What Does A Mousetrap and Cat Have To Do With Goal Achievement?
Much like my clients, I have a BIG audacious goal that I want to achieve. The trouble is that sometimes I take a passive approach to achieving my goals. I go after them much like the way a mousetrap catches mice. I set the trap, put it out there in the big, wide open space and then I sit back and wait. I sit and wait and hope that my little mousetrap will catch my big audacious goals. My mousetrap looks like a vision board posted in plain sight where I can see it every day. It also looks like post-it-notes, pictures and recipe cards with motivational messages posted throughout my house and office. It sounds like daily affirmations that I say each morning, midday and evening.
While creating a vision board, posting reminders throughout my space, and saying daily affirmations is helpful, this is not the best way to acquire my goals; no more than a mousetrap is the best way to catch a mouse. In fact, a mousetrap isn't likely to catch the juiciest and most desirable mouse. It is going to catch the dumb, slow ones! A mousetrap doesn't permit me to catch the quality of mouse, or goal, I want. Additionally, once a mousetrap has caught a mouse, it stops working.
I've fallen prey to this mousetrap mentality. I've acquired my big audacious goal, and then I didn't do the work to maintain it! For example, I lost 40 pounds and then within 5 years, I gained it all back. This is because I was lazy and emotionally unattached to my big audacious goal once I acquired it. I didn't bother to reset the mousetrap on a daily basis. Having the mentality of a mousetrap, it is no surprise I couldn't maintain that new lower weight. There was a much better way I could have gone about this.
The most effective and efficient mousetrap in the world is the cat. A cat doesn't lie around in the wide open space with its jaw wide open and hope that a wonderful, juicy, audaciously big mouse walks in. Rather, it is genetically predisposed to go hunt for that desirable mouse. The cat wakes each morning craving a particular mouse. It knows what it tastes like; it knows what its droppings smells like; and it knows the sounds the mouse makes as it scampers behind the wall. Best of all, the cat knows exactly where to find that juicy, audacious mouse. Once the cat has caught a mouse, it doesn't call it quits. It isn't fully satisfied like a "one and done" type of thing. Rather, the very next morning the cat wakes craving another mouse and so it goes out and catches another one.
A cat's survival depends on finding a mouse each day, just as my goal was dependent upon me taking right action to maintain it. If I would have taken on the identity of a cat with my weight loss goal, each morning I would have woken up craving that mouse and so I would have consistently hunted for it by going to the gym or eating more nutritious foods. I would have been consistently proactive in my efforts to maintain it, just as I was when I was hunting to acquire it.
As we go after those big, audacious goals, setting a mousetrap (creating a vision board, posting reminders and saying affirmations) is a passive way to get what want. The best way is to take on the identity of a cat, the identity of a hunter. Wake each morning craving your goal and then take action that helps you get it. And even though you may have acquired it today, wake tomorrow committed to hunting for it again. Feed yourself that big, audacious goal as if your survival depended upon it, just as a cat’s survival depends upon catching a mouse each day.
If you would like support in achieving your BIG, audacious goal, please email me at Molly@EmpoweredCoaching.com to schedule your consultation session.