Beware of These Goal Killers If You Must Succeed This Year!

I am sure by now you already have your year 2007 goals well set and your actions towards achieving them have been adequately planned out. In other words, you must have put in place all necessary structures and strategies to ensure you succeed and attain your goals this year. Right? Fine.

But Don’t Be…

Ignorance of the devices of the trio of Fear, Inaction and Procrastination, because you are not up against their mere existence but against their destructive and deadly powers that could render your dreams stillborn and goals unrealised. They possess the subtle effects of stifling your success.

Fear, Inaction and Procrastination have been the major causes of failure in many lives and business.

In this article, I will be discussing how they could affect your plans to attain your goals this year and I will also provide you with antidotes to counter their vision killing and dream shattering effects.

1. Inaction.

How many times have you made up your mind to do something without eventually getting round to do it? How often have you postponed starting your own (part time) business but never pull yourself together to begin? What about the training or academic pursuits you promised yourself about two years ago but never got started even up till now? And on and on like that. The list could be limitless.

There is definitely a gap between where you are now and where you want to be in a month’s time, a year, five years and so on.

For instance, if you are overweight and you want to become slimmer and elegant. Then shedding or losing weight represents the gap between your being overweight and slim and elegant.

In essence, you are at point A- overweight and point B- slim and elegant, is your destination. Point B stands for the attainment of your success and the achievement/realisation of your goals and vision.

However, like many people, you will discover to your utmost dismay that you never leave point A? Why? Inaction.

...Nothing Moves Until You move.

If you don’t take actions that would move you from point A to point B, then it evident you will definitely not be there. Period!

The following are the causes of why often times, you fail to act:
· Laziness – you simply don’t want to do anything or take action
· Incompetence – you lack the skills and experience to take off or act,
· Confusion – you just don’t know what to do which could be as a result of inadequate information or information overload on what you must do to reach your goals.
· Lack of Motivation In order to get out of inaction cobweb, and set you on the path to act your plans and achieve your goals this year.

You must generate a clear mental picture of your destination (your point B) on a daily basis. Visualize the benefits that would accrue to you when you get there and begin to comport and conduct yourself in manners that are congruent and consistent with that mental picture of what you want to have at your destination.

Initially, this approach might seem absurd, impracticable and probably stupid but never mind and don’t give. If you don’t give it would come to a point that your subconscious mind would get the message and spur you to begin to act on your plans.

2. Fear

“The most danger we face is the danger of being paralysed by doubts and FEARS …” – Anonymous

Some people are not lazy, incompetent, confused and neither are they not motivated but still they never leave their point A in life and business. And this could be attributed to one thing in their lives: FEAR.

As Dr. J. Allan has rightly said and I quote:
“Everyone at one time or another has felt like a complete failure. Many have allowed the fear of failure to destroy them. Actually fear is more destructive than failure in any area of life. Fear of failure can defeat you before you get started.”

Fear of failure, rejection and criticism are holding many people back on what they could do to achieve the dreams of their lives.

Many times I have people saying:
“I can’t start my own business because it might not work out…so and so did it and failed”
“I don’t want to enrol for any degree or professional exams now because I don’t have the time to study and pass”

…and so on

When you begin to worry yourself about what others (people) would say about your decision, action or inaction then you are beginning to lose grip on your own life. You are simply giving the control of your life to such people.

Fear of success is another crippling force in the life of many that could have been celebrated as success today. They are some people that are afraid of getting to their point B because they can’t imagine themselves coping with the demands of success up there!

Ask many people out there what they would if they come into one million Dollar/Naira/Pound Sterling today and you would be confronted with many bewildered and confused faces!

Similarly, the inability to cope/accept the fame and publicity that accompany success in certain fields of endeavour such as the entertainment industry has been the sole reason many would have been world-acclaimed artist, writer, singer etc are languishing in obscurity.

…then how do you conquer this enemy?

In the first instance, simply walk through your fear, confront that which you are afraid to do headlong. Do exactly that which you are afraid of doing. Once you have made up your mind on what to do, don’t sit back and begin to figure out whether it would work or not or how many people have done it and fail. Such line of thought would only ensure you never got started.

Simply take the courage and do something in the direction you want to go. Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to go ahead in spite of the fear. Even if you do something for the first and experience a kind of setback (note: I didn’t say Fail, because your choice of words too matter a lot and it could spur or stifle your efforts to begin again), don’t give up. Remember, failure is success inside out and at the point you are experiencing one set back or the other, you are definitely better than those that are afraid to begin.

…But Don’t Be Insane!

Because insanity is doing things the same way over and over again and still expect to get different results. Commit to learn from your mistakes and set backs and use them to spring ahead.

In the second instance, simply break, whenever you are visualizing, your goals into manageable chunks of success or achievement that would not intimidate you. And concentrate on attain one manageable piece at a time until you have achieved and comfortable with your new level of such achievement or success.

For instance, if the mere thought of having a millionaire dollar/naira/pound sterling scares you now. Then try and envisage yourself having and actually spending five hundred thousand dollar/naira/pound sterling until you are comfortably in such position and by then you can up the scale to probably seven fifty or a million depending on how comfortable you are now to manage the impending success/achievement based on your previous experience.

Similarly, aim first to become a local champion in your community, after that move to be one in your state, country and the world in general..

3. Procrastination

“Procrastination is a thief of time and killer of destiny” – Taye Adamo

When you put off every time what you are supposed to do or you are in the habit of postponing things that requires your immediate attention or action. Then you are courting failure and stillborn of your dreams.

By postponement, you are chipping away your fixed asset, which is time. And don’t you ever think you are only wasting away the time it would have taken you to achieve your goals and dreams. It goes beyond that. Because in actual fact it is the time you could have spent to enjoy the success or achievement that you have wasted or chipped away.

If you don’t take action, you don’t succeed or achieve and if you don’t succeed you won’t enjoy.

The best you could do to stop procrastinating is to divide your tasks and activities into bits that could get done at a time and resolve to do them when they should be done.