People Fail to Achieve Goals Because They Ignore Limits to their Freedom
It’s simply a fact that your goals limit your freedom. While you may be free to choose your goals, once you choose your goals you are no longer free.
For example, if your goal is to be a world class athlete, you aren’t free to eat or drink what you want or go to bed and wake up when you want. To be a world class athlete you must behave like a world class athlete. Moreover, the life of a world class athlete is full of limitations. If you aren’t willing to embrace those limitations, then don’t set a goal to be a world class athlete.
Unquestionably, the first step to achieve any goal is to figure out what behaviors you must follow to achieve that goal. Then accept the fact that those behaviors are not optional.
Behavior Management to Achieve Goals
It’s not that hard to do the research it takes to identify the behavior patterns of successful people. There are books like Peak by Anders Ericsson, Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, and Developing Talent in Young People by Benjamin S. Bloom among others that give you enough details to start your search. From there, you can easily define the behavior routines that successful people in specific industries or sports consistently follow.
Once you can identify the patterns and routines of success for your goals, you can also identify the repeatable behaviors you must model.
Then, at this point you have a choice. Are you willing to do what it takes or not? Unquestionably, successful people are willing to do things that unsuccessful people aren’t willing to do. It’s not talent, it’s not luck, and it’s not destiny. It’s behavior.
You are either willing to consistently repeat the behaviors that are a requirement to achieve your goals or you’re not. If you’re not, don’t kid yourself. Find another goal in which you can repeat the behaviors that are a requirement for success. Or, you can stick with your goal and make an investment in changing your mindset using mindset and mental skills coaching.