Your Top 7 Goal Busters in 2012

As you get ready to pursue your goals for 2012, you need to be aware of some common goal-busters and avoid them like potholes. There are legion, but this is what I would consider the top 7

Setting the Bar Too High

I can do it. You have to set short-term goals for your size. Dream big but start small. If you are a 5KV generator attempting to carry ten 2HP air conditioners this year, your engine may knock if you are not careful. If you want to increase the size of the load you can carry, increase the size of your engine. Until you grow to at least 30KV (through personal development), don’t try it. Setting the bar too high is a recipe for a setback.

Procrastination

I will do it tomorrow. Procrastination kills countless dreams. Tomorrow is a myth. It keeps moving as you get closer. Tomorrow never comes. You can only be sure of today. Do it now. If you have started, finish it today. Get back to work and stop lazing around. Face your fears and it will flee as you advance. Stop giving excuses.

Diffused Focus

I have many things I am doing. You are all over the place. Face one thing and finish it well before you start the next. If you chase two rabbits, both will escape. Have a one-point agenda and do justice to it before you start on the next. Do not dissipate your energy and resources by pursuing too many things all at once.

A Microwave Mindset

I know a shortcut. Don’t we all love the easy way out? The shortcut ends in a dead end. Get rich quick schemes that make us poorer and hopefully wiser. There is no shortcut to enduring success. There is no alternative to hard work, no matter how smart you are. The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary. Sometimes we give up too soon because success did not show up when we expected it to. We give up at midnight, a few hours from dawn.

I Know it All

I know all I need to know. Don’t we always feel we are right while the other guy is wrong? Our way is usually the right way. Others are dead wrong. Not true. If it were, we would not still be struggling. We would be successful beyond our wildest imagination. One of the keys to success is having an open mind and being teachable. We need to admit that we are sometimes sincerely wrong. We don’t see the world as it really is, but we see it as we are. That is the beauty of diversity, acknowledging and respecting others’ point of view, and learning to see things from a different perspective

It’s Not My Fault

It never is. It is always someone else’s. He made me do it. I was conned. We have to learn to accept responsibility and learn from our mistakes. When we shift the blame, we shift the learning. There is nothing to learn. We did the right thing while the other guy messed up. Given the same opportunity, we would do the same thing all over again. Lessons learned – zero. Also since it is not our responsibility, it is also not our job to fix it.

All we can do is fold our hands and wait for someone else to fix it. That is a very disempowering position to be in – waiting for something to happen rather than doing something. This is a recipe for an excuse festival at the end of the year. This also includes waiting on God to do our part or blaming the devil.

Lack of Commitment to Personal Growth and Development

I am old enough to know what to do. We often confuse growing older with personal growth and development. Personal growth and development are optional. It does not come with age. If you choose to learn on the job, you may take 20 years to learn by experience what you would have learned in a few years under the master’s. Life is too short to learn from our mistakes.

There is no challenge that you have faced or will face under the sun that someone else has not gone through successfully and possibly shared in a book, audio or video, seminar or on the internet. There is an answer somewhere if you are willing to bury your ego and look for it. Ask questions. The only stupid question is the unasked question.

Wishing you all a goal and dream-fulfilling year 2012!!!

Photo: leadingeffectively.com