In this post: How to connect to a strong why for your goals to make them more effective and increase your motivation when taking action towards your goals.
I used to be a disaster at achieving any goals I set myself or starting on new habits I wanted to establish.
There was a mounting pile of failures where efforts towards my freshly set goal or New Year’s resolution habit didn’t last more than a week or so and I would feel disheartened and disappointed in myself.
Can you relate?
There are several reasons why we might not succeed with a goal or habit, including:
- Not feeling like we deserve to succeed
- Lacking confidence in ourselves
- Not being clear about what we want to achieve
- Not creating a flexible plan for how we will achieve the goal or habit
- Trying to achieve too many new things at once
- Giving up after hitting an obstacle
- We get discouraged if it’s taking longer than we thought
- We get overwhelmed by how much work our goal will take
Related posts: How To Love Yourself and 5 Sure-Fire Ways To Boost Your Self-Esteem
And while I have probably given up at least one goal for each of these reasons, there is another reason that isn’t as widely known that I want to talk about.
It’s the fact that a lot of goals fail because we don’t have a strong reason why we want to achieve the goal.
Without connecting to a strong why for our goals and habits, we will lack the determination that is needed to get us to our target. Taking action and making progress on our goals isn’t always going to be easy, and so we need a powerful reason why we want to get to our destination.
Having a strong why will help you to say no to failure and find ways to keep going when things aren’t straightforward.
Your why will help to keep you motivated and driven. The more you want it, the better.
Here are some ways to connect to a strong why for your goals and habits, both in terms of when you are setting your goals/habits and when you are looking for the willpower to take action…
Heal Your Pain
For Goal Setting: Is there something in your life that is causing you pain that you can work on improving? This could be physical, mental or situational pain – anything that causes you ongoing grief.
(Sidenote: if something is causing you pain but you can’t change your circumstances? Seek help in lightening your load – find an understanding community that you can share with, find ways to get more support, and work on making your mindset as positive as possible)
For Goal Action: Remind yourself that you are taking action to improve a difficult or negative situation in your life and imagine what your life will feel like when you have succeeded.
Best Self
For Goal Setting: Imagine your ‘best self’. What does your life look like, how do you feel and how do you behave? What would your future self be thankful that you did today?
For Goal Action: Get into the habit of asking yourself: ‘What will make my future self proud?’ or ’What would your ‘best self’ do?’ and then do your best to make it happen. (Alternatively, you could use someone you admire or an alter ego in place of your ‘best self’ if you find that easier)
Dream Life
For Goal Setting: Write up your current life ‘bio’ and your dream life ‘bio’ and work out what needs to happen to get you from your current bio to your dream bio. Include things like relationships, work/career, achievements, home and finances
For Goal Action: Envisage your dream life and remind yourself what you are striving for (and keep an eye for next week’s post where we will be talking about how to keep your goals visible).
Big Picture
For Goal Setting: Think about the big picture: what would you be proud to say you had accomplished in your life? What legacy do you want to leave behind?
For Goal Action: Remind yourself that none of us really knows how long we have in this life, so take action on making your big picture a reality now.
Align To Your Values
For Goal Setting: Work out what values are important to you and think about how you can embody these values more in your life. Use this knowledge to craft goals that are particularly meaningful to you.
Related post: The Top 3 Ways To Learn Your Core Values
For Goal Action: Connect your actions to the values that you have identified as important to you and be proud that you are living in alignment with your true self.
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Choose the one that resonates with you the most or use a combination of these methods to come up with 1-3 meaningful goals or habits based on a strong why for you.
This will give you a better platform from which to achieve goal success than those that are based on superficial factors, such as setting yourself a goal because someone else wants you to, or because you saw someone on social media achieve something.
We will look at some other ways you can improve your chances of goal success in next week’s post, including how to keep your goals more visible so they stay front of mind as you progress towards your target.
All the best with you goal and habit success!
Sarah xo
