I’ve had some successes this year and I’m proud of them. One of them was climbing Carrauntoohil, Ireland’s highest peak, with my husband and two of our sons recently. And I’m wanting to unpack what helped me achieved that! One way or another I’ve wanted to climb Carrauntoohil for over 20 years and I’m feeling very curious as to what made this the year that it all came to fruition?
For you too, you probably have a goal or two that feels a bit out of reach or maybe it’s been on your bucket list for a long time and you’re no nearer to achieving it? Do you want to reach a level of fitness you haven’t known since childhood or ever? Would you love a more fulfilling job? Would you love to meet the love of your life or to rekindle that love and sense of connection in an existing relationship?
On Wednesday next, 21 July, live on Facebook at 12.30pm, I’ll be sharing five success strategies that my recent climb taught me that you can apply to any goal. For today, I want to set the scene with two keys to successful attainment of any outcome you would love.
The first strategy is to build your desire for the outcome you want. Napoleon Hill posits that all successful achievement begins with desire:
“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”
He also says:
“Dreams are the seedlings of reality. A burning desire to be and to do is the starting point from which the dream must take off.”
To give you an example from my experience with the goal of climbing Carrauntoohil, I started 2021 with the desire to get fitter and my goal in January was to walk for 20 minutes a day. As I got into that, I got more ambitious and my bucket list goal of climbing Carrauntoohil started to feel a bit more attainable and in the process got a lot more desireable.
As I entertained the idea of it, the desire to have the level of fitness that would enable me to achieve that goal began to burn brighter. I also built my desire to do it based on giving the example to my kids that you can still do this kind of thing in your 50s (and 60s, 70s and …). On days when it wasn’t feeling like fun to rack up the kilometers in preparation, it was those desires that kept me going.
So if you have a goal that you are not gaining traction on, ask yourself: ‘On a scale of 1-10, what is the level of desire you feel for the dream you want to manifest?’ Make a note of your answer now.
If the answer you gave to that question is anything less than a 10, you have work to do to up the desire factor! Spend some time on that and it will increase your likelihood of achievement far more quickly than half-heartedly showing up at the gym or scrolling through profiles online looking for the love of your life!
One way to increase your desire for your goals is to focus on the why – Why is this goal important to you? Maybe it’d bring you peace of mind, a sense of accomplishment, fulfilment or purpose? Perhaps achieving this goal would cause you to feel loved or secure or joyful?
If you have a goal that has lost momentum or you’re finding it hard to get going again after ‘falling off the wagon in some way’ give yourself the assignment to spend some time reflecting on why this is an important goal for you.
Strategy 2 is to have a strategy for dealing with the doubts and fears that arise. It’s not a question of whether these doubts will arise but when they will arise. It is part of every change process that we experience doubts or fears about our agency in achieving it and our capacity to see it through.
Part of any goal achievement therefore is having the capacity to override the doubts that arise in us along the way. Sometimes these arise out of a sense of unworthiness – who am I to have so much love/success/happiness? Who am I to think I can do this? Know that it is normal to feel doubt. However, it is more unusual to persist in the face of it! As Shakespeare famously put it:
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt”
So lets make a reframe here on doubt and fear. Know that this is all part of the process and make those doubts welcome – they are a sign that you are on your green growing edge! If you aren’t experiencing any doubts and fears that’s an indication that you aren’t really entertaining the possibility of your goal at all, so go back to the start, do you really want this?
And if you are experiencing doubt and fear, keep going! Tell yourself that this is part of the process and that it is only by keeping going despite the doubts that you can get to the end result you so desire. We don’t get to make changes without experiencing doubt and success comes from doing it anyway, from tolerating the discomfort of the doubt and pushing through it.
The next time doubt comes up in you about a goal you are moving towards achieving, put a smile on your face, remind yourself that this is a good thing and that the best antidote is to keep taking the steps you know you need to take in the direction of your goal.
How do you successfully climb a mountain? Create the desire to do it, persist in the face of doubt and keep going – one step at a time! Join me next Wednesday at 12.30pm for lots more success strategies to catapult you towards achieving any goal!
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