Be Your Best

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

Creating goals as a way to be successful is something that I most certainly believe in.  Every successful person I meet or read about  does, every expert on achieving success says you have to create goals, and I have personally felt the effect and success of creating goals.  But when I look back at the most important aspect of the goals that I have set for myself and the results obtained from setting the goals, I see that it has little to do with what the goal is, or even the act of documenting the goal (although this is extremely important).  What I have found to be the most important aspect of goals is that split second moment where you decide that you are setting the goal.  This moment is like a virtual fence that separates ‘no goal in place’ from ‘goal is set and I am going after it’.

Goals that Come From Pain

What I have found is that simply ‘creating goals’ as an act of habit, a routine exercise, or requirement by someone else, does not achieve the same effect or impact as deciding to create a meaningful goal for yourself.  Meaningful goals that create big results typically come from some type of ‘pain’ we are experiencing based on observations of myself and others.  Someone who sets a goal of learning a new language , like Spanish,  well enough over the next 2 years to use it in country that speaks that language, is generally doing so because they have some type of burning desire or pain they want to resolve.  The pain might be watching friends who already know the language traveling abroad and are wishing you could join them, or the pain might be an embarrassment that you never learned a second language in school, or it could simply be that you want to be able to converse with people in their native tongue that you visit from time to time.

Regardless of the reason for setting the goal, pain is a tremendous root cause for a goal.  But the defining moment for the goal is not determining what exactly the goal will be, but rather that split moment when you decide that I am going to accomplish ____________, and that’s that.  It is at that moment when accomplishing the goal practically becomes guaranteed.  I think this is because you have become convinced that you can achieve the goal somehow or you absolutely must achieve the goal without fail.  You have decisively bought into the goal essentially before it is even fully identified or written down.  In cases like this you think about the goal every day naturally, without needing to be prompted or reminded.

On the Fence

To contrast this defining decision moment for setting an important goal, there are other times when you say to yourself, ‘I need to set some goals because it is a good thing to do, so here they are — 1., 2., 3., etc….  These are forced goals, or ‘on the fence’ goals.  I picture someone sitting on that virtual fence that separates ‘no goals’ on one side, and the ‘totally committed and driven to achieve this ______ goal’ on the other side.

When this is the case, you have identified goals, and there is clear value in doing that exercise.  Any goals are better than having no goals.  But without the pain or burning desire (generally caused by pain), the results you experience will likely not be to the level compared to when you have made a decision to set a goal as a result of your pain.

You Know It When You Feel It

You know you have set a goal that will yield yourself tremendous results when:

• You have extreme confidence of achieving the goal before you even begin taking specific actions towards achieving the goal
• There is never a doubt in your mind as to whether you will achieve or exceed the goal—never a ‘what if I achieve this goal?’
• You frequently tell others about your goal or how you ‘will’ achieve/complete the goal
• You think frequently about what all will happen after you achieve the goal

Goals decided upon due to passion and rooted from pain are very powerful.  Instead of thinking about just ‘setting goals’ for yourself, think about what causes you pain and creates intense passion, and ask ‘what goal can I set for myself to resolve the pain?’.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford