Last month I received several phone calls and a few emails regarding my column on setting personal goals. There I outlined 10 critical goal areas that affect your life. These goals are: Personal, Health, Recreation, Family, Friendship, Community, Career, Financial, Household, and Spiritual.
Everyone that responded understood the importance of writing out their goals and many had done so in the past, but never fully completed them, because of the fear of succeeding. Yes, they feared being successful. Odd isn’t it?
One reader wrote me saying: “I have several friends that set a goal, work hard to get on a successful path towards achievement, then suddenly veer off the path! Why do they do that? How do they get past it? It’s very frustrating to watch this kind of self-sabotaging behavior.”
All of us have set goals with the intention of achieving them, but for some reason we don’t accomplish them fully. How many times have you set a new year’s resolution with ambition only to drop it by the end of February?
We all see how full the gyms are in January and notice the difference in May. Have you ever gone on a diet and lost weight, only to gain it back again? We are fixed in our own comfort zone, and moving out of that comfort zone causes us to fear success. Let’s face it, change is difficult, so we resort back to what we know.
How can we break our comfort zone and accomplish what we want in life?
The reason I believe we veer off the path and stay within our comfort zone is we lose our focus and excitement for our goal. Possibly the goal is taking longer than we thought it would take or we have had a setback. When in reality the goal just needs to be broken down into more manageable chunks.
A good way to break out of your comfort zone and start achieving your goals is to have a mentor. A mentor should be someone you respect and hopefully they have accomplished what you want to achieve. Mentors are all around you eager to help you get where you want to go in life.
How do you go about finding a mentor? Start by looking at your friends and acquaintances. Approach them and ask if they would help you with your goal. It takes courage to ask someone for help and many people don’t get past their fear and ask for help they need.
Staying within your comfort zone is something you have to get past if you want to realize your goal. It has been said that over 90% of the things people fear NEVER come to pass.
Start thinking of your mentor as your own personal teacher your trusted counselor, and your life coach. Meeting with them on a regular basis they can guide you on your journey and hold you accountable to your goals.
We all need pushing once in a while and we all need cheerleaders in our life that is what a mentor will do for you. They will keep you out of your comfort zone.
“The Biggest Loser” television show is rated number one in its time slot with over 10.4 million viewers weekly for two reasons. The contestants are attempting to lose weight and win a cash prize and the trainers, Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper mentor them.
Viewers are drawn to the show because they identify with the contestants personal struggle and the challenges they have to overcome each week. What many viewers don’t know is Jillian Michaels began her career in exercise because she was overweight in her teenage years. Her success in losing that weight and keeping it off helps her mentor those struggling with their weight now.
I’ve used mentors most of my life and during college when I was a freshman studying broadcasting, I would hang out in the studio watching the seniors work on their projects. They were happy to share their knowledge with me and answer all of my questions. After graduating from MSU I went to work in the broadcasting industry. There I again I had many mentors who were extremely successful and willing to share their knowledge with me.
Seventeen years ago I started our consulting firm, The Brandt Group, specializing in Mystery Shopping and Employee Training. Over the years I have coached and mentored hundreds of managers and owners and mentoring is the most rewarding work I do. There is nothing more enjoyable than seeing someone realize their dreams.
We all need to be challenged and we need the right mentor that will help us in our life. If you want balance in your life and realize your dreams, find the person who has been there. Find the mentor who will encourage you to challenge yourself because, that is where great things happen. Now is the time to overcome your fears and become successful. Sir Winston Churchill said: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
