Step One: Set your goal

Make sure its appealing, that you really know you want it, that it fits into your personal values and that you have resources in place. For example if I want to run a marathon I need to make sure I have ample time to train without it messing up the rest of my life balance.see my goal setting article ‘simple steps to success’ for some more top tips.

Step two: Set smaller goals for along the way

These could be things to achieve by the end of the day, end of the week, whatever keeps you motivated. I like to set my long term goals, with monthly targets to achieve and daily tasks to do or I get distracted or de-motivated by the long goal seeming too far away.

Step three: Create a reward system

Every time you achieve a small goal, give yourself a reward. The reward should be something you really enjoy and appreciate but avoid using food. If you can’t think of anything as a tangible reward for small goals, try writing in a personal notepad, something positive about you achieving that goal. Congratulate yourself on how amazing you are and document the good feeling for reading later when you meet a setback.

Step four:

Embrace the setbacks! – I heard some people talking the other day about a setback one of them  had, but there was no commiseration of his failing. They were actually all congratulating this one guy for his ‘pivot’! A ‘Pivot’, I later found out, is where you fail at something and learn an invaluable lesson about how to avoid failure in the future. It’s almost seen as a rite of passage. When you pivot, you have the opportunity to build inner strength, character and resilience and these are traits that are in EVERY successful person. It also helps to read your notepad at this point and remind yourself of how good you feel when you are focussed.

Step five: Know thyself!

I know myself well enough now to know what things trigger me to have setbacks, thanks to many ‘pivots’. I have a strategy for each one of them now to make sure I either A) AVOID the situation that causes the trigger or B) have a system to reset and get back on track. People can have as low as 5 and as many as 100+ setbacks before they achieve their goal. It doesn’t matter how many you have, what matters is that you accept it’s NORMAL and have a plan to readjust.

Step six: Plans and Pivots!

Write down all the potential barriers you are going to face that could make you pivot. Know them well, and plan your strategy.

The ‘AVOID ‘ strategy:

If you always get your breakfast at the shop all they have is everything your cutting out, then plan to get up earlier and make lunch before you go into work.

The ‘PIVOT’

If you feel like you are withholding something from yourself, a negative emotion can cause you to slip up, get angry at yourself and generally make the whole situation worse than it needs to be. Why not instead plan to have the evening off once in a while to enjoy anything you want.  REALLY enjoy it and reward yourself with the good feeling of being back on track the next day.