Making success easier than failure IS possible
What’s your track record for meeting your goals? If you’re like me, the answer is probably “it varies”.
One sure way to make progress on your goals is to get specific about the steps needed to meet that goal. For example, “write manuscript” gets expanded into multiple smaller tasks, that might include:
- review journal description and publication frequency
- read/skim published articles in that journal for a sense of style, approach, sub-headings
- brainstorm potential arguments
- etc, etc
Some of the steps will be known and others won’t. That’s ok! Don’t use that as an excuse not to break your project down into small action items.
This approach that has been researched, promoted, and written about extensively by habit and productivity experts. They’ve got good things to say–I like to learn from them! Below are a few key points to keep in mind.
Don’t rely on motivation to meet your goals
Among all the strategies that can help with goal achievement, relying on motivation is not a recommended one. That’s because motivation is slippery (I think it’s Dr. BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits, who uses that great term). By slippery, we mean that you may get motivated to do a behaviour (that contributes to making success easier than failure) a small number of times, but then the motivation wanes and the behaviour gets dropped. Sound familiar?
Instead of relying on motivation, set yourself up with solid processes.
Making success easier than failure is doable when you break down your goals
One trap that people often fall into is setting a goal and then not getting specific enough about how they’ll achieve it. I see this a lot among the ambitious perfectionists I coach. They set goals for initiatives and projects at work, intentions for how they want to lead their teams, or aims for how they’re going to set boundaries and say “no” more often. Their desire for achieving this goal is strong and sincere, but their follow-through isn’t there.
This is not for lack of wanting to have the better outcome, but because they haven’t broken down the goal into smaller actionable pieces. They think that articulating the bigger goal, and having a desire for it will suffice.
It doesn’t.
What’s needed is multiple, small, doable steps that will lead you to that goal.
This worksheet is for people who are feeling stuck and not moving forward on a goal they claim is important to them. The prompts and activities will guide you through a process of breaking the goal into smaller parts (note: small does not mean less important) and identifying next steps based on “high motivation” and “high ability”. This process is based on the work of Dr. Fogg’s Tiny Habits.
Download the instructions and worksheet for Making success easier than failure here:
Work with me
If you have important goals, but are having trouble getting traction on these, my coaching support could be exactly what you need! I will guide you through a method of clarifying your goals, we’ll firm up your processes and then I will help you stay accountable. Book a complimentary consultation to find out more: isabeauiqbal.com/contact or email me at isabeau@isabeauiqbal.com
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