Not Making Progress on Your Goals? 3 Areas to Reflect on!

An Important Lesson About Goals, learned from Gardening in the Rain!

It was a long weekend, and on the holiday Monday I did something unusual: I gardened in the RAIN. Now, I’m usually a “fair weather gardener” – but on Monday even though I had to wear waterproofs I spent ALL day outside in the rain – and loved it.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I’ve been working really hard trying to finish a number of projects, all with deadlines and pressure. And while all this was going on I’ve watched the specialty irises I planted put up flower heads and open. But while the irises looked gorgeous, the flowerbed was covered in weeds and grass. All that effort – fast disappearing.

And I had had in my mind for a few weeks that I wanted to make the flowerbed look fantastic – I see it from our kitchen, bedroom and living room as well as every time I come into the house. But I kept “running out of time”.

So I woke up Monday morning and it was raining hard. And I thought, “Stuff it! I’m gardening anyway!” And while I was out pulling weeds and spreading wood-chips I thought about why I was gardening in the rain.

And I realised that when we want something enough – we will endure unpleasantness, work hard and go to great lengths to make it happen. I’m not saying that we SHOULD endure unpleasantness or work our asses off to achieve our goals, just that we are WILLING and sometimes even HAPPY to!

So if you have a goal, and you’re just not taking action towards it, then it could simply be that you don’t want it ENOUGH.

Maybe it’s not YOUR goal. Perhaps it’s something someone else wants FOR you or it’s something you were brought up to believe you wanted – but it’s not what your deepest self wants. Or perhaps it WAS a goal at one point, but you’ve changed or moved on.

Or maybe you simply haven’t got clear enough about WHAT you want and WHY. To be committed to our goals we need a clear GOAL (so we know when we’re moving in the right direction), we need to know WHY we want it and WHAT WILL HAPPEN when we get it (so we’re motivated to do the difficult stuff).

For me, I had a really clear picture of a ‘finished’ flowerbed with the irises standing out (GOAL). I imagined the satisfaction of looking at and enjoying the beauty of them whenever I look out of the window – which is often! (WHAT WILL HAPPEN). And I had been working so hard on “musts” – that this was something I was doing just for me, to beautify my garden and my life (WHY).

So, if you’re not making progress towards your goal, look at these 3 areas:

1. GOAL: Is it MY goal or someone else’s? If it IS your goal, create a clear picture in your mind of what the completed goal will look like.
2. WHY: Why do I want it? Why is it so important to me? Get clear and write down all the reasons you can think of.
3. WHAT WILL HAPPEN: Also known as the OUTCOME. What will happen once you have completed your goal? What are the benefits you’re expecting to get?

Why would anyone do difficult or unpleasant things unless there’s a really good reason? So, get clear on your reasons, know what you want and why and then – if you want your goal ENOUGH – you’ll find a way!

“Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.”  Og Mandino