1. What Is Your Goal?

Funny as this question may seem at this stage, it is absolutely necessary for you to answer it.

When you are striving to reach somewhere, it is essential to know what your final destination is. When the end goal isn’t clear, it is difficult get motivated about it. When you don’t know where you are going, when you don’t know how you are going to feel when you reach there (wherever that is), there is not much to look forward to.

On the other hand, a clear goal in mind by itself provides good deal of motivation. When you can live and breathe your goal in mind, when you can see the finish line clearly in your mind, it provides ample amount of motivation by itself.

So ask yourself … ‘What is my goal?’. And make sure your answer is as precise as possible.

2. Is This Your Goal?

The second essential question for you is ‘Is This Your Goal?’. The first answer that you give right off the bat will be yes. But think about it again.

People spend a lifetime trying to reach a goal, trying to fulfill a dream only to realize in the end that it was not their goal/dream to make true. Sometimes unknowingly, sometimes by choice we pick up on unfulfilled desires of others. Sometimes we start walking on a set path without questioning whether that’s the path we want to take or not.

When the goal you are striving so hard to achieve is not a goal which is in alignment of who you are and what you want deep within you, it is but natural that you face difficulty in trying to stay motivated about it.

An easy way to figure out whether this is your goal is to ask yourself why do you want achieve this goal? If you answer -

• Because I am supposed to
• Because my parents want me to
• Because that’s what everyone wants

You know, that this goal is not yours.

3. Why Are You Not Pursuing Your Goal?

You might want to sit with a pen and paper for this one. Things are about to get pretty interesting. There is no doubt you have asked and answered the question ‘Why are you not pursuing your goal?’ at least 20 times by now. You don’t even have to think of an answer to this question anymore. You know the answer right away.

But what if I told you your answer is wrong?

You don’t know the reason you are NOT pursuing your goal.

There is a theory that to most questions like this one, the first answer we give is not the true answer. It is the answer we are comfortable thinking about and sharing with others. But it is not the truth.

In fact, the second and the third and the fourth answer is also not true. It takes at least 20 attempts to answer the question to get somewhere near the truth.

For instance, the most standard answer to the question why don’t you exercise is … ‘I don’t have time’. And you and I, we both know this is a lie. If you were to advice someone else, if you were to help someone else figure out how to make exercise part of their schedule, you will be able to do it with ease this very moment.

So sit down with a pen and paper. And start the 20 question game.

Your cross examiner will ask you – ‘Why are you not pursuing your goal?’
You answer him/her.
Your cross examiner will tell you ‘No, this is not the real reason. What is the REAL reason you are not pursuing your goal?’
You answer him/her.
And you repeat this till you give at least 20 different answers.

Your cross examiner will jot down all of your answers for future reference and to make sure that none of the answers get repeated.

An interesting off shoot of this is to keep doing this exercise till you give a reason which fills your heart and makes you cry. When your answer touches you so deeply, you know you have found the right one.

(note: after a point just the thought of finding one more reason to ‘why are you not pursuing your goal’ is enough to make you cry)

4. What Will It Take For You To Start Taking Action?

If you wait for the perfect time to begin taking action, you wait forever. Perfect time is a myth. There is no time better than the current time.

By asking the question ‘What will it take for you to start taking action?’, you bring forth conditions that you have mentally set, that need to be fulfilled for the time to be right for taking action.

There are two benefits of asking this question.

• 1. It helps you identify the conditions which are already present in your mind but you aren’t aware of on conscious level.
• 2. When you know the conditions, you can do something about them and clear your path to action.

Knowledge offers you choice and freedom. When you know what you are facing, it’s easier to deal with it. When you know what your conditions are, you are free to analyze them. You are free to choose them or discard them. You are free to keep them as they are, change them, or remove them completely.

As you analyze your conditions, remember that the lesser conditions you have, the easier it is to meet them and of course, this automatically implies easier for you to take action as well. So when you sit with your conditions, this is what you do (in order of preference) :

• 1. Remove as many conditions as possible
• 2. Change conditions to make them flexible or easy to meet
• 3. Create a way to meet those conditions with least effort (meeting conditions by itself shouldn’t become another ‘big’ activity on your list)
• 4. Meet your conditions

How does this work out in real life? Here’s your practice assignment –

Let’s say your end goal is exercise. You know you need to exercise. You know you want to exercise. You know how important exercise is for you. But somehow, you end up not exercising or exercising for a day or two only.

So take a pen and paper and start jotting down what needs to happen for you to exercise. In other words, what’s the perfect picture/scene in your mind when you think of you exercising regularly? Here are some ideas to get you started -

• 1. You are getting good sleep at night
• 2. You wake up at 5 in the morning
• 3. You feel like exercising
• 4. You are excited about exercising
• 5. You are empty stomach but not hungry
• 6. You are energetic
• 7. You have good workout clothes
• 8. You have sports shoes
• 9. You have one hour to exercise
• 10. You have a workout buddy
• 11. You have a workout video
• 12. You join a specific kind of class – tai-chi / abs / spin etc
• 13. You have good music to keep you entertained
• 14. You have space to exercise alone
• 15. You have a time slot in which you can exercise everyday

Get the picture? If you sit for sometime, I am sure you can come up with a list which is longer than this one. Work on the list and see how many unnecessary conditions we add to taking action.

Waking up at 5 in the morning used to be my favorite condition for anything new that I am starting. Once I dropped it and scheduled evening time to exercise, things started falling in place.

5. Will You Take Action?

This question is not about ‘will you take action some day?’. This question is about ‘will you take action right away?’. Have the buts and can’t which stop you from taking action (and justify you in not doing so) gone away?

If you answer a simple ‘Yes’ and get started, you are on your way.

If you answer ‘Yes but … ’ then there is something you need to think about … do you really and I mean really REALLY want to work on this activity? Or are you lying to yourself that your end goal matters to you and you want to work on it?

If you really REALLY want to go for your goal, quit making excuses.

If the goal doesn’t matter to you, stop forcing the goal on yourself and stop wasting your time on it.