it will take to achieve something. You’ve probably also
overcommitted yourself. So, feeling overwhelmed, you give up.
Instead of
doing that, learn to prioritise your time instead. Focus on the important
stuff, the activities that will get the most results. The rest can wait. In
other words, work smarter, not harder! And remember that the road to success is
paved with good intentions.
Be Prepared To Put In The Hard Yards
Closely related to time management is underestimating the amount of
work, much of it hard, required to achieve a particular goal. This is a classic
reason why so many would-be online marketers fail. They go into a business or
opportunity believing a lot of the marketing hype about how ‘easy’ it is to
earn money then become discouraged when they realise it isn’t easy at all. In
fact it takes a LOT of very hard work. As Thomas A. Edison so sagely remarked
‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work.’
Remember - very few worthwhile things in life are
ever easy and that applies to goals as well. Therefore, instead of thinking
about how hard something is, think of it as a great learning opportunity. And
as you acquire the required skills it’ll become easier.
Focus, Focus, Focus
Do you get distracted easily? This is another big reason
people fail to achieve their goals. It’s easier, and often more interesting, to
see what our friends are up to on Facebook or check our emails. Or you may have
set yourself so many goals that it’s impossible to focus on just one of them.
So you jump from one to the other, never doing enough with any of them to get
anywhere.
Maybe you like multitasking. Multitasking is great when you’re doing
housework – you can listen to the radio, dance your way around the sweeping, and
get fit whilst you’re about it. Multitasking is not so great when you’re trying
to work towards a goal though. Being a jack-of-all-trades but master of none is not
the way to achieve goals. So save the multitasking for the housework and focus
on working on one thing at a time when it comes to making a success of a business venture.
Patience Is A Virtue
Sometimes it seems like we’ve been working forever on a
particular goal but we’re still not making any money or getting the desired
results. This is a big incentive to give up altogether. It’s a lot like that
piece of wise advice we’ve all heard about throwing good money after bad. You
can fix this though by setting smaller, more achievable goals – this is
‘progressive realisation’. For example, you wouldn’t expect to be able to lift
heavy weights without putting in the necessary training; if your goal is to be
able to lift 150 kilos you’d start by lifting 50 kilos and working your way up
in weights. Patience, and persistence, are required.
And Perseverance Pays Off
If at first you don’t succeed – persevere. Persistence is
vital in achieving most worthwhile goals. You have to keep going even if the
going gets tough. For many of us though it’s just easier to give up. However, if you
look on it not as failing, but as finding 10,000 ways that won't work,
you too could be a Thomas Edison.
Relearn And Reset Bad Habits
Often one of the biggest hurdles to achieving a goal is our
bad habits. This one is a bit like retraining a horse. First you have to
unteach it every bad habit it’s ever learnt then reteach it the right things. Most
of the time it’s a case of two steps forward, one step back. But if you focus
on the two steps backwards instead of the one step forward, you’re not going to
see the progress you’re actually making. So focus instead on that one step in
the right direction.
Be It Ever So Humble
Very few people are instant overnight successes. They don’t
suddenly wake up one morning and find that every goal they’ve ever set for
themselves has been achieved whilst they’ve been asleep. Many of them have done
whatever it took, however ‘lowly’, at least in the earlier stages, to achieve
their goals. Some of the richest entrepreneurs today started out knocking on
doors to make sales. Many will also admit that they practised spamming before
it was ‘outlawed’. It takes humility to do some of these things and humility to
admit to doing them too. Not too many people have this humility.
An Optimist Sees The Opportunity In Every Difficulty
Staying optimistic in the face of seemingly unsurmountable
obstacles is another issue many of us face when pursuing our goals. If it looks
too high, too wide or too deep, we turn back. What we should be doing is
finding a way over it, around it, or under it. And if all else fails, barge
through it. Because quite often just beyond that obstacle lies success.
Learn To Love Yourself
And finally, many of us also lack self-confidence. We worry
about what other people will think of us. We underestimate our skills; we don’t
think we’re good enough, smart enough, or talented enough. We get discouraged
easily because of this. And we often make emotional instead of rational decisions.
The self-confident person though strides boldly forward, never doubting
themselves or their abilities. These are the people who usually achieve their
goals.
