Goal Achievement: Cranking it up

If you have been coasting with regards to your goal setting and more importantly goal achievement, then it is time to up the pace now. Whilst it is OK to coast (rest) for a while, especially if it’s taken some time to climb the particular hill you’ve been negotiating. But have you noticed that the downward portion runs out after a while, and unless you start to pedal again, sooner or later you come to a grinding halt. Goals are like that. We need to work on them to keep them going.

One thing I have noticed with goal setting is that it is very easy to focus on the hillside that is directly in front of you, you don’t see what is coming up. It is also interesting to note that you rarely (if ever) know every step that you need to take when you begin on a particular journey. You don’t know what is going to work, and what is going to slow you down. So you focus on the here and now. The problem with that of course is, when you do reach the valley and you need to start pedalling again, you become aware that the road starts to climb again. So you stop and you look up and – oh my goodness, not only can’t you see the top of this particular mountain, but there’s not many people attempting the climb.

You stop for a while, any energy and enthusiasm you may have had for your particular goal disappears into the ether, and you get off your bike and set up camp. Promising yourself that you will get going in the morning after you’ve had chance to re-assess the mountain that lies ahead.

Morning comes, and you take another look at the mountain and decide that you are too sore and stiff today, and besides its really quite nice in the valley. You’ve gotten this far and hey it’s not that bad. So you make yourself a little more comfortable. You know the mountain is still there, but then other people come in and block your view and sooner or later you forget to look because your mountain is hidden behind everyone else’s needs, wants and desires.

Occasionally though, you decide that you really should go and make sure your mountain is still there, after all you have this niggling suspicion that what you really wanted is over there somewhere, not here in this valley, so you find your bicycle and wobble off to the start of the climb. Unfortunately, the people you’ve left behind are shouting at you to stop being so selfish, they’re happy in the valley, why can’t you be? and so you turn around and re-join them, sighing.

Time and time again you start, thinking this time it’s it. You move closer to the bottom of the climb, promising yourself that once you get motivated you’ll be off, and nothing and no-one will stop you this time.

But have you noticed there aren’t many people on the climb out of the valley? And you wonder if you want to spend time alone on the mountainside. After all what happens if you fail? You’ll have to come back to the people who told you you’d never succeed, so why bother starting to climb in the first place. And the shame of failing, you can’t bear it, so like everyone around you, you don’t start. You shelve your dreams, chain up the bike and ….