Having goals will help you achieve the life of your dreams. Some of life’s most
satisfying experiences are those that involve staying focused on a goal until you achieve
it. Yet you’ll likely experience times when, no matter how hard you try, you’re
stymied by obstacles blocking the way.
Obstacles come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some typical blocks to goal
achievement:
1. Lack of creativity. You might have your own struggles determining how to best
work toward attaining what you want. Perhaps you’ve run out of ideas to make
it happen.
2. Negative thinking. We’ve all been plagued by negative thinking. You feel you’re
just not going to be able to achieve your dreams. Negative thinking is a potent
block, because once it begins, it tends to escalate and can become a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
3. Lagging confidence. Following closely on the heels of negative thinking, sagging
confidence is the bane of goal achievement. You begin to seriously question
your skills and abilities to complete the work required to reach your goal.
4. Focus follies. Who among us can claim we’ve never lost our way on the path
toward our dream life? We want to reach that milestone but we keep getting
thwarted by distractions. How can you work on an important project when your
wife keeps asking you why you aren’t painting the house or spending time with
the kids?
5. Refusing to put in effort. It goes without saying that every goal requires you to
work and persevere to reach success.
6. Time traps. Making your way toward goals is challenging enough without
having the irritation of not enough time to do it.
7. Vague aspirations. If you’re unsure about what you really want, it’s a challenge
to continue steadily toward your goals. Vague aspirations equal unmet goals.
Navigating Obstacles
Now that you have a good idea of blocks you might encounter on your way to goal
achievement, review the suggestions below (corresponding to above-numbered
items) to determine how to best avoid them.
1. Take responsibility to keep creativity going. Draw pictures of what you hope
to achieve. Make a storyboard of your plan of action. Design a vision board of
what your goal pathway looks like and include how your life will differ after
achieving your goal.
2. Arrest negative thoughts. As soon as they creep in, think, “Stop it now” and
mean it. Then, replace that negativity with an “I will persevere and achieve”
message. Tell yourself, “I can and will do it.”
3. Review past achievements. Give yourself props for goals you’ve achieved
before. What were those goals? Use these reminder techniques to find and
connect with your confidence.
4. Commit to goals. Remind yourself daily about why you want to reach a
particular goal. Perhaps you’ll earn more money, get a better job, live in a place
you prefer, or protect your family’s future. Stay the course by re-committing to
goals each morning.
5. Work. Along with committing wholeheartedly to goals, you’ve got to put in the
work. Tell yourself your effort will, in the end, be worth it.
6. Use your schedule. No matter what your goal, consistently schedule the time to
work toward it. If you don’t keep a calendar now, start. Look at your entire week
or month and what’s scheduled with a quick glance. Write in when you’ll work
toward goals.
Maybe it will be Tuesday evenings from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. or Saturday
mornings from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Follow your schedule consistently.
7. Clarify goals. Write them and place copies everywhere inside your house,
briefcase, and calendar. When you’re sure about what you want, then you can
diligently work toward those goals.
There will be obstacles to block the pathways toward your goals. But if you can
identify the sources of the blocks, you can develop solutions or use these time-tested
strategies to navigate those obstacles and claim your success.