There are common mis-steps that I’ve made and I see others making. I’m highlighting them here so we can support each other in our collective pursuit of our personal and professional goal achievement.

Three common areas where even high-achieving professionals can become derailed:

1. Allowing urgent items to take priority over our schedule, nudging goal efforts aside.

You may be thinking - of course…it’s urgent.

Well, is it urgent for you or someone else? Many times what’s urgent for someone else lands on your plate with a deadline attached, creating a sense of urgency for you. Particularly if you’re in a line of work where this is the norm rather than the exception, this can be a challenging environment to pursue those important but not urgent activities, which is the category that many goal efforts fall into. But, note I said challenging, not impossible.

I came across a quote that grabbed my attention and it’s aligned with some themes I’ve been noticing lately. Themes such as: putting time and effort in for a future reward, making commitments, and decision-making.

“Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.”

― Robert H. Schuller

I think of the athlete winning their race and how that’s accomplished on the heals of thousands of hours of early practices, doing drills over and over again until the movements are ingrained into their muscle memory.

The artist creating their beautiful piece only after years of perfecting their various brush strokes and meticulous mixing to achieve the perfect colours and shades.

The ballet dancer who makes a leap or a pirouette look as graceful as can be, like they’re floating across the stage; perfected after years of doing daily barre exercises.

What motivates a human to do those daily or regular, sometimes grueling or methodical behaviours and practices to move them forward to a goal, a vision, or a destination in the future?