Ever wonder why you don’t stay committed to goals and follow them through to their conclusion? Do you find that you get spurts of enthusiasm for setting goals and then that enthusiasm quickly dissipates with your goal nowhere near completion?

Here is a concept that I explore on a regular basis with my clients that dramatically increases the chances that you will stay focused and committed to your goals; this concept is called “leverage” and I was first introduced to it listening to a “Personal Power” audio cassette by Anthony Robbins. There are 2 sides to leverage – positive and negative. Positive leverage is about consciously and deliberately sitting down and drawing up a list of all the great things that your goal is going to give you. Negative leverage is about again consciously and deliberating sitting down and creating a list but this time this list contains all the pain or negative things that are going to happen if you don’t pursue your goal.

While many people will use positive leverage when setting goals, I find that few seldom apply negative leverage, which can provide many times more focus and drive than positive leverage. Let me demonstrate this by way of example courtesy of my colleagues in MaST Ireland. Which of the following two scenarios would you be more committed to, (a) protecting €25,000 of life savings from a burglar or (b) saving €25,000 to buy a nice car sometime in the future? My guess is you would be way more committed to (a) protecting your hard earned cash. Any why is that? Well, as Anthony Robbins explains, we do things for two fundamental reasons, to avoid pain or gain pleasure. We are typically more motivated to avoiding pain than we are to gain pleasure. In the example above, having €25,000 stolen from us would cause huge pain, having a nice car would give us pleasure.

So, in the context of goal setting to get maximum leverage on yourself so that you ensure that you follow through and stay focused on your goals, answer the following two questions:

What will I gain by achieving this goal? (Positive leverage) and

What will I loose by not achieving this goal? (Negative leverage).

Don’t hold back with this exercise. Explore all the possible areas of your life that your goal might impact, identify how this goal will impact on your relationships, your career, your social life, your finances, your health etc.....

If you are still struggling with achieving your goal after doing this exercise, get more leverage or maybe you migth want to consider the possibility that your goal isn’t as important to you as you would like to think.

If you decide to apply this theory to your goals, I would be very interested to hear how you got on, so please feel free to drop me a line if you would like to share your experiences.

I have 2 appointment slots available for personal 1-1 business-coaching at the moment so if you think you might benefit from my services, please contact me.

Fergal O’Connor is a Business and Personal Life Coach working in partnership with his Business and Private clients providing a supportive, confidential, challenging and non-judgemental environment to make their ambitions and dreams a reality. Fergal also facilitates a range of Management training programs and is available for public speaking engagements. Fergal can be contacted at Synergy Coaching Services, Tel: (061) 467287, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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