[5 Reasons Why You Don’t Reach Your Goals – Part 2]

After years of helping leaders and small business owners be more productive and profitable, and after seeing the same challenges tripping them up, I’ve put together the top 5 reasons why business owners don’t reach their goals and surefire ways to fix it.
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5 REASONS WHY YOU DON’T REACH YOUR GOALS

The first 2 reasons why you sometimes don’t reach your goals have been covered in Part 1 of this blog post, and they are:

1. You don’t know where you’re going, and

2. You don’t have a clear plan.

Let’s explore the last 3 reasons why you don’t reach your goals.

YOU DON’T ALIGN VISION WITH ACTION

Once you have a clear vision and plan, the next potential obstacle that can trip you up is knowing what to do but still not doing it. So you’re not taking the steps to make that goal a reality.

In our mountain climbing analogy, this will be choosing a peak to climb and seeing yourself on top of the mountain but not taking the steps to climb the mountain!

This happens because fear gets in the way of us taking action. Goals are defined as “an aim or hope to achieve something” which means that in order to achieve it, we’ll have to do things we haven’t done before which makes us feel uncomfortable or downright terrified.

Goals are meant to stretch us out of our comfort zone, so if you don’t feel uncomfortable or a little scared while chasing your goals, you simply created a to-do list for yourself. But going outside your comfort zone means dealing with your fears.
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Does this sound familiar?

You think about the goals you want to achieve, your minds comes up with 20 good reasons why you can’t do it, you start to worry about “what if it doesn’t work, what if all my time and effort is wasted, what will so-and-so think or say, what if I succeed?”. These thoughts make you feel anxious, so you open Facebook or Instagram for a quick scroll and look up 30 minutes later…

When you’re feeling afraid, it’s easy to make excuses and put things off till later. And that’s how your vision and action become misaligned and you don’t reach your goals.
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Fear will never go away. Don’t wait to feel ready – the only way to win, is to take action.

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HOW TO DO THIS BETTER
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#1 KNOW EVERYONE FEELS FEAR

It’s how you choose to deal with fear that makes some people successful in reaching their goals while others don’t quite get there.
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#2 THE ONLY WAY TO WIN IS TO TAKE ACTION

Use fear a sign post in your business – if you feel fearful doing something new, making a call or speaking at an event, it means you’re on the right track and you should definitely take the next step. (This obviously excludes high risk investments without doing due diligence or actions that endanger your life!)

This approach feels totally counter intuitive as you want to feel ready before you take action but it’s the act of DOING what you’re afraid of, that will help you overcome the fear and make you feel confident to push forward.

Reading or research is NOT doing. Talking about something is NOT doing it. The ONLY way to reach your goal is by taking the next step, possibly failing the first few times, learning from mistakes and giving it another go until you’ve reached your goal.

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YOU DON’T TAKE CONSISTENT ACTION

Just like you can’t expect to get to the top of the mountain if you stop climbing halfway through, you can’t expect to reach your goals if you don’t take consistent daily action.

This is much easier said than done, as we’re only human! And that’s why it’s so important to have a strong vision of what you want to accomplish and why it matters so much to you.

Then it’s creating rituals and habits at work and in your life to ensure you take regular action, as we can’t rely on willpower only or wait to ‘feel like it’ before we take action.

There will definitely be breaks in the routines you created, as life throws us curve balls from time to time. These breaks will inevitably lead to a loss of momentum but HOW we deal with the loss of momentum is the key to whether we’ll reach our goals or not.

Research has shown that we tend to be super harsh with ourselves when we break a ‘winning streak’ and instead of forgiving ourselves and getting back on track, shockingly most people completely give up on the whole goal!
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When you lose momentum, don’t quit! Get back on track.

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Logically this doesn’t make sense, but it has been proven over and over. Studies have found that people trying to wake up earlier would stop altogether after missing ONE day, regardless of being successful for a week or more before that day.

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Or they would give up on their diet because they had one unplanned cheat meal or stop hitting the gym because they went on a business trip and now the ‘winning streak’ has been broken.

Reaching your goals is tough, so let’s see how we can increase your chances of success.
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HOW TO DO THIS BETTER
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#1 CREATE HABITS AND RITUALS

Be clear on your big vision and remind yourself daily of the reason why you’re doing what you’re doing, with a vision board or vision statement.

Create habits at work that will help you reach your goal e.g. Theme Days in your business where you work on specific things in your business on specific days like Marketing Mondays.

Or dedicate blocks of time a couple of times per week to work on specific projects or goals. Schedule the blocks in your calendar and treat them as non-negotiable appointments with yourself. Your success and overall happiness depend on it.
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#2 SETBACKS WILL HAPPEN

Be prepared for them as they are there to teach us and test us. Anyone who has ever achieved success had to face many setbacks.

The only difference between those who reach their goals and those who don’t, is that the successful people expected it, acknowledged the setback and got back on the horse while others slashed their car’s other 3 tires too. (image above)

Get up, forgive yourself and get back on track.

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YOU DON’T GET THE RIGHT HELP

When you climb a mountain like Everest it’s essential to take the right action and get the right guides to help you summit. If you don’t get the right help, you could literally die on the mountain!

The consequences of not getting the right help at work might not be as severe, although you could end up losing your job or your business could close down.

Find a course, a mentor, a coach, colleague or peer to help you shorten the learning curve and help you take the right action to reach your goals quicker.
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HOW TO DO THIS BETTER
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#1 SUCCESS IS A TEAM SPORT

Identify a few specific individuals who can help you bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

A mentor give valuable advice so you don’t have to learn all the hard lessons yourself. They have been there, done that and got the T-shirt. Asking questions and getting advice from someone who already walked the path you’re on, will save you countless hours, dollars and much frustration.

Just like Batman needs Robin, you need a sidekick or cheerleader to have your back and keep you motivated. Cheerleaders can be found in group settings like small group coaching, certain networking groups, accountability pods or membership communities.

If you like more of a one-to-one approach choose a respected peer for accountability and brainstorming.

And lastly, think about who the connector is your network. This is the person who can help to open doors for you, make introductions and get you quicker to your goals.

If you’re looking for a sales coach to help you kick some goals, let’s schedule a free call.

Read the 7 Small Business Planning Questions for 2021 blog post by clicking the link – here I cover the 7 essential areas to plan for if you want to reach your business goals in 2021.

Download your own customisable 90-Day Action Plan around the 7 Essential Areas by clicking this link or the image below and start planning your success today.

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QUESTION:

Which if these 3 reasons have tripped you up in the past when you tried to reach your goals? Leave your comment below.

#savvyinbusiness