The EntreMD Podcast

92% of People Never Hit Their Goals, Here’s Why

• Dr. Una • Episode 488

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What if the real reason you're not hitting your goals is yourself?

I know, it’s a hard truth to swallow, but like it or not, it’s often the truth—yes, even for high-achievers like yourself. 

This week, I’m getting real about the uncomfortable reasons 92% of physician entrepreneurs (and people in general) never accomplish what they set out to do.

In this episode, I use myself as the guinea pig and walk you through exactly what happened when I missed a big goal last week (and how I corrected everything). 

If you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and finally create consistent, meaningful results, this episode will light a fire under you.

Tune in now!

—

Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 
  • 00:37 92% of people never hit their goals
  • 02:14 What happened to me last week
  • 04:39 Are you lying to yourself?
  • 10:20 You should always ask ‘Why?’
  • 14:17 Solutions are a must!
  • 17:26 Time to show up as your best self

Additional Resources:


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To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...

Speaker 1:

I've used this process of goal setting and time management to build multiple companies, to have a company go to the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the US for three years in a row. I'm good at this stuff, but still I realized that I lied. I was not in any way committed to the goal.

Speaker 2:

Hi docs, Welcome to the EntreMD podcast, where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms.

Speaker 1:

I'm your host, Dr Imna 92% of people who set out to accomplish goals don't hit them. 92% and you know, this is a statistic that I found a few weeks ago and it has really kept me in this state of really thinking about it, because it is really a horrible number, right, like let's, let's break it down here. What that means is less than one in 10% will hit their goals. If you bring that to entrepreneurs or physician entrepreneurs, I want you to think about the magnitude of that right One out of 10 alone accomplishing if that right. And so what that means is, year to year, people are busy, people are talking about being burned out, people are tired, people are overwhelmed, people have teams they hired and all of these things, and so they appear like they're very productive, but they're not hitting what they set out to accomplish, right. And so think of the impact of that, week to week, month to month, year to year, not being able to accomplish this. And when I think about that, you know like. So some people are not accomplishing anything, some people are accomplishing something, some people are accomplishing something, some people are accomplishing significant things, but not what they set out to, and you know, if you've listened to me for any amount of time, watched me for any amount of time. You know that I'm not a big fan of worrying and being anxious and being hopeless or any of those things. I'm not a fan of any of those things. However, it does make me say, okay, we do need to pay attention to goals, to goal setting, to how we use our time, to looking at where we're going and all of those things. It did put me in that state, and so last week, I had an experience that I want to share with you. I'm going to use myself as a guinea pig here. I'm going to share with you so you can see exactly how this happens and three reasons why this happens day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year, and my hope is that by the time we're done with this, you'll be able to identify these three things in your own business, in your own life, and then just decide, just go all out and decide I'm not going to do this anymore. This is not going be my story anymore. Okay, this is what happened.

Speaker 1:

You know like, yes, last week I talked to you guys about the 20% Coach Journal, which is a custom journal that I use, which is a powerful tool for managing your time. The same way, a savvy investor will manage money right, so think of it more. Invest money right, and so the way you would invest your time. The same way a savvy investor will manage money right, so think of it more. Invest money right, and so the way you would invest your time. And so now I identify as a time investor. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1:

So I use this, my 20% coach journal, and I set these intentions for the week, and so I had my three main goals and all of these things, and I accomplished two of those three, but there's one I didn't accomplish at all, and when I say at all, like at all. And so I started looking, which is something that the journal lets us do. I started looking at why. Why is it? And I want to challenge you.

Speaker 1:

You know, one of the most uncomfortable things to do is to evaluate yourself Like what did I do? What did I set out to do? Why didn't I do it? I meant to show up this way, why didn't I show up that way? It's very uncomfortable because a lot of times, people lean into judgment right Like. So if I didn't do it, it means there's something wrong with me. If I look, I'll find out what is really wrong with me and all of that, and I want to invite you to look at it as an opportunity.

Speaker 1:

Some people don't realize till too late what they could have done differently or why they did what they did, but for us, we have the gift of time right, and so we have this opportunity to look at our lives the way we would when we're 90 today, and then, while we still have strength and energy and time and all of these things, we can start making the corrections, and so it's a gift. And so the way I say this in the Entremet World is we observe, we don't judge. It's about just sitting to observe what exactly is happening here. Why is this happening? So I started this whole process of evaluating this, and that's something that the 20% Coach Journal sets you up to do every week, which is why I love it so much. Okay, so the first thing as I look at. Okay, so you didn't hit this, why not?

Speaker 1:

And in sitting, in the discomfort of it, I found out that I lied to myself. Okay, so the thing, the number one thing we do, number one reason why we're not hitting our goals is we lie to ourselves. I had lied to myself. I had lied about wanting to hit the goal and I had lied about doing the actions that will help me get there. So when I set out during the week, I set out this goal, like, okay, this is a goal that I'm going to accomplish, great, if I accomplish, how excited would I be? Absolutely Like so, so, so excited. And then what are the action steps I need to get there? And I put the top three action steps Okay. So I put the top three action steps in my 20% coach journal. Okay, so I put the top three action steps in my 20% coach journal.

Speaker 1:

Then I said, if I accomplish this goal on a scale of one to 10, how excited would I be? I'm like 10 out of 10. And that question is important because it also helps you see if you even wrote the goals you care about. Why is this important? Because our default setting is to lie to ourselves. Okay, is to lie to ourselves. So I checked that I was like 10 out of 10. I'll be so excited. Okay, great, these actions that I've decided I'm going to take. If I did them, if I executed on them the way I said I would, what are the chances right, that it would help me accomplish the goal and, truthfully, it was 100. I mean, like it was 10 out of 10 as well, like it's 100% chance. So there's nothing wrong with a goal. There's nothing wrong with the plan, okay.

Speaker 1:

But when I stopped to audit, I found out I was not committed to it and I was not committed to the goal at all. Now, to put this in perspective I've been a student of goal setting and time management for the last 15 years. I've used this process of you know, goal setting and time management, or time investing, if you will, to build multiple companies, to have a company go to the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the US for three years in a row, and all of these things, and so I'm good at this stuff. But still, because this is sneaky stuff, I realized that I lied. I was not in any way committed to the goal. I was like it would have been nice to have, but I was not committed to seeing it happen, to becoming my reality, and I was like that is interesting. And one of the things that pointed out to me that I wasn't committed to it at all was the fact that if it had happened, I would have been like, oh my goodness, this was a miracle, because I wasn't in it at all. If it had happened I would have been like, oh my goodness, this was a miracle, because I wasn't in it at all. I was like, oh my goodness. So then I said okay.

Speaker 1:

Then I looked at the actions. Did I actually take them? For two of the three actions, I kind of sort of did, but not in a way that would create the results at all. The volume required to create the result was not behind it at all, and so I lied about wanting to accomplish a goal and I lied about doing the action to myself because I was not committed. I was not committed to getting it done.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the very first thing is that we lie to ourselves. I can't tell you how many times I've had an entrepreneur say, oh, I want to take my business to seven figures and all that stuff, but I know it's a wish. They don't really want it. They're not committed to the evolution, they're not committed to the action. They don't want it. And I'm not saying they tried and they didn't succeed. They don't want it. It was a lie. They were lying to themselves. So I lied to myself Okay, okay and right in this moment, I want you to think about the goals that are top of mind for you.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you have your 20% coach journal and the goals that you set for last week or this week or whatever. Like do you actually? Are you really committed to getting them done? Are you willing to do what it takes Like, are you Okay? So I found that I was not at all Like if it happened or it didn't happen, really deep, deep, deep down I didn't care, like I would like for it to happen, but I was not willing to do what it took to make it happen. Okay, so I did that.

Speaker 1:

And the thing about lying to ourselves is that it's so expensive because, at the end of the day, you want what you want. At the end of the day, your time is ticking away. At the end of the day, you wasted a week quote unquote right, like, I still accomplished many things, I still made progress, right, so it's not like nothing happened, but this particular thing did not. And so lying in this case lying is expensive because it cost me a week's worth of progress. I want you to think about that, the progress I could have made in that part of my business. Lying to myself cost me a week's worth, but now I'm saying it's a week's worth because I stopped at the end of the week to evaluate. It could have been a month's worth, it could have been a year's worth, it could have been a decade's worth.

Speaker 1:

And for many physicians this is the case right, where we've said things we don't mean them. We've talked about building business. We don't mean that. We talk about crossing seven figure mark. We don't mean that we talk about hiring an office manager. We don't mean that. We don't mean any of that.

Speaker 1:

And when we lie to ourselves, subconsciously we know we're lying, but outward we're like we're working, we're getting this thing done, but we're not. We're not. And if you can find where you're lying to yourself and say what you really want and do the next few things I'm going to show you, everything can change for us. Well, we have to start with not lying. Lying is expensive, so it's worth doing the work to figure out what are the lies. I'm telling myself All right, and this is one of those episodes like, as you find these things and you start making shifts, send me a DM, send me a PM, say, oh, my goodness, dr Una, that podcast episode you did. That was like literal fire. It changed my life because I found out that the things I claim I'm, you know, I'm working on like I wouldn't have been as helpful.

Speaker 1:

So the next thing I did which points us to the next mistake the next mistake is we don't ask why. So the first thing is we lie to ourselves. And then the second thing is we don't ask ourselves why. Why did we do that? Why are we doing that? Or why didn't we do what we said we were going to do? Why aren't we as committed as we thought we were Right? And so I started asking myself why. The easier thing is to let myself off the hook oh, there's always next week, right, that's the easier thing, but the more strategic thing and the more profitable thing and the better thing is to not let ourselves off the hook and not even make it a hook, just observe, like so why didn't I? Why was I not committed? Why didn't I do these activities?

Speaker 1:

And so, for me, I made a very interesting discovery. Okay, as I started to ask myself why, I realized that I did not identify as the kind of person who got those kind of results. I mean, I could get those results at a hundredth or a thousandth of the speed, but or I couldn't get them at all, you know, like so I didn't identify as the person who got those kinds of results and I didn't identify as a person who did the actions that were required to pull them off. I was like that's not, I don't do stuff like that, I don't have stuff like that, I don't have results like that. And again, if you've listened to me for any amount of time, you hear me talk constantly about our evolution, becoming the kind of person who can pull off what we want to pull off and all of those things.

Speaker 1:

So it was a very shocking discovery for me. I was like, hey, I work on this stuff, I do this stuff. What is going on? And this is your reminder that, when it comes to the fundamentals required for you to have a successful business and a successful life, you do not outgrow the fundamentals, you do not outgrow time mastery, you do not outgrow goal setting, you do not outgrow your personal evolution, you don't outgrow continue to develop that growth mindset. Like you don't outgrow any of these things, Okay.

Speaker 1:

So I sat and I was like Like you don't outgrow any of these things, okay. So I sat and I was like, oh, my goodness, I caught it. I found the root cause. And the root causes you don't identify as that kind of person. You think it's for other people who are better than you or further along than you in business, or more connected than you, and things like that. You don't think you can pull that off, right. And so, because I didn't think I could pull them off, but I knew these are the results that I wanted to have, I own the results, I own the plan, I developed the strategy, I did some work, but I didn't realize that I didn't think I was the kind of person. I thought it would be somewhat Herculean. I thought, yes, I will have to evolve, but I didn't realize how deep and how serious that was.

Speaker 1:

And so this again is the power of taking the time to stop and reflect and ask yourself questions, which is one of the reasons I think this is one of the most powerful tools you know that we have, which is a 20% coach journal. Right, because imagine doing this every week and getting better at doing this every week. You will get rid of so many obstacles, so many limiting beliefs, so many lies like all of these things get exposed. They don't get exposed any other way. So I asked the question. I got a wonderful answer which is like you don't think you're that person right Now. That's something I can fix right and that's something that I can start stopping from stopping me, because now I know what it is. It's a finding out a year later. I found out a week later. Okay, now I could have stopped there. But stopping there is not enough, right? It's kind of like you made the diagnosis, you still need a cure, right.

Speaker 1:

And so the third thing that stops people, keeps, you know, 90% of physician entrepreneurs in the same same spot is they don't develop a solution. So most will not look to see the lies OK, they just keep lying. And then, of those who look at the lie, most will not dig to say OK, but why? Why do you believe that lie? Why are you all in on that lie, right, ok. And then, third, those who find out the why are not going to come up with a solution or execute on the solution. Ok. So for me, what did I come up with as my solution? I come up with as my solution. So first of all, I looked at it. I said I am worthy of those results. I may not have been the person who does those kinds of things, but there was also a time that was not the person who did IVs. I was not the person who did intubations. I was not the person who ran codes. I was not the person who did any of that. I was not the person who ran a six-figure business. I was not the person who ran a seven-figure business.

Speaker 1:

And I have evolved, and this is just another step in my evolution. And so, because I have this track record of evolving, which every one of you have, right, we can take all the way back. There was a time you didn't talk, there was a time you didn't walk, there was a time you couldn't read, there was a time you couldn't write, like, we have a track record of evolution. This is normal, this is normal for me, this is normal for you. We evolve, okay. And so it's one more evolution, okay. So, which means I can become the kind of person who does that, and I start by identifying as the kind of person who does that, right. And so, you know, I have exercises of visualization where I'm visualizing myself as that person, right, so I can sit in it more, because I've never seen myself as that person. So I visualize myself with the results. I visualize myself taking the action and somebody may say, oh, this is woo woo. Listen.

Speaker 1:

Professional golfers do this. Professional basketball players do this. The elite of the elite, the high performance people you know and admire, they all do this, do this. The elite of the elite, the high performance people you know and admire, they all do this. Golfers have times where they just sit and imagine themselves taking the shot. You're going into the hole. Taking the shot is going to the hole. Basketball players have times where they just sit. They're sitting at the free throw line. They shoot the ball, it gets into the basket. They shoot the ball, they get into the basket. They do this hundreds of times, sometimes thousands of times, in their mind before they actually go and do it. And so if it's good for the basketball players, the elite basketball players, it's good for the elite golfers. Guess who it's good for? It's good for the elite physician entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1:

On the other side of it, I imagine myself taking the action, doing it confidently, and all of that. What am I doing? I'm rewiring the way that I think about myself. I can choose to believe. I'm not the person. I can choose to believe I am the person. Either way, I'm right. So I am going to choose what works for me, not what works against me.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so visualization is part of it, it's part of what I do and it's also the frequency of it, right? And so you know like now I've set this thing where you know, twice a day I'm leaning into who I am, the kind of results I create, the way I show up, the kind of actions I take, the responses I get from the market and all of those things. I'm doing that so I can start identifying as that kind of person, so I can start doing the action and creating the results. But I want you to think of. All of this came out of one week of setting goals and then going back to evaluate, to see where I was and to have this come to Jesus, meeting with myself, be honest with myself, get rid of the lies, look for the actual root cause, come up with a solution. So guess what? Now, this week, I'm now showing up as that person because I took the time to tackle all of that, which means every week I come as a new version of myself. Every week I come as an up-level, upgraded version of myself. And again, if I do this every week for 52 weeks, this is 52 significant transformations. There is no way to do that and remain the same. I am so excited about this because guess who can do this? Every physician, every like every, and this is literally for every physician.

Speaker 1:

If you feel like you're stuck, there's something you need to go look at, and if you look at it, you can get unstuck in a matter of minutes, in a matter of maybe an hour. It takes you to pull it all off. It doesn't matter if you get unstuck in an hour. That was a great use of an hour, okay. So I want to challenge you, and the challenge here is to reject the status quo with everything you have, the areas where you're stuck.

Speaker 1:

Don't just accept this is the way I am, the areas where you're stuck. Don't just accept this is the way I am. Don't lie to yourself oh my goodness. Be honest about the state of things. Be honest about the state of your personal life. Be honest about the state of your business and not from a standpoint oh, everything sucks. No, being honest also includes acknowledging all the great things, because this was not the only thing I did. I also acknowledged the three biggest wins I had from the week and oh my goodness, are they big. Right, and so there are amazing things happening, but there are also these things and I'm going to tackle them and I'm going to observe. I'm not going to judge. The whole world can judge me. I'm not going to judge myself. That's what I'm not going to do. I'm going to be my greatest cheerleader. I'm looking, but is that thing of embracing the discomfort of just looking under the hood, like what exactly is going on here, right?

Speaker 1:

What I want you to do is, if you haven't already gotten the 20% coach journal it's entremedycom forward slash journal Go get your journal. And this is for everyone. I have the doctors in the Entremedy Business School using it. I have doctors in PPPM using it. I have, like everyone in my world, like even my mentees on the faith-based side of my world, like I have everybody, my kids, everybody. Why? Because you can change dramatically every week. The me of last week is not this me. This me is wiser, is smarter, is more self-aware, has made better plans, is doing some serious mindset work. That is setting me up to get even bigger results. I'm going to take bigger, bolder action and all of this stuff and every week I'm going to be completely different and I want to do that. I want my family to do that, I want you to do that, I want my clients to do that, I want everybody to do that. So, if you didn't get it yet, go get it.

Speaker 1:

It's entremedycom forward slash journal, but this is the thing, it's not just about getting it. So get it, then use it. Use it every week. Don't even worry. I don't know if I'm doing this right. Don't worry about it. I did. I've done this video. I did a video. I did a video last week with a QR code on the journal.

Speaker 1:

There's a whole training. In fact, there's a series of trainings that I've done and all this stuff. So just lean into it. But this is the deal. Please hear me Use it. Use it every week. Okay, use it every week. That's number one. Number two get better at using it. Get better at using it and you evaluate. You get better at using it. Now you can identify better goals. You can identify better action steps, because you looked at what worked and what didn't work right. You're more self-aware, so you know the things that are stopping you, so you can stop them from stopping you, but get better at using them. Get better at using the journal, making decisions and all of those things.

Speaker 1:

And then the third thing is help everybody in your world use it too. Right, like many people ask me, like, what do I do with my kids? What do I do with my mentee? What do I do with this? You have medical students you work with. Help them use it. Your kids help them use it. Your teenagers oh my goodness, help them use it. Your employees help them use it, Because what it will do is it is like personal development in a capsule and it's like having a one-on-one coach in your pocket that you meet with twice a week.

Speaker 1:

Your network is your net worth and so, as everybody in your world gets better, your net worth gets better. The ideas your team members can come up with are better. The things your children will come up with are so much better your friends, I mean like so much better. Everything in your world appreciates. Can you imagine that? So this is the thing you can live a life that changes week to week, and if you do that again, you'll be unrecognizable to yourself and your world in 90 days. And you continue to do that for six months for a year and all of that.

Speaker 1:

My goodness, where would you be Right? So I want you to think about it. Every week. You audit you up-level. You execute at a higher level. You audit, you execute, you audit you up-level, you execute at a higher level. That's what I'm going to do every week and I'm committed.

Speaker 1:

I said I'm going to use this every week for the next four years. I'm committed, and I know that 90 days from now, people will be like whoa and I will be like whoa, and then doing that every 90 days for four years. I don't even know where I'm going to be, but I don't want to go on that journey alone. I know what it's going to be like. Well, actually, I take that back. I know it's going to be really amazing, but I have no clue what it will be like, because I suspect it will be a hundred times better than what I think it would be, just judging by what has happened in the last two weeks, and I want to invite you to have the same experience as well.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so get your journal on trendycom forward slash journal, use it, get better at using it Right and get everyone in your world to use it. Okay, and I already took one for the team. I came here and I use myself as a Guinea pig. So stop lying to yourself. And when you find out those lies, find out why. When you find out why, find a solution. And it doesn't matter where you are or where your business is, where your life is right now. If you do this, everything will change for you. Okay, so I'm rooting for you, rooting for you relentlessly, and I want you to know that your better days are here and your best days are ahead of you. So let's go, let's get it done.