3 Ways to Move Your Goals Forward

How do you breathe life into lifeless goals? In other words, how do you move your goals forward when they look so…uninspiring. This is a common struggle for performance-based number goals, such as paying off credit card debt, increasing income, losing weight, or hitting a certain exercise target.

How to achieve these goals is not the problem. There are countless strategies about getting out of debt, increasing your income, and losing weight. The real problem is how do you motivate yourself into action to achieve your goals? That’s what we’re going to cover in this article. This article has a lot of parallels and similarities to the last post, so I suggest you read both to see what hits home with you.

Ask why

The first step is to define why this goal is important to you. Without the why, what you have is unrealized potential and a static goal statement. The why brings energy to your goal potential and puts you into motion where your goal can be realized.

As simple as this sounds, it took me a while to fully grasp this concept. I had a goal of waking up at 4:45 AM every morning and running 3-4 miles per day, at least 5 days per week. I wrote the goal on a notecard and placed it next to my bedside. For the first week or so, I had a difficult time getting out of bed and going for a run. I used a lot of force and self-discipline to drive my goal forward, which was exhausting in itself.

One morning I decided to journal about my exercise goal. I spewed all of my frustration and anger onto the first page of the entry. Then I thought, why am I even doing this goal? Why do I want it. What followed was a list of how my life would improve by waking up at 4:45 and exercising. This goal was important to me, so I reviewed all the “why’s” every night in bed.

My mornings changed from there on out. When my alarm went off, I felt pulled out of bed - I just got up and got going. I think two things happened here: 1) understanding the why behind my goal put a lot of energy and emotion into the goal; therefore, I felt motivated. 2) understanding the why gave me purpose and something to look forward to.

Take your current goal and ask, “Why do I want this goal? What would accomplishing this goal do for my life?” I recommended journaling about it, but you could also have a dialogue with yourself if that works. Review your goal and the why every night before bed. Make sure you feel the energy and emotion in the why.

Turn the goal around to the other

Even after you define the why behind your goal, the pull motivation could still be weak. That’s because the energy behind the goal is hovering around you, rather than expanding. There’s less energy available and your personal power is weaker when you focus on yourself.

A simple reframe with your goal can expand your energy rather than draw it in. Reframe it to, “How does accomplishing my goal benefit others?”I know that sounds weird or unrealistic, but every goal you accomplish sends ripples into the universe and creates opportunities for others.

For example, my exercise and health goals will benefit others because I have more energy available to write, teach, educate, be in service, and be present. Being healthier generally means I will live longer; therefore, I have more time available to make a difference in the world. If I’m healthy and fit, then I could teach others how to become healthy and fit.

There could be unseen benefits, too. Maybe someone becomes inspired when I talk about my goal or when they see me exercise, so they decide to exercise and become healthy as well.

Discovering how my goal will benefit others works well. It’s a lot more fun and motivating being in service than being self-serving. Try it out. Write down your goal and then journal about how accomplishing your goal will benefit others.

Focus on the gain

We tend to only look at the large gap between where we are now versus where we want to be. I think seeing the gap can provide motivation to get your butt in gear, but it’s equally important to see the gain for sustained motivation. If you’re always chasing the carrot, but never get a taste of the carrot, you’ll eventually quit.

Notice and appreciate the progress you have made. Celebrate the small wins. More importantly, document the gains you have made in your journal. Therefore, you can reflect on your progress and appreciate what you have accomplished thus far.

Ask yourself, “What did I accomplish this week that was noteworthy?”

Conclusion

At the start, performance-based goals feel like lifeless goals. A lack of energy behind the goal means no motivation to act and accomplish it. To get the energy and motivation behind the goal, clarify why the goal is important to you, turn the goal around to how it will benefit other people, and notice the gain more than the gap. This will provide you plenty of motivation. Soon enough, you will be a goal achieving machine :)

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