In the light of Chinese New Year and The Year of The Goat upon us, it seems the perfect time to demonstrate how bringing out your inner goat like tendencies can actually help you achieve the results you want.
Animals have skills that are extremely useful as they embody the adapt or die philosophy because their survival quite literally depends on it. As such, embracing a few of the more positive attributes of certain animals can help you just as much as following in the footsteps of a mentor or role model.
I do not condone behaving like an animal, I merely am an advocate for learning from life in all its forms. Here are my top tips to produce the desired outcome be being more GOAT!
Stand Your Ground
Goats are notorious for being stubborn but more accurately they are firm in their beliefs and perception. Standing your ground with your partner, your boss, your children or friends has a huge positive impact on your wellbeing. Being passive does not produce results, but neither does being aggressive. Assertiveness and an unshakeable belief in yourself is the key component to getting results. It stops resentment and keeps both personal and business relationships healthier and happier as they will be based on integrity and authenticity.
Tips to standing your ground include, speaking up but not becoming emotional. It is perfectly acceptable to explain why something is bothering you or which of your beliefs, rules or standards have been violated. Do not make the unacceptable acceptable. Make your deal breakers known early on in a polite non-threatening manner. Learn to say no positively. The most important part of standing your ground is to ensure you merely voice your viewpoint but do not impose your beliefs and values on others. Remain assertive but not aggressive.
Push Perceived Limits
Goats don't believe in limits. They may see a fence but they perceive it as a puzzle to solve, an obstacle to overcome, a challenge with a solution. They never doubt that they have everything within them to surpass any obstacle. Humans with the same unfaltering drive will achieve their dreams faster. Embrace your inner goat by facing a challenge laterally, whether you have to jump over, squeeze through, be helped over, crawl under, stand on, push against or remove completely the boundary you or society has put in front of you, the main focus is that you do not let yourself be constrained by perception. The best way to approach this is to evaluate the belief that is holding you back, ask yourself how old you were when you first heard that statement or thought it and then ask how it is serving you today. If it is holding you back, choose a different statement that allows you to achieve your wants and desires. Sometimes that is as easy as putting the word "YET" on the end of your belief statement such as "I am not a size 10 YET".
Maintain Balance
Goats are considered balanced both in dexterity as they can nimbly climb mountains but also in outlook. Work/Life balance is crucial to health from optimal neurological function and peak performance. Apply a few tricks at work to make sure you get home at a reasonable time and can leave your stresses behind allowing you to strengthen your connections outside of the office. Connection is one of the fundamental human needs and is imperative to nurture to help increase your fulfilment.
My top 3 tricks to a more productive working day include getting up 15 minutes earlier, instead of hitting the snooze button start priming. Also leave work at lunch, even if just for a short period, this allows you to have a renewed perspective. The brain needs to avoid cognitive overload to perform at its optimum allowing you to get your work done faster. Finally prioritise at work, delegate, use your out of office and don't be a slave to your inbox. Dictate your day, your way instead of letting e-mails dictate how you spend your time.
Be Open To Possibilities
Goats are inquisitive and curious creatures. They have their finger on the pulse of what is going on around them. Likewise we can take this trait and make it work for us. People who dream big look for opportunities where others don't. When you drive your car and look out of the window, I can guarantee you drive by houses that have made people money. You drive by businesses someone else has created from nothing. These opportunities are present for you too, if you look in the right direction. The Reticular Activating System in your brain drives you towards that which you focus on, if you expand your curiosity and seek out new ideas you will be amazed what you can find and achieve be it in love, work or health.
Stay Just Out Of Reach
Even the most domesticated of goat will avoid being caught when they see a human or perceived threat coming towards them. They don't panic but they do maintain distance. Likewise to be successful at work or in your chosen sport you need to stay ahead of the game to be among the top in your field.
To achieve this you need to be like no other and highlight your uniqueness to yourself and those you come into contact with. Lower your expectations of others and raise your standards. Keep your standards high helping pull you forward, motivating you from within to constantly improve keeping you out of reach from your competitors. Success and failure do not happen overnight but result from a culmination of small actions that build up over time. Willpower can wane but rituals are ingrained actions and behaviours that happen consistently and will work so long as they have been created in the right way. It's important to take small steps consistently each and every day to move forward in your life and keep you just out of reach from any opposition.
The power of modelling animals even a goat can have long lasting results.
Sloan Sheridan-Williams can be found at www.sloansw.com