How to Keep Moving Forward | Jack Canfield

Hi, I'm Jack Canfield and today I want to talk to you about how to keep moving forward in the face of obstacles, challenges and setbacks and stay on track to achieving your goals. What do you do when you find yourself stuck in a rut and it feels like nothing you do is helping to change your situation? Maybe you're stuck at a dead end job and you're desperately applying for other jobs. But you even though you've gone to interview after interview, no one's hiring you. Maybe you've written a book and none of the agents or publishers you've sent it to want to represent it or publish it. Maybe no matter what you do, you can't seem to get into and sustain a healthy and fulfilling relationship. Or maybe you're trying to lose weight and get healthy, but no matter how many diets you try, the needle on the scale is not moving. Or maybe you do end up losing weight only to gain it all back a few months later. So the question is, how do you stay motivated and continue taking action even when it feels like everything is conspiring to block you and make you fail? Well, here are a few tips. First off, I would encourage you to ask yourself whether you might be pursuing the wrong goal. Perhaps the reason why you aren't being hired for your dream position is because the jobs you're applying for are not a good fit with your current skill set and expertise. In which case you may need to set a different short term goal to acquire the education, the skills and the expertise you need so you're better suited to get the position you want. Or maybe your goal is to lose weight, but what you really want at a deeper level is simply to feel healthy and strong. In which case maybe your goal should be to join and attend a fitness class or to develop the habit of walking a mile every day, something that is fun and that you would enjoy doing. That way you will enjoy the feeling of achievement that comes from more easily reaching this activity goal rather than a number of weight loss goal. And in the process you'll still gain muscle, shed some fat and end up feeling better in your clothes rather than always comparing your current weight to your big weight loss goal which you haven't reached yet. So just make a goal and stay with the process. Now, if you'd like to learn my proven 3 step process for getting unstuck and creating breakthroughs, you can click the link on the screen. Let's get to our next tip now. Now the next one is to chunk down your larger goal into smaller and achievable steps. So when you're stuck in a rut, it's often because there's an obstacle or a challenge that's holding you back from achieving the forward progress you desire. So an immediate smaller goal could simply be to identify that challenge and figure out a way to overcome it. Even the biggest, most overwhelming obstacle can be overcome, and usually it's just a matter of taking it one step at a time and perhaps simply trying one approach after another until you land on one that works. And the great thing about chunking it down is that each small victory you achieve along the way will give you the motivation and the confidence you need to keep going until the problem is solved or the goal is reached. One of my all time favorite quotes is from Thomas Edison. When he was asked how it felt to have failed thousands of times in his attempt to invent an incandescent light bulb, he said, I have not failed, I I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. And because he never gave up, he actually invented the light bulb. So tip number three is to ask for help. Now remember, you are not alone in the world. There are countless people who have been where you are now and have gone on to achieve incredible things in life. So find someone who's achieved a lot in life and ask them how they did it and then apply their experience to your life. Better yet, find someone who's achieved exactly what you want to achieve and ask them to mentor you. Take them to lunch, take their seminar, read their book, watch their podcast. Whether it's how to become a top salesperson, a successful real estate investor, a successful online marketer, a better parent, a best selling author, a millionaire, or a leader in your network marketing company. Someone has already done it and they can share how they did it with you. Now these might be people who are in your life right now. Maybe friends of friends or people you know socially. Or it may require a bit of research to find the right people, but they are out there. I guarantee it. And if you start putting it out to people that you're looking for help, someone is sure to receive your message and point you in the right direction. As long as your goal is one that really serves you, the universe wants you to succeed and you will find the help you need if you continually reach out and ask for it. Now my fourth piece of advice is to stop focusing on the gap. This is an important concept that strategic coach Dan Sullivan teaches. When you set a big goal for yourself, there will often be a gap at the end of the year between what you wanted to achieve and what you actually achieve. So let's say you're making 35,000 a year in your business. And your goal is to grow that to 100,000 by the end of the year. But when December 31st rolls around, you've only made it to 70,000. Too many people will focus on that 3:30,000 gap between their target and their actual result. And instead of appreciating the fact that they increased their income by $35,000, basically doubling what it was before, they focus on what they didn't make. That's the gap. The gap between what you wanted and what you actually did. When you focus on the gap, you're focusing on your failure. So if you only focus on what you're calling your failure instead of your successes, you'll find it all too easy to become discouraged and give up. Please don't do that. The world needs you to show up in the pursuit of your dreams. Everything that you want to do, someone in the world needs you to do that. Which brings me to my last tip. Never, never, never give up. Now, that piece of advice comes from Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England during World War II. Never stop taking action toward your goals, no matter how insurmountable your obstacles may seem. Persistence is the key to making your dreams come true. So be relentless. Remember that water doesn't break through a rock because of its force, but because of its persistence. That's how it wears the rock down or moves through it. Now here's an example to illustrate what I mean. When Mark Victor Hansen and I were working to find a publisher to publish our first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, we had to deal with a lot of rejection. I mean, a lot. It wasn't until we approached the 145th publisher, after more than a year of rejections, that we finally found Peter Vegzo, the CEO of Health Communications, Inc. Who said yes. If we had let ourselves become discouraged and given up after 100 or even the 144th rejection, we would never have created a billion dollar brand that has helped change the world. When that first Chicken Soup for the Soul book was finally published, we set another goal for it to become a New York Times bestseller within the first six months. But we didn't reach that goal. It actually took us 14 months to finally get on the Washington Post bestseller list. But what followed when that finally did happen was more success than we could have imagined. Within three weeks, we landed in the same 15th position on the New York Times bestseller list. And we slowly climbed up to number one on the list and stayed there for an incredible three years. If we'd given up after not reaching our goal within our specified six month timeline, we'd have never achieved our incredible success. Billionaire Ross Perot once said that most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown. Don't let that happen to you. No matter how difficult your current situation is, or how overwhelming your challenges and obstacles might seem to you at the moment, please remember that your next life changing breakthrough could be much closer than you know. So keep taking consistent action toward it. Now, let's talk about this. I'd love to hear your thoughts after watching this video. I'd like to answer you this question. What is one goal that you've set for yourself that has been difficult for you to achieve? If you feel inspired to answer that, please leave a comment below with your answer. I'd love to read what you have to say. So so thank you for watching. And remember, nothing in your life will change for the better until you do. Now, if you found this video helpful, make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel. For more videos like this one, and for some additional resources on how to keep moving forward in the face of obstacles and setbacks, visit my website@jackcampfield.com thanks for watching.