The Secret to Achieving Your Goals

How often have you set your goals only to have them gather dust on a shelf … buried under shiny new objects that caught your attention and sent you down another path?

I’ve been there too.

Just when you think you’ve got everything nicely mapped out, you watch a webinar or attend a workshop and your path gets diverted. You start being seduced by the latest and greatest new thing.

Or maybe a global pandemic hits and you see your goals evaporate because suddenly everything in the world has changed.

In both scenarios your original goals are displaced … and often forgotten.

After two decades of business planning, what I’ve come to realize is there’s an important step that often gets missed when setting goals.

Something that’s so powerful it remains unchanged, despite what’s going on around you.

And without this piece in place, your path can get diverted from the course you’ve set.

The missing piece in the planning process is to start with the end in mind. And that’s exactly what I do before I ever sit down and start mapping out my goals for the year.

I paint a picture of what I want my business to look like on December 31.

This isn’t about creating vision boards or getting out a crystal ball … although that can be fun!

It’s about creating space in my brain and permitting myself to unlock my dreams and connect with my deepest desires.

Doing this isn’t easy. It does require you to push aside limiting beliefs and to silence your inner critic.

I love this passage from the book The Ripple Effect by Greg Wells…

“The key to living a world-class life and getting the most out of this time we have is to make sure we have dreams. We need something to power us to do more. We need dreams that can drive us to be better. Dreams give us a flame in our hearts that ignite passion. If you think about what athletes look like when they win — exhilarated, thrilled, excited, energized — you will have an image of what the fulfillment of a dream can do for us all. It gives us the chance to live life at a different level.”

The same applies to your business.

When you create that image of what your dream business will look like on December 31 … suddenly you’ll experience it at a visceral level. By this I mean, you’ll feel space in your lungs as you imagine what’s possible, warmth in your heart as the picture forms, and a tingling sensation down your arms as your potential unfolds.

The vision you have for your business is the bridge that connects your goals with your actions.

And your actions are what drive results.

Sometimes, you have to change your course … as you may have done this year.

Sometimes challenges will stand in your path and you’ll be delayed as you discover a way through them.

Whatever the world throws at you, this I know … the picture you’ve painted for your business has the power to stay intact.

And that’s the missing link to achieving your goals. Once it’s in place … you’ll be unstoppable.