Happy New Year!

It’s a great pleasure to have you read our first article in 2018. It’s also the thirty second (32nd) since the inception of goals lifestyle website in mid-2017. And now it’s 2018 – a new year with new hopes and possibilities.

The theme for goalslifestyle.com is: Lead your Life to Reach Your Goals; Live deliberately. I find myself resonating with it because you would hardly be ever happy unless you feel in control over your life. It is way better living a life you have chosen rather than one forced by status quo, life circumstances or popular culture. That’s why leading your life to reach your goals, and living deliberately are two themes for you to think about all through 2018. Make this blog site your friend, and you shall be getting refreshed on how to live deliberately each week. A new goals post is published every week; a post reminding and encouraging you to lead a goals-oriented lifestyle.

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Lead Your Life to Reach Your Goals; Live deliberately.

And now to today’s blog post: what are the three forces that may interfere with your progress in 2018?

1. Undeserved Influence
2. Passive Aggressiveness
3. Poor Finishing Strategy

Undeserved Influence

Who do you know that seems not to mind their business as far as your life is concerned?

What do they do to you, or around you that you consider being unnecessary baggage or inconvenience?

Do you have thieves of your time (distractions)?

There are times you want to focus but cannot, simply because there is something or someone that serves as a focal distraction. They come to play when you need the least interference. Worst of all, it’s hard to shade off such people.

Here is a suggestion to help deal with undeserved influence:

Let each circle represent a different person or thing. For example, one circle is your work and the other circle is your family. They only interact at the intersection point. The influence of one over the other needs be as much as the intersection point and not anymore. Beyond the intersection, please divorce your work from your family and you shall happily have both. In essence, this is how I have come to minimize unnecessary influence around me.

Passive Aggressiveness

How many times have you delayed an action when an action was all that was required? How do you feel afterward?

People make up very logical excuses for such a misshapen. Please take a moment and look beyond justification made upon falling short of your goal. Maybe you didn’t hit the score/sales you hoped for. You probably did your best but somehow didn’t match up to the target. Could you be a victim of passive aggressiveness?

• Was it you, or someone/something else that was in control of your actions towards a goal?
• Did you intend to do some things, but you somehow didn’t/couldn’t do them?
• Did you have a well thought out plan for which you could not bring yourself to action?
• Was your best really the best of you? Could you have done better with a paradigm shift in attitude/perspective?

Such questions are difficult to answer. They make you think beyond excuses that never cure the guilt and regret for not succeeding as desired. Answering such questions helps you assume responsibility for the successes/failures in your life. Rather than controlling and being controlled indirectly (passive aggressiveness), answering such questions help you face your fears, anxieties and skill gaps not only emotionally but also rationally. You succeed better when you not only understand the mission at hand but also understand you play your part in the mission.

Poor Finishing Strategy

 A story is told of a hare that challenged Tortoise to a race. Tortoise knew that he was slow but obliged to the challenge anyway. Tortoise and Hare got to race, and the hare had an easy headstart. Then Hare had a thought: Tortoise can never beat him in a race; Why not take a light nap? Hare took a nap. Meanwhile, Tortoise kept his slow and steady pace till the finish line and won.

There are times we fall short of success because of ourselves. It is possible that your finishing strategy, like Hare’s, gets strangles by attitude – a tiny attitude that could cost you a fortune

Time has a way of reminding us about living. We do more towards a deadline than at the beginning. It’s then that we accomplish more under pressure – when the time is suddenly precious.

My recommendation regarding is the first two habits of highly effective people by Steve Covey: Be Proactive and begin with the end in mind. I believe them to be a strong antidote to a poor finishing strategy, which is a horrible thief of success. Why should you work hard, only to lose it all at the finish line?

Start your 2018 in style. Lead your life to reach your goals; live deliberately.

See you next week!