Setting #Goals for 2019

Are you Ready for Real Change?

This is the time of year for resolutions.  Declarations on the changes you will make.  But so often, those resolutions are abandoned within the first few weeks of the new year.  It’s become accepted, a cliche’…almost a joke to many!

But here is a question to consider?  Why is it so difficult to make, and stick to, resolutions?  I’ve nailed down a few reasons people struggle with resolutions.  These reasons are also why people struggle with personal growth and development.

We Ask Too Much of Ourselves

John Wooden, the legendary coach of the UCLA Bruin’s Men’s Basketball Team and the coach of 10 national championship teams, called himself a realistic optimist.  In his book “Wooden”, he writes:

“I believe one of my strengths is my ability to keep negative thoughts out. I am an optimist. I believe this results from the fact that I set realistic goals—ones that are difficult to achieve, but within reach. You might say I’m a realistic optimist.

Goals should be difficult to achieve because those achieved with little effort are seldom appreciated, give little personal satisfaction, and are often not very worthwhile.

However, if you set goals that are so idealistic there’s no possibility of reaching them, you will eventually become discouraged and quit. They become counterproductive. Be a realistic optimist.”

Some keys to goal setting:

• Be honest with yourself
• Set goals that will stretch you, yet are within reach
• Revise as you go!
• Practice, practice, practice…you’ll get better as you do it more and more
• Don’t quit if you come up short!

We Miss the PURPOSE of Our Goals

Tony Robbins is a legendary personal success coach.  He has a system for setting goals, and mapping out how to achieve them.  He calls it RPM.

Results

Purpose

Massive Action Plan

You can learn more about this by googling his system, or by reading Robbins’ books.  The main point is this:

Many people want some sort of RESULT.

-I want to lose 20 pounds.

Many people then map out a MASSIVE ACTION PLAN.

-To lose 20 pounds, I’m going to:

*Go to the gym 5 days a week!

*Meal prep broiled chicken and broccoli…and maybe some rice.  And that’s it!

*Run 5 miles twice per week!

But most people leave out the PURPOSE when setting their goals.  Your purpose is your WHY.  Again, this has become somewhat cliche’.  Simon Sinek’s classic book “It Starts With Why” was many people’s first experience with their “Why.”  If you’ve never read it, or watched a video of Sinek explaining it, do so.

Many people have heard this advice over and over again.  But here is the separator…while most have heard it before, few have ACTUALLY EXPLORED their “WHY” in detail!  Your WHY needs to be personal.  It needs to be emotional.  It needs to bring you to tears, get you so jacked up you’d run through a wall, give you goosebumps…it needs to make you FEEL SOMETHING!

Your WHY is what drives you back to the gym on the gloomy winter days when you don’t feel like going.  Your WHY is what motivates you to make that extra phone call, or to give your best mental and emotional effort in a meeting when you’d otherwise mail it in.  Your WHY is what drives you to go OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE and do things you otherwise wouldn’t do…to be able to achieve things you otherwise wouldn’t achieve!

What Can an Emerging Leader or Young Professional Focus on in the New Year?

• Make time, real time, to meditate on the things that are important to you in your life
  -What do you really want from your life?
  -Even better…what DON’T you want from your life?
• Once you determine that…figure out WHY you want it!
• How can you produce the things you WANT from your life, and the things you DON’T want from your life?
• Make a plan to do it
• Have an accountability partner
  -Let them know what your goals are…it makes them more real to declare them!
  -Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable
  -Check in with your accountability partner regularly, when you succeed AND when you struggle
• Review, revise, and renew
  -It’s okay to adjust your goals as you go
  -This is how you grow!
• Practice, practice, practice
  -Make this a lifelong habit!

Andy Hudak is a financial advisor with Transamerica Financial Advisors.  He is a former high school English teacher, and built his business part-time before transitioning to running his business on a full-time basis in 2012.  Andy and his wife Stacey are in business together, and have 2 daughters Sloane (4) and Preston (2).