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Goals. You just can’t escape them, can you?

I mean, even deciding not to have a goal for 2020 results in a goal!

If you take me seriously and decide you won’t set goals this year, then that itself will become a goal and your successfully achieving it will depend on all the factors that go to making goal achievement possible – motivation, SMART Goals, progression milestones and the works.

The truth is, we set goals because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to plan a route to achieving what would make a big difference for us or achieve what we want.

You need to set up goals to achieve your cherished desires and dreams.

The problem that usually arises is having too many goals and that results in running after your tail the way a dog does.

The difference between the dog and us is the dog is doing it for amusement or some agenda known only to itself while the human ends up achieving nothing but frustration.

Why not select the best goal as a starting point?

If you find yourself being indecisive about goals, here are 3 keys to mobilize you into action.

In the days when I was doing free coaching sessions for my certification practice, I found the person availing this precious session had more than 1 goal.

It was a challenge to get them to focus on the 1 thing that would make the biggest difference to them or provide the biggest transformation.

I’m grateful for the experience as it has trained me to ask specific questions and help my clients boil down their goals to The Goal.

Of course we work on the others too but The Goal is the one that creates the momentum for all the others too.

Does your head hurt from having too many goals?

As you can see, we all have lots of goals – some big and some small. Some that are essential to achieve our desires while others that fulfill a personal need.

It’s like one student client of mine whose father had hired me to get her to go back to University and complete her Masters in Information Technology.

Somewhere along the way, his daughter had lost her drive and it was important to get her to complete the remaining 6 months and get her degree.

At our first meeting, her most important goal was to become a Size Zero like her favorite Bollywood heroine (who has since gone back to a normal healthy size following the rage of young girls going anorexic).

The second best goal was to work in media. I didn’t see any signs of a goal for completion of her education.

Honestly, I didn’t know how to handle this. The challenge was not only to bring the horse to water BUT make it drink that water!

I had to find what would motivate her and tie it into her big picture goal.

Fortune favored me as I found a loophole that required her to go back to the University and mark her attendance. This place had a Radio Station and she could participate as a Radio Jockey.

I pointed out that it would help her build her resume for a RJ position later. Our focus shifted to her exploring the media and mass communication areas for a career but in the meantime she was back at University and she completed her education.

3 actions you can take if you’re overwhelmed with goals to find the best one

Look for overlaps in your goals

Sometimes there is a natural and logical relationship between goals.

Just like my student client, there was an overlap in goals – even if one of them was that of her father’s. In your case, it could be you want to have more leisure time and learn a new hobby.

You could take up candle making or art classes to pursue a new hobby while making the most of your leisure time and accomplish both goals.

Sometimes two goals seem to be in direct opposition to each other, like wanting to travel and having more time at home.

In this case, write out both goals and next to each of them write out why you want to do each of them. You might find that what you want is to be away from work.

Maybe your real goal might be to change careers. Or, you might discover that you can satisfy your desire for travel with a short vacation or a long drive with the family.

Get to the essence of the goal, and they’ll work themselves out.

Need more help? This worksheet will provide clarity.

Make the time for your goal

Your time belongs to you and you control how you spend this precious resource.

It’s easy to hide behind excuses like there are “only so many hours in a day,” and that we’re “too busy” to take on anything else right now. Wouldn’t a positive reframe throw a new light on your time?

Instead of saying “I don’t have time to learn a language,” try saying, “I’m not making time to learn a new language.” We find the time for the things that matter.

Be flexible in your goal achievement approach

It’s a good thing to put a timeline together and have definite dates and time-sensitive goals. But remember that life happens, and often it even gets in the way.

There is an ancient Greek saying that goes: “If you want to make the gods laugh, tell them your plans.” Having milestones and plotting points along the timeline is good, but don’t hold yourself to it so rigidly that you cannot adapt to the occasional curve ball.

Focusing on what’s really important will help you find the best goal.

This presentation provides guidance to determine and implement the one goal that can benefit you most if you achieve it.

Parting thoughts on having a multitude of goals

If it feels to you like you have too many goals or if the ones you do have are fighting each other, then find the essence of each one.

That will help you determine what’s most important to you right now. Then work on one goal at a time. By concentrating on which one means the most to you right now, you’ll put those goals into perspective, until they don’t seem like so much anymore.

How do you find and implement your breakthrough goal?