Are you willing to face the challenges of going for your goal? If you can answer these 5 challenge questions, then you’re off to a good start!
In a previous article, I shared about “You’ve Got Goal Getting All Wrong! Here’s How to Fix It.”. I discussed the powerful tools we use in our Goal Fulfilment programs that can help you reach your goals faster, easier.
Now maybe you’re just about to start writing your goal. Or maybe you’ve written your goals. There are five challenge questions that you must ask to put power behind your goal.
If you fail to ask these questions, your goal statement may be too flimsy, misdirected, or even impossibly ambitious beyond natural reach. Or worse, you just might reach your goal and discover that you set your sights too low, or that it isn’t really what you want in life.
As you consider your life, here are five questions you must ask yourself to put power behind your goal. The last is the clincher. If you want true power to be built into your goal, you will need to set aside time to DO the last challenge.
Challenge Questions to Ask Yourself
1.) “What is my goal?”
Your “What” is your vehicle. It is what you will aim for as you move from where you are to where you want to be. It is not just a destination. It is a new person that you aim to BE.
When you choose to put up a business, to write a book, or run a marathon, remember that it is just an *expression* of what you offer to this world.
2.) “Why is this goal important to me?”
If your goal is to be an architect because your father wants you to be an architect, will you have true fulfillment in becoming an architect? If your goal is to run the business of your grandfather, will that bring you true joy? If you’ll be happy, good. If not, you need to catch yourself, you’ll need to know if your goal is someone else’s goal.
And you have two choices: (a) suck it up and accept in mind and heart that there is something to gain from this sacrifice, or (b) change goal.
On the other hand, if your goal is truly coming from your being, your heart will know. Is your goal a deeply set inexplicable desire? Is it an advocacy? Is it a calling? Is it what your experiences in life have led you to pursue?
“Why is this goal important to me?”
When you answer this question, does your mind, heart, body embrace the answer? Your heart knows when your entire being is aligned with your goal,
3.) “What am I willing to sacrifice to reach my goal?”
Going for your goal requires you to do something different. If by going for your goal you won’t be changing anything in what you do, it ain’t a goal. It is just a continuation (an eventuality) of what you are already currently doing.
To reach for your goals, it is imperative that you change something. In fact, you will need to sacrifice many things to reach your goals. You may need to sacrifice sleep, social media time, that snooze button, TV, that extra expense. What are you willing to sacrifice to reach your goal?
When an Olympic athlete receives finally is on the podium to receive his gold medal, he is brought to tears. It is not because he will receive some cash prize or endorsement.
It is because it this medal symbolizes the payoff for all the sacrifices that he had made on his path to win the medal. All the early morning training, the aches and pains, the events missed because he was in training, the late nights of studying to catch up with school work. He is crying because all his hard work has transformed him enough to be given that gold medal.
- Hidilyn Diaz wins Olympic Medal
What are you willing to sacrifice?
4.) “What values do I develop by going for my goal?”
Are you going for a championship to develop discipline? Are you aiming for that sales target to exhibit service? Are you aiming for that trip incentive as an expression of your love for your family?
This. This is what makes you a winner no matter what. When every step of the way, every sacrifice you make, every new thing you try, every old thing (that works) you persist on — when you are doing all these things and you focus on the values that you are developing, then you are a winner every step of the way.
5.) “What is your purpose in life?”
What is my “why”? What is your reason for existing? This is an existential question that most people won’t ever find the answer. Most people won’t even ask themselves this question.
But you are different. Because you have come this far and you are meant for greatness! What is your “why”? What is your reason for existing?
This is where I give you the clincher. Would you like to discover your life’s purpose in as little as 20 minutes?
The following exercise will help you tap into your innermost purpose in life.
All you need is private time and space alone, a piece of paper (or journal) and a pen. You’re going to hand write your answers to a question. You will keep handwriting your answer to the same question. Sometimes your answer will repeat, maybe with a slight change from previous. The key is to just keep writing, keep answering.
At a certain point, probably after you’ve answered more than 48 times or even after 97 times, your heart will know that you’ve discovered your purpose. Because you will feel something very different. An inner peace that nobody else can question. Because your heart knows.
Get ready with your paper and pen, get ready to answer a question.
Before I send you off to do this activity on your own, I leave you with a gem of inspiration, a video from comedian Michael Jr.
Now, on your piece of paper, at the top of the page, write down this question:
“What is my purpose in life?”
Answer this question again and again, until you get it.
When you’ve answered these five questions, you will have more power behind your goal. If you answer all these questions with your heart, I promise: you will do whatever it takes to reach your goals!
Cheering you on!
Coach Edwin
Image credits: Pixabay, ABS-CBN Sports