Q&A With Nancy – Ways to Prevent Falling Short of Your Goals

Q: Hi Nancy! I just became a Director in my direct sales company. While I’m thrilled, I’m also a bit scared because I see a lot of women make Director but then fall short afterward. I’m wondering why this happens and how I can ensure it won’t happen to me. ~ Jennifer Fox

A: That’s a great question and I’m so glad you’re thinking of this scenario now, so you can avoid against it. I think there are a couple of reasons why someone might reach a goal and then backtrack and it happens with everything from weight loss to business growth.

First, there is the “There, I’m done” syndrome. It happens when we adopt behaviors to reach a goal that we do not enjoy and we really can’t sustain long-term. So when we reach the goal, we stop doing the behaviors that got us there. We see this a lot with the women we coach in your company. Once they hit Director, they stop working their personal business and pay too much attention to their new team. Not that you shouldn’t be building your team – but it’s a balancing act. So the solution is look at your behaviors that got you where you are and make a commitment to continue them even now that you’ve hit your goal.

Second, there is the “Terror Barrier.” This is something we learned from our coach, David Neagle, and it explains exactly why we revert to old, self-defeating habits and behavior. Once you hit a certain level of success (or income, or weight) if your new state doesn’t match your sub-conscious belief of what you deserve, you will unconsciously sabotage yourself. And since the sub-conscious mind controls about 96 to 98% of our behavior (sad but true!), even if you conscious mind wants to sustain the goal, the sub-conscious wins out.

The first step is to become aware of this phenomenon. The second step is, when you get to the point that you want to stop, to push yourself to take action NO MATTER WHAT. That is the only way to defeat the insidiousness of the sub-conscious mind.

I wish I had the room to go into the full explanation of this but it would require pages and pages. We go into this topic in much detail in our Think Pink & Grow Rich coaching program. I would encourage you to check it out.