Goal setting is hard.  Some days it is almost near impossible.  I’m of course, speaking from my experience only, and sometimes will wince when someone tells me how easy it is.  Once you’ve set the goal, the next step is to put the actions in place to achieve it.  Also hard.  Also some days near impossible.  Since I find this such a challenging experience, I am hoping that for those of you out there that are like me, my story may help.
January is typically the time of year that most people set goals.  New Years Resolutions and all that.  I’m the same, although I tend to complete the exercise once a quarter, not just once a year.  This last January, though, I really struggled with what my goals should be.  I always set one personal and one business goal for each quarter.  And this time, although I had started thinking about them in December, January 1^st rolled around, and I still had no idea what they should be.  January 2^nd passed, as did the 4^th, and 7^th and 10^th.  No matter how many conversations I had with my business coach, my husband, or myself, what my goals should be for the upcoming quarter, eluded me completely.
On January 17^th, I downloaded an audio book that changed everything for me.  The 10X Rule, by Grant Cordone.  I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Grant, I certainly hadn’t.  But a couple of people had mentioned the book to me within a span of a week, and I was looking for any help I could get.
Now Grant is not the typical personality that I like to read or listen to.  In fact, he is pretty much the exact opposite of the type of authors that I follow or advocate.  Very over the top, very to the point, a definite High D personality.  But I was stuck, and was looking for some help.  I started listening to the audiobook as I sat in the stands of my daughter’s swim meet that weekend.  At the end of Chapter 2, I was hooked, and listened to all 7 1/2 hours of the audiobook in two days. Perhaps it was what I needed to hear at that particular time in my life, but what he said resonated so strongly for me, that it got me going.
I’m a walker.  That is how I get my exercise, as well as bond with my dog – a happy go lucky Boxer named Joey Jackson.  Walking also resets my headspace to tackle the day and some of my best ideas for my business have come on those early morning climbs up a hill.  In 2014, I had set a goal for myself to walk 1000km.  That may be nothing for some of you, but it was a lot for me.  I hit the goal in Dec 2014 on the beaches of Costa Rica.  (If you want to see the video of me achieving this goal, you can find it on our YouTube channel here.)
You would think that having hit my personal goal in 2014, would have made it so much easier to set my 2015 goal -1500 km in the year. But I couldn’t find the motivation to go for my walk, and even the sad puppy dog eyes staring at me every morning couldn’t seem to get me motivated.  Here is a screenshot of my walking for the beginning of January (I use this great iPhone app called Map My Walk to track it for me.)

As you can see, I was good for the first couple of days in January, and then nothing for almost two weeks, then I started again.  Has that ever happened to you?  Whether personally or professionally?  Although you have a goal, you just can’t get yourself to do anything about it?  Well, that was definitely me.
Now have a look at what the rest of my January looked like, after implementing the 10X principles after January 17^th.

Doesn’t even look like the same person does it?
But it gets better…..the more I walked, the more I wanted to walk……here is February.

By the end of February, even with it being a shorter month, I had passed my record of the most km walked in a single month.  I started walking twice a day – once in the morning and once at lunch.  There were days I didn’t feel like going, and as you can see there were some days, when I didn’t go at all.  There was one night, after a long day at work, then taking my daughter to swimming after work, and then having a glass of wine with dinner, I definitely didn’t want to go.  My daughter very wisely said to me, “Mom, a 10Xer would go.”  And she was right, and I did.
Not only did I feel better about my personal goal being achieved, but the success spilled over into my business.  I was more motivated, more energized, and felt like nothing was going to stand in my way.
Then entered March.  I increased my walking to 3 times a day – morning, lunch and evening. What I found most surprising was that in February I had missed a couple of days of practising my 10X.
Here is my March walking….

I know….I couldn’t believe it myself when I looked at it on March 31^st.  The thought of being able to hit 200km in one month, let alone pass it, was unthinkable for me.  The fact that I was able to pull out 45 hours, or one solid week, out of my what I thought was a packed schedule was eye-opening.  I got up a little bit earlier, scheduled my meetings around my lunch walk, and gave up some TV at night, all to make sure that I got in my walks.
So what’s the point of all this?  I don’t tend to share such personal things on my blog, but I felt that this was so important.  As difficult as the goal setting process was for me in January, once I set the right goal –  And that is the key – the right goal, not just any goal –  my body and mind took over to ensure that I was going to achieve it, and surpass it.  The success in the one area also spilled over into other areas of my life, and into my business, and I’ve had one of the best quarters ever at AIS.
At the beginning of January I was already making excuses for how this was going to be a bad quarter because I didn’t know what my direction should be.  Once I found that direction, everything fell into place for me.
Now I know that it won’t always be like that.  Success is never a straight line graph pointing upwards.  It goes up, it goes down.  The key is to focus on it going in the right direction over the period of time.
It was Grant Cordone’s book that did it for me.  I’ve probably listened to it 5 or 6 times over the last 3 months, as well as some of his others.  I urge you to find something that resonates so strongly with you.  Keep searching, keep reading, keep listening until you find that “10X” motivation for yourself.
It will be the best thing you can do for yourself, and the goal setting and goal achieving won’t be so hard ?
And just to end the post on a personal note, here is a picture of my walking buddy, who is now in the best shape of his life ?

 
I would love to hear any stories you would like to share as to what resonated with you, or got you motivated.  It’s different for everyone, and I’m always happy to embrace new ideas.