CAN YOU PAY THE PRICE FOR THE GOALS YOU ARE SETTING?

As the first ever Distill Greatness blog, it seems only fitting that we talk about one of the biggest aspects of self-betterment and peak optimisation; goals.

Just the word itself might be enough to either excite you or send shivers down your spine, but there is no doubt that the start of each year sees a giant spike in discussion on the topic and an increase in focus on the subject.?

This is the five year search traffic around the term ‘goal setting’, do you think you can spot where January is on this graph!? I think it confirms that people are hyped for being the best version of themselves right now.?

And by the way, I am ALL for it.?

I know a lot of people mock the ‘new year, new me’ movement but what is more admirable than someone saying ‘hey, you know what, I want to be better this year. I want to be, do and have more’. I have nothing but respect for the first-time gym goers, the virgin personal development book reader or the newbie journal writers.?

I have been there myself. A fresh diary with crisp, untouched pages ready for the creation of some serious time-management magic, a load of meal prep ideas and throwing out the cheese and booze on Jan 1st.?

But, if I am honest, I have always ‘struggled’ with goals. For many years I never really made them stick - and it used to frustrate the hell out of me. I would make some progress, start getting some results but then fall off the goal-wagon, so to speak.?

I think, in retrospect, it was because the goals never really meant that much to me. I thought they did in the moment but, I guess, if they really had done I would have stayed the course.?

I mean, it is not like the goals were out of the realms of possibility. They were definitely ‘stretch zone’, but I was not trying to compete with Elon getting to Mars or anything.?

Having done some introspection, I think I now know why I didn’t hit all my previous targets and I’ll happily share them with you so you don’t fall into the same trap with your 2025 goal setting:?

1. I set too damn many. Looking back, I was so fixated on having goals that I actually ended up shooting myself in the foot by just having too many plates to try and spin in one go. And too many goals meant too little focus. There has never been a truer acronym than that of Focus; Follow One Course Until Successful and, with my incessant desire to create goals, I was doing the opposite. With a bunch of fitness, business and money goals swirling around there is no wonder that I ended up drowning in the sea of mediocrity on all the above, as no single one of them had enough dedicated time, effort and attention.?
2. I didn’t get started fast enough. I won’t get too far down the rabbit hole of the ‘universal powers of manifestation’ in this particular blog, but I truly believe that there is something energetically that attracts goals to big action takers, because the ‘action’ is showing the universe what you really want. And action leads to proof (albeit often small) of progress, which breeds confidence, which increases certainty, which strengthens belief. And when belief and action combine you have the rocket fuel for outcomes. Too often I would wait for the ‘right time’ , the ‘right situation’, the ‘right person’ but, in nearly every instance where I didn’t win big, the initial action would have taken me incrementally closer to the outcome, if I had just got going.
3. Missing the BIG domino. I think I stole this concept from The One Thing (great book by the way, go and check it out), but in it the author references that amongst all the things you have to do there is usually one big thing that makes everything else either easier or irrelevant. And, as I see it, there will be one big goal amongst your annual list that will move the needle on everything else too. Not all goals are created equal and, if you don’t work out a hierarchy of importance - or a priority list - then all of them get the same level of attention and focus. Which means, in all honesty, none of them get the right amount of attention or focus.
4. Set and Forget. On many occasions I would sit at the start of the year ferociously writing my deepest desires, longed-for outcomes and dream scenarios and then, a few months later, I would realise that I hadn’t actually picked up my goal setting journal or my planner again. There is a famous business analogy ‘what gets measured gets managed’ and I think the same is true with goals. If you don’t look at your goals regularly - and you are not checking in on your progress - then you will find yourself standing still. I now set affirmations for the day, daily (obvs!), I read my vision statement frequently and I am setting goals that I circle back to weekly. If your goals are not within your conscious awareness - through seeing them again and again - they are not likely to become your reality.
5. And finally - the one so impactful I titled the blog based on it - can you actually pay the price of the goal? You might be asking ‘WTF is the price of a goal’ and it’s simply the ‘cost’ of acquiring the object of your desires. For example, you might have said you want to get a six pack (that is on my goal list this year, again!) and the cost of that is eating well 6 days out of 7, training 4 days per week, finding a PT for expert advice, taking supplements etc. Once you know this, you can ask the question, can I actually pay for the costs involved; can I turn down the takeaway, do I have space in the diary for the workouts, can I afford the PT, do I know enough about supplementation to make sure I am taking the right stuff.

So this year I am doing things differently; I have set far fewer goals, I am hitting the ground running fast (this first blog is a prime example of that - I could wait for my website, logos, brand guide etc. or I can just write and post!), I know what the big goal is amongst the goals, I am looking at my desired outcomes daily and I am aware - and willing to pay - the costs attached to chasing the dreams that I say I desire.?

Will this refreshed strategy ensure I can be, do and have everything that I truly desire in 2025? Who bloody knows. But, one thing is for sure, I am excited to find out.?

Until next time, stay great!