Staying Focused - Achieving Goals

Staying Focussed

I picked up another valuable piece of advice today that came at exactly the right moment because I was beginning to feel a certain level of despair over my perception that I wasn’t making any progress towards achieving my goals. I’m a believer that goal-setting is the single most significant tool in being successful. I just have a problem with putting the theory into practice.

The advice I read was really a reminder of what I already knew to be true, but it re-emphasised the fact once again. The advice was to break everything down into small, easily achievable goals and work like blazes to achieve those small goals. Every time one of the small goals is crossed off the list you can be pleased that you have moved a step closer towards achieving your larger long-term goal.

I keep falling into a trap of my own devising where I keep expecting immediate results. I give myself a timeframe of, say, 6 months to achieve my goal and then start to get frustrated after only 5 days because I’m not seeing results. My focus keeps getting drawn to my long-term goal which is distracting me from my short-term goals. The distraction prevents me from working on my short-term goal which has the knock-on effect of stopping me from moving closer to the long-term goal.

The road to success starts off as a path that is difficult to navigate, but with every small step I gain in experience and confidence and the bumps are gradually smoothed out. What was initially infinitesimal progress eventually becomes noticeable forward movement until finally the gains are more like giant leaps and bounds.

And how is this build up in momentum going to happen? No way around it: hard work; good habits; daily dedication to reaching the goals.