It’s extremely important to have a support group as you try to find your life’s purpose. Why? Because the journey is going to be hard!

You know that if something is too good to be true, it probably isn’t. You have to put in time and sacrifice, and there is no better method of motivation than having somebody who believes in you and keeps you moving forward.

As a life coach, I can speak for myself when I say that I see firsthand the benefits a support system can produce. Coaches in particular can be very useful and efficient with clients, and I love seeing their progress with each visit. But support can come in the form of a family member, a best friend, a co-worker, or a member of your church. Human beings are social beings. We need that touch, that relationship, and if we don’t have it, it’s extremely hard to accomplish our goals.

Behind every successful person is a group of great people, cheering him or her on. Think about the network of Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he relied on them for support, advice, and encouragement.

Or look at the 2008 presidential candidates: Obama had a renowned online-savvy network that connected him to the latest social networks, while McCain was behind the power curve and had to catch up. By being involved with Facebook and Twitter so early on, Obama was able to expand his reach and develop a successful campaign. And what else is a campaign if not a collection of people rallying behind you to get your to your goal, even if that goal is to be President of the United States?

You want to be a doctor? Spending time with people who are satisfied with working at a fast food restaurant will not serve you to achieve your goal, because they won’t hold you accountable. Instead spend a good portion of your time with people who also want to be doctors, as you’ll develop a camaraderie and push each other to stay focused. Find the people who do what you want to do, and hang out with them.

Like we talked about in past entries, it is so easy to get off track. Some might criticize you because they don’t have the passion or drive to do what you’re doing. Those people will only bring you down. A true accountability partner can remind you what your purpose is.

Aim to hang out with people who uplift you and your ideas.

How will you know if you have achieved your life’s purpose? How will you know if you’re on your way to meeting the expectations you have set for yourself?

Goal setting. You need to set goals to find your life’s purpose.

I am asked a lot by clients about how they should go about setting goals in order to find their purpose in life. I almost always advise them to flip that question and look at it a different way: How can goal setting help me reach my life’s purpose?

I approach it this way because I don’t believe you can set a goal if you don’t have an end result in mind. Goal-setting should not come before knowing what you want. The first step then, is to clarify your dreams and set your intentions. Find your life’s purpose and then figure out how to get there. That said, once your purpose is determined, goal-setting is one of the best tools to get there.

Consider both long-term and short-term goals. Many people set long-term goals and forget the middle. Long-term goals are great, but short-term goals are the ones that keep you in check and move you forward, and neglecting to set them can get you sidetracked because you have nothing to look forward to.

Try not to leave any gaps. You want to move, step to step, like stepping stones, measuring your progress along the way. Setting smaller goals helps you move toward your goal and feel accomplished without getting overwhelmed. By focusing on steps, versus leaps, you can avoid creating that static energy that typically makes people abandon their dreams.

Goals also keep you honest. If you come up with some crazy excuse as to why you haven’t accomplished your goal by the deadline, you know you’re not being truthful to your dream. You are not committed to your dream, you’re more committed to your reality.

Goals are also measurable things you can communicate to your support group — milestones to which they can hold you accountable. It’s a lot harder to give up on yourself when you have to answer to somebody.

When seeking inspiration for your own accomplishments and life purpose, the most important thing to do is find someone you want to emulate. But never forget that you are your own person.

Everybody has a different idea about what makes a “good” role model, so choose one who speaks to you and your unique purpose in life. When you’re working toward your dreams, have someone in mind whom you admire, but understand that your competition is not against that person. You don’t want to focus on being better than that person. You want to be a better version of yourself than you were yesterday, and you want to be a better version of yourself tomorrow than you were today. The competition is against you, not somebody else.

People get caught up in that. For example, in my field, some life coaches believe that if they’re not like Tony Robbins, they can’t be considered professionally successful. I admire Tony Robbins, and I want to be like him.

However, I understand that at the end of the day, I want to be me, just a little better with every day. Whether the end product makes me more famous than him or less famous than him, I don’t care. I have him as a role model because of his level of professionalism, his ever-expanding reach, and his impressive rise to success. At the same time, I know that my skills and gifts are different than his, and I don’t want to lose that.

Some people get frustrated because they compare themselves too harshly to others doing what they want to do. That can definitely sidetrack you and put you down. When you look in the mirror at night, ask “Did I do what I was supposed to do today to complete my goals? Was I true to myself?”

Use a person as a role model because he motivates you and keeps you focused, but never forget your inherent self.

When “The Law of Attraction” became widely known a few years ago, many people were mislead into thinking that you simply had to declare your desire to the Universe and wait for opportunities to come to you. People were hearing glowing testimonials of individuals who asked for and received extravagant things to manifest in their lives.

In a certain light, it’s easy to believe that these opportunities just fell into their laps, like a genie in a magic lamp. However, I guarantee there are two things happening in each Law of Attraction success story, and here’s how you can approach them.

1) Awareness

First, you need to come to the realization that in order to live your life on purpose, you have to know exactly what you want. Increasing self-awareness is first thing you focus on. Everyone has a current reality in the middle of himself and his purpose. Get as clear a vision as you can of that dream.

2) Take Action

Once you have become clear on you want, then you have to develop a PLAN. There are many different methods you can take to map out the journey to your purpose. The simplest one is to just sit down and put it all on paper.

As you’re doing this, you might hear that little voice telling you that you can’t do it. We all have that voice — the one that give us all the excuses as to why we can’t possibly fulfill our dream. Instead try to block out those doubts, address that voice and find ways to circumvent the obstacles it puts in front of you. Use it as your helper, instead of simply making believe that it’s not there. When that voice comes in, let it be, and take notes. Then develop a plan, and put it into practice.

Keep in mind that the Law of Attraction is not a genie in a magic lamp, but rather a tool to help you focus your intentions. That said, it can help bring amazing opportunities into your daily life on the path to finding your true purpose.

Americans are fans of instant gratification. We love the microwave, the fast-food drive-thru, and getting what we want when we want it. Google “get rich quick” and you will find thousands and thousands of pages claiming to make you a millionaire overnight. So when it comes to going after our dreams, it’s no surprise that people find reasons to give up when the opportunity doesn’t arrive on their doorstep the next day. It‘s very easy to lose sight of your passion, because most people are more committed to their reality than their dream. Doubt and distraction are two of the central forms of internal struggle we experience as we approach our life’s purpose.

The Doubter

It’s there 24/7 — the voice that tells us why we cannot do something or be something. It is important to recognize that there is no excuse for not moving towards your dreams, no matter what your current reality is. When it comes down to making things happen for yourself, it’s inevitable that you will hear The Doubter telling you it’s impossible. It might tell you that it’s all based on luck, or that you don’t have enough support.

From here, people often do one of two things:

1) Listen to the voice and become a victim of why you can’t live your purpose. It’s a lot easier to make an excuse and listen to that voice than become more aware and to develop a plan to move you in the right direction.

2) Pretend that you’re not listening to it and repress it. We often think it’s as easy as “blocking out” The Doubter, but without meeting it head on, we are still sub-consciously digesting those ideas.

The Distractor

In fulfilling our true purpose, one of the biggest obstacles that we face is getting sidetracked. Depending on our current reality, we can get easily distracted and end up doing something else — without any regards to our original purpose. I call this internal struggle “The Distractor.”

Take my life, for example. I quit my regular job to work on my own business full time. But as any new business owner knows, this is not an easy thing to do because I’m just starting. However, I understood that, going in. It would have been easy for me to get a job working 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week in order to support my family, but I’d be totally forgetting my true passion for helping people as a life coach. I made the conscious decision to stay focused on the task at hand, no matter how hard it got.

How do you silence the Doubter and the Distractor?

The biggest enemies to the Doubter and the Distractor are awareness and discipline. Successful people put time and effort toward their purpose to keep it rolling and not lose track, no matter what their current situation is. The truth is, this process is hard. Maintaining focus is hard. Finding time is hard. Being patient is hard. Quieting your mind is hard.

You have to fight for what you want in life. Nothing in life worth doing is easy. You have to have faith that you’re eventually going to get there, regardless of your currently reality. If you don’t have the right mindset, it’s really easy to just settle for that reality, completely abandon your purpose, and leave this earth not completely fulfilled. Keep an optimistic and grateful attitude, and it will serve you well.