Important Reminder: This Is Growth, You Aren't Broken

Goals are important, and goals are good. But, a well-crafted SMART goal alone isn’t enough; it needs to be paired with a strong reason why the goal is essential. This is a crucial step to improving your odds of success. Take caution when crafting this why so you don’t lose focus on the fact that goals are about growth and not about fixing. You aren’t broken!

Learn more in this week’s brief Goal Success By Choice.

Amuse Bouche

Before we get to today’s post, I offer you this light “amuse-bouche” to entertain your mind before we get down to business. Like any other amuse-bouche, you may hate my “dad joke,” but it is worth every penny that you paid for it, right?

A perfectionist walks into a bar…. immediately they claim the bar isn’t set high enough.

Hello, I am Coach Tony… Welcome to Operation Melt!

My name is Coach Tony, and I am a coach, author and project manager on a mission. I am working to build a world where no goal ever dies of loneliness.

I almost allowed one of my biggest life goals to die without ever being attempted for forty years. My goal almost died, not of failure but of loneliness. But, I took a risk and leveraged a simple, logical process that helped me wildly exceed my goal.

I transformed my life, and you can do the same with the help of Operation Melt.

Operation Melt provides engaging, practical content and hands-on coaching to inspire, motivate and equip project managers and other left-brained high-achievers to pursue and accomplish their biggest goals.

Got Goals?

Do you have dreams that you are trying to make come true? Do you have a goal that you are trying to crush? Success doesn’t happen by chance. Success is a series of choices that can make you unstoppable. Goal Success by Choice helps you make these choices to move you closer to your goals.

This blog is my gift to you. I hope that it helps you choose to be successful and bring your goal to life. Are you ready to help build a world where no goal dies of loneliness?

Important Reminder: This Is Growth, You Aren’t Broken

Stop trying to ‘fix’ yourself; you’re NOT broken! You are perfectly imperfect and powerful beyond measure.
Steve Maraboli

This has been kind of a strange week for me. Nothing major, but I have just been in my own head a little bit more than usual. Because of that, I have been a little more distracted and wasn’t focused enough to write a robust blog post. So, this week’s post is short, but it is an important topic. It’s also a particularly relevant topic in my life right now, and I assume it will be important to you too.

Don’t worry; I will get back on track next week with a doozie of an Ask Coach Tony post.

What’s your goal?

Are you pursuing a big goal or goals in your life?

If you are reading this blog, I am guessing you are a high-achiever, and you are going places. You probably have a laundry list of goals you are working on daily.

Are you working to improve your health and fitness? Maybe you are trying to lose weight or eat healthier. Perhaps you are already pretty healthy and working on improving your athletic performance, like being a faster runner.

Are you working to grow your career? Maybe you are trying to complete a professional certification or license. Or, you might be looking to take advantage of the hot job market and find the next step in your career.

Is your focus a more personal goal? You might be pushing to reach millionaire status or to find that first home so you can stop renting. Maybe you are looking for that special someone and are spending your days on dating apps.

There are many possible goals that you may be pursuing and focused on every day. Hopefully, not all at the same time because you are painfully aware of the importance of prioritization, right?

If you are NOT pursuing goals, it may be time to check out my Goal Success Quick Start Guide to determine what is important to you.

Why’s your goal important to you?

All too often, when pursuing a goal, we focus exclusively on the what, when, where and how. But, the why is even more important than those other questions. I explain the value of having an important, emotional why in my Goal Success Quick Start Guide.

“Having a big enough reason why your goal is important is the best way to enlist your brain as an ally in your journey instead of a potential saboteur.”
Goal Success Quick Start Guide

Even more importantly, I also walk through an exercise to get not just to a superficial “why” but to the deeper, root, emotional reason why your goal is so important.

Excerpt from Operation Melt: How I Used Life-Changing Project Management to Lose Over 100 Pounds in Under a Year:

"When I started my journey, I went through my own business case exercise based on something I read in an article. The goal was to have something that was important enough to me that I would continue to make my fitness project a priority in my life over other things."

Click here to read more.

If you haven’t figured out why your goal is important to you yet, that is a crucial step to making sure you reach your finish line.

Why NOT?

As you figure out the big “why” behind your goal, it will likely be thematically similar to many other people’s why. Most likely, your goal matters to you because you want to get better at something.

Maybe you want to ensure you are around to see your kids grow up and become adults. Because of this, you want to improve your health and fitness so you aren’t at risk of significant illness or early death.

Similarly, for that career growth goal I mentioned previously, maybe your initial why is to climb the ladder, have more authority and make more money. But that’s not your real why. You actually want to ensure that you and your spouse can retire early and travel the world together.

Whys are as plentiful as goals and can get pretty deep. But, nearly all these root, emotional whys have one thing in common.

Excerpt from Reflections on Leadership:

"One word of caution though… don’t let your lack of satisfaction with complacency turn into more than that! Be happy with the journey, celebrate your achievements, be proud of yourself and keep striving for more."

Click here to read more.

Most goals are about growth, not correction.

You Aren’t Broken

As we pursue many big goals in our lives, it is all too easy to lose sight of this focus on growth.

What does it look like when we lose our growth focus? We start to think that our goals mean that we are broken. This can have serious mental health consequences.

For example, imagine forgetting the real why behind a health a fitness goal. Before you know it, you might start thinking you are trying to fix something broken with your body. The result might be starting not to love the body you have. This is a potentially slippery slope leading to body image struggles and worse.

Remembering your real why and focusing on growth helps maintain an alternate perspective. This alternative includes focusing on getting better at something while simultaneously appreciating and loving your current self.

By keeping a healthy focus on the proper balance of Defects And Enhancements, you can keep chasing your goals while protecting your happiness and mental health.

How can you make it work? Once you have committed to your goal and crafted your why, review it daily. Continually reminding your brain, “I am working on getting better, not fixing myself,” helps it maintain a healthy focus on growth.