It’s over halfway through the year, how are the goals you set in January progressing? Are you struggling your way through them? Or have you given up out of frustration?

What makes goals so difficult to reach? Most of the time, we just run out of momentum. We always start with the best intentions, don’t we?

So, how can we make sure that we finish as strong as we start and don’t get discouraged? There are 3 lessons I learned from a recent flight I took with my Dad and one of our agency owners.

1. It takes more fuel and less speed to get to altitude.

Starting anything, while very exciting, can take a lot of energy and go a lot slower than you originally anticipated. For example, you may have only exercised twice last year but decided you wanted to exercise 3 times per week this year. It will be difficult, exhausting, and probably discouraging when you start. Your body just isn’t used to that much exertion that often — yet.

You may realize that you will have start with once a week or twice a week until your body starts to adjust. However, if you stick to your plan, you will eventually be able to exercise 3 times a week and complete your workout each time. This phase is all about getting to a level you can “cruise” at.

2. Maintaining altitude is much easier.

Once you’ve reached your “cruising altitude” you can focus on consistency. This has to do with establishing your pace or speed. You don’t need to sprint, but, instead, find the rhythm that will allow you to produce repetitive success along the way resulting in you achieving your end goal.

For example, I’m in sales and as anyone in sales will tell you — it’s a numbers game. So, this means I need to make a high number of cold calls or cold walk-ins. Let’s say that in order for me to meet my goals for number of sales (based on my closing ratio) I need to contact 20 prospects per week.

That may seem like a lot of people. However, if I break it down to 4 people per day each week, then it becomes much more manageable and a way that I can achieve regular success along the way to reaching my sales goal. Regular success along the way is a huge key to making it to the end of your goals.

3. Sometimes you have to refuel.

During our flight, we had to briefly land to refuel so that we could safely make it to our destination. This is the often overlooked part of achieving goals. Sometimes, we just need a break to refuel or to reassess and adjust our course.

For example, I set a goal to read a book a month for this year. However, I’ve started to lag behind a bit and now am thinking that I might need to adjust my goal to 8 books for the year. Because, at the core, my goal was to regularly read more. Plus, that I may have only read 1 book last year and now I’ve read 5 means that I’m moving closer to my goal.

[reminder]What tips or tricks do you use to achieve your goals?[/reminder]

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