Are you also having a tough time with achieving certain goals or desires in your life? You want a new car? It’s yours. You want to lose weight? It’s possible. You want a new job? It’s on it’s way.

Is it this simple you ask? It is. As long as you apply the four A’s, anything is possible: Authenticity, Attention, Awareness and Action.

Ok, in all honesty, I’m still working on truly believing this myself. If you read Behaving (And Believing) My Way To Success, you know that I'm much more trusting when it comes to fostering successful relationships compared to success in other aspects of my life. Now, I’m going to put the four A’s into action with my own career. Read on and consider what part of your life deserves more attention.

Authenticity

Whatever your goal or desire is, it has to be authentic. It has to speak to the core of who you are. When it does, you will light up inside. The reason it has to be authentic is because it has to be believable. There’s no point in picking a goal you think you’ll never ever reach.

I can’t tell you how many times I have picked desires - and still do - that I think I want. This is a part of my messy process. I try on different possibilities for size, allowing my goals to evolve as they become more authentic, thus believable. Time and time again, the desire that is the most authentic eventually surfaces and sticks.

Helpful questions to ask:

• What do you ultimately want? What are you comfortable working toward right now?
• Do you want what you want because it is truly a priority for you? Or are you choosing your goal because you think it is important to someone else?
• When you think about your goal, do you get excited and light up inside? Or, does your flame fizzle?
• How would attaining this goal influence your life? Is this the change that you want?

Attention

When you decide on your goal, declare it. Give it the attention it deserves. If you’re not yet comfortable sharing it with others because you think it’s too lofty or ambitious, declare it to yourself until you can declare it to someone else. Eventually, the more you say it out loud, the more you will own it.

If it’s still too scary to state what you ultimately want, pick the one thing that you want right now, that you know you can get. Start small, but start somewhere. For example, if your ideal car seems too out of reach, ask for your second runner up if that seems more doable.

Helpful questions to ask:

• Do you feel comfortable telling others your goal? If so, declare it!
• If not, what could you declare that you would believe is possible? What’s your second runner up?

Awareness

Keep your awareness on your beliefs and on how you talk to yourself. There might be a part of you that will try to hold you back because it thinks your ultimate goal is too much to ask for.

This voice is typically an amalgam of all the naysayers you have encountered throughout your life. Somewhere along the way, you probably adopted their beliefs as your own. But if you look deep enough, you probably don’t actually believe that what you want is impossible. Or, do you?      

Despite all the potential naysaying, if you notice that your goal keeps coming up no matter how much you try to repress it or that you light up inside each time you think about the possibility, try it on for size. Give yourself a minute or two to dream. Play with the idea a bit. See how the shoe fits. It might be a really really pretty one.

Helpful questions to ask:

• Does the way you talk to yourself reinforce, or sabotage, the possibility of your goal coming to fruition?
• Do you tell yourself that your goal is totally possible and doable? If so, what do you say to yourself?
• Do you tell yourself that you’re silly or crazy for thinking you can achieve your goal?
• Whose voice comes to mind when you hear these thoughts? Is it your own, or someone else’s?

Action

In my perspective, achieving a goal is as much about the actual action taken AND the energy created from the action taken. Consistent action will foster a more trusting energy within you.

First, break your goal down into small, manageable and believable pieces.  It needs to be broken down until it is a bunch of steps that you can actually take. That you will actually take. After you break it down, list the timeframe by which you want to achieve each step.

If you are interested in buying a house, your first step wouldn’t be to write an offer on an imaginary house. You would decide the areas you want to live in, determine your price range, hire a real estate agent, research homes on the market, view open houses, etc.

Second, create a process or routine that you can count on for accomplishing your smaller goals. Establishing a routine will minimize the worry and guilt - that is all too common - of whether you’ll achieve your larger goal. As you experience progress, you will increasingly trust that your smaller goals are possible and that your ultimate goal is on its way (in case you were doubting yourself too).

Helpful questions to ask:

• When you think about your goal, do you give up because it feels too overwhelming?
• How can you break down your goal so that each piece is doable for you?

If you’ve got something that you really want to create in your life, experiment along with me and let me know what happens, if you’re comfortable sharing. Keep these four A's in mind to turn your goals into a reality: Authenticity, Attention, Awareness and Action.

When I’m ready, I’ll also share my goals and process for achieving them with you. I’m already doing step 1 right now!