If you are just joining us now, I encourage you to read the article I posted last week entitled: Make a Goal—the first step in the GoalBud process. Don't miss out on the three essential steps to unlocking your full potential with GoalBud! This article is part two of a series that will walk you through each step and help you achieve more than ever before. Remember to take advantage of the upcoming launch of our free GoalBud app on March 1, 2023! Pre-register here for early access and notification when it is available.

The first step to achieving something is making a goal. You need to be specific about what you want, when you want it, and why you want it. This process is important for your success. The second step—building a Goal Team—will help increase your chance at success and ensure that you have the right support in place to reach your goals. Even if you have good reasons for wanting to achieve a goal, you are more likely to succeed if you have a team to help you. Goal Teams, which we call swim buddies in Navy SEALs, have been the backbone of Navy SEAL Teams for over 60 years. They are our ultimate accountability partners and our secret weapon to success. In a goal team, you are accountable to others, and they, in turn, are counting on you. That form of peer pressure is very useful in pushing you past your own pre-conceived limitations.

We have limitations that we have voluntarily imposed on ourselves—beliefs about things we can, can’t, or aren’t sure we can do. Then along comes a goal that gets us so Fired UP that we willingly challenge our own limiting beliefs. The energy we receive from envisioning the goal we seek empowers us to overcome our perceived limitations. It is our team's unwavering courage and support that drives us forward, inspiring us to reach new goals and push beyond existing boundaries. The power of a goal team is the key to reaching our target. Working together, we can accomplish more as their trust and support will help us conquer our fears and fuel our persistence.

Following up on my story from last week, the first goal I ever set for myself was to make the second boat of my high school varsity rowing team by sophomore year. Most kids who make one of the two varsity boats earn a seat by their junior year. I had defined my goal, determined what I wanted and when I wanted it, and I reminded myself—sometimes hourly—why I wanted it. But that was not enough. During my entire freshman year, I trained by myself not really knowing what I was doing. I thought that if I just worked hard, that would be enough—but it was not. I was just guessing what to do in my workouts and often found myself feeling frustrated and not fully committed to my workout because I was constantly questioning myself.

At the beginning of my sophomore year, I learned the power of a goal team. The captain of the cross-country team had rowed in the second boat his junior year and had a goal of making the first boat his senior year. He had watched me attend every one of his races (I also volunteered to help the varsity manager—I figured anything I could do to get close to crew was a step in a positive direction!). He knew about my goal and realized well before I did that I did not stand a chance without a training partner. Charlie Pruesse became my first goal teammate, or as we say in GoalBud, my Bud. Without Charlie’s encouragement and his continual pressure to push myself beyond what I originally thought was possible, I would never have been the final one selected to Kent School Boat Club’s second boat my sophomore year.

Charlie taught me so much about how to train and how to push through levels of pain that would have held me back if I had been alone. Because of Charlie, I was able to turn my dream into reality. The second step of the GoalBud process is finding your “Charlies,” your Buds who will push you out of your comfort zone to help you realize your goal success. Ever since I worked with Charlie, I have built goal teams to accomplish every single goal. And, every single time that I thought I no longer needed a goal team were the times I fell short of achieving my goal. I cannot stress enough the importance of building your goal team—it is your most valuable difference-maker. A goal team will keep you on track when you lose your way—it will empower you to keep going when you are feeling like giving up, and it will pick you up when you are feeling down and defeated. Just like in SEAL Team, you should never go after a goal without your own goal team. Think of your goal team as your own personal SEAL Team to help you find your mission (goal) success.

In my last article, I gave you a simple homework assignment: “Who are the people that can help you achieve your goal?” The answer you are looking for is not your favorite friends or most loving family members. The people you seek are the ones you trust to help you. This is not about surrounding yourself with people who say, “That’s okay, at least you tried.” No, you are looking for those who may already have achieved something you desire or have expressed a willingness to commit to you if you are truly committed to your goal. You might find these people frustrating at times, but they are pushing you out of your comfort zone. That is an uncomfortable feeling, but a very necessary one when pursuing something you have never done before. Goal Team members can be paid coaches, teachers, advisors, and friends who are committed to a similar goal as yours (or something equally challenging but different in scope). The key characteristic of successful goal teammates or Buds is that they are committed to helping you succeed.

Here's the catch—for them to commit to you, you MUST COMMIT to your goal. This is the third and final step in the GoalBud process, and it's your homework assignment for this week! Dreams only work if you do the work. To achieve your goal, you need to decide what you are willing to give up so you can take action every day. The commitment process answers the final component of goal achievement in the GoalBud process: it is the “how.” How are you going to achieve your goal? Answering the “how” means you are committing to doing some kind of work daily toward your goal. It is the final key step in the GoalBud process (besides actually taking the daily action!) and will help you attract and build your goal team. When your goal team knows your commitments, they are much more likely to commit to you.

Homework assignment:

“What work are you willing to commit to weekly and how often are you willing to report it to your goal team?”

Remember: the glue to a goal team is your commitment to taking daily action. The more you commit, the more your Buds will commit to you, and the greater your chances for goal success.

The greatest accomplishments in the world have been, and will always occur, with teams. Let's be Unstoppable together by building goal teams today!

Get Ready to Be Unstoppable at achieving your goals—GOALBUD LAUNCHES ON March 1, 2023! Sign up here for an advanced free download and GoalBud notifications!

Be Unstoppable!

Alden