The Gap Between...

...you and your goals

With every ticked off item on your daily list, with every smashed goal on your weekly list, with every achievement on your vision board, you are consciously crafting the person you want to be.

— Abiola Okun

Yesterday, I set out to achieve 15 things, and I ended up working out only 10 of them, and this wasn't the first time either. Just the other day, I set out to achieve 8 things, and I only achieved 3. The other year, I set out to achieve 10 things, but only convincingly achieved 4 of them throughout the year.

Many of these things were within my power to achieve, if only I held the strength of character enough to achieve them. I like to say that, "If it comes to your mind, then it can come into your hands." Adopting that saying into this; if it can enter your Daily To-Do List, if it can enter your Weekly Goals List, if it can enter your Quarterly Vision Board, then it can be achieved that day, that week, that quarter. However, many times, it doesn't get done.

You can relate, can you not? The only way for you not to relate to not ticking off goals that you know, deep inside your heart, that you could have ticked is if you don't set goals at all in the first place. And I am sure, absolutely sure that we don't do that here, do we?

If you are reading this newsletter, it means that you frequently set goals for yourself, because isn't that the only way you can track your growth? Or how else do you track that something is working or growing in your life if you don't have clarity on what exactly you want to work on by putting it down on paper? And isn’t growth the only reason you’re subscribed to this letter? Anyway, that's not what we are discussing in this newsletter because we are clearly past that.

The purpose of this newsletter is to discuss the gap between you and your goals. There is one thing that separates you from the goals you have set for yourself to achieve, which you eventually don't achieve at the end of the day. That one thing is discipline.

It sounds very simplistic, I know, but so are many things in life. It is very simple knowledge, yet it hasn't translated into reality in the lives of most of us. You know why? Just as it is simple to know and do, it is also simple to know and not do. An age-old speaker put it even better: "The things that are easy to do are also easy not to do." And knowledge that hasn't translated into action is not knowledge. If you claim to know it but don't do it, it calls the validity of your knowledge into question. Again, don't take my word for it. Take the words of that age-old speaker who said, "Let your learning turn into knowledge, you become a fool. Let your learning turn into action, you become wealthy."

Discipline is the one thing that separates you from your goals, your growth, and your achievements. I know you know, but stay with me. You know what I found out? Many people who think they know don't do what they think they know because, truly, they really do not know. Or better put, what they know isn't exactly clear to them. Many know that discipline is responsible for that gap between who they are and who they want to be, but they still don't exercise discipline because it is not clear to them. What exactly does discipline mean? It's too abstract. What does it mean in action terms?

Discipline is saying NO to the things that are not on your list and saying YES, constantly, consistently, to the things that you have put in your list! Voila! Simple and short. Discipline is exercised when you constantly go back to your list for clarity, check the things you have yet to do, and tick off the ones you have done. Discipline is excusing the things that are not on your list of goals to be achieved that day, for the things you have set out to achieve. That is discipline. In practical terms, that's what brings you closer to achieving the goals you set out to achieve.

From that paragraph, if you have read it correctly, here's what you will discover;

1. You cannot be disciplined if you have no goals that you have set out to achieve that day, week, or month.

2. You cannot say NO to anything if you haven't previously deliberately said YES to specific things.

3. You will not achieve what you have set out to achieve if you constantly let things you hadn't set out to achieve get in the way.

4. You cannot be disciplined if you have not set goals you intentionally want to achieve.

5. You cannot grow without constantly achieving your goals, and you cannot achieve your goals without discipline.

In short, the only thing standing in the way of who you want to become is discipline. How much discipline are you willing to muster to achieve the things you have, with your own mind thought out and with your own hands written down to achieve, is what stands between the person you are right now and the person you want to be in the future.

You could decide to change your goals right now and become a different person. That's on you, and that's a topic for another day. The crux of this newsletter is that whoever you have decided to be today, whatever you have decided to do this week, show up with discipline and fudging do it. Keep in mind that, with every ticked off item on your daily list, with every smashed goal on your weekly list, with every achievement on your vision board, you are consciously crafting the person you want to be. Either that, or you are unconsciously crafting a different person entirely with every lack of discipline you show daily.

Think on these things. And do them.

To your growth,
Your Coach,
Abiola Okunsanya,
Handzinspired