Welcome back dear reader!

Goals, goals, goals. Well in my country, like in any other, we get excited about the new year. We go on social media and post things like “This is my year of anointing,” “I am going to be different this year #new me” and all that. By now, most have abandoned most of the goals planned for the year. Let’s talk about this today.

Before we get started, let’s learn a few new Shona words:

Hazviskushanda! – It’s not working

Zvirikufaya – all is well

Why do we fail to achieve our goals?

Well, consistently failing to achieve your goals is less of a result, and more of a symptom that the goals setting process that you have doesn’t work – or a component of it doesn’t work. Let’s have a look into what causes this.

1. Lack of visualization

One really needs to begin with the end in mind. I always used to think people who say “visualize the end goal, Imagine it, feel it..” were weird crazy people and that the process of visualization was rather pointless, but it’s only now that I have realized that they were right.

The process of visualization shows you whether the goal is worthwhile or not. If the goal is worthwhile, the process gives you a rough idea of what exactly you want (and what is unnecessary). This in turn, builds up the motivation to keep on working to achieve that goal

• There is no WHY

Simon Sinek, a really great motivational speaker, says always start with WHY. Ask yourself why exactly you want to achieve your goals. When you run out of motivation, and ask yourself why you are doing it, the answer will re-ignite that flame within you and have you back on track achieving your goals. Without knowledge of why you are going after your goals, when the motivation dies out, you’ll just tell yourself hazviskushanda and quit.

• Lack of consistency

Nature gives really good examples of this. Go to a river on a free weekend and have a look at how smooth the pebbles in the riverbed are. This is cause by friction between the water and the rocks (and also by the rocks bumping into each other). Over years, water manages to turn a stone with very rough edges into a beautiful, smooth, shining pebble. The same applies to goals. Working on them bit by bit will give the end result of the goals being accomplished. This creates that habit of creating + working consistently + accomplishing goals. Pretty soon you end up becoming the person who achieves goals she sets for herself a.k.a a successful person.

• The goals aren’t realistic

Trying to exercise everyday when you always ran away from the sports fields in high school won’t work. First create a habit. A realistic one. Remember, the whole point of setting goals is for you to actually accomplish them.

• The goals conflict with each other

Trying to stay up late to finish goal A + creating another goal to wake up at 4.AM to meditate won’t work. The first goal will interfere with the second, and therefore proper planning is needed.

• The environment isn’t suitable for the goals

Your environment shapes you. Every part of you. By this I’m referring to your physical environment + your 5 closest friends. Imagine trying to work on improving yourself e.g. changing your mind set by feeding your mind with good material (have a look at some of the material I would recommend for this) and hanging out with people with an incredibly low self-esteem who are couch potatoes. In such a case it’s either you change your environment or you change your goals.

• You are lazy

Well if you’re lazy and put the blame on everyone but yourself then you’re going nowhere. Start by accepting this fact, and then make it your goal to substitute the habit of being lazy with that of being a hard worker.

• You didn’t make substitutes

Nature abhors a vacuum. You cannot end a bad habit and substitute it with nothing. You first come up with a good habit, do a little bit of research, visualize on how to implement it in your life, and then slowly substitute the bad habit for the good one. Sudden changes usually result in something failing – both in physics and in real life.

So do we Zimbabweans do about it?

Nothing. Like all other citizens, we blame the weather, the government and the rich for “stealing money from us”

What can we do about this?

Well, you can have a look at one of my articles that explains a few good people to follow on the internet.

In addition, you can choose a 365 day book to read. You just read one page a day for 365 days. That’s not too hard because a page won’t kill anyone, and it will teach you consistency, as well as many other lessons. After a year of reading it, you’ll be a different person who will use mostly positive words such as “Zvirikufaya!”

 My current read is “365 Days With Self-Discipline by Martin Meadows – download it and give it a try!

Well that brings us to the end of the article. Happy holidays!

How many goals have you abandoned so far? Leave a comment Below!

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Peace be with you. See you next week!