In January, I spoke about committing to a gateway goal instead of a New Year’s Resolution. That blog caught the attention of a colleague in Guadalajara, Mexico, and led to an invitation to speak to over 800 employees on that site. Wow! What fun! Thank you, Sonia!
In my brief but impactful 10 minutes, I introduced the concept of the gateway goal (remember that it’s the ONE thing that once you accomplish it clears the way for all sorts of other goals to be accomplished).
The second thing I talked about was ‘what could block or stop you?’. This is the part that no one ever wants to think about. When we’re setting a goal, we don’t want to consider anything but easy success. I believe this is where I pull out that old saying: ‘if you fail to plan, plan to fail’. You see, setbacks and backsliding will happen. And if you haven’t anticipated them, you will fail.
If you make a plan to handle them when they come up, you won’t get knocked off your goal.
Try this ONE thing
Create an “If/Then” statement: identify something that could derail you - that’s the “If” part, then decide how you can handle it - that’s the “Then” part. I call this my Jedi mind trick; in reality, it is based on neuroscience (how your brain works) and it really does work.
Wanna know my favorite one? I struggle to resist sweets, especially brownies (I’m not alone, am I?), so here’s one I used to drop 40 pounds – If I get offered something sweet, then I will wait 15 minutes before eating it. 90% of the time, after waiting 15 minutes, the craving has passed and I can pass up the sweet – brilliant, no?
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