Those of us who walk and drive on snow and ice for several months of the year know all about slipping. We learned the winter-walk early in life. There's the shuffle, the flat-footed stomp (never tip toe!), and the high-heeled boot that works well if you heel-toe it.

As for driving..., winter tires, lighter weight oil, anti-freeze and a furnace of a window defroster make things doable. The rest is up to the driver. It always amazes me to see how invincible the owners of 4-wheel drive vehicles think they are. They go flying past me on the four-lane highway, stirring up clouds of snow and making me temporarily blind only to be the first ones in the ditch down the road! Common sense people, common sense.

But whether you are walking or driving, there are hidden hazards that even the best of caution can't prevent and which pop up when you least expect them.

Like the fact that walking on snow and walking on ice require different talents, but when they are combined, like the time I thought I was walking in snow, but the snow was just a thin blanket covering a sheet of ice. Deadly! You know, one of the most helpless feelings in the world is when your feet fly out from under you and you find yourself flat on your back, breath knocked out, eating snowflakes as they fall into your open, gasping-for-breath mouth.

Or you hit black ice on the road and find yourself suddenly doing 360's in the middle of the highway, as your eyeballs (which you could knock off with a stick) are locked on to the cement blocks lining the shoulder whose express purpose it is to keep you from tumbling down the cliff should you wander too close. Sure gets your heart started!

When it comes to our goal setting ability, much like learning the winter-walk or the ‘steer into the skid' talents, there are lessons we can learn to avoid goal slipping.

Five of my favourites are as follows:

1. When you fall, get up

Do what the toddlers do. Ever heard of a baby learning to walk who just stayed sat after an unsuccessful attempt to stay upright and said, "This walking stuff is too hard, I'm never going to learn how, I fail every time I try, I think I'll just crawl everywhere from now on."

Every person on this earth born with the physical ability to walk, has walked. Every person on this earth born with the mental ability to think about what they want, can have it. So why do so many of us ‘stay sat' after a couple of attempts?

Perspective.

Instead of looking at a ‘failure' as a teacher, we look at it as something we did ‘wrong'. You cannot succeed without the lessons of some failures. Instead of asking "What's the value in this experience?" we tend to beat ourselves up. Failures are good, failures are necessary trails that help us climb our success mountains. So, what doesn't kill you makes you better. Success is a direction, not one event.

When you fall, get up. Get up and look for the value, the lesson. Apply it during your next attempt and before long you will be like that baby toddling along with a toothless grin of success written all over her face.

2. Don't Die With Your Song Unsung

You were born with a song in your heart. It was whispered in your ear at the moment of your birth. You are here to sing it. It is your ‘Defining Purpose'.

It is not something for which you need to search. Many people spend a lifetime ‘seeking' their Purpose. They are looking ‘without' rather than within. You don't have to go looking for it. Allow me to repeat that, ‘You don't have to go looking for it'! You already have it. Your soul sings it. You simply need to be able to hear it.

Instead of seeking your Purpose, seek the person who can guide you to recognize it. Because that's what it is... recognition.

When you recognize and sing your song, it is a certainty your goals are aligned with your Purpose. Without that synchronicity the road is a slippery one wherein you can slide off course into the ditch over and over again. Goal achievement doesn't have to be that difficult.

When you consciously live your Purpose, you become inspired (in-spirit).

Recognize your Purpose and, align your goals with it and goal setting quickly replaces goal slipping.

3. Step Off the Fast Track

The greater the speed the longer the slide when you slip.

The complaint I hear most often from my clients is that they are overwhelmed and there is not enough time to do all they need to do. The time they do have is taken up with ‘must do' and there is no time left for ‘want to do'.

The first thing to realize about the fast pace and rate of overwhelm in your life is that YOU created it and YOU can stop it.

Our globe is not turning faster, the seasons are not changing faster, and the hands of the clock are not spinning although it may feel like it. The pace of life is set by humans and you are human.

In the space I have here, I can't cover the many aspects of time management, but the bottom line is simple, "take back your power". Set some boundaries with people in your life. Learn to say "no". Take the time to plan and be better organized as this will save you hours in the long run. Reward yourself for your accomplishments, big or small. Focus only on the task at hand and don't allow your mind to race ahead of you.

Without getting this under restraint, you may find yourself in an out-of-control slide with no brakes and no idea where you will be when you come to a stop.

By stepping rather than slipping off the fast track, you will be able to enjoy your goal setting process and keep your power where it belongs...with you.

4. Listen to Your Languaging

You can be doing all the right things in the pursuit of your goals, writing them down, a vision board, etc., but it can all be undone with how you self-talk or verbalize to others.

For instance if you set a goal for increased income and than ‘language' poverty you are not on the same frequency as the Law of Attraction and, once again, that goal for more income can slip right off the dial.

Here is an example:

Rather than: "I need an income of $100,000 per year"

Say this: "I earn an income of $100,000 per year"

Using the word "need" keeps you in a constant state of ‘neediness' rather than ‘earning'.

Rather than: "I'm not living in poverty"

Say this: "I'm living a life of comfort and luxury"

See how the words "not" and "poverty" emphasize the negative? Again, the positive energy is slipping away and leaving you in a state of ‘not having'. Shift your attention to what you want rather than what you don't want.

Rather than: "I want a new Ford Mustang convertible"

Say this: I love driving my brand new, bright red Ford Mustang"

The word ‘want' keeps you in that state of ‘wanting' rather than having'.

Just judge by how you feel when you speak each of the sentences above. Which ones bring up joyful feelings? Do the same for your own sentences.

Keep your ear tuned to the use of negative words and consciously convert them to positive words. It will seem like constant work in the beginning, but sooner than you might think, you will automatically begin choosing a positive frame of your visions.

Don't allow your goals to slip away with negative languaging when it is such an easy fix.

5. Be a Bud-Nipper

I've always been a Bud-Nipper. I like to nip things in the bud, catch things before they hit bottom, get out of control. It is soooo much less stressful, less time wasting and healthier to be a Bud-Nipper.

However, there is one thing that you must do in order to qualify as a Bud-Nipper. You have to get out of denial. You have to see things as they are, no fancy frippery, no dim lighting, no rose coloured glasses.

Like weeds in the yard, pull some every few days or ignore them until you have a huge job in front of you that seems like way too much work so you just keep on procrastinating. This only adds to your ‘overwhelm' (number 3).

One of the greatest examples of bud-nipping comes in your own health. One of your goals may be to feel better and have more energy by being healthier. You have a nagging pain in your stomach, but you ignore it telling yourself it will go away. It continues to get worse over time until it becomes an emergency and you have to see a doctor. Now, instead of controlling your acid reflux with a simple medication or change in diet, you have a full-blown erosion in your oesophagus.

Which would you rather experience? The simple bud-nipping solution or the longer, more involved, more painful and expensive experience.

Bud-nipping is prevention. You have the ability to prevent many of the dramas or traumas that sneak into your life. How can you focus on goal setting when you have to deal with so much crisis?

So there you have it, five profound steps for you to practice to prevent goal-slipping. What if you just concentrated on a different one each week for the next five weeks? Do you think that would cause some changes for you? These steps are your winter boots, your winter tires, your winter-walk, your anti-freeze and all those other slip preventions. You will find that you can catch yourself before you hit the ground or the ditch.

So nip that negative languaging in the bud, and get up singing your song when you fall off that fast track !