Successful goal pursuit requires a burning, inescapable desire

I’m all about ambitious goals, as you probably know. I’ve got tons of them! But, I don’t tackle them all at once. Not just because working on too many at once reduces my focus, but because rarely am I truly motivated to pursue more than one at a time. And sometimes, I’m not truly motivated to tackle any of them.

Does this ever happen to you? What should we do about that?

Before we get to that, let’s talk about what happens when we go after a specific, ambitious goal before we have a burning and inescapable desire to achieve it.

What happens when we go for it anyway

The initial energy and excitement at the beginning of goal pursuit dissipates over time. Eventually – and sometimes fairly quickly – we lose momentum and motivation, and we can’t get things going again. This is why New Years resolutions are typically abandoned after only a few weeks.

Why do we make this mistake?

The temporary excitement we experience at the beginning provides misleading fuel that tricks us into thinking we won’t run out of gas. With our enthusiasm blinders on, we respond more to external influences and pay less attention to the internal indicators that would likely have made us pause. Social media and other forms of marketing reinforce our wanting to be like other people who’ve achieved this goal we seek. Then, the lure of instant gratification makes us just want to get going without reflection or analysis.

The impact of this mistake

When we don’t have a burning, inescapable desire, it is very likely that we will quit before getting too far along our goal pursuit. Then, time passes and we forget that we were duped by initial excitement before, and we go after a new goal (or the same one again). And then we stop. Again. The cycle of never finishing what we start makes it likely the pattern will continue. This can be devastating to our self-esteem and self-efficacy, which significant lowers the chances of future success.

How can we turn this around?

Making a small time investment up front can create or reinforce the ambition ignition you need to get started OR stop you from pursuing something you won’t stay excited about.

You will naturally clear the path of obstacles in your way when you have a burning, inescapable desire to achieve your goal.

If you want to set yourself up for successful achievement of your most ambitious goals, take some time to reflect before you begin to tackle the goal. You want to confirm you’ll be “all in” not just at the beginning, but through the entire goal-getting journey. Once you do that, you are ready to get going!