By: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Sr. Associate Editor-ICN Group
(In the past article, we understood how & why to come out of comfort zone to achieve all your goals. Today, we will learn about the strategies to overcome obstacles coming in the wake of achieving goals.)
Strategies to overcome obstacles
There are two strategies to overcome obstacles coming in the wake of achieving your goals.
First strategy is to not lose sight of your goals. As Henry Ford said, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
Second is use of GOPTA in overcoming each and every individual obstacle, without losing motivation. For this, arrange the list of obstacles in order of priority and prepare strategy to overcome each obstacle. You have to ask the question, which is the single most threatening obstacle, conquering which may benefit you most. If something is there between you and your goal, identify it by asking yourself, what is preventing you from reaching your goal.
Remember, it is the necessity part, which drives you to change. If you don’t take the desired actions, your conditions will determine course of your future. Don’t forget to ask a question to yourself, how much it is going to cost you, if you don’t take necessary action. You should not forget that if change is scary, not changing may prove fatal.
I take an example here. You are overweight by about 20 kgs.; and by heart you know that you have to do morning walk and regular exercises and control your diet. But comfort zone pulls you to your bed in the morning and you don’t go for a walk. When it comes to do exercises, you find solace behind the excuse of lack of time. When it comes to diet, your taste buds start yelling and you forget all the resolves. The danger is that you will face high blood pressure, risk of heart attack, more & more cough & cold attacks, poor digestive system and poor immune system as a whole. Not changing will also result in increased mental stress, as your productivity will also decrease. When it comes to change your lifestyle to spare quality time with your spouse and your children, you start making inner excuses that though you are not spending much time with family, you are working much harder to provide them a good life. But you should learn to analyse the situation and tap power of ‘Goals Oriented Positive Thinking & Action’ to overcome the situation, as you have to strike a balance amongst different walks of life.
You can ask some questions to yourself to assess whether there is any need for change or not:-
- What is my happiness level as a whole?
- How are my relationships with my family members, bosses, colleagues, neighbours etc?
- What are my health parameters like, weight, BMI, blood pressure levels, blood sugar level, cholesterol level, etc?
- What is the level of my income in comparison to my dream income?
- Am I a contributor to the society in any manner or I am just taking out from the society?
- Am I a continuous learner or not?
- Am I a good goal setter & achiever or not?
- Do I use ‘Goals Oriented Positive Thinking and Action’ or I am missing any one of the three essential limbs of GOPTA?
(In the next article, we will know how to identify the skills & help required to achieve your goals and what are the benefits of sharing your goals. I believe that you are enjoying the journey towards the future of your dreams with me. If yes, please stay tuned every Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. Happy G.O.P.T.A.)
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Creator & copyright holder of the concept G.O.P.T.A.© is an Author, Certified NLP Lifestyle Master Practitioner, Corporate Trainer & Motivational Speaker and recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Excellence (Management) by prestigious Young Scientist University, California, USA. He is Founder of ‘Read, Learn & Earn Movement’ and is popularly known among his fans & followers across the globe as ‘Time and Goal Guru’.
