Go Fearwards Friday: 15 December

Hello there

It's issue #29 of Go Fearwards Friday, where I share ideas and insights each week to encourage, inspire and equip you to embrace fear and fuel your potential. 

This week at a glance:

Read time: 2 minutes

Do you have some juicy goals for this coming year?

If you do, read on.

I’ve been revisiting how to work with the mind to create success while consider my plans for next year. I thought you might find the insights valuable too.

In this issue I'm sharing two principles that are vital when it comes to your goals, plus some questions to help you ponder.

 Let's Go Fearwards 

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You’ll achieve the goal you focus on.

That might sound obvious but there’s a little more to it. What you’re focussed on might not be the goal you declared you wanted to achieve. 

There’s an abundance of evidence that shows the human brain and nervous system operate as a ‘goal-striving’ mechanism, like a guidance system. But we have to tell it what to focus on, and hold the focus there, or we may end up achieving other goals instead.

Think about times when you’ve achieved something significant and you'll see that you prioritised it. It was in focus for you. It’s like lighting a fire with a magnifying glass, keep moving the focus around and the fire will never catch.

A common analogy for how the mind operates is like a heat-seeking missile. In the same way a missile is programmed to hit one target, not many, we do achieve more when we have one main goal, not many.

• When you look back at your year, what did you set out to achieve? What did you actually achieve?  And what didn’t you?

• Where does this show that you put your focus?

• For 2024 how many goals do you have? 

• Which is the one you’re going to focus on creating?
  How does it feel to hold yourself to one true intention?

• Does it feel liberating or limiting? Scary or exciting or both?

It’s worth noting what comes up for you around this so you can unpack it and not be in conflict with what you want (the brain equivalent of driving with the breaks on!). 

This week at a glance:

Read time: 2 minutes

Do you have some juicy goals for this coming year?

If you do, read on.

I’ve been revisiting how to work with the mind to create success while consider my plans for next year. I thought you might find the insights valuable too.

In this issue I'm sharing two principles that are vital when it comes to your goals, plus some questions to help you ponder.

 Let's Go Fearwards

You’ll achieve the goal you focus on.

That might sound obvious but there’s a little more to it. What you’re focussed on might not be the goal you declared you wanted to achieve. 

There’s an abundance of evidence that shows the human brain and nervous system operate as a ‘goal-striving’ mechanism, like a guidance system. But we have to tell it what to focus on, and hold the focus there, or we may end up achieving other goals instead.

Think about times when you’ve achieved something significant and you'll see that you prioritised it. It was in focus for you. It’s like lighting a fire with a magnifying glass, keep moving the focus around and the fire will never catch.

A common analogy for how the mind operates is like a heat-seeking missile. In the same way a missile is programmed to hit one target, not many, we do achieve more when we have one main goal, not many.

• When you look back at your year, what did you set out to achieve? What did you actually achieve?  And what didn’t you?

• Where does this show that you put your focus?

• For 2024 how many goals do you have? 

• Which is the one you’re going to focus on creating?
  How does it feel to hold yourself to one true intention?

• Does it feel liberating or limiting? Scary or exciting or both?

It’s worth noting what comes up for you around this so you can unpack it and not be in conflict with what you want (the brain equivalent of driving with the breaks on!). 

“Dream big, count small”

 I love an easy way to remember things and this sentence does it for me (thank you Maika Leibbrandt!).

When it comes to having big goals we can easily scare ourselves off them or find that we unwittingly sabotage along the way!

Have you ever settled for a lesser outcome than you desired, given up on something because you lost motivation or got distracted along the way?

It takes time for momentum to build and results to be seen and in the ‘void’ is where doubts can seep in, insecurities show up, conviction begins to waver.

A way to avoid this is by finding something small yet meaningful to count, making it easy to experience frequent victories and maintain motivation for sustainable progress.

It’s easy to see this principle clearly when it comes to exercise: if you were just starting out doing press ups you’d perhaps start with mastering 5 before moving the bar up. How can you apply this principle to what you want to achieve so you can feel like you're winning along the way? 

• What small, meaningful things, could count towards your goal?

• How can you set yourself up for success by creating frequent victories? 

• How will you check that what you're counting is moving you towards your goal, so you can change tack if you need to?

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