"Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is SUCCESS."
-- Henry Ford

As I mentioned in my Teleclass "5 Master Keys to Keeping Your New Year Resolutions", in order to achieve your personal or business goals, you have to get clear about what you want and why you want it, set S.M.A.R.T. goals, have a well-designed action plan, and take focused & consistent action steps until you succeed. A goal without a plan is just wishful thinking. However, if you cannot stay focused, take consistent efforts, and stick to your goals until the end, even the best action plan in the world is useless.

Most people fail because they either didn't have a solid action plan (Master Key #4), or they did not set up the appropriate "support structure" and "accountability partners" (Master Key #5) to help them stay focused and motivated on achieving their goals.

Let's face it, when left to their own devices, most people don't have the discipline and perseverance to make sustainable changes and stick to their goals until the end. When you make a promise to someone else, you are more likely to keep your words. That's why it's very important to tell others about your goals, and have someone keep you accountable.

Are you a loner? When it comes to success and goal-attainment, there is power in numbers (of people, that is). Interestingly, among the people who took my goal-setting quiz, many of them identified "being a loner" as their #1 self-sabotaging behavior. Can you relate to this?

The truth is, being a loner could seriously hurt your chance of creating the maximum success you're capable of achieving. The old wisdom like "Two heads are better than one" and "It takes a village" still ring true. Human Beings thrive in the comfort and support of "community". Psychologist Abraham Maslow argued in his Hierarchy of Needs that a sense of belonging is one of the basic human needs. It's simply human nature to seek out support from others. When you try to go it alone, not only is it unhealthy for your emotional (and possibly physical) well-being, it deprives you the potential support and resources you could get to achieve your goals. Instead of going it alone, you need to build your personal success team.


Accountability Partner

Having a partner, buddy, or a group to work with you and support you, could significantly increase your motivation to stick to your goals. I'm sure you would agree that when you have a workout buddy, you are more likely to stick to your exercise routines, than if you're going alone. If you want to quit smoking or drinking, you might be able to stick to it longer if you join a support group.

In addition to keeping you company and keeping you motivated, a partner/group can also provide ideas, tools, resources, and/or physically help you with the task. For example, if you want to re-organize your house, it will be much easier and effective if you can enlist the help of your family, friends and/or a professional organizer.


Call in the Professionals

Sometimes you need to call in the professionals to get the best results you are looking for. Let's take the exercise example again. You can workout with your friend to keep each other company and keep moving. You can certainly lose weight and get leaner. Now, if you have hired a personal trainer to help you, your results could be several times better than you doing it on your own.

If you are a business owner, you need to make sure you spend your time and energy on the 20% of tasks that produce 80% of profit for you. That means, you need to delegate and outsource some tasks in order to focus your time and energy on those important tasks that nobody else can do for you. For example, with the proper software, you could file your own income tax. It takes a lot of time and effort, but you can do it yourself. Or, you can hire an accountant to do it for you. You have to pay the accountant, but you could save your time & energy for what's more important to you, or what you enjoy doing. And the accountant might be able to get more tax return for you.

The same thing with coaching. You could try to achieve your goals on your own, and you could probably make it too. But, if you hire a life or business coach, you will dramatically increase your chance of achieving your goals.

Coaching is an ideal support structure to help you achieve your personal and professional goals, because accountability and commitment are two of the most important elements in the coaching process. A coach can help you set realistic goals, serve as a sounding board, help you overcome limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging behaviors, give you insights and resources, teach you new skills, stretch you & push you to your full potential, help you design a step-by-step action plan, and keep you on track and accountable. Every week you come to coaching session to work on your challenges, celebrate your progress, and you get a coaching assignment, which is your next action step that you commit to do the coming week. This is how I can keep you accountable and keep you moving forward toward your goals.

By the way, there is still time to take advantage of the special January discounts -- save $125 for my 6-week Breakthrough Goal Express Program, and save $300 for my Diamond and Platinum private coaching programs. Read about the New Year Special Discount in my previous newsletter.


Find the Right Crowd

Be very careful about who you tell your goals and dreams to. You want to share your dreams and goals only with those who will support your vision, believe in you, and help you succeed. Sometimes as you make positive changes in your life, you would find that not everybody around you is happy and supportive of your new endeavor. Even your own family or friends could be "pulling your leg", because they might be jealous or afraid that your relationship will change. So, be very careful to keep your dream and goals only to yourself and those who you know will support you.

Jim Rohn, self-made millionaire and successful author, said "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with". You want to surround yourself with people who are more successful, or at least as successful as you. You will be inspired by them and receive resources from them. Joining or creating a mastermind group is a great way to surround yourself with like-minded, driven, successful people that will propel you to higher level of success.

If all your friends want to do is complain about their problems, maybe it's time you make new friends. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes you do need to vent and release the emotions. But, there is a clear distinction between occasional venting and chronic complaining. If you find yourself in "The Whiners Club", get out of there and join a mastermind or support group instead.


Dare to Connect

The bigger your goals are, the bigger your success team has to be. Depending on your goals, you might want to enroll a combination of friends, family, colleagues, mastermind or support group and/or professionals in your personal success team. Having a success team in your corner will enhance your performance, keep you accountable & focused, give you support, and help you obtain the resources you need to achieve maximum success.

What if you don't know anyone who can be your accountability partner or success team? It's up to you to reach out and connect with someone who could help you. If you can't find an appropriate group to join, why not create your own?

If you know that being a loner didn't work for you, you've got to do something different if you would like to produce different (better) results. Your success depends on it.

Remember, you don't have to go it alone. There are better and less lonely ways to success. Sometimes all it takes is for you to acknowledge that you would like some help from others.

What do you have to lose?

Labels: accountability, getting support, goal-setting, mastermind, success