The most Common Obstacle to success is NEVER the thing that clients think it is.  Or pretend it is. Whether it’s through a lack of self-awareness or shame or sheer denial, most people won’t admit it until they’re challenged directly.

The Most Common Obstacle To Success?

Laziness.

One of the first questions I ask, as a transformation coach, is “What is it you want?”

That opens up a vast array of answers and I question and drill down and push and prod and eventually we find out what it is that the coachee really wants.  Really wants.  Without all the bullshit:

• I want to help people
• I want world peace
• I want to make a difference
• I just want enough money to be happy
• I want my kids to get a great education

Very rarely is this true.  Sure, none of those are things we’d vote against, but that’s not what people want.

Rand, what do you want?  I want a black 1957 Mustang and eternal life and chocolate milkshakes that don’t have any calories and also a constant 87 degree temperature and no need to sleep and also french fries in fact make you lose weight etc.

Yes, I’m flippant, but I’m trying to illustrate that people’s motives aren’t often altruistic and in order to start achieving our goals we need to admit that.

What then?  How does laziness fit in?

Let’s say those were my goals, how would I go about getting them?

If my starting point was average earner, living in the UK, what would I need to do to achieve those goals.  Let’s review and see specifically what I could do to get them.

• Black ’57 Mustang
• Eternal Life
• Chocolate Milkshakes with no calories
• Awesome climate
• No need to sleep
• French Fries being good for you.

Those of you who have read my book, Goal Setting Mastery: The 10 Steps to Ultimate Success, will know that in order to give yourself the biggest chance of success you’ll need to make sure your goals are SMART.  Some of those things ain’t, so we could remove or merely reframe them.  I’m not going to go into it too deeply that is beyond the scope of this blog post (but not beyond the scope of personal coaching), so we can happily and with no loss of integrity reduce those goals to the following:

• Car
• Health
• Climate

You want a great car, you want to live long and be able to eat whatever you like and you want to live somewhere warm.

So what’s stopping you?

You Know What To Do But You’re Too Lazy To Do It

Nobody is perfect.  I don’t want to be writing this.  I want to be putting my feet up and drinking beer while playing video games.  I rarely drink and I don’t play video games, but what I want more than those things is to succeed.  And I’ve found a way of driving myself to do the things that lead to success.

Many other people have not.

How are you going to get those three condensed things above?  Money, discipline, hard work.  Are you earning money through discipline and hard work? Are you maintaining your health through discipline and hard work?

Do you:

• Spend hours a week watching TV?
• Spend hours a week looking at social media?
• Spend hours a week drinking in bars and socialising for no actual purpose?

Are you:

• Working outside your core hours on ways to make money?
• Putting time aside to get fit?
• Setting goals?
• Investing in your own future?

You don’t need me to spell it out for you.

If you said yes to that second list, I salute you, and you’re moving in the direction you need to in order to attain your goals.  If you’re guilty of those things on the first list and aren’t achieving your goals, stop doing those things immediately.

It’s almost a cultural norm to waste most of our time.  The looks I get when people find out that I don’t watch TV.

“What?  Not even Breaking Bad?”  

Stop wasting all your damned time!

Work/life balance is bullshit.  Work is life.

Do you want to be a servant?  Do you want to work and make someone else rich?  Is that all you are for?  Is that your goal on this planet?

No, it’s not.

Let’s get out there and get it done.

If you need someone to hold your feet to the fire, to make sure you get what it is that YOU want, reach out to me and I’ll get you started on your path to achievement.

RSJ

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