When was the last time you set a goal and made progress, but you never fulfilled the goal or the vision that you imagined? You set out feeling motivated, had many brilliant ideas, and you can't possibly see how this could fail.
You're so focused on the big picture of success and making it happen.
You put in a lot of work to get it off the ground and things start working out in little ways.
Then the progress just suddenly stops and stays steady, or stops altogether because you give up in frustration.
Everyone talks about setting goals, but just how realistic and achievable are your overall goals? The fact is that all goals are achievable.
Just not overnight.
It takes time and baby steps to get to where you want to end up.
If we focus on the final goal, our field of focus is very broad and we become overwhelmed with so many things going on at once.
You can see the final goal, but you can't see the obstacles that are preventing you from getting there.
By setting the final goal, you are setting expectations on yourself that are very high and very demanding of you.
Continue doing so, and you are increasing your chances of burnout and exhaustion and you'll find you won't achieve your goals.
It's like you can see the top of the mountain, but you can't see that boulder crossing the path of where you have to walk to reach the top.
Set the expectation that you'll reach the top of the mountain without first dealing with the boulder is setting the bar too high.
You are overwhelming yourself with too much self-expectation.
Begin with the end in mind, but don't focus on it.
Focus on your 'boulders' one by one.
Set your expectations when you come across a 'boulder'.
What do you expect of yourself to be able to get past this current 'boulder'? Once you pass the boulder, you have learnt the lesson in how to deal with getting past a boulder.
When you cross another boulder, you'll have learnt from the experience of getting past the previous boulder, so now this current boulder seems like less of a challenge.
Next you might come up across a tree blocking your path, or a wild animal.
Now you have to learn how to deal with getting past trees and wild animals.
Focus on the little details and learn all you can from them.
That is the true way to reach the top of that mountain.
Focusing only on reaching the top of the mountain is a huge self-expectation putting a lot of pressure on you and setting you up for disappointment.
It creates an image in your mind of the destination, but doesn't allow room for feedback or lessons you learn from the journey.
The feedback only comes when you hit obstacles, face them and learn how to deal with them.
Sometimes you'll make it, and sometimes you'll begin to think you're failing.
But what you are really doing is learning what's not working.
Give up now, and you will stop learning.
Is it not better to hit small obstacles along the way and focus on them than have your focus on the final goal and feel like everything is failing? Hitting a point of frustration while focusing on the overall picture will lead you to feel like you'll never get there.
An example of this is someone who sets out to start a business.
Let's say their goal is to make $10,000 in their first month.
They focus on this and what happens is $10,000 seems like a massive amount of sales to make.
They realise it's not happening and they can't work out why.
But if they had set their end goal of $10,000 a month and then put all their focus into their first sale, then they would learn what it takes to make one sale.
Then they know how to do that so they focus on making 10 sales a day.
They make that and they focus on the next part.
So as you can see, you need to break your overall bigger goal right down into very small parts so the final goal doesn't overwhelm you.
And you learn the lesson on the way by focusing on the smaller steps one by one.
Remember to begin with the end in mind, but only focus on the step right in front of you at that point in time.
Learn all you can from the mistakes and challenges that result of that obstacle that can only hold you back from your success if you allow it to!
You're so focused on the big picture of success and making it happen.
You put in a lot of work to get it off the ground and things start working out in little ways.
Then the progress just suddenly stops and stays steady, or stops altogether because you give up in frustration.
Everyone talks about setting goals, but just how realistic and achievable are your overall goals? The fact is that all goals are achievable.
Just not overnight.
It takes time and baby steps to get to where you want to end up.
If we focus on the final goal, our field of focus is very broad and we become overwhelmed with so many things going on at once.
You can see the final goal, but you can't see the obstacles that are preventing you from getting there.
By setting the final goal, you are setting expectations on yourself that are very high and very demanding of you.
Continue doing so, and you are increasing your chances of burnout and exhaustion and you'll find you won't achieve your goals.
It's like you can see the top of the mountain, but you can't see that boulder crossing the path of where you have to walk to reach the top.
Set the expectation that you'll reach the top of the mountain without first dealing with the boulder is setting the bar too high.
You are overwhelming yourself with too much self-expectation.
Begin with the end in mind, but don't focus on it.
Focus on your 'boulders' one by one.
Set your expectations when you come across a 'boulder'.
What do you expect of yourself to be able to get past this current 'boulder'? Once you pass the boulder, you have learnt the lesson in how to deal with getting past a boulder.
When you cross another boulder, you'll have learnt from the experience of getting past the previous boulder, so now this current boulder seems like less of a challenge.
Next you might come up across a tree blocking your path, or a wild animal.
Now you have to learn how to deal with getting past trees and wild animals.
Focus on the little details and learn all you can from them.
That is the true way to reach the top of that mountain.
Focusing only on reaching the top of the mountain is a huge self-expectation putting a lot of pressure on you and setting you up for disappointment.
It creates an image in your mind of the destination, but doesn't allow room for feedback or lessons you learn from the journey.
The feedback only comes when you hit obstacles, face them and learn how to deal with them.
Sometimes you'll make it, and sometimes you'll begin to think you're failing.
But what you are really doing is learning what's not working.
Give up now, and you will stop learning.
Is it not better to hit small obstacles along the way and focus on them than have your focus on the final goal and feel like everything is failing? Hitting a point of frustration while focusing on the overall picture will lead you to feel like you'll never get there.
An example of this is someone who sets out to start a business.
Let's say their goal is to make $10,000 in their first month.
They focus on this and what happens is $10,000 seems like a massive amount of sales to make.
They realise it's not happening and they can't work out why.
But if they had set their end goal of $10,000 a month and then put all their focus into their first sale, then they would learn what it takes to make one sale.
Then they know how to do that so they focus on making 10 sales a day.
They make that and they focus on the next part.
So as you can see, you need to break your overall bigger goal right down into very small parts so the final goal doesn't overwhelm you.
And you learn the lesson on the way by focusing on the smaller steps one by one.
Remember to begin with the end in mind, but only focus on the step right in front of you at that point in time.
Learn all you can from the mistakes and challenges that result of that obstacle that can only hold you back from your success if you allow it to!