One Change In Perspective To Help You Hit Your Goals

Have you ever set some seriously strong goals for yourself or your business, only to later find yourself so far from them that you lost hope? Have you done the math and realized you simply had too far to go in too little time? If you have ever set huge goals, it is likely you have experienced this frustration. When you did, how did you feel? What was your overall outlook at the time?

Far From High Goals

I found myself (and our business) in this position not too long ago. We had set some amazingly high goals for the year. We were more than half way through the year and had not made near the progress we needed in order to be on track to hit the goals. In fact, we were so far from being on track, that it was easy for me to lose hope.

I never really said I was quitting, but I certainly did not believe the goals were achievable any more. I was disheartened and frustrated, but I knew I could not give up. If I did, not only would we certainly miss our goals, we would also risk giving up any progress we had made.

A loss of hope in my mind would also translate down through my team, creating an undercurrent of all sorts of negative feelings and confusion. As a leader, I knew I could not afford to allow that to happen. I sought help.

Solid Advice

I brought up my situation to my accountability group. I was transparent about our lack of progress and my feelings about the loss of hope. While this was not easy to do in a group of high-performers, I realized it was exactly what I needed to do if I wanted to correct the problem. I knew the guys in this group could see through the issues and get to the core of what I needed to do.

Sure enough, the advice I was given was solid. It was not a miracle cure, but it came close. Immediately, I took their advice and implemented it to the best of my ability. Since that point in time, my attitude changed and my hope returned. While there was no material change in my circumstances, my perspective changed and that made all the difference.

Focus On The Gain, Not The Gap

Since I am assuming there are many of you who have experienced this same loss of hope, I want to share the advice I was given. If you will take the time to implement what I share with you, I promise you your perspective will change and your hope will return as well!

The advice was very simple…begin focusing on the GAIN, not on the GAP.

Let me explain. Let’s say you have set a goal to reach a certain sales level in your business. When you start out, there is a long way to go before you hit the goal – that is the GAP.

After a couple of months, you look back and see that you have made some progress. Maybe it is not enough (as in my case), but there IS some progress. This is the GAIN.

Application

So here is the deal, when you find yourself frustrated and disheartened like I was, it is because you are too focused on the GAP. When you are so far from hitting your goals, obsessing about the gap will do nothing but kill your hope. And, as I said before, this begins a slow death sentence for your team.

Instead, my group told me to focus on the GAIN. They said to take a look back and see what kind of progress we had made. I was told to take some time and list all of the areas in which we had made gains. Then I was to focus in these areas, working to add to the gains.

Like I said before, there was no real change to my circumstances. We were still a LONG way from hitting our goals. The odds were still very slim that we would even come close to our goals.

Change In Perspective

But what DID change was my perspective. And as a result, my attitude changed. I began to see progress where before I had seen only failure. This change in perspective served as a very effective stimulant for my mind. My team could see the difference and they responded in kind.

As I focused on the gains, I also found myself praising them for the gains. I was no longer pointing out the gaps, but was encouraging them with the gains. It was contagious and truly added lift to our overall approach to the business.

Not A Parlor Trick

Please understand, I am not trying to say that you can trick your mind into hitting goals. This is not some miracle method that suddenly allows you to hit those near-impossible goals when there is too little time to do so. No, this is not likely to rescue you when you are down by five touchdowns at half-time.

What it WILL do is break you free from the weight of frustration and loss of hope. It will give you a fresh new outlook so that you can think clearly about what needs to be done to squeeze all you can out of the remaining time. It can also put you back in a position of positive, encouraging leadership with your team.

So, the next time you find yourself in this position of frustration and loss of hope toward your huge goals, remember to turn your attention from the GAP and focus on the GAINS. I am convinced you will thank me for it!

Have you found yourself in this position with little hope?

How can you focus on your gain today?

Do you know someone else that could use this advice?

Photo by Grufnar/iStock