Roadblocks That Keep Us From Achieving Our Goals
Kristin Burke’s mission is to help others maximize their potential and achieve their definitions of success. As a goal achievement coach, Kristin collaborates with women, entrepreneurs and leaders to accomplish breakout performances.
How do you feel when you set a goal? Most people feel energy and enthusiasm. They tend to be overly optimistic about what it takes to achieve a goal and hopeful that the journey to goal achievement will be smooth. With so many positive emotions and thoughts at the start of the goal achievement journey, why do so many people fail to achieve their goals?
I’ve been coaching small business owners since 2009 and after thousands of coaching conversations, I’ve identified four characteristics of goal achievers – clarity, confidence, courage, and consistency. Goal clarity is achieved by knowing what you want and why you want it. It sounds simple, but clarity can be difficult to achieve without dedicating intentional time to work on yourself and your business. Confidence, courage, and consistency can all be impacted by your willingness to overcome roadblocks that can surface on your goal achievement journey.
When we start implementing ideas and start acting in the direction of our goals, we might encounter adversity, setbacks, and disappointments. The optimistic feelings we had at the start of our goal achievement journey can turn into feelings of frustration when we realize it’s harder than we originally thought or when things aren’t working the way we thought they would. If we don’t learn to recognize goal achievement roadblocks and have plans to overcome the roadblocks, we might be tempted to stop pursuing our goals.
Continue reading to learn about two common roadblocks that can derail small business owners and ideas on how to overcome these roadblocks.
Roadblock #1 – “I Don’t Have Time.”
We live in an “I’m so busy!” society. And let’s face it, as a small business owner you are likely very busy managing the different aspects of running your business. It’s important to identify the difference between truly not having time and feeling intimidated or overwhelmed by a task or action that will help you achieve your goal. When something is new and unfamiliar it’s tempting to say “I don’t have time” because we usually tell ourselves stories when we get intimidated. And those stories keep us from acting in the direction of our goals.
By saying we don’t have the time, we give ourselves an excuse that can keep us from moving forward. I found myself doing this in my own business. I wanted to implement an email list to stay connected with clients and expand my reach. I took Jenna Kutcher‘s course on growing an email list, bought Flodesk, and was still stuck making progress. After casually logging in a few times, I felt overwhelmed and not sure where to begin. So, I kept putting the task off farther and farther into the future, using the excuse that I simply didn’t have time. (Spoiler alert – I had the time all along. It didn’t just magically appear. I had to work through what felt like a mountain of new learning and unfamiliar tasks!)
Despite my initial resistance, I started to slowly figure out Flodesk and how to serve my email list with month-end goal reminders and podcast release updates (if you are thinking, hey, I need a reminder to track my goals each month click here to get on the list). A game-changer for me was when I delegated creating and scheduling emails to my virtual assistant. Admittedly, I held onto this task for far too long and it wasn’t until I was truly crunched for time, preparing to be out of the office, that I delegated it to my VA. Not only did I learn that asking my VA for help with email marketing freed up my time to focus on business development, but she does a far better job with designing the emails.
If you find yourself falling victim to thinking or saying “I don’t have time,” there are three ways to overcome this roadblock.
- The first is to unpack the story you’re telling yourself. Do you really have zero time in your day or week to tackle the task? Or, are you prioritizing everything else to avoid facing the challenge?
- The second solution is to book an appointment with yourself at the beginning of the day. You don’t have to schedule enough time to complete the task, simply book an hour and get started. Often, when we create space to act, we build the confidence to keep going.
- The third solution is to partner with a virtual assistant and delegate the task.
Roadblock #2 – Hesitation to Self-Promote
So many small business owners are extremely passionate about what they do and might even be experts, but that passion and expertise won’t matter much if you are not willing to promote yourself. Until you get an experienced sales team in place, you are responsible for selling your products and services. Even when you get a team in place, there’s a good chance that no one will be as passionate as you.
If you struggle to make sales calls, proactively asking for referrals, or highlighting your business achievements on social media, hesitation to self-promote might be hindering your success.
Women tend to face this roadblock more frequently than men. According to Harvard Business Review, there is a “large gender gap in self-promotion.” Men rate their performance 33% higher than women who are performing equally – even when ranking themselves higher could be financially rewarding.
Growing confidence and belief in yourself and your business is important to move past this roadblock. Since we are often far more critical of ourselves than others, connecting with a trusted friend or mentor can help you unpack your achievements and celebrate your wins, which builds confidence. Start by asking them to describe your strengths and accomplishments and be willing to receive what they say without downplaying any positive input.
Another solution to grow confidence is to build the habit of consistently recognizing your own wins. The Friday Ritual has been a game-changing habit in my own business. At the end of each business week, I journal my wins for the week, lessons learned, and priorities for the next week. Reviewing my calendar and intentionally noting what went well, the progress I’ve made, and recognizing the little milestones along the way grows confidence and inspiration to keep moving forward. You can listen to this episode of Elite Achievement to learn more about the Friday Ritual.
Partnering with a virtual assistant can help you overcome hesitation to self-promote because VAs can bring a logical, non-emotional perspective to marketing and promotion. They can write calls to action in social media posts asking people to sign up. VAs can draft emails announcing your products or services and schedule them to be sent to your email list. Several of my clients even rely on their team members to help them prepare to intentionally ask for referrals to grow their client-based businesses.
“I don’t have time” and hesitation to self-promote are two roadblocks that can hinder your goal achievement progress.
If you want to learn more about these roadblocks and other roadblocks, join me on Wednesday, April 27th at 3:00 pm CDT for a webinar hosted by Trusty Oak.
During this interactive webinar you will learn:
- The four common roadblocks that can hinder goal achievement
- Ways to overcome roadblocks
- How collaborating with a virtual assistant can help you navigate roadblocks so you can achieve your goals
