Pick your goals and stay focused on them and check your list and keep going back to it all the time. That goes against what we’ve ever said about the goal. However, that is the mantra we’ve all been exposed to.
We all talk about setting goals, but how do you actually achieve your goal?
When Reggie Rivers was in sixth grade, he wanted to ask a girl out named Lasandra Johnson. She was the most beautiful 6th grader God had ever created. He used to look at this girl and wanted Lasandra to be his girlfriend. He was young and afraid, so he didn’t say anything to her. But one day he was standing on the playground and decided that today was the day, he mustered up the courage to and asked his best friend, John Chenchurro to ask Lasandra to be Reggie’s girlfriend. John walks over and poises the question to Lasandra. John comes back and says that Lasandra said that if you want her to be your girlfriend, you have to ask yourself. But Reggie wasn’t going to ask himself, so he kept thinking about Lasandra.
Lasandra had home economics the same period that Reggie did. He learned that he could switch his class from wood shop to home economics. Reggie walked into the principal’s office and switched classes. In home economics, Reggie asked another girl, Cara, to move over, so he could sit next to Lasandra. When he asked Lasandra to be his girlfriend, she said no. However, long story short, she eventually became his girlfriend for about two weeks.
The purpose of the story was that Reggie focused on what was in his control and ignored the part that was outside your control.
Focus on the behaviors rather than the goals.
If you are a student and you want to get an A, you have a teacher who is going to give an assignment. You have a teacher who is going to grade your work. You don’t control what your grade is. If you want to be the world’s best salesman, you don’t get to do both sides of the transaction. You have to find the customer and provide the service or product.
Goals require the participation of other people. Behaviors you can control on your own.
Think about the times when you’ve wanted your kids to get something done. For example, you tell them to finish their homework. We want it for them so much that we spend most of our time getting agitated. The reason we get agitated with them is because the kids won’t do what you had in mind for them in terms of the goal. You can’t control what your kids so, but you can control your reaction to your kids. You control rewards and consequences. you control your behaviors.
How do you control your behaviors?
Understand that when you set a goal in my life whether it be to lose weight or whatnot, your behaviors are short term. It is hard to control your behaviors for more than seven days. Ask yourself, what can you do today that will get you closer to your goal? What can you do tomorrow? What can you do next week to get closer to the goal?
If you plan out your behaviors that will lead up to your goals, it is easier to work towards them. Because even if you don’t achieve them right away, you will feel good about what you’ve done in that period. You aren’t worried about not losing X amount of pounds or how much sales you’ve made. If you work on your behaviors and track that the behavior will get you closer to your goal, then you will know that eventually you’ll get there.