Often I hear and ask myself questions like “why am I not reaching my goals?” and “I keep trying, but I’m not succeeding – why?”
I’ve found that it’s beneficial to focus on one goal instead of several. Work toward that one goal.
First, of course, we need to settle on that one goal. Choosing sometimes seems impossible.
My experience is that when I focus on one goal, I start to experience success in that area. That success provides more motivation for me to keep working at that one goal. Eventually, this success feeds my motivation and energy to tackle another goal.
Selecting the one goal can be difficult. I try to determine what’s most important to me RIGHT NOW.
- Am I worried about money, afraid I won’t be able to pay my bills or retire in the future? Then the one goal is to achieve financial stability.
- Am I overweight and worried about my health because of it? Am I afraid I’ll get diabetes or have a heart attack or stroke sometime in the future? Then my one goal is to release my extra weight, to let it go!
- Do I hate going to work? Am I unhappy in my job, with the organizational culture, my boss and co-workers, the pay, or all of the above? Then my goal is to become happy in my work. That may mean looking for another job, adjusting my attitude, finding ways to contribute more or differently, or detaching emotionally.
Essentially, I have enough information already about the topics important to me. And if I don’t, I can get more. So it’s possible for me to set and reach goals. If I need more information as I go along, I can set aside some time to learn more.
What’s important is to just take action – the next step. I will learn from my experiences from doing.
