Welcome to week 6 of Transformation in Motion. I must confess I felt a little uncomfortable about writing this post in light of everything that has been happening in South Africa over the past two weeks. However, we need to start rebuilding, and this week’s topic seemed like a perfect way to do that.

Goals and goal achievement

We have reached that point in Transformation in Motion where we get into the grit of transformation, namely goals and goal achievement. Over the next several weeks, I will cover different strategies and novel ways to help you define your goals. I will also cover various methods to help you achieve the goals that you have set. In today’s post, I present the first of many different approaches to goals and goal achievement.

Create your own formula

Before we go any further, I do think that it is essential to say that I do not believe that there is only one way to define goals or achieve them. Instead, I encourage you to take from the different sources that work for you and create your process. The added benefit of doing that is you will then be more accountable for something you have created.

When doing my research, I came across this incredible book that resonated with me on so many different levels. The book is by author Hal Elrod entitled ‘The Miracle Equation: The Two Decisions That Move Your Biggest Goals from Possible, to Probable, to Inevitable (2019)’. According to Hal Elrod, life is about creating your miracles. The idea behind the Miracle Equation is simple;

you work hard,
you believe in what you are doing,
you don’t give up,
and eventually, you will get there.

What meant so much to me was when I read, ‘reaching goals is not enough, you need to create miracles’. What is required to create miracles is unwavering faith and extraordinary effort. Hal Elrod states that the purpose of having a goal is to achieve it and to become the type of person who achieves goals regularly.

You are the miracle!

According to Hal Elrod, you are the miracle, and all of us have the potential to create miracles in our lives. I love that! One problem people have is that they expect one goal to complete us. Instead, Hal Elrod states that life is about constantly setting goals, achieving them, and setting new goals.

Hal Elrod writes that your miracle must mean a lot to you and that you have to believe you are limitless. You also have to believe that you deserve to succeed. Part of the process is to challenge your negative thoughts and to take responsibility for allowing negative thinking and negative emotions to sabotage your progress. An excellent piece of advice from Hal Elrod is that failure teaches us lessons and that “you are not failing so long as you are trying”.

Goals and your mission

According to Hal Elrod, there is a difference between your goals and your mission. Goals are many things that we want to achieve at some point. Your mission is the one thing you want to achieve, and you are willing to put all of your efforts into it, no matter what stands in your way. Hal Elrod recommends that you look through your goals and choose the most important ones. You should ask yourself if your goals will help you become the person who can achieve all of the other things on your list.

Helpful tactics

According to Hal Elrod, tactics that help you to achieve your goals and increase your chances of success are:

Create monthly aims. Focus on achieving more in a month than most people achieve in a year.
Arrange your environment for success – eliminate everything that does not serve you well, declutter your life and arrange your space for productivity.
Surround yourself with like-minded people. This helps motivate you toward success.
Tell people about your mission. This creates accountability.
Create a mantra to help you keep the faith “I am committed to maintaining unwavering faith that I will ….. and I will continue putting forward extraordinary effort until I do. No matter what, there is no other option” Hal Elrod (2019)

“Victory at all costs, victory despite all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival” Winston S. Churchill

In conclusion, Hal’s key five steps are: