Goals without action don’t go anywhere. We’ve all circled around a goal, sometimes repeatedly throughout our lives, taking a few steps toward it but ultimately falling back into resistance with our excuses.
I’m in the mud with you on this one. I think we all have an area in our life where it feels hard to reach our goals. Throughout our days and weeks, there is a decision that we make—often unconscious—that we are going to avoid facing the hard thing. We don’t want to act because there is pain associated with it.
Our resources of time, energy, and focus are finite, and especially now when we are drowning in the burnout and tedium of the Covid pandemic—it’s natural that our brains are steering us towards the path of least resistance.
There’s a lot to be said for personal accountability and that will always be a cornerstone of my coaching process. However, a powerful but often overlooked way to keep ourselves accountable is getting another person or a group involved.
I’ve personally used this to push through that niggling resistance—usually, for me, it’s about a goal with many parts and steps that feels too big to take on that particular day so I am inclined to put it off.
When I know that I have to report back to somebody on something that I’ve said I would do, it helps me with that extra push. Like you, I care about how I show up with other people and so I want to keep my commitment that I made MORE than I want to let my excuses take over. It’s that extra leverage that helps me tolerate some discomfort in the short term.
I encourage you to try this out with a partner, colleague, or friend. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Share your goal and what steps you will make towards it and ask them if you can report back to them regularly.
One of the mantras we have at Elite is that life is a team sport. It’s a strength to ask for help because it demonstrates that you value what you’re doing and you’re making smart use of your resources to make it happen.
-Coach Liane
