The real reason you're not going to hit your goals

Everybody aspires to achieve something, we have goals, dreams, and lie awake at night thinking about why life isn’t the way we want it to be. As we suffer another sleepless night listening to the voices in our heads berate us as to why we’re a failure, and what we forgot to do that day, we feel useless. We tell ourselves on Monday it will be different; next week I’m going to be more motivated and organised and make my dreams happen. No more sleepless nights, no living with regrets next week is my week when I will make it happen.

The new week arrives, as Monday unfolds so too does your motivation to get everything you said you’d make happen happen. Monday evolves into Wednesday, and soon it’s next week again and things are no better than they were last Monday. Then you think I’ll start after my birthday. When your birthday comes and goes, so to do your good intentions. Then the next marker we tell ourselves we’ll make that change is after Christmas, then the New Year, and as January 1 erupts to firework explosions and jubilations the weight of reality hits you and your good intentions kick in. On the fourth day of January, you are kicking ass and you feel unstoppable; life is incredible. As you are making more shit happen your motivation is being tested. Life happens and zaps your energy, and before you know it you’re back in your comfort zone of being comfortable living a mediocre life, just dreaming of how things could be.

Why is it that as hard as we try, it just never happens for us, yet other people are living this extraordinary life that you can only dream about?

Having studied, taught, written about, and practiced personal development for two-decades and looking at why and how some people are more successful than others, there is one simple ingredient that not many people consider.

Reaching our goals is never as hard as we think. When people want to lose weight, it is as simple as: eat less, move more. Yet people make it into this big complicated thing, to lose weight, they tell themselves it will be hard and they’ll have to sacrifice the things they love, and they’ll have to go to the gym when the thought of it repulses them; so they talk themselves out of pursuing their goal fearing how arduous the journey to get to their desired outcome will be. Yet eating less and moving more is relatively simple and can be done in myriad ways that do not include going to the gym or giving up cake. So, if you simplify the process, it will not be so over-daunting that people talk themselves out of going after what they want.

There are many ways to the top of a mountain, and this is where the magic ingredient reveals itself. If there was a ten million pounds (dollars, or whatever your local currency is) at the top of a mountain, and it was yours for the taking – you just had to go and get it – would you go and claim the money at the top oof the mountain? Unless you’re someone who doesn’t like money – say what – you will do whatever you need to to get mitts on the lute. If you want to become a millionaire, and all that stands in your way of reaching that goal is climbing a mountain; are you going to get to the top of the mountain? Hell, yeah you are!

Why are you going to do whatever it takes to get to the top of the mountain? Why do you want what’s at the top of the mountain; because of what you could do with all that money, and the way it will make you feel. Think of the experiences you could have by going on amazing holidays with your family, the chance to pay for your children to go to university and set them up for life. Think of why you would trek to the top of the mountain, no matter how long it took you, you would keep putting one foot in front of the other knowing that every step you took was a step closer to you getting a ten million pounds. Your hunger to get to the tip of the mountain and claim the money because of the way it will make you feel and what you could do with that kind of cash excites you, nothing will stop you.

That’s the key ingredient in reaching your goals and making your dreams a reality. How hungry are you to get there? How much do you want it?

How much do you want it? What will it mean to you to achieve your goals, what will reaching your desired outcome give you, what will the results allow you to do? If you make yourself hungry enough to get to your goal then you’ll do whatever is required to get there; you won’t let anything stand in your way.

I told you it was as simple as eat less, move more; you just need to get and remain hungry for what you want. When your reason for getting to your goal is bigger than your excuse for not getting to your goal; then you will be unstoppable.

So, the real reason you are never going to hit your goals is because your goals are not making you hungry enough to achieve them.

How much do you want it?