Do you have problems choosing a goal? Do you have too many? Or you don’t have any goals at all? Do you have a goal but don’t know how to achieve it? Then this post is for you!
We all want a better life. We all have wishes. Wishes are goals – but goals with snap, crackle, and pop.
We set goals in our life to progress ourselves in different aspects of life.
But many of us fail to achieve our goals as we fail to follow the process or work upon it. Setting a goal is one thing but the roadmap to achieve it is altogether a different ball game.
As easy as it is to set a goal it is multiple times harder to achieve it.
This is what we are going to discuss here today.
Here is an 8-step guide on how to achieve your goals:
Step 1 – Intensify DESIRE
“Desire is the first step of goal achievement and the foundation.”
Have you set personal or business goals and failed to achieve them? Here is a crucial question: WHY?
The answer is simple: Because we did not have a strong enough desire.
Some may argue with that. “But I did have a strong desire and still I didn’t get there.” Sorry, but the desire was still not strong enough.
How do you identify the intense desire and passion?
It’s what keeps people working all hours, up early, and late to bed. The desire dominates the conversation, thinking, and actions.
Take a moment to think about the goals you’ve set for yourself. How committed are you to achieving these goals? How well have you thought about your plans to achieve your goals?
Under what conditions would you give up?
What if you could significantly increase your desire to achieve these goals?
What if you wanted them so badly that you knew with absolute certainty that you would absolutely, positively never ever give up?
When you are truly 100% committed to reaching your goals, you move from hoping to knowing to achieve them.
If you want something badly enough, then quitting is simply not an option. You either find a way or make one. You pay the price, whatever it takes.
By creating intense desire you can realize the impossible dream.
Develop a sincere desire to achieve the goal. A wish or daydream has no substance; it is vague, unformed, and unsupported by action. Desire puts action into your plan.
Strong desire is success power.
Step 2 – Develop BELIEF
If you don’t believe you can reach a goal, it will remain a pipe dream as much as if you didn’t bother planning the route to the goal, or do what’s required to get there.
If there is any doubt in your mind that you may not be able to achieve something, you don’t give it your all. In fact, you may very well just set it aside. In order to fully achieve anything, you must believe it is possible at a cellular level.
Believing is seeing. Seeing is believing.
If you are willing to accept that you can be successful, that you’ll enjoy being successful, and if you are willing to establish and work on an exhilarating, enjoyable, and rewarding path to your goals, then we’re confident you’ll achieve those goals.
Step 3 – Define your OBJECTIVE
Don’t be confused. Setting clear and defined objectives is very important.
In May of 1961, John F. Kennedy pledged that America would land a man on the moon “before the decade is out.” It was a brave and bold objective, perhaps one of the greatest of all time.
Just making the statement, however, did not lead to its achievement.
Putting a man on the moon required immense amounts of intelligence, research, planning, money, people, risk, and commitment, amongst other things. The most important step, though, was not Neil Armstrong’s, it was John F. Kennedy’s setting of the Objective.
We define the Objective as the final goal. It is what all your efforts are going to lead to. In Investing, for example, it could be to have $5 million by retirement.
While some people may want to only have an Objective in one area of their life, most successful people set Objectives in many areas:
Career, Family, Financial, Health, Knowledge, Material, Retirement, and Spiritual
These are just some categories you should set Objectives in. Objectives are generally long-term, sometimes even lifetime, although they don’t have to be. They do have to be important to you, and something you feel is worth pursuing, or establishing a goal-setting routine wouldn’t be worth doing.
In starting a goal-setting routine, we recommend you set Objectives in one or two areas to begin. As you start realizing small successes, you’ll probably add more Objectives as you will want to be successful in all areas of your life.
Remember, don’t hold back:
Make your Objectives as large as you can realistically realize. Make sure that your goals are S.M.A.R.T.!!!
Commit to making SMART goals and start working toward them today.
Step 4 – WRITE it down!
Write your goal out in complete detail.
Why is it so important to write it down?
Words are an integral part of the thinking process. Words convey images, pictures, feelings, and emotions to the mind. By clothing it in words that abstract thought now takes on body, shape, form, and substance.
It is no longer just a thought!
It becomes something, which motivates us or creates a gut feeling inside.
Why is the mechanical act of writing so important?
Building on what we have already stated, putting pen to paper now transfers those expressions, which embody thoughts onto something tangible. We can now physically look at it.
Even the act of using the eye in coordination with the hand holding the pen makes a much firmer impression on our mind as we write out the phrase or expression.
Now when we read and re-read that phrase or sentence the impression on the mind becomes deeper and deeper.
Written goals are directives to the unconscious mind, which obeys them blindly. There is something semi-magical about writing one’s goals down which makes achieving well-written goals an almost certainty. The real trick is to write one’s goals down in a special way that helps guarantee their achievement.
Write it down or kiss it goodbye.
Step 5 – Set a DEADLINE
Set a date for the achievement of your goal.
Setting a date for the attainment of your goal is the ignition of the goal-seeking missile in your mind. Make sure that your date is really… not too soon that it’s impossible, but not so delayed that it’s not interesting.
Make sure you write the date of your goal down next to your goal. Once you’ve set this date, you should never change it.
Can we see then why deadlining is another crucial step in the goal achievement process?
Yes, deadlines crystallize thinking and increase motivation. However, it would be a mistake to think deadlines perform miracles.
Setting a deadline by saying, “In seven days from now I will have made an extra $5,000” is not going to miraculously deliver unless you have a strategy and a realistic plan based on your present circumstances.
Set a deadline. Deadlines move us to action.
When we fail to include a deadline for our goal, when we commit to achieving it “as soon as possible”, the goal winds up in our “as soon as possible” pile of things I will do another day, which is probably never. Why? Because we all have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done.
The items that have deadlines for completion tend to bubble up in priority and importance so that we take action and achieve them.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. No goal achievement is a leap across some huge canyon. Many are intimidated and driven away from going after what they really want in their lives for fear they will have to take a giant leap across that canyon and, hey, what if I don’t leap far enough? Disaster.
But until you write out your goal, quantify it, and set a deadline so that you break it down into its small steps, it will forever appear to be too big a stretch and therefore unattainable.
But every time you follow these three steps and break the goal down, you will always find that you have within your control what it takes to accomplish that next step. And once you begin, you are on your way!
Step 6 – Defining Your REASONS
In studying goal setting, and the keys to success, it was discovered that many people fail to achieve success simply because they lack clear REASONS for doing so.
Don’t let this hold up your success. Give serious thought as to why you want to achieve an Objective, and write down what you’ve decided.
Do you want $5 million at retirement? Why? Do you say you want to live in a mansion? Why? The more compelling your Reasons are, the greater your chances will be of meeting your Objectives.
Conversely, if you can’t come up with “good” Reasons, you might as well set another Objective, as this one won’t be achieved.
Remember, every person has different reasons for wanting something. What one person thinks is vain or stupid, another will think is worthy or great.
You must come up with Reasons that are honest, strong, and motivating to you.
Write them down below the appropriate Objective, leaving plenty of space to expand or add to them. The more Reasons you have the better. Just make sure they really represent the Reasons you have for desiring something.
Step 7- Defining Your SUB-GOALS
Once you’ve written an Objective, and your compelling Reasons for achieving it, you must start planning the route towards the Objective.
Ask yourself: “What steps do I need to take to… ?”
These steps will be your Sub-goals.
Say you’ve set an Objective for having $5 Million by retirement (which could be 20+ years away). First, you must figure out how you can achieve that. Do you need to learn more about investing? Will you have to start saving $500 a week? Do you have to get a new job? Will you have to more actively watch your existing investments?
Whatever needs doing, to progress towards your objective, to achieve it, will become your Sub-goals.
Sub-goals can be specific or broad in scope, but they must always lead directly towards the Objective they support. They must also always have a deadline. A date you plan to accomplish the Sub-goal by, a realistic date that not only motivates you into action but also ensures progress towards your Objective.
Usually, you will have many Sub-goals at a time, and in the case of a real long-term Objective, some of the Sub-goals will not be clear at the start, with others coming about when certain existing Sub-goals are achieved.
Always write your Sub-goals and their Accomplishment Dates down. Never make your Sub-goals too long or too difficult, as you don’t want to be overwhelmed by them.
If a Sub-goal is long-term (as in taking a four-year degree towards a larger Career Objective), break it down into smaller parts (each year for example), and revise and/or renew them when accomplished.
By making sufficient and reasonable Sub-goals, and always accomplishing them on time, you’ll find yourself making great progress towards Objectives, which may look intimidating, or even impossible, by themselves.
Step 8- Defining Your TASKS
Just as we break large or long-term Objectives down into smaller supporting elements called Sub- goals, we further break our Sub-goals down into even smaller elements.
These small elements are called Tasks, and accomplishing them is what makes the practice of goal setting really work. Tasks are usually the simple things you must do to accomplish a Sub-goal.
If you’ve set a Sub-goal, for example, to have a complete understanding of investing in bonds by next June 15th, you will have to accomplish a number of Tasks for acquiring that knowledge.
Choosing to go to the library and get a book on bonds would be a Task.
Reading the book for one hour each this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday could be three separate Tasks.
Visiting the Investors Skills’ website for their bond information would be another Task. Calling your buddy who’s had success in the bond market would be a Task as well.
All of these tasks, which should be written down on the same paper as the Sub-goal they support, must be set with an Accomplishment Date, for if you procrastinate calling your buddy, never get around to complete reading the book, or don’t even bother checking the website, you won’t reach your Sub-goal of learning about bonds, or won’t meet it by its Accomplishment Date.
And this, unfortunately for you, will turn your $5 Million by retirement Objective back into the pipe dream it didn’t have to be.
By focusing your mind on the easy-to-accomplish Tasks, and completing those tasks, you’ll be making great progress towards your Sub-goals and Objectives without feeling overwhelmed and achieve them.
Make sure to write down ALL Tasks, even those that take only minutes to complete. Then, when they’re accomplished, check them off.
As more and more Tasks are successfully accomplished and checked off, you’ll find yourself becoming more encouraged, and more confident about your abilities.
The more you believe, the more you will strive to accomplish, and the more you will enjoy completing even more Tasks.
And the more Tasks you complete on time, the closer you’ll be to that success you have real Reasons for wanting. The success you originally defined as your Objectives.
