New Year, New You: Part 2

Colin Powell is quoted saying, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” A vision or a goal that is not accompanied with preparation is only a dream. The goal of this is to see your dreams and goals become reality! A major part of the equation is preparation!

Here are 4 essential keys to prepare to accomplish your vision: 

1. What are your specific goals and what is the plan to accomplish it? I’ll be honest. This is probably one of the hardest things to do. Taking the time to think through the process of turning your dream into a plan that you can implement on a daily basis. There are no shortcuts in this process. You have to take the time to break your dream down into small tasks that once accomplished, will help you accomplish your goal. Here is a simple hint to help you with the process. Make sure your plan is flexible and can be modified as needed. The truth of the matter is that you don’t know what you don’t know! It’s perfectly acceptable for you to have to make adjustments as you go.
2. What support do you have? Many times a persons pride keeps them from reaching out for the help that they need. A part of the preparation process is to think of people around you that would be willing to give you advice or counsel to help you along the way. This will keep you from ‘reinventing the wheel’, by allowing someone else’s years of knowledge and experience help guide you and avoid unnecessary pitfalls.
3. How confident am I that I will accomplish this goal? Confidence is a major factor in accomplishing a goal. Scripture encourages us to “Cast not away your confidence for it has GREAT reward.” Your belief in yourself, and in your preparation is key to execution. If you ever ask a professional or Olympic athlete how they were able to make the game winning play, most times they will say they were confident they could make the play because they practiced it numerous times. It became muscle memory. They didn’t have to think about how to do it. Their preparation allowed them to stay in the moment and focus only on execution. The more you prepare, the more confident you will be in being able to accomplish your goal.
4. How committed are you to accomplish your goal? A lot of people have goals. They have valid reasons for why they need to accomplish the goal. They can even develop a plan and find support to help them do it. But if you are not committed to the process, at some point you won’t do it. Commitment is easy to measure. Your commitment is directly related to the passion of the goal as it relates to the pain/discomfort to accomplish it. If your passion to accomplish your goal far exceeds the pain, then you will most likely stick to it. But once the pain or discomfort meets or exceeds the passion of accomplishing your goal, that is when people quit the process. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about weight loss, building a stronger marriage, playing professional sports, or going back to school. Once the love, or passion for the goal is equal to the pain of the process, usually we quit the process. Simply put, Commitment = passion/pain.

Make sure your goals far exceed the pain or discomfort required to accomplish the goal, otherwise you will find yourself frustrated for not accomplishing your goal.