2022 has been quite a year – with endless dramatic challenges from the cinematic floods in KZN to intense levels of loadshedding and ridiculous levels of inflation. It’s been harsh to say the least. The dramatic events technically are a huge distraction leaving us with less time and space for achieving our goals. Much more of your resources – time, money and energy are spent reacting to these events – from complaining about it, trying to resource yourself, family or business accordingly to meet the demands of the new situation. Instead of being proactive in the pursuit of our goals, we are primarily reactive.
That said, external issues simply represent the environment we operate in. Progress is determined by one’s ability to adapt and swiftly explore new ways to survive the circumstances they find themselves in.
It all boils down to your capacity to manage and lead yourself daily, weekly – hopefully in the direction of your goals. Where are you at in as far as the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of 2022?
Here are some of the things that could be robbing you of progressing towards your goals without you realising it.
- The way your life is structured is not in alignment with your goals.
Let’s say you’d set a goal that this year you want to start a blog. It so happens that you live with house mates who are always having hosting braais or they invite you to grand parties. So, you spend your weekends either partying or recovering from one. Meanwhile, blogging requires that you to spend time researching, listening to podcasts, perhaps going to meet-ups with other bloggers and ultimately you need to sit down and write. In this scenario, your life is not designed to nurture or enable the thing you say you want because your environment is currently not supportive to your goal of becoming a blogger. The responsibility is on you to decide to do something about the environment, i.e., consider moving out. Your housemates are neither right nor wrong – they are living their lives in the way that serves them.
Is your life designed to support your goals?
- The company you keep.
Linked to the above point, people we hang around make up a big part of the environment – more than the walls and décor. Whether it’s your partner or friends – it’s important that they are open to engaging you about your goals and be encouraging and/or enabling. It’s necessary for your growth and progress that you are surrounded by people who are supportive of you and your goals – i.e., they have your best interest at heart, and in turn you have theirs.
It is unloving to yourself to be constantly surrounded by people who shoot your ideas down or put unnecessary hurdles in the way of your goals.
- Consumption
Let’s start with food and drink. Are you consuming what gives you vitality and energises you to be able to focus on your goals?
Next on the list is what you listen to, read or watch. All of this occupies your most important real estate – your mind and it influences your subconscious – teaching it certain principles which the subconscious process and formulate as beliefs. Beliefs (whether they are false or not) are like an operating software – controlling your thoughts and actions. Pay attention to what you allow into your mind – including things you read or see on social media.
- How you spend your Time-Money-Energy (T.M.E.)
It may seem obvious but there are many people who do not pay attention to how they spend these three resources. Even more importantly, do not check if, how they spend their T.M.E, aligns with their goals. If you look back at the last two weekends – or even three – how much time, money and energy did you channel towards the goals you’ve set for yourself?
Lack of awareness causes this gap – where people are busy reacting to what’s coming at them as opposed to being intentional about the way they spend or invest these important resources. Is your use of your T.M.E moving you closer to your goals?
- Lack of Pause-Reflect-Proceed
We live in a society that epitomises the go-go hustle mentality. To keep going and not taking time to stop and reflect – assess what is working and what is not is self-sabotage. Even if things are going great, it’s super important that you assess along the way and identify what’s contributing to this progress. With this awareness, you’ll know what to do more of and what to eliminate in future. The more regular the reflections the more effective – daily or at least weekly.
Understandably, it’s tempting to blame external factors – Eskom, the government and even those around us. In the case of the earlier example, the aspiring blogger would blame his/her housemates instead of either moving out or simply declining invitations with love – remaining to true to self.
By the way, your goals are yours but them not coming to fruition extends beyond just yourself. If the blog never goes live, you’d be depriving your intended audience of your ‘gift’ – your ideas, advice, creativity or solutions. Your commitment to your goals contributes to expansion and growth of society. If your goals don’t become a reality no one wins.
As we wrap up 2022, the question to ponder on should be – what will I do differently to fully support my goals in 2023?
Ndumi Hadebe is a self-leadership and boundaries coach. She’s obsessed about all things personal development and how it translates to human behaviour