This article is the third in a six-part series published each Friday bringing you on a journey of personal development with pragmatic tools you can use every day to design a better life.
Unless you have lost hope, deep down you have goals. Even if you’re not fully aware, they exist. They empower as you near them or suffocate you with distance.
Deeper underneath is your intrinsic motivation, the ‘oil’ to power your journey if you can tap that well. You cannot reach it without breaking through struggle. As you approach this reservoir, action and energy become charged.
Guarding your real potential is a protective layer of limiting beliefs. But any security detail can be breached. Part of achieving a worthwhile goal is overcoming struggle and fear. So you must view them as such. Embrace these inevitable steps as omens.
Consider all of this when setting a goal. All you have done is scratched the surface, planted a flag in the hope of oil. There is much more to do.
Want to know the unavoidable process to realise your potential, the steps you cannot avoid to find your oil (here or elsewhere):
- The Goal must be set but acknowledged as only the start.
- The End must be defined. Otherwise how will know if you got there.
- The challenges ahead must be anticipated – and you prepared to meet it.
- Inevitable struggle must be embraced, and your response determines your potential.
- Limiting beliefs must surface. Ousting them grows character.
- Until finally, your intrinsic motivation shows itself.
This is Unavoidable Progress (UP). Using the Personal Goal Canvas will pack the right gear for the journey. Climbing will carve your character.
But first, download this Personal Roadmap Canvas. Enjoy the absence of obstacles. Go wide. Dream of the epic things you want to be, to do, to have – and smile doing it!
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James Parnell is the founder of The Wellbeing Gym, which provides offline and online wellbeing, performance, productivity and life design programmes to individuals and corporates.
Twitter @TheWellbeingGym, Facebook @Thewellbeinggym (here).