How To Achieve What You Want Without Really Trying

If you’re like most business owners, you’ve probably spent some time thinking about your business goals for 2011. Or maybe, like many of us, you’ve made a few New Year’s resolutions about getting in shape, being more focused, or eating better.

And if you’re like most of folks, you came out of the gate with plenty of motivation. That first day back from the holidays, you were ready and rarin’ to go. You knew exactly what you wanted to achieve and you attacked your goal with gusto.

But if you’re like many goal-setters, you’ve also hit a bit of a stumbling block in the last week or so. Maybe you went off your diet. Maybe you missed making your goal of 5 new contacts a day. Or maybe you just lost your enthusiasm.

Whatever the reason, you find yourself off track…frustrated…and wondering why you can’t stick to a game plan for longer than a couple of weeks.

Well, I’ve got good news for you.

There’s a reason why it’s so hard to stay focused on your goals, even when it’s something extremely important to you. And it has nothing to do with your level of willpower or self-discipline.

You see, we human beings are creatures of habit. We like our routines. In fact, this resistance to change—any sort of change—is hard-wired into our collective psyche.

That’s because change doesn’t happen all at once. It’s the accumulation of thousands of small actions performed over time. Your life changes because of small decisions that turn into small actions. Like deciding to make that extra phone call. It’s making yourself go to the gym, even when you don’t want to. It’s pushing yourself to stick to your schedule and get things done, even though you have a nearly uncontrollable urge to check your Facebook page.

In other words, there’s rarely an immediate reward for making these changes. As adults, no one is going to give us a gold star if we reach our goals. In fact, chances are that your friends, family, and business associates will try to keep you stuck in old patterns—often unconsciously. That can make it even harder to reach your goals.

So how do you stay on track with your goals?

Simple. You have to reward yourself. Or, more accurately, you need to allow yourself to reward yourself.

Let me explain. Remember the last time you did “the right thing”? Maybe it was making all your phone calls for the day by 10am. Maybe it was getting your schedule for the week done well in advance—and sticking to it. Maybe it was just saying “no thanks” to the donuts being passed around at an office meeting.

Whatever that decision or action was, how did you feel afterwards? Probably pretty good. You stuck to your guns and did what you knew you needed to do. You may have noticed that you felt happier, more energetic, and got even more things done that day.

That’s because those small, positive actions cause us to self-reward. When you make the right choice—however small it is–you feel better about yourself. And unconsciously, you start to see yourself as a person who makes the right choices. That creates momentum…and soon enough, those choices become second nature. And before you know it, you’ve reached your goal. In many cases, you may blow right past it—taking yourself to new heights the “old you” didn’t think possible.

So there you have it: if you want to change your life, change the little things. That doesn’t mean that you don’t set big goals. It just means you don’t try to achieve those goals all-out, right away.

But the truth is you can’t change your entire life. You can only change your next action. That’s it.
So, what’s your next action going to be? Will it bring you closer to your goal…or push it further away?