Three Things Successful Goal-Getters Do
The beginning of the year is a classic time for goal-setting...
but it's also a classic time for goal-forgetting.
If you set some goals this year and haven’t been keeping up with them as you intended, you’re not alone!
92% of people don’t accomplish their New Year’s Resolutions! That’s a huge percentage of people who have the best of intentions but then hit roadblocks on their way to make their goals happen.
But what about that other 8%? What are they doing differently that allows them to actually accomplish their goals? And what can you learn from them to ALSO be a part of that 8%?
There are three very specific things that this 8% of people are doing to help them reach their goals. These are all things that I use personally to help me get my goals as well. We also help our members in The Club utilize them so they can shorten the learning curve from where they are in their business to where they want to be.
DHL: The Club is our Members-Only community for creatives and passionate small business owners where we provide the tools, mindset, accountability and support to help you take your next big leap. Membership only opens a few times a year and our next enrollment period is now through February 15, 2022.
Here are three things that will help you go from dream to done.
Schedule focused proactive planning time and set specific goals. This means setting aside specific time to assess where you currently are in your business and where you’d like to be and then figuring out what steps you need to take to get there. I use a method of breaking down tasks and scheduling them realistically to combat that feeling of being overwhelmed by big goals. I went deeper into this in this blog post. In The Club, we start our members with a lesson and worksheet to analyze all the areas of their business, discover what needs improvement and guide them on setting goals and then creating doable tasks for those goals.
Recognize and break down your roadblocks. Have you ever started going after something and found yourself losing steam? Or maybe you felt stuck during the process? Or you didn’t start because you weren’t sure what to do or felt overwhelmed? These are all roadblocks that stand between you and your goals. Some others disguise themselves as perfectionism, distractibility, procrastination and analysis paralysis.
To break down these roadblocks down, you need a combination of dealing with the where the roadblocks come from and breaking them down is to implement a practical non-negotiable plan to stop it in its tracks. Each roadblock has an underlying mental and emotional issue that’s hidden beneath the surface – this could be fear of failure or success, impostor syndrome, feeling like you’re not enough and so many other issues that so many of use including me are dealing with or have dealt with. The good news is that once you uncover where that issue stems from, you can start to counteract it and it becomes much less powerful against you.
If your roadblock appears in the form of procrastination, you could perhaps create small but meaningful rewards to give yourself a natural feeling of accomplishment There are lots of tools you can test out to see what works for you but one that is super successful for many different roadblocks is accountability. Which brings us to the third in our series of goal-getting practices.
Create a structured accountability plan. Research shows that having a committed accountability partner can raise your chance of getting your goals by as much as 95%! This is why we built accountability into The Club experience. In The Club you are able to, and encouraged to, connect with an accountability group and use our guide to create a framework for your meetups. Whether you find your accountability group in The Club or on your own, your highest success will come through having weekly check-ins – some people do this over email or text and some have hangouts.
think about when I was talking about setting specific goals...
Did something pop into your mind? Is there something that you’ve been wanting to do for your business? Maybe it’s something that keeps getting pushed to the end of your to-do list or you haven’t dared to write it down because you know that once you do, it’ll be a reality and you’ll have to start making moves towards it and that feels scary and pushes you out of your comfort zone. What is that goal? Write it down!
- Think about a roadblock that has stood in your way in the past or that you foresee being an issue. Maybe it’s procrastination or perfectionism.
- Try to explore what’s behind it. If it’s perfectionism, maybe it’s that you feel like if what you do isn’t perfect that you will be a failure and will have to go back to a job you hate or tell everyone that you didn’t succeed and you’ll be embarrassed.
- Start to work through what’s behind that feeling. This won’t be the same for everyone but it might look like writing out a scenario where you DO fail in the worst possible way and writing out what would happen. I mean, get really outlandish. I call this worst case scenario therapy. This can be helpful for you to realize that the worst thing you can imagine is unlikely and the “failure” you’re afraid of, is more manageable than you think. Maybe you talk through your fear of failure with a mental health professional or a friend or you create an affirmation or do research. The key is to figure out what’s behind it and address it. This can be really emotional which is why we’re not going to get deep into this now but I wanted to share some of the ways you can address this.
- Tackle the practical and non-negotiable part of breaking that roadblock down, this is where you implement boundaries, habits and plans to create a new path for when you hit that roadblock.
Let’s use the example of perfectionism we just talked about. Maybe this shows up for you when you send important emails. In this case, you need to make a non-negotiable rule for yourself that you will only read the email one time before sending it. Or, maybe you do a little exposure therapy and force yourself to send an email that you know has a typo in it, just so you can see that the world doesn’t end over that one typo that stressed you out.
Think about your roadblock and write down something you plan on doing either a way you’ll explore what’s underneath it or a practical action plan you’ll use next time it comes up.
I know some of the stuff I talked about today may have touched a nerve for some of you. It’s not easy to admit these deep fears like fear of failure or feeling like you’re not enough. But, it’s really tough to do this goal-getting work that requires confidence and resilience until you start exploring that stuff.
That’s one of the things that I love about The Club, our members are so open and that’s the way to get a lot out of the experience. The magical connections between each other and those AH-HA revelations about your business and life happen when you’re willing to be vulnerable. If you’re looking for your community of creative business owners who can grow into your business besties and more, join us in The Club.
MEMBERS OF DHL: THE CLUB RECEIVE...
- Group coaching in our monthly mentorship sessions where you get personalized help from me, Nicole, as well as support and advice from your peers
- Monthly business classes featuring an expert-led workshop in an essential business skill that matches our monthly theme: social media, goal-setting, newsletters, hiring help, etc.
- 24/7 support through our online community where you get support, encouragement and resources from members and us
- Our creative business boss book club where we have guided discussions about what we’re learning
- Unlimited access to our class library with on-demand classes and workshops led by some of the most sought-after teachers in our community
- Access to the resource hub – our curated list of the service providers, platforms and services that we love and use
Enrollment is open now through February 15, 2022.
After that, it won’t open again until the summer. Those on our waiting list will be notified first when enrollment opens – you can join that list below.
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