The blind spot that’s holding you back from your goals
Goal setting is the process for thinking about your ideal future and for motivating yourself to turn your visions into reality. We all know its important to set goals. We all have big visions, hopes and dreams for what our life could look like. I mean, we all set goals every January 1stwith the best of intentions, the highest of hopes and an inspirational mindset. We know that setting these goals will spur us into action, which will lead us to the performance or result we desire. But if we know all this, then why do so many people struggle to create crystal clear goals? Why are so many of us “winging it” and hoping for the best? More importantly, why do so many capable, intelligent people struggle when it comes to honouring their well-intentioned plans and seeing our goals through to fruition?
When we fail to reach our goals or achieve our vision, most of us will put it down to the goal being too big, lack of time or money, that we weren’t good enough or circumstances outside of our apparent control. But what if I told you that our failure to reach our goals has nothing to do with any of these things, but actually to do with a deeply embedded “blind spots” that secretly hold us back? When it comes to our own behaviour, you have the worst seat in the house. This is the reason why so many capable, intellectual people turn to coaches and mentors for accountability and support. It might sound like an abstract and far-fetched theory, but hear me out. We all have these blind spots. They’re not necessarily weaknesses, but they do limit our pursuit of goals so they’re absolutely worth exploring if you want to achieve big things and live a fulfilled life. Plus, with knowledge comes power so once you uncover yours – you can not only overcome it, but even leverage it to your advantage.
“So what is my blind spot?” I hear you ask.
Blind Spot 1: Being too optimistic
It’s great to set yourself huge, inspiring goals. It’s important to creatively envision our future and it’s natural to want amazing outcomes for our life. You can create vision boards, say daily affirmations and pray to the universe. These things can be useful, inspiring and help you manifest your desires. However, without a reasonable and realistic plan for action, no vision board or wishing well is going to see you succeed. If we just set really ‘safe’ goals, we wouldn’t be inspired but it’s important to have realistic expectations in order to avoid disappointment, or worse, procrastination. Setting yourself timelines or milestone dates for goals is a great starting point, because from here you can break the goal down into smaller, actionable chunks. The big goal becomes far less overwhelming when its broken down into smaller daily, weekly or monthly actions. If you’re a creative mind or dreamer personality, it’s likely that you lack the logical acumen to plan thoroughly. Find an accountability partner, coach or logical structure so that you can nourish and nurture your goal and transform it from idea to reality.
Blind Spot 2: Being too safe
The blind spot that many people have is that they don’t believe they could achieve their big dreams, so they aim for smaller ‘safe’ goals. An example would be saving to buy a house, when secretly you’d love to invest the money into a new business venture you’ve dreamt about since you were a kid. Humans are programmed to draw on their past experiences, as a way of protecting them from harm. Did you grow up in a working or middle class house where your parents worked hard for their money and told you that “money doesn’t grow on trees”? Your mindset may already be conditioned to believe that a comfortable lifestyle is born from extremely hard work and that the premium things in life are afforded to ‘other’ people. This underlying limiting belief will impact the way you create and carry out your goals, so naturally it is something you want to recognise and nip in the bud. It’s important to tell yourself regularly that you deserve anything you desire. Ask yourself, if I could wave a magic wand and have everything I wanted – what would that look and feel like? What would I do all day even if I wasn’t being paid? What truly brings me joy? When we create goals from this place, we can start to hone in on our inner wisdom and passion that will inform our goals.
Blind Spot 3: Not being specific
Vague instructions produce vague results. Setting goals is like using a GPS system. If you know where you’re going, you can take specific, intentional directions and manoeuvres to reach your destination. If there are roadblocks or interruptions along the way, you simply detour and continue on a new path to the same place, because you know where you are heading. The same theory is true of goal setting. Many people create the goal of “happiness” or “health”, not realising what those words mean to them and falsely presuming they are a destination to be reached. While your happiness might be an outcome of your actions or smaller goals, it’s not necessarily quantifiable or specific and therefore you can’t make a specific action plan. Instead of creating vague goals, create specific goals that align with your version of happiness, which you can measure. For example, spending time with your family and travelling makes you happy, but you’re currently working many hours, which means you don’t spend much time together. Your goal could be to retire in 5 years, so you can focus on travelling your loved ones. You then create specific milestones for the money you need to save or the actions you need to take, in order to achieve this by your intended date. The more specific you can be, the better! Another excellent way to get serious about specific goals is to create a vision board or list of what you want. If you are a visual thinker, this can be a great inspirational tool. Categorise your vision board into different themed sections, for example: economical goals, personal development goals, health, wealth, happiness, and community.
The amazing part of the goal setting process is the confidence and momentum you begin to accrue as you see your innermost dreams become reality. The only limit of what you can do is your own desire and the bigger you can dream the more you can do. Create a vision, backed up with an actionable plan and surround yourself with the people, coaches, mentors, frameworks and communities that will facilitate your dream. Most importantly, leave the sabotaging ‘self talk’ at the door and creative a supportive inner language that supports your goals.
