By the numbers of gym goers and sounds of heavy breathing and grunting, I could feel the energy of new year’s resolutions and goals with every weight lifted and dropped on the mat. I’m also eager to get back to the routine and end the holiday indulgences of overeating and immobility. I too am anxious to get back to my professional goals with a running start this week.

Starting off the new year with renewed energy isn’t easy in the hotel business. I’m usually sighing a breath of relief when we turn the corner past Jan. 1 since the holiday weeks are the busiest weeks of the year for our business. Goal setting doesn’t usually get completed for me until later in January. While I haven’t started officially writing my goals down, I have reflected a lot on the past year and also thought about how things I’m tolerating, bad habits, and an unwillingness to invest and mobilize the time and resources holds me back from achieving goals once I set them.

Tolerations

In the coaching world we talk about tolerations as the things or obstacles that stand in our way of forward progress. Tolerations can be something completely unrelated to other areas of your life, such as a basket of laundry unfolded for three weeks or a dentist appointment you’ve failed to make. It could also be a rift with a friend that’s yet to be resolved. These aren’t just other items on your to-do list. They’re different because they’re often things we put off and don’t address due to some underlying reasons.

Neglecting these kinds of tolerations holds us back from achieving our goals because they drain our energy when we think about them and take up space and time we could be spending taking steps towards the completion of our goals.

Bad Habits

The last thing I did last night and the first thing I did this morning was scroll aimlessly through my social media accounts on my phone. There’s no reason for it and certainly no extra value; it’s simply just a developed and poor habit. It’s not only of no value, it’s also arguably the cause of the poor night of sleep I had and the reason I yelled at my daughter when she asked me to help her find clothes for school (yes, from the pile of laundry that has yet to be folded).

There’s a trend developing here: time waste + mental anguish = goals.

Before I write down what I’m going to start doing this year, I’m committed to identifying the things that I’m going to stop doing so that my goals have a fighting chance.

Unwillingness to Invest

For months I’ve been brooding over a category of work I took over at the beginning of the pandemic to cut expenses. In doing so, I acquired new skills and realized that I could do this work myself, so why would I now outsource it again? The reason is that if I want to be able to achieve new goals, I have to be willing to invest the time and resources to achieve those goals. Goals don’t achieve themselves.

A willingness to invest (whether its financial or other resources like education or allocation of time) is a powerful mindset change that I know I need to clear the path to achieving my goals. (Click here to download a leadership resource guide with resources I’ve used to help achieve my goals.) I’m happy to report that I’m in the process of signing an agreement to take over those set of work responsibilities.

Lasting Change Comes From Addressing the Root Cause

Becoming aware of our tolerations, bad habits, and willingness to invest are critical first steps towards achieving our goals. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Lurking under the water are root causes that will come to the surface if you choose to dive a bit deeper. For instance, last year I put off making a dentist appointment for one of my children because I was fearful of how the appointment might go (toleration). My social media habit is fed by the temporary jolt of satisfaction that fills an unmet need in my life (bad habit). And finally, my unwillingness to spend money most likely has something to do with long-held beliefs I hold about money and financial management (unwillingness to invest).

Going deeper is a scary thing, however, when you do it there’s a lightness that follows in realizing that it all can be addressed and eventually resolved with some support and guidance. This is a great topic to bring to your coach for your first coaching session in 2022.