Today’s success tip comes from Lisa McInnes-Smith.

At 26 years of age, Lisa set her biggest goal: positively affect one million Australian teenagers, a goal that was to change her life. In the 8½ years it has taken to achieve her goal, Lisa has travelled the country speaking in schools and youth groups.

Even though the majority of people know how important it is to have goals, why do you think so many fail to set them?

Most people know the theory behind goal setting but their fear is often times greater than the excitement of the goal. So many people’s lives are run by fear - fear of failure, fear of disappointment, fear of letting people down, fear of success, and fear of the unknown. Others thrive on faith, the possibility of success, of overcoming, of succeeding, of making a difference, of making a whole new pathway for themselves, believing in what hasn’t yet come to pass. It takes faith to set goals and it takes faith to fight off the fear in all of our lives.

Fear is a formidable foe; it’s entangled in our thinking, our beliefs and our thoughts about the future. Fear is what most people think they must conquer before they go after their goals. Funnily enough, in many ways goal setting is a pathway to defeating fear. Every step toward the goal pushes people’s fear further away. Competence builds confidence and confidence leads to action. Action achieves goals.

So why is it that so many people fail to set goals?

1. They don’t take time to write them down.

2. They don’t make time to read them.

3. They don’t make a plan to reach each goal.

4. They don’t write down benefits of achieving each goal.

Not one of these steps are hard to do so, but it just takes a decision to get started and a commitment to follow through.

I hope you have learned from this week’s advice. Be sure to check back again next time for more great tips from the experts.

Until then,

Allan Poole