Nailing the goal setting process

The new year is a great time to set goals, however many people set goals they do not achieve. In this episode, I share some of the biggest mistakes people make in their goal setting, and how you can avoid them to achieve your business goals.

In this Episode:
03.04: Making sure your goals are things that you REALLY want
07.18: Setting specific and measurable goals
08.27: Believing that your goals are possible
11.30: Getting started – massive action or baby steps
13.20: Never give up.

Links:
EP 22: MANAGING MOTHERHOOD AND A BUSINESS
CLARE WOOD SERVICES >
CLARE WOOD INSTAGRAM >

Transcript

Hello I’m Clare Wood and you’re listening to the Clare Wood Podcast. 

 

At the time of recording we are at the start of a new year, so in today’s episode I wanted to share with you my top tips for ensuring that your goal setting is successful. Because lots of people set goals at the start of the year, but guess what? Only a TINY percentage of people actually achieve their goals! So today I want to talk about why people DON’T ACHIEVE their goals and the steps you can put in place to give you the best chance of success for achieving your new year goals.

 

If you’ve been listening for a while, I’ve decided to trial not doing a pre-recorded intro for today’s episode so I can just get stuck right into content, and I would love to hear your feedback on this!  If you like it, or don’t like it, please drop me a DM on Instagram clare_wood_coach or drop me an email at clare@clarewood.com.au and let me know if you think it works or if you’d prefer to have an intro?

 

And before I get into today’s episode, I’d like to say a special thank you to a few people that have left me a review.

 

Firstly, I want to do a shout out to Health Wisdom Magazine who said “we love the podcast and interview style. The tips and tricks you share are inspirational, yet actionable”.  Well thank you so much and if anyone wants to check it out, Health Wisdom Magazine is a free health and wellness magazine for women over 40, and I’m actually turning 40 this year, so I will definitely have to check it out. 

 

And secondly, to Mel Finlay who is a holistic nutritionist who said she loved the episode about motherhood and when I shared about how I manage business and motherhood. Massive thank you to you both for taking the time to write a review, and a big shout out to all of you for listening!

 

Ok, so let’s get back to talking about planning your new year. I’m recording this at the start of 2020 so I’ll talk about the new year a bit, however these principles are relevant for goal setting at ANY time. There is never a wrong time to do planning and goal setting. If you haven’t gone through a planning process before in your business, NOW is the right time.

 

So why don’t people achieve their goals? I mean, why would you go to all the effort of writing goals to not chase them? Here is my theory on why people don’t achieve their goals (and importantly how you can make sure you DO achieve yours).

 

Reason 1) You don’t really want it bad enough

 

Have you ever tried to save money? You do want to save money, but you don’t want it badly enough to sacrifice what you need to get there.

 

I bought my first home at 23 years old and I earned 40k a year. I scrimped, saved and I bought the house and continued paying off my mortgage for many years. But then when I was in my early 30s, I was trying to save and I could never save money, even though then I had NO mortgage and was earning many multiples of my salary at 23. Why is that?  Because in my early 30s as I’ve shared on the podcast before, I was living in  a really nice apartment just behind Darling Harbour in Sydney, I used to wear really nice clothes, I was eating out maybe 4-5 nights a week, and I was regularly going overseas. So, even though every year I’d write down save money, I never did because I didn’t want to give up my lifestyle. I wanted savings in the account, but I didn’t want to have to give up what I needed to get there. 

 

I want to share another example, anyone who has been following my journey for a while will know that I love reality TV, and here in Australia there is a show called Married at First Sight, which is just ridiculous and I love it where basically a bride walks down the isle to a man she has never met and marries him on the spot and they then live together for a couple of months to see if they do want to stay together. Anyway, there was this one particular couple and they were the most beautiful couple but he lived on a farm and she had said she was willing to live anywhere or move anywhere for the love of her life, but after the show finished she just couldn’t move to the farm. So as much as she did love him, it was not enough to give up her family, her friends, her career, her lifestyle. So she did want love, but not at ANY cost. Hopefully this is making sense?

 

So if you aren’t doing something, what you are really saying is I am not willing to put in what I have to, to achieve this. I really want to help others, but only if it means I don’t have to give up time with my friends. I really want to be successful, but only if I can keep clocking off at 4pm every day. If you want something bad enough, you will do ANYTHING for it. You will make the sacrifices, you will put in the hard work, you will put everything on the line for it.

 

So let me ask you, as you write down each goal, ask yourself, is this what I want? Is this what I really want? Is this what I really, really really want? And perhaps, is this congruent with everything else I want in my life? 

 

It is all well and good to say you want to run a marathon, but if that means you won’t get to see your kids for 6 months while you train 6 nights a week, will that goal be congruent with other things you want in your life?

 

Reason 2) Their goals aren’t specific enough

 

I want to be rich. Well guess what, by many people’s definitions, I probably AM already rich! You can’t throw out vague goals and then be surprised when they aren’t realised to your unspecific expectations. Be super clear in what you want in terms of a measurable outcome and a timeframe. I want to make $500k sales in my business by June this year is a very clear, specific and measurable goal.

 

Once you’ve set yourself a goal, you can do a quick little specific check to make sure it answers these questions – What do I want, with who, where and by when. The more clarity you have in what you want, the more chance you give yourself of achieving those targets.

 

The third reason why people don’t get their goals – they don’t believe their goals. 

 

I bang on about mindset A LOT as you guys will know by now. So sometimes we set a goal and we really want it and on a conscious level we want it but on a subconscious level we don’t believe it’s true or that it’s not possible.

 

So for example, someone might set a goal that they want to grow from $50k p.a. get $1m in sales this year, and even if they do really want it, in their subconscious mind they are screaming it’s not possible!!! I am sure you can all think of times where you have done this?

 

Perhaps you have set a goal, I’m going to be a size 8 by the end of the year, but you’ve never been a size 8 and deep down you just don’t believe it’s achievable. It’s not part of your blueprint to be a size 8.

 

So how do you get past this? Well, 1) is to set goals that you DO believe are achievable. So perhaps if the $50k entrepreneur set a target of $100k and they know that even though it will be a stretch, it could be do-able with their current grown trajectory. OR 2) which I think is the far preferable option is to work on your MINDSET so that you believe that you CAN change your outcome. THIS is the power of manifestation. The power that you can do ANYTHING if you believe it to be true. So how do you go about changing your mindset? Well it’s not an overnight thing, mastering your mindset takes months, years. Actually, it is something you work on your whole life.

 

OK c’mon Clare, give us some PRACTICAL ways to work on our mindset. Ok:

  • Work with a mindset coach. I am a big believer in coaching (obviously) and working with someone on a regular basis is a fantastic way to improve your mindset just like a muscle.
  • Immerse yourself in mindset learning. Read books, listen to podcasts, join a group, do a course. You cannot undo a lifetime of belief systems without fundamentally changing the frameworks and ways you do things.

 

The 4th reason people don’t get what they want…They don’t get started. 

 

They write it all down, they are super pumped, but they never take ACTION. Tony Robbins talks about taking MASSIVE ACTION. He says that you do something HUGE to make a commitment to a goal. For example, you want to give up smoking, so you go and find every packet of cigarettes and lighter in the house and throw them into the bin. You take BIG actions to show the universe (but mostly yourself!) that you are really committed to that goal.

 

I love the idea of massive action but sometimes it’s just taking small consistent actions that move you towards a goal. For example, if you want to show your face on video more, instead of just grabbing the camera and filming a 20 minute YouTube video, you could start by posting some selfies of yourself, then you work up to talking while you film something else and then gradually start recording videos.

 

Whether you get started with that first small step, or you leap into action with massive action, the key to achieving goals isn’t that quick fix, it’s that commitment to doing the thing over and over and over again.

 

So the second key is, once you’ve set your goals, to get started straight away, whether that’s in a big or a small way!

 

Reason 5 why people don’t achieve their goals… they give up too easily

 

One of my FAVOURITE expressions ever is by Albert Einstein,  he said “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer”. Wow huh. How easy is it to get to the end of the year and say “Nope, I just can’t quit smoking”  Oh well.  Average 10 times, I’ve actually just seen that men’s health magazine say it can take some people 30 attempts to quit smoking. THIRTY!!! But guess what, 29 times you might fail and if you quit on the 30th time are you a loser? HELL NO!!  You are amazing!  You finally did it. When it comes to business, why can’t we do the same? I tried increasing my prices and it didn’t work so it’s all a disaster and I’m never going to be able to increase my prices? Zen Cho says if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. You might set the same damn goal year after year and guess what? If you keep on trying you WILL get there.

But don’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome… because that’s just stupid. You need to do things differently if you want a different outcome!

 

So the last tip I’ve got for you in terms of ensuring you don’t fail in achieving your gaols? Never give up.

 

So to sum up today. If you want to set yourself up to achieve your goals, here are the key things you need to do:

  • Make sure your goals are things that you want. You really really want.
  • Set specific and measurable goals
  • Make sure you believe that your goals are really possible…
  • Get started! Whether it’s massive action or baby steps, consistency is the key to progression
  • Never, never, never give up. If you do really really want something, just keep on trying until you get what is rightfully yours!

 

So there you have it. Some tools to set you up for your most incredible year ever and one in which ALL of your dreams or goals come true.

 

Thank you for listening and if you loved this episode, please hit subscribe and if you could share on your social media too that would be amazing to help more businesses find me.

 

Have an incredible day, see you next week.

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