You can’t do it alone

Accomplishing goals is rarely done alone. Even solo missions like running a marathon or require help and support from others. Imagine running 26.2 miles without any support: no water stops, no medical personnel on stand-by, no family and friends to support, no one at the finish line to congratulate you. If you finished such a race, it would be greatly disheartening not to be able to share it with anyone.

Goals take more than you. I’m reminded of this as my wife currently leads a project at her school. Her class of 6^th graders is installing a discovery garden in a corner of the playground for the elementary students. The garden takes a lot of materials, cooperation from others and hard work. The hard work is coming from the students, parents, Tara and a few others. Several retailers have donated plants, soil, mulch and other items to greatly reduce the amount of money the class is spending for the project. We’ve borrowed a trailer from friends and had various other helpers along the way. This is a project by the 6^th grade class but it will be accomplished with help from a multitude of others.

Before you ever start executing your goal, other people can help you set and plan for success. Experts in your goal and those that know you best can offer great insights into how to set a good goal. When you are planning a goal, use other people to help you see if the goal seems reasonable or makes sense. We all have blind spots. It would be much better to have your blind spot pointed out before you run into problems rather than waiting until you have stumbled and missed an opportunity or can’t recover. Use your friends, family or hire a coach to help you with your goals.

You may be the only one who takes direct action to achieve your goals, but that doesn’t mean you have to go at it alone. Encouragement and accountability are two of the most important things when striving for a goal. The harder the goal, the more you need to keep you motivated and on track to finish. Don’t try to do it all yourself. Share your goal with others and see how much it will help you along the way. This is why so many people hire personal trainers. Many people don’t need the expert advice on exercise science, they just need someone to encourage and keep them accountable to the exercise and diet that is needed.

I’ve probably shared it before, but Proverbs 15:22 is such a good reminder for us:

Plans fail for lack of counsel,

but with many advisers they succeed.

Leave a comment below and share who has helped you with your goals.