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We’re at a crucial point in 2015.

We’re at the decision point where New Year’s resolutions and BIG goals for the year are at the mercy of becoming extinct. We’re only a little over one month into the year, but that’s all it takes to set a person back on the path to a mediocre lifestyle and redundant boredom.

Kind of sad isn’t it?

All it takes is 30 days of inactivity or lack of focus to set our hopes and dreams back into the basement.  I believe the key to obtaining what you want is very simple, and sometimes painfully easy if you will follow three steps.

These three steps require two equal parts of commitment: honest reflection and simple straightforward answers. Here is an exercise I challenge you to go through with your goals.  I use it for every goal I set.

1. What is the goal? – Is this specific?
2. Why do I want to achieve it? – Do I have a burning desire to achieve it?  If your honest answer is no, the chances of you pursuing it through thick and thin are extremely slim.

PAUSE. If you have specific answers to questions one and two, the third question and resulting answers should be painfully easy to answer. IF…if you’re willing to get to the simplest answer possible.   No bullshit.

3. What is standing in your way of achieving this goal?

Rewind back to this statement, “IF…if you’re willing to get to the simplest answer possible.   No bullshit.”  This answer to this question is what keeps people from getting what they want.  They’re not brutally honest and in search of the simple answer.  Simple answers yield simple action plans.

Instead what do most people do?

We lie to ourselves.  We tend make our hurdles, struggles, or challenges bigger than they really are.  We worry about hundreds of things that could happen.  Tony Robbins says most people really struggle to see things exactly as they are.  Instead most see them worse than they really are.   Seeing things as they really are allow us to see the path to achievement much easier.  No Bullshit.  No one’s fault but our own.

• Where do I want to go?
• What’s keeping me from getting there?

Once the dirt, lies, and pain of failure are washed away, a roadmap to your goal will appear.

Are you committed to follow it?

Action Item: I spent about an hour this weekend reviewing my targets for 2015 and doing a brutal self assessment of where I stood.  Side note: Honesty doesn’t require a personal mental beating.  I challenge you to review your goals and reset the roadmap if you’re off course.  There is too much year left not to make an enormous impact and CRUSH IT!