Success with Goals: Override Excuses, Rationalizations and Old Habits

Create a new story for yourself. Reframe your story. These can be powerful tools to add ease to your experience of change. Being aware of the power of habits allows you to create and implement a plan for successful change. To assist in your discernment process and choose a starting place, ask – what is needed now?

A simple exercise to demonstrate the power of habits: We tend to put the same shoe on first everyday. For one week put the other shoe on first. Notice how that feels. Is there any discomfort? In life’s big picture, which shoe we put on first each day is a minor, trivial habit but changing up which shoe goes on first can leave one feeling ‘off’.

Wishing you the best with moving forward and changing things up!

Courageously admit what worries you, where you get stuck and the excuses you use. Click To Tweet

In my previous posts I explore why so many fail to be successful with New Year’s Resolutions or making changes in their lives. Despite sincere desires to change, after a few weeks, many goal-setters unconsciously go back to their old habits.

Habits that do not serve us, overeating, working all of the time and being a couch potato, for example, are not 100% bad. They make us feel good temporarily. The body and mind are pleasure-seeking vehicles. It can be difficult – but not impossible – to ignore our hard-wired excuse systems. Awareness significantly enhances successful change.

Here are a few examples of the goals of some of my coaching clients. This is a composite of several people who want to become better listeners over the coming year. As is for most goals, there are some pretty solid competing commitments that interfere with becoming a better listener.

Here is how a commitment grid would look for that goal:

 

Are you thinking about changing something in your life? I suggest you begin with creating a chart like the one above. Fill in the columns to reflect your current goal. Courageously admit what worries you, where you get stuck and the excuses you use. Question the assumptions you make, which have been there to protect you in some way. You can run an ‘assumption test’ – try doing something you fear just to see what happens.

Continuing the cycle of experiencing failure in realizing your goals diminishes your self-confidence over time. This has consequences in your personal and professional life. Be intentional in breaking competing commitments so you can experience success in achieving your goals. If you find doing this on your own to be challenging, try coaching to support your success. Contact me or let’s connect on LinkedIn.