Protect your goal

When you set a goal, whether it's running a marathon, losing weight, changing a behavior or pattern you don't like or doing well at your job, sometimes you need to protect your goals from people or situations that will sabotoge it. Sometimes all it takes is to surround yourself with positive things and people when you're going for a particular goal. The positive energy will support you and keep you in a positive space.

But other times you need to be more specific. You need to take action. You need to remove yourself from being around people that distract you from the task at hand, or tempt you with things that are counterproductive. One of the hardest things when you're trying to change a behavior is to realize that sometimes those around you need to change as well, or unfortunately, maybe for a short time, maybe forever, you need to gently ( or not ) sever those ties.

Sometimes it's even something as simple as changing where you are. If you are trying to lose weight and you love a particular place for lunch, it might be a real bummer to have to avoid that place. If you are trying to save money and you love going out on Friday night for dinner, maybe you can only meet your friends afterwards and you make spaghetti at home. If you're trying to get in better running shape and you know you're too tired at night to get your runs in, maybe you need to get up early and run. Again, only you will know what is lacking and through creative thinking, you can find ways to protect your goal.

In most cases, it's not everyone around us that's the problem. It's us. We are the only ones that can control our own behavior. We need to be honest with ourselves when we're off course and be patient but truthful about when we fall off the wagon.

How are you selling yourself short? How are you sabotoging your goals? What is your goal? Do you have one? Something that you're passionate about? Maybe that's the best place to start. Find it. Then protect it. Go for it.