How To Achieve Your Goals

The Way To Get What You Want – Accomplish Your Goals

It’s one thing to think about, or talk about, the things that we want to do – our goals, but it is quite another to actually do something about it and put the thoughts or talk into actions.

I have had my own occasional issues with procrastination, like I’m sure most of you do at times. It’s very easy to think of all kinds of excuses for why you can’t do something. Our lives are so busy with the demands that are upon us – at home and at work – there really isn’t much time to accomplish things that are outside of the normal routine of a busy day or week (or ever). It is an excuse, yes, but arguably a valid one sometimes.

Everything that you do is a choice that you make.

The thing is, when you get right down to it, EVERYTHING that you do is a choice that you make, including the things that you feel you ‘must’ do, or have no choice about, throughout your busy day or week. So many of the choices that we make each day are not even conscious choices. They are choices made out of a routine – they are automatic – because this is what we did yesterday, and the day before…

Routines get in the way.

Once you get into a routine of day-to-day life, hardly anything will ever change for you. Seriously. That’s the way it works. It’s human nature. You habitually do nearly the same things each day of your life. The same things during Monday through Friday, and the same things during the Weekend, more or less.

To get what you want, you have to go out and get it. You have to break the routine. There is no other way. No one is going to give it to you.

So, how do you do it? Here are the steps to achieving your goals.

Define it.

First you must define what ‘it’ is. I mean, really define it. It may start with a fuzzy vision of what you want, but you need to keep thinking about it until it becomes clearer. I know I’m talking in general terms here, but many ‘big’ goals start out blurry and need to be sharpened before you can go to the next step.

Want it.

You must really want it in order to achieve it. If you do not really truly want it, you won’t make time to get it.

Believe it.

You must believe that you will be able to get it. Any doubts will severely damage your ability to get it. The following steps will help you believe it more.

Write it down.

Write it on paper or in an electronic document. You must do this. Even though many of us are computer savvy, writing things on paper, instead of an electronic note, often makes a big difference. It sometimes seems more ‘real’ that way.

Split it up.

In the process of writing down your goal, it is extremely important to split up the goal into manageable tasks. You must have small ‘chunks’ that are achievable in a reasonable time frame so that you can check things off on your way towards overall accomplishment. This is very important. This process also very much helps while defining the overall goal. It kind of goes together.

Review it.

Sleep on it. After you’ve captured your plan in detail, look at it later. You will often find that you will adjust or change things when looking at it in a new light.

Schedule it.

It’s not magic, you’ve got to schedule time for the steps that you’ve documented. Be reasonable. This is also important. Schedule chunks of time that you know you can make for yourself. Otherwise there will be disappointment which will lead to doubt, which will chain-react and destroy the effort.

Do it.

If you have done the steps above, the ‘doing it’ part will actually be easy and fun. You will be excited about it, which will lead to more positive results, which will chain-react into success!

It works!

Seriously, this approach works. One of the biggest keys to being successful at achieving a goal, particularly a big goal, is not only the preparation and planning, but the key is really believing (knowing in your mind) that you WILL do it. Not that you ‘can’ do it, but that you ‘will’ do it. You’ve already achieved the result before you’ve even begun. You will get there. It will happen.

In summary, this is simply an approach towards achieving any goal, of any type, which I believe really works.

No go do it!