“Most people think resources or the lack thereof hold them back. In fact it is not lack of resources but rather lack of resourcefulness that truly prevents people from achieving their dreams” -Anthony Robbins

Usually when we do not reach our goals there are several key factors that we name to explain our “failures”: lack of money, lack of experience, lack of time, lack of necessary technology, and lack of support. This is true. Many of us may lack all these things, BUT! There is a “but”…

We can acquire anything we want, given a little bit of creativity and determination.

If you think about it, there is plenty of money to go around. Ask Bill Gates if you have doubts about it. He will tell you.
There is also no such thing as lack of time. We have all been given the same number of hours a day. And it is up to us to decide how to use these 24 hours. Take Barak Obama, for example. He is a very busy person. There is no doubt about it. And, yet, he finds the time to exercise regularly. After this it becomes almost embarrassing to use lack of time as an excuse to postpone our health goals. Because let’s face it, neither of us can claim that we are busier or have more important tasks on our to-do list than the president of the United States.

We may believe that we lack resources, but I tend to agree with Antony Robbins -lack of resources is not a defining factor to whether or not we will accomplish anything in life. The defining factor is our resourcefulness. If you are creative, determined and resourceful enough, you will find a way to achieve your goals no matter what.

However, there are several obstacles that can stop us from being resourceful:

1. Fear.

Fear’s main function is to protect us from harm and help to escape dangerous situations. However, this protection mechanism that helped our ancestors to survive in the past has become one of the main blocks to resourcefulness for most of us.

• Every time we have doubts about starting our own business or learning a new skill, because it may prove not to be a worthy investment, we act out of fear.
• Every time we turn down a new opportunity, because there is some risk involved, we act out of fear.
• Every time we do not ask for help, because we are afraid to look “weak”, “foolish” or “inadequate”, we act out of fear.

I wish I could tell you that there is a hidden “fear switch” that you can turn on and off whenever you wish.

Unfortunately, there is only one effective method to overcome our fears – do more of what we fear.

You might have started something in the past and it did not work out the way you initially planned. This happens to the best of us. Every person has their own personal baggage of failures, mistakes and set-backs. But it is not a good enough reason to stop trying!

2. Social conditioning.

It is hard to be resourceful and believe that everything is possible, when we are constantly told what we can or cannot do, when we are politely pointed out our shortcomings and past failures, or when we are taught that success is for the very few, who have been born under a lucky star, or more specifically into a wealthy family. All this negative social conditioning creates our inner blocks that hold us back, even when we could have been moving forward.

Do not accept blindly everything that you are told. There is a huge difference between constructive feedback and negative conditioning. The first one motivates you into improving something about yourself or your life. The second one makes you feel unworthy, helpless and inadequate.

3. Lack of self-confidence.

There are plenty of resources up there. The problem is that many people do not believe that they deserve them. They dream about what they love to do, but when it comes to planning or going after those dreams, they do not even bother. A little voice inside of them says “There is no way YOU can do it”. You might be telling yourself that you do not deserve success, because you lack talent, self-confidence, education or will power.

But the truth is that success is not some kind of reward given for being a “perfect son/daughter”, an “A” student or “employee of the month”. Success is a result of aligning your passion, energy and your goals together. It starts with finding out what you want to do and gathering courage to go after your dreams.

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An old inscription found in a church in Sussex, England, circa 1730, states:

“A vision without a task is but a dream,
A task without a vision is drudgery,
A task with a vision is the hope of the world.”

We think that Goal Setting and the Law of Attraction are modern day concepts. As it turns out they are not. People knew all along that in order to achieve anything significant and long-lasting you must have both: VISION and ACTION.

The Biggest Misconceptions about VISION:

In spite of what many people think, vision is not just a clear image of what you would like to achieve. It is much deeper than that.

1. Vision is not an abstract outcome. The difference between an adult’s way of thinking to that of a child’s, is that we adults, have the capacity to think in abstract terms. This is wonderful, until we start to dream and state our desires using these concepts. “Good health”, “gorgeous looking body”, “happy family”, “stellar career” or “wealth” are concepts that everyone will imagine and understand differently. The problem with these statements is that there is no way of telling when you have achieved them.

Any great vision should always be stated in concrete, specific, and measurable terms.

2. Vision is not a dream. A dream is a castle in the air. A vision starts with a dream, but it also has a foundation that is grounded in reality. Too often when people set goals or state their intentions they ignore one simple thing – their starting point. No matter how great you are at visualizing, you cannot become a millionaire in a month if your current monthly income is $2,000.

Do not be afraid to dream big. But also be realistic about the time it will take you to get from where you are right now to where you want to be.

3. Vision is not an “ideal” that you should pursue. An ideal is something that we feel we SHOULD achieve guided by our own “idealistic” standards or by trying to meet other people’s overly high expectations. Vision, on the other hand, is a goal that we willingly and eagerly CHOOSE to pursue. How to tell the difference? Listen to yourself! If your goals make you feel frustrated, angry and resistant, then you are trying to force yourself into doing something that you do not want to do in the first place. But if you feel empowered, enthusiastic and inspired by your vision then you are on the right track!

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Last night I looked in the mirror after I had finished brushing my teeth and thought that I was really beautiful. Do you have these moments when you catch your reflection in a mirror or shop window and think, “Boy, I look good!”? Well, last night I felt like that!

This morning when saw myself I almost changed my mind… My hair was a curly-frizzy mess, my eyes were sleepy, no matter how much I tried to keep them wide open, my face was grayish white and I had a big red line left by the pillow all across my cheek.

Do you know how they say that we all need our beauty sleep? Well, that was not it. This morning after spending 8 hours in bed I had definitely awakened from some special kind of ugliness sleep. I could have easily passed a casting for any horror movie looking like this. I felt frustration building up. How will I ever make THIS girl staring back at me look somewhat decent!

Before coming to a final conclusion that this was not my day, I remembered an article that I read yesterday. It talked about attachment to a certain idea being the number one reason for work stress.

For example, when we have one of those really bad days at work when everything seems to go wrong and nothing gets done, the reason for our stress could be our attachment to the idea that we must be extremely productive every day. It is an interesting thought. At least it resonates with me. I know that when I have one of those super-productive days I often expect that the next day will be just as great (which is obviously not realistic). We cannot perform at the maximum of our efficiency and creativity every single day.

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For many of us January is one month of the year when we reflect on what we would like to change in our life, set goals, start new projects, decide to let go of negative habits and improve our character. I honestly believe that if we all managed to keep the same level of motivation, excitement and determination as we have in January, for the rest year, we would not need to read books about overcoming procrastination or staying focused on our goals.

Unfortunately, February comes and our enthusiasm and commitment wears thin. We find ourselves slowly slipping back to our old habits and old lifestyle. And finally, after about a month-and-a-half we throw our hands up in the air and declare, “Forget about it! It is too hard”. Then, of course, we wait for the next year to try again.

This year can be different!

Here are Seven Top Tips to help you stick to your New Year’s resolutions throughout the rest of the year:

1.    Have realistic expectations. In the best tradition of the  holiday season, when we decide to pursue a certain goal, we often overestimate our future level of motivation and productivity and underestimate possible implications that we might encounter on our way. Do not expect to see immediate results of your efforts. Miracles do happen, but only to people who are willing to wait for them! Keep that in mind when you set deadlines for your goals.

Solution: Imagine that my New Year’s resolution is very similar to yours. How long do you think it will take me to reach this goal, given that I have a full time job, two young children that I have to pick up after school and a Salsa Class on Wednesdays and Fridays? So what is your verdict? Most likely, this is the same deadline you should consider for yourself. It has been proven that we are a lot better at making estimations for other people than for ourselves.

2. Pick just one goal. I know that it might be tempting to go after one career-related goal, one personal life goal, one health goal, one self-improvement goal and top that all off with a three-week vacation, a great book that you are dying to write and Japanese language courses that you always wanted to take. Have you ever tried juggling with 3-7 tennis balls? Try it. I bet you, that you will drop at least two balls on your first try. Juggling with 3-7 goals is no different. You will give up on all of them before you know it.

Solution: Prioritize. Choose just one resolution that is the most important to you at the moment and fully concentrate your efforts on it. The rest of the resolutions on your list can wait.

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“If you don’t have time to do it right you must have time to do it over”. ~Author Unknown

Last week I had the rare opportunity to meet one of the top three world’s futurologists (as it turns out “futurology” is a profession!). This highly successful man gets paid $20,000 by such corporations as IBM and BMW for making a 45 minute speech on the future of innovations. We started talking and he said a very curious thing, “People are predisposed to think in two categories: short-term and long-term perspective. I get paid a lot of money, not because I am smarter than most of the innovation consultants out there, but because I am one of the few specialists who makes mid-term predictions. ”

This phrase for some reason stuck with me and made me notice something I have never thought of before. In goal-setting all the “experts” advice us to break goals in two categories:  short-term goals and long-term goals. We have all accepted this as a given, because it makes sense to us. And yet how many of us continuously underestimate how much time it will take us to achieve our goals and later feel frustrated about not being able to meet our deadlines?

Maybe the real problem lies in the system itself and not in our inability to plan our actions steps correctly?

Let me explain this…

Short-term goals are generally defined as those that may be achieved in one year or less. While short-term goals are easy and motivating there are a few serious problems:

1.  We often confuse short-term goals as tasks on our to-do lists. As a result we set too many of them and later feel overwhelmed and stressed out.

2. Our short-term goals are often competing with one another. For example, you may want to pay off your credit card debt, save money for a car down payment. But at the same time you dream about a two week vacation in Thailand and you also know that you need to buy your mom a Birthday present. These goals do not seem contradictive, but they all compete for one of your most important resources – money.

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When we fail to accomplish something, we try to explain to ourselves and others why it happened. Sometimes we understand the true reasons and learn from our mistakes. And sometimes we are just making up excuses.

Here are the 5 worst Goal-Setting excuses. Make sure that you do not rationalize (read “rational – lies”) your inability of achieving your goals too much.

1. “I need to learn ALL the information, before I apply it!”

This is the perfectionist speaking in you. Desire to make it perfect is a huge roadblock to your growth, and productivity. If you believe that you must learn everything you possibly can about goal setting before actually setting a goal, you will most likely achieve very little or nothing. The truth is that humans learn best by a trial-and-error method. You cannot become a professional, unless you start as a beginner. Similar you cannot say which goal setting techniques work best for you, unless you actually try them.

Solution: As difficult as it may seem to let go of your desire to do everything perfectly, you must do it. Apply what you learn immediately to see how it works in real life. It might not work out, but you will still gain valuable insight from the experience. On the other hand, if you do not try you WILL fail for sure.

2. “I don’t have time”
This is a good one (especially when it is stated with a slightly desperate tone of voice). It implies that you are really busy doing something else that is VERY important. I often used this excuse myself, but in the long run if you are very busy, if you continuously worry about being late, if you do not have time to pursue your goals and improve your quality of life it can mean two things:1) you are not managing your time right; 2) you can not get your priorities straight. Sometimes it is actually both.

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Goal-Setting is a relatively new concept, however, Goal-Setting Laws, just like gravity or physical Laws of motion have existed from the beginning of time.

We might not be aware of them, but it does not mean that they do not influence our life.

So pay close attention!

1. THE LAW OF NEUTRAL POSITION. You can not know whether you are going in the right direction and plan your route, while you are driving at full speed. If you are always busy trying to achieve one goal after another, you have no time to ask yourself, if this is what you truly want. To make any changes in your life you have to first stop and only after that change direction.

2. THE LAW OF A STRAIGHT LINE. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. To find the shortest way to your goal you just have to know two coordinates – your current position and the position of your goal. If you do not know where you are going, the chances are that you will get lost and continue to go in circles.

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