How To Set And Achieve Your Goals
Goals are what power and motivate you to achieve your dreams. As said by Tom Hopkins “Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement”. Without goals, you will simply move in the direction that life takes you. With goals, you fly like an arrow, straight to your target. Until November 2016, I had never properly set a goal and achieving any goal was difficult and almost impossible for me. With guidance from my mentor, I set my goals for 2017 and I have achieved or partially achieved every goal on my list.
Below I walk you through the exact steps I took, to help you set and achieve your goals.
Decide
1. Decide what yo want:
The first step in setting your goals is to determine what exactly you want. Picture your ideal life, assume how your life will be if everything was perfect and you had no limitations. Take in to consideration your income, family, health, net worth etc. How healthy will you be? How much money will you be earning daily/monthly? Your ideal family life, your net worth on retirement etc.
2. Identify your “WHY” you want to pursue your goals:
Motivation is key to achieving goals. The journey to achieving your goals will be though (nothing good comes easy). You will face many challenges, and you will need motivation to overcome them. Your “why” for pursuing these goals should be good enough to motivate you to work harder. One of the reasons why I hustle is to be able to spend quality time with my family. I want my children to see me every morning before they go to school and also spend some time with me every evening before they go to bed. This is what motivates me. Identify what will motivate you to pursue your dream life.
Write It Down
3. Put it on paper:
It is said, “If your goals aren’t written down, then you are not serious about achieving them”. Studies have shown that, people who write down their goals accomplish significantly than their counterpart who do not write them down (holding all factors constant). In November 2016 when I was setting my goals for the year 2017, the first step was to resign from my part-time job on 31st December, that year. After forwarding my resignation letter to my administrator, she tried convincing me several times to extend my stay there. After every meeting with her, I always leave her office convinced and with a decision not to resign. But, everyday upon reaching the house & seeing my written goals, my decision to resign always rekindles. I finally resigned on the set date as planned.
What I learnt is that, writing down your goals is like making a pledge to yourself. And seeing it always will motivate you positively. Your goals should be clear, specific and measurable.
Clear: it should be such that a child (6 yrs.) can understand it & should be able to explain it to another child.
Specific: your goals shouldn’t be vague, they should be clearly defined. Instead of saying “I will lose weight”, a specific goal would be “I will lose 5 Kg”.
Measurable: you should be able to evaluate your progress, so you will know how close you are to achieving your goals or when you have achieved it. Using the example above, a measurable goal will be “I will lose 5 kg in 2 months or by April”.
4. Set time limit:
Your goals must have a deadline, so you can know when to celebrate your success. Deadlines drive you to work much quicker towards achieving your goals. If your goal is a long term one, 5-10 years. Break it down to yearly, monthly, weekly or even daily with sub goals.
Obstacles To Overcome
5. Identify obstacles:
There are a lot of obstacles which you will have to overcome to achieve your goals. Identifying these obstacles in advance gives you the chance to come up with ways to overcome them. For example, you might find that you are scared of starting your own business because you think you might fail. This could lead you to think about ways to overcome this fear.
6. Identify the resources you will need:
To achieve something you have never achieved before, you have to learn and do things you have never done before. You will need skills, information, help from people to achieve big goals. Identify the skills that you will need to acquire to achieve your goals, e.g. presentation skills, marketing skills etc. Identify and write down the names of people who will be instrumental in you achieving your goals e.g. spouse, siblings, friends , customers etc.
Prioritize
7. Prioritize:
When writing down your goals, you will discover that you have several of them. But they are all not as important as each other. Some will contribute more to your bigger goal, so it will make sense to prioritize those. Write down all your goals in other of priority and tackle those that will affect your objective if not done first. Plan your activities for each day, week and month in advance.
8. Stick to your goals:
Writing down goals is one aspect and working out your goals is another aspect. It is the later which makes the most difference. Discipline yourself to work on your goals. Set reminders to remind yourself, work on them daily, track your progress and constantly motivate yourself.
I hope this goal setting tips help you achieve more in the coming years than you have ever achieved previously. I wish you all the best in your journey.
Let me hear from you how helpful this article has been to you in the comment section.
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