How this one small shift can help you be WILDLY successful in 4 simple steps
Have you given up on goal setting because you never quite reach the desired outcome?
Do you constantly feel LESS than what you feel you should have achieved by now?
Or is it simply that you’ve had the goal to lose 10kg for 3, 5, even 10 years and you’re still no closer to dropping it for good because you keep self-sabotaging the process?
In today’s article I want to provide you with a step-by-step system to not only set bigger and better goals, but also how to bridge the gap between goal setting and goal achievement.
Why? Because goal setting is not new. EVERYBODY sets goals. Yet VERY few close this gap between goal setting and goal achievement.
In fact, I just learnt the AVERAGE completion of an online course is only 4%!!
After working with hundreds of high performers, racking up 10,000 hours of coaching, and working with some of the best coaches in the world in fitness, productivity and mindset – there is a clear shift that needs to happen internally if you have any chance in reaching your desired outcome.
Small disclaimer: If you have not taken the time to upgrade your environment first, meaning the experts, coaches and support network you surround yourself with – goal setting will not help you.
Let’s dive right into the 4 crucial steps to effective goal setting:
Step 1: Connecting the logical with the emotional
A BIG reason your personal goals have failed is because the goal has only even been a logical brain decision.
We write it down, we feel good about it, but nothing happens… Then, when we are reminded 2 months later – we realize we haven’t made any significant leaps towards the goal.
It’s because there has been no neural or physical shift in how we conduct our day in order to achieve the goal. We know the WHAT but we haven’t gone deeper to find the WHO, WHY, HOW and WHEN.
The WHO is the identity (this is BIG and will be its own post!)
But this is what we need to do with the other 3…
We need to set the goal and the process to achieving it (logical) – HOW
Set the positive consequences to either achieving and negative consequences for not achieving the goal (emotional) – WHY
Then we need to set a timeframe (urgency) – WHEN
When we combine the power of the logical side of the brain (prefrontal cortex) with the emotional section of the brain (limbic system) we can then start to ingrain this goal deeper into the unconscious brain to work with us throughout the day rather than the fleeting willpower of the conscious mind.
This is a VITAL shift as 95-98% of our daily lives are unconscious habits – the ONLY way we can interrupt our predictable habits is through a change at this unconscious level.
By bringing together these vital neural pathways in the brain, we build the reinforced integrity to follow through by creating a deeper identity level decision ingrained in the subconscious.
Step 2: The Identity Shift
When we set a goal that is out of our comfort zone we are usually met with some resistance and uncertainty around achieving it. This is a GOOD thing because it means you’ve set a goal worth achieving.
The goal you have now set with the full process in Step 1 starts to uncover why this goal really means anything to you, but also uncovers the steps that need to be taken in order to achieve it.
Therefore it’s no longer a pipe dream, but an actionable game plan for you to start taking steps forward. THIS is where the resistance shows up because you now understand that this goal is literally forcing you to become a better version of yourself in order to achieve the goal.
This is BIG. This starts to question our current reality and way of doing things. And the reason we resist it is because currently we are choosing the easy options to face the harder choices later. This resistance forces us to switch that and choose the harder options now to have an easier or happier life later.
Once we make this shift at an unconscious level, we are creating a new identity for ourselves by making decisions from the place we WANT to be (growth minded) rather than from a place of stagnation and safety.
All highly successful business owners, relationships or athletes understand this. This identity that they have built for themselves ingrains a pattern of forward thinking so that they consistently follow every day on the habits and choices that will get them closer to their desired outcome. When this is put into practice long enough this starts to be ingrained at an unconscious them and it just becomes WHO THEY ARE.
This is where being aware of the words you use is so powerful. If you’re saying I HAVE to exercise, I CAN’T smoke, I SHOULDN’T eat that then you are keeping yourself in this old mindset and constantly battling against this the stories you tell yourself and you will crumble eventually.
If you can switch this to I CAN exercise, I DON’T smoke and I DON’T eat that because it is deeply ingrained in the person that you are – this brings a whole new level of FREEDOM to your life and decisions
A lot of this resistance comes back to fear of chance. We need to break down these fears of failure, judgments or past experiences that start to creep in, in the form of resistance as this doesn’t serve you with your new standards.
We need to build up your own self-esteem to match up with the goal you want to achieve – build the character needed to achieve the goal.
How do you do that?
Accountability & Daily Action.
Indecision (resistance) kills more dreams than failure ever will. There is no more vital time to remember that then when you go to take your first step. When the resistance is at its highest, when everything else seems to be pulling your attention away from that step, the only way to silence this fear is to rack up your small wins with daily action.
Once you know the long term benefit and the REASON you deeply want this change, it simply becomes what you do as part of your day because you’re acting from this new standard you set for yourself. Sometimes you’ve gotta fight to stay in line with your identity, and sometimes it just flows.
This is why I advocate it is so crucial to set up simple daily habits so that over time they become an unconscious daily process that becomes effortless.
Step 3: Developing the daily habits of this new identity in order to achieve the new goal.
We know the most effective ways to lose fat, add muscle, improve our sleep, etc. however our own habits, beliefs and daily routine is what sabotages us. Once we have built this new identity, we now need to create our own perfect morning routine, to set up our day, reinforce our new identity through daily habits to ultimately create the life you want.
The problem is most individuals over 30 are so deeply ingrained into their daily norms that it is much harder to rewire these habits when they’ve been so deeply rooted in our identity that it’s creating the predictable patterns that habits you are already getting.
“If we keep doing what we have always done, we will keep getting what we have always got.”
I like to use the analogy of the rocketship here – it needs a lot of effort to get started but then it gets increasingly easier as we create momentum. Make this shift, dive DEEPER into WHY you want to achieve this goal, then intentionally focus on the HABITS that you know will take you in the right direction towards that goal. You can’t fight against your own habits, you need to focus on the daily activities to make it effortless
Note: Habits need to be aligned to the goal at an unconscious level to create the effortless habits, this takes a minimum of 66 days to rewire the brain.
The goals/results you achieve are an EFFECT of your habits, if you can rewire the daily habits long enough to make them unconscious then you will achieve the results.
So ask yourself how are my behaviors helping or hurting my results? It doesn’t come from a new training program or macro split, this comes from a much deeper shift that we’ll dive into tomorrow…
Step 4: Environment – struggle or succeed
If you have not taken the time to first upgrade your environment, meaning the experts, friends and support network you surround yourself with, then the first 3 steps simply will not help you.
We all know the quote of the 5 people we surround ourselves with, but do you really know why this close association becomes so powerful?
You can have all the best intentions in the world but if you’re constantly getting pulled into the negative energy of others you will CONSTANTLY feel like you’re fighting an unwinnable battle.
Focus on immersing yourself in the environment that will change the course of your habits, so that this becomes NORMAL to set up your day like this, normal to feel like you’re winning and normal to have mountains of energy and enjoy great wholesome food.
Also known as Osmosis: “The process of gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas, knowledge, etc.”.
The people we surround ourselves with can literally lift us up or tear us down no matter how good our intentions are through the gradual assimilation of their beliefs, limitations and attitudes.
You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems and environment.
Simply put, the people around will either make achieving your goals feel like a breeze, or like you’re pushing shit uphill…
Over the last 4 years I have spent over $40k simply to insert myself into the environments that lift me up and ASK BETTER QUESTIONS. Areas where success simply becomes the normal, anything below massive personal growth is simply not accepted.
Daily wins, unique insights, dedication to excellence, meticulousness to their schedule, all of these virtues literally become embedded in the subconscious as a result of the environment. No matter how good your intentions, without surrounding yourself with the kind of environment that promotes the qualities you want and have achieved the results you are after, you are stabbing in the dark.
You have 2 choices when achieving goals…
Save resources (money) instead of time and spend the next 1, 2, 5 years failing forward and trying to figure it out by yourself. You may hit it, but it will take you a lot longer.
Save time and leverage resources to learn from experts that have helped hundreds of others achieve the result you’re after and surround yourself with the high caliber individuals that simply make success inevitable in the shortest time period possible.
If you are stuck or not progressing at the speed that you’d like, and you know that it is holding you back from so many other areas in life. Are you in camp 1 or 2?
If you’re ready to step up and learn the system I have used to help hundreds of high performers perform at their best over the last decade, simply book in your call below so we can find out specifically where you’re going wrong and if we are a great fit, look at building out your path to make massive leaps in your life.