The Question You Must Answer When You Aren’t Making Enough Progress
Once you put a significant amount of effort into reaching a goal and you recognize you aren’t making enough progress, you must answer this one question before you do anything else.
Is there a weakness in my blind spot that I’m either ignoring or taking for granted?
Chances are the answer to this question is YES! There is something you are missing and it’s likely something you’re ignoring or taking for granted because it’s not something you enjoy. Moreover, the things that you don’t enjoy, but are a necessary evil for you to make progress towards a goal are classified as weaknesses.
If this is truly the case, you have two choices:
- You can change your goal.
- Or, you can change your process.
When You Should Change Your Goal
Consider the option of changing the goal if the tasks you’re ignoring or taking for granted is a major part of what it takes to reach your goal. For example, if you are a combat sport athlete (boxer, wrestler, MMA) but you don’t like conditioning and avoid it at all cost. Maybe you should consider some other aspect of the sport other than competing. Or, you are an entrepreneur but you don’t like sales. Maybe you should consider working for a startup instead of being the founder.
Research suggests that by and large, most people can’t turn weaknesses into strengths. Therefore, if your goal is highly dependent on you turning a weakness into a strength, then it’s probably best to change the goal.
When You Should Change Your Process
If it’s not a weakness preventing you from reaching your goal, then changing your process is likely the best course of action. This may still require addressing a weakness. For example, investing some minimum amount of time in managing the weakness so it doesn’t get in the way. Or alternatively investing more time sharpening your strengths so they are more impactful.
Going back to the combat sport athlete example, maybe it’s the process of conditioning causing the problem. Instead of focusing on running for miles and miles which you hate, you could do more functional conditioning. Or for the entrepreneur example, maybe you can find a co-founder who can focus on the sales instead of doing it all yourself.
Can You Develop the Self-Awareness and Do the Self-Analysis?
Ultimately, you must be brutally honest with yourself when you are not making progress. This requires both the process of developing more self-awareness and using that awareness to perform a self-analysis.
Given the complexity of the self-analysis you need to make the right choice, typically the best course of action starts with getting help from a neutral third-party. So ultimately my recommendation for anyone when progress becomes a major issue is to seek the support of a coach or mentor.