I hope you are having an amazing 2020. I love the new year. It’s always a time of fresh beginnings, sort of wipe that slate clean and set some fresh goals and resolutions for yourself. And I know that many of you are doing just that. And today we’re going to talk about not just setting goals. A lot of times we’re talking about setting goals, which is all well and good, but let’s get into the heart of the matter why you might not be achieving your goals and what you can do about it.
There are seven reasons why that might be happening. I’m here to serve you. I want to help you. I want to help you achieve more in 2020. I want to help you grow emotionally, grow physically, grow financially, and just make it an amazing, amazing year.
All right, and if you aren’t already, please do follow me on Instagram @Susansly. I post a lot of entrepreneurial motivation there and you get to see stuff that’s happening in my actual life. I promise not all of it is filtered. So, with that, let’s get started.
It’s a brand new year and I know that you guys are super excited to achieve more. How many of you have set some goals for this year for yourself? And maybe you set a goal to make more money this year, to become more organized, maybe to get healthy this year. And so lots of people do set goals, but sadly, there was a survey that was done, only 8% of people actually achieve the goals they set for themselves in January. So, today I’m going to talk about why people aren’t achieving their goals. What you can do about it, and my goal always on BulletProof Monday is that you leave uplifted, motivated, and just ready to go out there and crush it for the rest of your week.
So, sometimes we’re there, we’re setting goals and we’re all excited. It’s a brand new year. But by the end of January, almost 80% of people have already given up on the resolutions they set, which is crazy. So you know what a lot of people do is they’ll just give up and say, “Oh, goal setting doesn’t work.” But time and time again, studies show that goal setting does work and it’s very important how we goal set.
So goals really and truly do need to be written down. They have to be very specific. But I’m going to talk to you today about the wrong way to set your goals and the right way to do it. So again, you can achieve more. And I have mentored athletes and celebrities and I have mentored millionaires to achieving more in their lives. And this is my way on Mondays of giving back to all of you so that you can go and live into all of those dreams you have, whatever they are.
So let’s get to it.
Reason One – Lack of Clarity
The reason people don’t achieve their goals is they’re not clear. You have got to be very, very clear. You can’t just say, “Oh, 2020 I want to make more money.” What does that mean? So, if you make one penny more than you did in 2019 you made more money. And so, being very clear on what it looks like for you, not just saying, “Well, I want to lose weight. Okay, I want to release 13 pounds or I want to run a marathon.” Yes, that’s a little more specific, but saying, “Well, I want to run a marathon and really enjoy it. Or I want to run a marathon and I want to qualify for Boston.” Being so specific.
And when I set goals, I also have an emotional attachment that I create with that goal. So for example, obviously, like a lot of you, my goal always every year is to increase my income. So I would say something like this, I am easily increasing my income by, and you know, whatever number it is, 100,000, 500,000, a million, whatever it is, with ease, with divine ease even. So, being so specific with your goals is really going to help. And I know for some of you, you say, “Well, Susan, I’ve been specific before and I didn’t achieve it.” Okay. Yes. Guess what? Every successful person out there on the planet, they have set goals that they didn’t achieve. But the difference is they didn’t give up on that goal. They just went about figuring out how to do it in a different way. The goal was still very, very, very specific.
And whether you take a look at people like Oprah or Bill Gates or whoever it is, they set very specific goals, but maybe the way they went about it wasn’t the right way for them where they were at, at that period in their life, and they had to go and figure it out and how to do it a different way. Right? Same thing for you.
Reason Two – Lack of a Plan
You aren’t achieving your goals if you don’t have a plan. So a goal without a plan is merely a wish. Okay. I’m going to say that again. A goal without a plan is merely a wish. So, one of the things that, I’ll give an example. So Dave Ramsey, I love Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey, in my humble opinion, is one of the people out there who’s changing people’s lives financially and just doing it in the right way. So Dave Ramsey has something called the baby steps, and if you’ve ever listened to his calling, we were driving back from Telluride. It’s about eight hours from our house and my husband and I are listening to his podcasts. People are calling and calling and one of the things that freaks Dave out is people who are like, “Well, I started baby step one, then I skipped to seven I went back to.”
He’s like, “No, there is an order to that.” Because Dave Ramsey’s baby steps are a very specific plan for someone embracing sobriety. The 12 steps are a very specific plan. It doesn’t work if you’re jumping all over the map. And I know some of you, you don’t like to use recipes, you don’t like to have specific plans, but I’ll say to you, if that’s you, you’re probably operating in chaos a lot and you’re rebelling a lot of the time and you’re not being coachable. And if that’s what’s happening, chances are you’re not going to achieve as much because you don’t have a specific plan.
So in order to achieve your goals, the plan has to be laid out. It has to withstand what the accounting term is called, SWOT testing. So it stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. You have to really and truly say, “You know what, if this is important to me, I want to pay off my mortgage this year. I want to take my business to a place where I’m able to take six figures out of it, or multiple six figures or seven figures.” Whatever it is for you. Then what is that plan? When people come to me and they say things like, “Well, I want to make $10,000 a month in my business.” I’ll say, “What’s your plan?” And if they don’t have one, chances are, until they get one, they’re not going to achieve that goal.
Reason Three – Failure to Set Micro Goals
The third thing is that they aren’t setting micro goals. A lot of people will set macro goals. So what a macro goal is, is I want to make $100,000 this year, or I want to lose 50 pounds this year. So within every macro goal, there’s a bunch of micro goals. And so, if someone has, and I’ve mentored many people to success, but if someone came to me and said, “I want to make $10,000 a month in my business.” And I say, “Well, great, have you ever done that before?” And if they say no. Then what I usually suggest is start with getting to $1,000 a month and then $2,000 a month and then $3,000 a month. Micro goals are so important.
Every time we check off a goal, our body doesn’t really know if that’s a small goal or a medium-sized goal or a big goal. We create a hormone called dopamine. Dopamine is the hormone of achievement. So when we’re checking off our goals, it gets us really excited. We produce a lot of dopamine and we feel very, very accomplished. So this year I’ll just show it to you. So I have my vision 2020 and it is 35 pages. I’m not even going to kid you here, but it is comprised of a bunch of micro goals. So what it allows me to do, 594 goals, is to check off the micro goals as I go.
And so whatever your micro goals are, start to write them down. So you take one goal. Let’s say it’s the 30 pounds and you say, “I’m easily releasing one pound. I’m easily releasing two pounds. I’m easily releasing three pounds. I’m easily releasing four pounds.” And you micro those goals and just check them off one by one. And that’s going to change things for you. In fact, there was a study done on saving money. People who set the big savings goals, “I’m going to save $10,000 this year,” versus the people who said, “I’m going to say $500 a month,” $500 a month is $6,000 at the end of the year. The people who set the micro goals actually ended up saving more than the people who set the macro goal. So that’s a big clue right there.
Reason Four – The Wrong Attitude
Number four is their attitude doesn’t align with what they say they want. So when I was in Telluride, I met a lovely man who was working at the hotel and he and my husband started a conversation and this guy was saying, “Oh, I love Success Magazine. I love Jim Rohn.” And my husband said, “Well, my wife actually has done some speaking events with Jim Rohn when he was alive.” And the guy’s like, “Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.” So anyway, I began to talk to this guy and he’s like, “Yes, I love Success Magazine. I love this, I love this.” And I said, “So, what do you want to do to change your circumstances?” And he was so closed.
I started to talk to him about direct selling and he was so closed to the idea and he got very negative. And he’s like, “Those things don’t work.” And so the next morning, God put him on my heart. And so I went and I ran into him. I said, “It’s interesting for someone who’s done all of this work, who’s read all of this amazing personal development. You’re not very open. And until you become open, you’re not going to change your circumstances.” And he went, “Oh.” And I said, “Jim Rohn actually made all of his money in network marketing. You probably don’t know that.” And he went, “Oh, I didn’t know that.”
So here you are talking about how great this man is or was, and you’re totally putting down the entire industry where he made all his money. Your attitude has got to align with what you say you want. Because if you want to achieve something and you’re negative, you’re not going to achieve it. Negativity just attracts more negativity. Pessimism attracts more pessimism. Your attitude has to align with what you say you want. And in fact, I’m going to do a whole show on attitude next week and I’m not going to tell you about it. It’s the catalyst [inaudible] it’s something that’s actually happening to a friend of mine who’s defying the odds 100% just because of their attitude.
Reason Five – Lack of Organization
All right. Number five is you’re not organized enough to achieve what you want to achieve. So, whatever goal it is that you want to achieve, you’ve got to carve out the time for it. So you can’t say, “Well, I want to generate 10 new clients a month in my business.” If you haven’t carved out the time to go to networking events, to be connecting with people on social media or whatever way you generate more clients and customers. If you’re not organized enough to follow up with people, you’re not going to have more clients and customers. All achievement, write this down, please, takes time. All achievement takes time.
So you’ve got to learn how to prioritize. Priority, the word priority was not plural until the 19th century. Prior to the 19th century, no one said my priorities. In 2020 everyone’s like, “Oh, I have all these priorities.” No you don’t. Priority comes from the Latin root [priori] and that means one. So if your priority is to make more money this year, have you carved out time to make more money this year? If your priority is to get out of debt this year, have you carved out time to do that? If your priority is to release weight this year, have you carved out time to do that? You cannot achieve anything without investing time. Time is the price you pay to get what it is you want.
I’ve created some micro goals this year for me coming out of Lyme disease. I’ve talked about that. I actually managed to get rid of Lyme disease. That’s a whole other show topic. But I used to be a professional athlete and I was fairly fast. I was a pro triathlete and I could go and peel a sub-[1:30] half marathon off the bike and a half iron man. I cannot run a sub-[1:30] half marathon right now, but even though I’m almost 50, I really don’t care. I bet I can again if I make it a priority. That’s the thing, you got to make it a priority.
We were leaving for Telluride and I am a Peloton rider. I love the Peloton and I was doing their goal challenge and I think the day we left, I had to do, I don’t know, it was like 20 more miles on the Peloton to get to gold and I got my butt on the Peloton to get those 20 miles in. Just so I would achieve it, because I made it a priority. Your priority is going to dictate whether or not you achieve your goals, but I see a lot of people out there, they’re juggling all these different things. They’re not going to achieve. Your priority is your priority. Anyone I know, myself included, who achieved anything, it’s because they made that a priority. Right?
Reason Six – The Environment Is Not Aligned With Achievement
And then number six is they do not create an environment that’s conducive to achieving their goals. So what I mean by this, so you say, “Well, you know what Susan, I want to lose weight this year and I’m hearing what you’re saying. I want to release 30 pounds. I want it to be gone for good. I’m sick and tired of feeling this way.” Then why do you have Oreos and Doritos in your house? Your kids don’t eat them. Your husband doesn’t eat them and neither do you. You haven’t created an environment conducive to your success.
The same thing is true in business. Anytime I’ve taught students and some of my students have gone on to become millionaires, anytime I’ve taught them, I always say, “Your home office, if your priority is to make more money, it better be clean. You better clean off that desk at the end of the day, you better be super clear. Your environment must be conducive to what you say you want.
So I actually have three offices, if you can believe that. I have one at home. I have this office I’m in right now, and I have another office where I go, sometimes our Radius tech team is out of there. And so, no matter what environment I’m in, or even if I’m staying in a hotel, I am always in a place where my environment is set up to be conducive to what I say I want. And that’s one of the ways I stay so organized.
Reason Seven – Comfortably Uncomfortable
The seventh and final thing, and I’m speaking to you, some of you, is you’re comfortably uncomfortable, that the discomfort of going for what you want is superseding the pain of your current circumstances. So you have a business and you want to make more money, but you don’t want to talk to people about what it is you do. You don’t want to follow up with people. You’re comfortably uncomfortable, and until you get to the place where you psychologically understand that the pain of staying where you are day after day, month after month, year after year is greater than the change you’re going to go through to become the woman or man you need to become in order to achieve what you want. You’re going to stay stuck.
You, in this change that you’re going to undergo to achieve your goals, because you’re going to have to change. There is no change without challenge, my friends, there is no change without challenge. Anytime I have achieved in my life, okay, any single time there has been a period of discomfort. But for me, looking in the mirror and staying stuck and staying complacent is not acceptable and whatever it is I decide to do, I realize very clearly that I’m going to have to embrace that discomfort.
Last year, when I became first the president of RadiusAI and then eventually the co-CEO, I hadn’t coded anything since 1990–1991. And so suddenly I was back in tech, but not just in a little bit of tech. I have a digital marketing agency, Agency 8, I was in big tech. We’re talking about servers and CPUs and VPUs. We’re talking about edge processing versus cloud processing. We’re talking about artificial intelligence and all sorts of things. So I … some of you know this story. I enrolled in a certificate at MIT, not the community college. I chose MIT. And suddenly I was taking this class where it was anywhere from 10 to 12 to 15 hours a week talking about algorithms and deep learning and machine learning and all these different things.
And this, of course it was challenging. I had to carve out the time. I had to have a conversation with my family. I had to set micro goals. I had to write essays every single week, all of the things I did, but the pain of staying where I was, not being able to fully understand the whole conversation, the dialogue around me versus the challenge of with five kids, three companies carving out that extra time. I knew the answer was clear. And so I want to finish with this message. You’re all amazing. It breaks my heart when you’re staying stuck. It really does, and some of you are like, “Susie, you don’t know me.” Well, if you’ve ever commented on this BulletProof Monday, I do know you.
And some of you are starting this January in the same spot or behind where you were last January. That breaks my heart. BulletProof Monday is dedicated to all of you. I want to see you have progress. I want to see you make this year an above and beyond amazing year. I invite you to join me Wednesday night for my masterclass. It’s absolutely free. We’ve talked about today the seven reasons why you aren’t achieving. Now I want to move you on Wednesday into that place where you’re feeling purposeful, where you’re making more profit, where you’re feeling more productive.
So I’m going to share with you not just the physical skills to do that, but also the emotional skills to do that. Because at some point, you’re going to be going for it. You’re like, “Susan, I’m going for it,” but you’re going to get stuck and I want to equip you with those emotional skills to be able to transcend that, keep going and finish this year ahead of anywhere you’ve ever been before.
So with that, God bless. If this has been amazing, please share it. Please comment it. I’ll read all your comments again, if you haven’t followed me on Instagram, do you check that out? I post different stuff over there. It’s @Susansly. And again, if this has been great, I’d love to see your comments and questions. So with that, God bless, go rock your week. Let’s make it an amazing 2020. All right. God bless everyone, goodbye.
