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How To Make Your Goals Achievable!
(The processes and tools needed to achieve your goals)
Wow, goals, we all have them, but many of us don’t achieve them, why?
I have just read ‘The 12 Week Year’ by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, and am about to use the accompanying ‘The 12 Week Year Workbook’ and feel this may just be the book that inspires me to achieve my goals. Of course, I haven’t implemented all the strategies in the book yet, give me a chance, but I have done my first 12 Week Year Plan and have to say, I have already completed one of my 12 week goals in just over one week.
Here are my Top 8 tips for achieving your goals, I hope you find them useful:
1. The Written Word
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There is something about the written word that makes it feel real, when I hand write something I feel the emotions as I write, whereas when I type, no matter what I type it just doesn’t bring as much emotion to the content. Try this brief exercise, type out ‘I Love You …… ‘ whilst thinking of someone you love, typing their name after ‘You’. Now hand write the same phrase, see the difference in your emotions. When you hand write, you ‘feel’ what you are writing about. So, when you write down your goals, feel the emotions that you may feel when your goals are achieved.
2. Know Your ‘Why’
If you have a particular goal because it will impress others, think again, if it impresses you, then you are on the right track. The reason behind each goal is vital, it has to be what YOU want to achieve, what fills you with emotion, passion and a desire you want so bad it fires you up inside. The thought of achieving that goal may even bring tears to your eyes, that’s a good thing.
3. Know Your Target
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If you know the target you are aiming for, you can be more specific about your goals. Being specific will make it easier to take actions that will lead you to your goal. If your goal isn’t specific, how can your actions be specific and if your actions are too vague, you simply won’t do them. The more detail you add to your goals, the more passion you will inspire in yourself, the more likely you are to follow through on each step it will take to achieve them. You will have to break down every goal, I recommend doing 1 hour minimum slots if you can dedicated to one action.
4. Limit Your Goals
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I would advise you to limit your goals, having too many goals it just not realistic. Whilst, you can have a long-term plan with every goal you want to achieve in your lifetime, it is best to focus on one or two, definitely no more than three at a time. This is where the 12 week year comes in useful, as over the year you can have up to twelve goals, but at any 12 week period you are only focusing on two or three. Too many goals can feel overwhelming, feeling overwhelmed can lead to procrastination, thus you achieve nothing.
5. The How
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The methods you use to achieve your goals will be specific to you. I use the ‘Deluxe Law of Attraction’ planner, ever since I got this beautiful planner, I have more clarity about the life I want and have achieved more in 6 months than in my lifetime in working towards my goals. The concept of law of attraction, tells you not to concern yourself with the ‘how’, but I disagree, as long as your ‘why’ is clear, you can then start to plan the steps you need to take you there. If you are not to sure of the steps, start doing some research, ideas will then flow. Brainstorm if you need to, don’t limit yourself in this, even if an action seems impossible, write it down anyway. Schedule time in each week and dedicate that time to taking steps, no matter how small to achieve your goal.
6. The Mindset
This is the key to achieving every goal, you have to believe it will happen. This can be difficult when most of us are plagued with self-doubt, but practicing self-belief will get you there, and the more you work towards your goals, the more you will believe. If you find it hard to believe in yourself, just pretend you do, you will be surprised how over time this works.
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7. Resilience
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On your journey to achieving your goals, you will be met with setbacks and failures, this is normal. Some of the greatest achievers in history, had a string of failures before succeeding, there are also many unknowns throughout history that gave up when they met with failure. The difference between these two types of people was resilience or self-determination, the relentless trait of carrying on regardless, committing to never stopping until your goal is reached. Harrison Ford, at the age of 24 was told by studio executives that “he would never make it in this business’. There are numerous similar stories of famous people despite rejection and failures, continued to pursue their dream. So never ever be deterred by other people’s opinions, they are just their perceptions, they are not fact and in many cases they get it wrong. Resilience has won wars, hearts and greatness, be that resilient person, never ever give up on your dreams.
8. Being Flexible
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You may find that your goals change over time or as you start working towards one, as you become more self-aware you may realise that goal is not for you. Be flexible and don’t be discouraged if you have been working towards a goal only to realise it’s not what you truly desire or it’s not achievable (yet). My goals have changed dramatically, I had a goal from childhood I had dreamt about for years, only once I started to work towards it, I realised that I couldn’t achieve it from where I was in life. So I had a re-think and changed my goal to something that was far more realistic and some levels down from my initial goal, but if achieved may help me move towards that initial goal.
Final Thoughts
If you use the above tips, with perseverance, you will move ever closer to your dreams, one cliché you really should heed is “Never give up, like never ever”!
