Most people have big dreams. But are they just dreams or real goals? What stops them from truly committing and achieving big goals?
If you’ve seen people talk about big goals and never really accomplishing them, it’s quite a common occurrence. The reality is that there are a lot of factors that stop people from achieving big goals. It all has to do with having the wrong mindset. The wrong mindset is often the result of committing four mistakes that easily cause achieving big goals to become an unaccomplished feat. In order to increase your chances in being successful with your goals, let’s dive into the four mistakes you should avoid:
1. Competing with those at the same level as us
It is human nature to do what’s easy! If you’re a golfer, you’ll compete with those at the same level as you. If you’re a small business, you’ll compete with other small businesses in the same industry as you. The results, therefore, are sub-optimal as you’ll only make incremental improvements to your overall performance.
Therefore the cure is to compete with those who are a lot better than you are. Challenging yourself is the only way to accelerate your learning. So if you’re an amateur golfer, play with professional golfers, and you’ll start to notice the difference in your game over time. Never stagnate, always make an attempt to consciously be around those who are better than you to make yourself uncomfortable in a congenial setting and you’ll be on your way to fast development and progress.
So make a list of people who you aspire to be like. Email them, reach out to them on Twitter, and set up coffee meetings with them. Find opportunities to be around them and invite them to social events. You can’t go wrong!
2. Only relying on our own ability to make progress towards our goals
This is the behavior we default to as we think we can do it alone. The reality is that no matter how tough and capable you think you are, you can never achieve your goals without a little help. So never hesitate to ask for help when it’s needed.
If you’re trying to build a business, for instance, could you leverage the knowledge and experience of mentors who have “been there and done that”? This could help save heaps of precious time that we would spend making mistakes by relying on our own abilities. It’s of course important not to underestimate your own uniqueness and abilities, to always have a questioning mind and not just blindly follow those who are better. But, it’s also important to take their inputs because without them, you will only delay your own progress.
Make it a point to understand that you don’t know everything. For every problem you have, think about who else out there could have been in the same situation as you and how they overcame it? Reach out to them and seek their help this very moment! Take action.
3. Hiding what we know from others
Think about it, when you have knowledge that could potentially be beneficial, you end up keeping it to yourself, internalizing it, and as a result, nothing ever gets done. You also, over time, will forget what you learn and the knowledge just becomes something you “know” and do nothing about.
If you truly want to learn, you need to tell people what you know. It’s scientifically proven that teaching people solidifies the knowledge in your brain and helps you retain the knowledge. By sharing your goals with others, you also attract more support from your colleagues, friends, and family, and you clearly get to know who your supporters are! This can be a great way of creating alliances with people who are aligned with your vision and your goals and learn from each other, building meaningful relationships that go a long way in achieving big goals!
Don’t be scared of sharing your goals and knowledge!
4. Setting really long time frames for making changes
Most people think life is just way too long and end up setting lazy targets. We are told “success takes time” and words like “just have a lot of patience,” and then we rely on fate and time by thinking it will all work out. It’s certainly important to have faith, but, you shouldn’t rely on it!
Make sure you have a big goal, and then set small, more achievable milestones towards the big goal that are time bound. Doing this ensures you’re on track and helps you evaluate your progress by having metrics and timelines to measure yourself against. You can’t take forever to achieve your goals, and you have to be aggressively patient, not just patient.
While most mistakes people make are mindset-related, you can correct them by being around people who are where you want to be in life. By being intentional about who you choose to associate with, depending on your longer term goals, you will be on the path to actually making your dreams and your goals a reality.
