Are You Emotional Enough About Your Goals?

Year after year many of us set goals that we fail to achieve. I believe there are a few reasons for that:

• We don’t believe we can really achieve them,


• We have no idea – really – how to make them happen,


• We’re not really motivated to do the work to make them happen.

Goal setting is a popular topic, particularly at this time of year, and only some goal setting strategies will resonate with each of us.

I’ve written before about breakthrough goals. They are the goals that are big enough and exciting enough that if you achieve them, they will create a breakthrough in your life or your business (or both). This is important because we all need levers to help shift us into the action required to achieve a goal.

I believe the lever is emotion and the starting point for setting and achieving breakthrough goals this year

Get emotional about your goals

All you need to do is this: think about how you will be feeling when you’re close to achieving your goal. After all these years, you’ve almost done it. Imagine it’s a big business goal that you’ve set. It will create a huge shift in your business and possibly your impact, your lifestyle, your legacy, your family…

You have to really try and get your head into that space of having nearly achieved that goal. Are you jumping out of your skin with anticipation and excitement? Are you smiling like a Cheshire cat? Are you feeling really energized?

THAT is how you should feel if you’ve set the right goals. If you don’t feel that level of excitement, maybe your goal needs some rewording, or a slightly different focus (use a smaller lens, try a bigger lens).

In my experience, when we’re really emotionally vested in our goals, we believe they are achievable. The energy around visualization and excitement, tells your brain that it is real and you will believe it is going to happen.

If you can’t get emotional about your goals then drop them and keep going until you can feel excitement. If you have a team you need to engage them in this process so they feel excited about their role and what it will mean for them.

Remember: imagine your goal is about to be realized, and think about how you will be feeling when you’ve achieved it.

Chunk your goals down into bite-sized pieces

Do a list of every activity you can think of that needs to be done.

For now, just list everything you can think of that would need to be done in order to achieve a goal. If there are things you’re not sure about then put down ‘research options for x’ so you know to do some background work.

List everything then go back and put them in some order of sequence. Make sure you have some easy activities to start with you so you can check them off as ‘done’ and get some forward momentum going quickly!

Don’t over-engineer this; just do it.

Identify who will do what

This could be members of your team who you delegate to, external resources, or virtual resources.

If you need a resource that you currently don’t have, let someone else find them for you.

This needs to be done quickly so you can make progress quickly.

Find someone who will hold you accountable

This could be a friend, a colleague or a mastermind group. It may or may not be your partner/husband/wife depending on what the goals are.

Ideally, it will be someone who understands what you want to achieve and what it means to you when you achieve it.

I’m part of a group of four friends, all of whom are in similar positions with business and life goals, and we’re meeting for dinner every month to keep each other accountable. We’re very supportive of each other but also harsh if we need to be!

January is ticking along and you don’t want to waste any time on this.

Just get started and remember, when you get emotional about your goals you believe they will happen, and that creates its own momentum!

Are You Emotional Enough About Your Goals?