Ignore Your Goals: A Simple Hack for Extraordinary Results

I want to share a simple hack that’s sure to increase your chances of achieving your personal and professional goals.

The Problem

Let's start with an honest self-assessment. Go through the list below and check the boxes that describe your experiences with setting and achieving goals:

? I make New Year's resolutions, but that's where it ends. Nothing ever comes of it.

? I set goals, but don't know what I need to do to achieve them. After a while, I forget about them.

? I figure out what I need to do to achieve my goals, but I don't have the discipline to follow through. After a while, I give up.

? I really want to do what I need to do to achieve my goals, but I have too much going on and can't find the time.

? Even when I work hard to make things happen, I get disappointed because I’m not making enough progress and I give up.

? Even when I’m making some progress, I struggle to do so. When I see others crushing it at what I set out to do, it makes me feel even worse, and I give up.

If you can't relate to any of these experiences, you must be superhuman and I, for one, would love to learn your secret! But if, like me, you can check one or more of these boxes—and I can check every single one!—then it's important to get to the root cause of what's in the way and find a simple and sustainable solution to deal with it.

Again, drawing from my own experiences, I'd say these are likely candidates for the root causes of the above experiences. Check any boxes that apply:

? I set goals because it sounds like the right thing to do.

? I set too many goals, most of which I am halfway committed to at best.

? I don't think through the actions I need to take and habits I need to adopt to achieve my goals.

? I don't have the discipline to do what I said I was going to do.

? I don’t know how to set up the structures to channel my enthusiasm and guide my progress.

? I have certain expectations of how much progress I should have made, and if my actual results don't match that I get demotivated.

? I compare myself to others and their success demotivates me even more, and I figure there is no point in even trying anymore.

If you’ve checked more boxes than you’re willing to publicly admit, I'm right there with you. Stay with me; there is hope for us, I promise.

The Solution

The first step is always to stop making yourself wrong. So, you're not perfect! Surprise, surprise!! None of us are, so let's not let that hold us back.

Secondly, you're probably not going to shed all of your bad habits and completely transform yourself overnight, and that's OK. Focus on progress over perfection and take things one step at a time.

Lastly, start harnessing the power of baby steps that will eventually lead to a giant leap.

So, let's talk about the hack I promised to give you that I believe will be a game-changer.

The hack is a simple one I came up with years ago and it has come to my rescue many times.

Before I get into the actual tool, I'd like to share the principles that make it so effective:

• It’s important to set clear and measurable goals, dwell on what it’s like to already have achieved them, and revisit that feeling from time to time for inspiration and motivation.
• It’s also important to figure out what thoughts, words, actions, habits—or rituals, as Tony Robbins calls them—it will take to achieve your goals.
• Focusing on the relevant actions and habits—not the goal—will keep you on track. Trusting in the process will keep you centered on your commitment.
• Obsessing over whether you’re making enough progress toward your goal leads to disappointment, discouragement, and distraction from what you should actually be doing. Attachment to results undermines commitment to the goal. If you have prudently established the habits and rituals necessary to achieve your goal, your progress and results—or lack thereof—are irrelevant.
• Making a few commitments and sticking with them is better than making a bunch of partial and conditional commitments that you will abandon.
• The only person you’re competing with is the version of you who wants to just quit. If you focus on "doing you" as opposed to how everybody else doing, you have a much greater chance of succeeding.

The Tool

Now, let me show you a simple tool I use that will help with getting on track and staying on track.

1. Think of a specific goal.
2. Identify the actions and habits that will propel you in the direction of making it happen (Eating a certain way, exercising so many times a week, reading for 1 hour per day, etc.)
3. Separate the list into "Must do" items and "Nice to do" items. (This is reminiscent of the MoSCoW method for those familiar with it).
4. Identify actions and habits that will keep you from achieving this goal. (Watching TV, spending time on social media, eating sweets, etc.)
5. Separate this 2nd list into "Eliminate" and "Reduce" items
6. Make a table with three columns and label them from left to right, "Never," "Sometimes," and "Always."
7. Now populate the columns based on the lists that you made, where “Must do” items go into the “Always” column, “Eliminate” items go into the “Never” column, and both “Nice to do” and “Reduce” items go into the “Sometimes” (or "Maybe") column.
8. Repeat this process for each one of your goals.

As a result, you will end up with a list of:

? What you will never do

? What you will always do

?? What you will sometimes do

The "Always" and "Never" items represent actions you are willing to commit to 100%, without compromise. So, be mindful of not biting off more than you can chew or committing to more than you are willing to stick with. The "Sometimes" (or "Maybe") items give you room for spontaneity and habits that you are working on solidifying into either of the other two categories.

Once you’ve finished this exercise, I suggest you forget about your goals and only focus on the commitments you’ve made to always do certain things and to never do certain other things.

Try not to over-control the process by checking too often to see if you’re making progress or not. Instead, simply check back on a pre-determined frequency to see if you want to adjust the contents of the three columns.

I know this may seem like a simple solution to a complex problem, but that’s exactly why it’s so effective. We often talk ourselves out of taking simple steps because we feel like complicated problems require complicated solutions, but often the opposite is true. While you can always search for and apply more sophisticated methods later, I believe that if you trust the process and start with this simple step, you may never need to.

Further Resources

If you’d like to learn more about topics covered in this week’s newsletter article, check out the related resources I’ve included below.

Get in Touch

If there are topics you find to be of special value to you, or if you’d just like to get in touch and chat about what’s going on with you, simply reply to this newsletter or send me an email at [email protected].?If you’re experiencing challenges that you would like my perspective on, or you’d like to explore how we can partner with you to support you in your transformative journey, please click here to schedule a call with me.?I’d love to hear from you.

Let’s have a chat!

Clients and audience members at my talks frequently tell me:

• "I felt like you were talking specifically to me!"
• "Your perspective is so real and practical!"
• "Are you sure you don't work at my company? Because you were talking about exactly what we’re dealing with!"

I love hearing this feedback because my intent is always to make a real difference in your team's mindset and behaviors, which ultimately shape the culture, results, and fulfillment in your workplace.

The top problems we solve for clients with our coaching, speaking, and consulting services are:

• People working in silos and lack of collaboration toward a shared vision.
• Functional experts in leadership roles who aren’t equipped with the right skills and mindset to lead effectively
• People in the middle or frontlines of an organization failing to take initiative and be accountable.

If you’re experiencing any of these issues—or other challenges you would like to get some expert guidance on—get in touch with me and let me know your situation. I’ll get back to you very shortly with my thoughts on what you can do to start making progress.

Alternatively, click here to schedule a free discovery call to discuss your situation in more detail and to explore if and how The Ghannad Group can partner with you to transform your culture and results. During our conversation, I’ll share practical ideas and insights relative to your situation and we can jointly determine whether we can support you going forward.

If you found something of value in this edition of the newsletter, I'd love to discuss it with you in the comments below.?And if you'd like to share that value with others, I encourage you to do just that by clicking the Share button below as well!