Learn how to achieve your goals. Everything you ever wanted to know about goal setting and how to be successful in all your goals.
What is a goal?
There is a difference between a goal and a dream.
Dreams are vague.
A goal is specific, measurable and achievable.
For example, you dream of buying your first house or going on a luxury holiday.
The goal will be to save enough money to do that.
How do you achieve your goals in life?
Goal setting is crucial for any dream you have in life and can be broken down into 4 simple steps.
1. First, decide what you want your future to look like.
I want to buy my own home in the next 5 years.
2. Figure out what you need to do to achieve that.
I need to save $25,000 as a deposit.
3. Break down your goal into tasks you can tick off.
I will save $416 per month ($25k over 5 years or a total of 60 months).
4. Make an action plan.
I will stop eating out every night of the week.
I will cook my own food in bulk and take to work.
I will pass on that group holiday to Mexico this year that my friend is planning and save the money instead.
I will pay off my credit card debt asap so I can start saving.
I will open a savings account that is locked and I cannot withdraw money from.
I will then set up a direct debit that moves $416 into my savings account the same day I get paid my wages/salary.
Foolproof ways to achieve your goals
1. Take ultimate responsibility
First things first.
You need to accept that your life and your future is ultimately your own responsibility.
Not your parents, not the government, not your university, school or your boss.
It’s your life, only you can change it.
So take responsibility for making your life better and deliberately set out to create a life you can be proud of and feel happy living.
2. Set goals that make sense and are achievable
By all means, your dreams can be as big as the night sky.
Aim for the stars. Let your imagination run riot.
But understand that the goals you create must be achievable and must make sense.
Winning the lottery might be a great dream of yours, but in reality, there is only one goal you can take there and that’s to buy a ticket. That’s the only thing that makes sense.
Similarly, when trying to lose weight too many people set unrealistic goals of losing 20 pounds a month. Or they think they will just not eat for a week.
Those are not achievable goals, you will fail, this will demotivate you and you will give up.
But if you set goals you can achieve, you will feel great about yourself, this will motivate you to set even more goals and achieve more of your dreams.
For better goal setting, you can use the SMART goal setting system.
Specific – Make a specific goal. Don’t be vague.
Measurable – Ensure you can measure progress or when you have achieved your goal.
Achievable – The goal should be realistic and attainable.
Relevant – It should make sense to your overall goals or dreams. In other words, don’t get distracted.
Time-limited – Open ended goals are never completed and are often not started. Give yourself a date to aim for.
3. Prioritize your goals
So you want to start your own business, be profitable as soon as possible, quit your job, lose weight for your summer holiday, save for buying a house while also studying for your masters.
Hhhmmmm….
Prioritize.
Decide what is the most important to do right NOW, and start there.
For example, saving up to buy your first house is a great idea, and I applaud you, but if you have credit card debt, paying that off should take priority.
4. Write down your goals
It’s not real until you write it down.
I use Evernote to write down my goals, and I love looking back through the years to see what I have achieved and what I haven’t.
And I have seldom achieved anything notable that wasn’t written down.
In other words, writing down your goals help you define what it is you really want.
I often find that goals I thought so important had little meaning to me 6 months later, but seeing them written down really helps me clarify what I believe to be important in life, and it shows me how much I’ve grown as a person.
My goals used to be “take a nice holiday” or “buy an expensive car”, now it’s “get that promotion at work” and “start my own business”.
Yes I have both. I know it doesn’t make sense and obviously I prioritize starting my own business, but in the background, until I can quit my job, I am also slowly working towards a promotion because in the end I know it will benefit my future self even if I am self-employed.
5. Establish your WHY
One of the more crucial parts of goal setting is understanding WHY you want to do a thing.
Why is achieving your goal so important to you?
For me, setting up my own business will require an immense amount of hard work, it will take a long time before I will be profitable, I will have to continue working my day job while I also work on my business, and every entrepreneur tells me that the first few years are lonely and scary and you work very diligently without seeing much progress.
There’s no way I could achieve that and keep going when it gets lonely and tough if I didn’t have a strong enough reason to motivate myself.
So you need to do the same and understand the real reason you want to achieve a dream or goal.
6. Break down your goals into smaller tasks
You have your dream, you have your basic goals to achieve that, you even have your why.
Now it’s time for a more specific action plan.
For example, saving enough money to buy your first house will require specific tasks done regularly.
I will stop eating out every night of the week.
I will cook my own food in bulk and take to work.
I will pass on that group holiday to Mexico this year that my friend is planning and save the money instead.
I will pay off my credit card debt asap so I can start saving.
I will open a savings account that is locked and I cannot withdraw money from.
I will then set up a direct debit that moves $416 into my savings account the same day I get paid my wages/salary.
7. Set clear deadlines
If you want to buy your house 5 years from now, then you need to do certain things, accomplish certain tasks at regular intervals.
Or put another way, you need to save a certain amount of money EVERY month.
If you want to lose weight, then you need to go to the gym and eat healthy at least 4 days a week. So if you only manage 3 days a week, you need to take accountability and decide if your goal is unrealistic or if you need to do better.
Either way, deadlines keep you honest.
8. Start TODAY
Tomorrow is just fiction that may or may not happen.
Only by taking action TODAY will you have a tomorrow that is an improvement on yesterday.
9. Remind yourself every day WHAT you want to achieve and WHY
It will get tough.
You will get tired.
You will want to give up.
Now is the time to remind yourself of WHY you set that goal in the first place, and WHY you want to achieve that dream.
10. Create new healthy habits that move you closer to your goals
Motivation is difficult, because you need to do it every day. Every day you must make a decision to keep doing something no matter how hard it is, or to give up.
Making something a habit on the other hand makes it far more easy to achieve.
In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg says you need 3 things to build a new habit.
Cue – Something happens: the alarm goes off in the morning.
Routine – You take action: you get out of bed.
Reward – Reward: you are on time for work and your boss doesn’t get upset with you.
This might look like the following.
I procrastinate going for a run even though I know I’ll feel better afterwards.
Yet making the decision is not easy or simple!
So instead, I put on my gym clothes first thing in the morning then I block an hour in my calendar.
That’s my Cue.
The reminder for my calendar entry goes off, I am already wearing my gym clothes, all I have to do is get up and walk out the door.
That’s my new Routine.
My Reward is that I now feel great about myself, I feel healthier and I lose weight faster.
11. Visualize your future
Achieving your goals can often take a long time.
For me to get my first promotion at work took 2 years of hard work.
Setting up my own business is taking time and even after 9 months I am not profitable by a long shot. I have many more long and lonely months ahead of me before I will feel successful.
But I visualize what I want my life to look like 5, or even 2 years from now, a lot.
Sometimes it’s just plain old daydreaming, but other times I imagine what my ideal future will look like.
I imagine resigning from my day job.
I imagine telling a friend how much I am now earning.
I imagine buying a holiday house by the sea.
It keeps me going when I’m struggling to see any real progress or I feel that I’m not really achieving anything and that I’m obviously a failure that will never amount to much.
12. Hold yourself to account
Changing your future and building a life that is better is your responsibility.
Only you can do it.
No-one can do this for you.
Because the buck stops with you, it’s essential that you hold yourself to account.
Goal setting is great, but you must also achieve those goals one by one to make progress.
So if you are not making progress is that because you are missing deadlines? If so why?
Is it that your WHY is not a good enough reason? Are you just lazy? Are you giving yourself a free pass when you don’t want to make an effort?
Do you keep promising yourself that you will do it tomorrow?
13. Don’t give up when it becomes more difficult
Perseverance is probably one of the most vital skills you can learn in life if you want to be a success in any field or any goal you set out to achieve.
Only through doing do we become better.
Only through doing do we learn and grow.
14. Track your performance
Part of goal setting is measuring and tracking your progress.
Are you still making progress?
If not, what is the problem?
Have you set unrealistic goals?
Is something distracting you?
Are you unwittingly prioritizing other goals in your life?
15. Review your goals regularly
One of the interesting things I’ve observed looking back at goals I set years ago is how many of them turned out to be nonsense.
I set goals that I didn’t really believe in or thought was important.
In the moment they seemed so essential to my future and my happiness, but as I grow I change, and what seemed important 6 months ago now seems superficial and pointless.
In 2020 most of the world went into some sort of lockdown or curfew thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of us found our goals and dreams changed massively during that time.
Be prepared to drop some goals that are no longer important to you.
Similarly, having achieved a number of your goals already, you’ll find that some of your goals are now too low.
Achievement leads to more self confidence and a desire to achieving even bigger and better goals.
So be prepared to upgrade your goals and set goals that are higher than you would have thought you are capable of a few months ago.
16. Celebrate your wins
Be proud of what you have achieved.
Take a moment and celebrate yourself.
Buy a bottle of champagne, go to the spa, book a table at an expensive restaurant, tell your friends.
17. Forgive yourself your mistakes
Mistakes are opportunities for learning and improvement.
That’s it.
So do not get caught up in your mistakes, do not let them define you, and do not under any circumstances let it stop you from achieving your goals.
18. Use your time and energy wisely
You should think of your time and energy the same way you think about your money.
In other words, you have a finite amount to spend every day, so spend it wisely on things that are important to you, and on those goals that you have prioritized.
- Be organized
- Plan your day
- Start with the most important thing every morning and get it out of the way
- Block your calendar so you ensure you have the time to do what you need to do, ie set goals, plan your next steps, take inventory or your progress, take action on whatever your next step is on your action plan.
- Ensure you eat healthy and sleep enough so you can have enough energy to spend it on your goals
19. Surround yourself with like minded people
The first step is finding a mentor.
This can be as simple as subscribing to the newsletter of someone you admire and is already a success in the way you want to be a success.
Or it can be finding a mentor through an official program at work or your school/university.
But it’s important to only reveal your dreams and goals to someone who will understand.
There is nothing more demoralizing than well meaning advice from family who say stuff like “Oh I don’t think you have the patience to do xyz!”.
Plus, as you grow and achieve more in life, many of your friends will drop away.
They will either be jealous, or they will feel embarrassed by the fact that they are not achieving as much as you.
20. Invest in yourself
Energy – Make sure you spend your energy (like money) on what matters.
Education / Learning – Upskill yourself so you can accomplish your goals faster. Take a course, learn how to do new things that move you towards your goal. Learning from your mistakes is also a great way to progress.
Healthy habits – Build healthy habits.
Mental health – Don’t let setbacks set you back permanently. Work on your mindset and believe in yourself.
21. Discover and eliminate limiting self beliefs and fears that hold you back
Ah, my favourite topic.
Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think can or whether you think you can’t, you are right”.
Achieving goals require a measure of self belief, confidence and faith in yourself.
Along the way you will encounter many problems and setbacks that you will need the strength to overcome.
We have a plethora of self beliefs that hold us back or limit us.
From “I’m just not smart enough” to “I don’t have what it takes to be an entrepreneur”, or “This is too hard, others must just be lucky if they’ve managed to achieve this”.
In fact, how often have you made a mistake then beaten yourself up because “you are so stupid”?
If you want to be able to accomplish your dreams and goals on a regular basis and achieve even a small measure of whatever you define success to be, then you also need to learn to control your mind.
I talk more about mindset in the next section.
Related Posts
Why is mindset important in achieving success?
“The mind is like a border collie, it needs to work, or else it will cause an outrageous amount of trouble. Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents.”
Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
I’ve talked about mindset about a hundred times and I’ll continue to talk about it till the day I die.
Your mind is the most powerful weapon you possess.
But, unfortunately, you’ve never really learned to control and focus it.
So mostly it’s like a screaming toddler high on sugar, running around painting on the walls and causing havoc.
Or a puppy chewing on everything in sight.
Like a puppy or toddler, if you don’t give your mind something to do, it will soon find something to keep itself busy and you might not like what that is.
Learning to control your mind and focus your thoughts on the accomplishment of your dreams and goals is a pretty important step if you want to be successful in anything.
Learning how to become more positive so that you can feed your self belief and confidence is another.
How could you use a growth mindset to achieve your goals?
As you set out to accomplish a goal, along the way you will encounter many setbacks, problems, difficulties and obstacles.
You will also make mistakes.
The growth mindset teaches us that mistakes are just opportunities to learn.
A mistake simply means you don’t have the skills you need just yet to accomplish your goals.
Maybe you need to read a book, or go on a course, or find some other means of learning.
The point is, don’t let a mistake define you.
And don’t let a mistake end your desire to accomplish your goals or be successful.
A mistake is just that, a moment in time that you should move past.
Conclusion
I hope you now understand the basics of goal setting.
Goal setting might sound complicated, but really all you have to do is break down your goals into smaller actionable tasks or steps that can be achieved one by one.
Want to save $25k to buy a house in 5 years?
Then you need to save $416 a month.
To do that you need to learn how to budget, you need to track your expenses, you need to build good habits and take action on a daily basis as part of the action plan you created.
And maybe to do all of that you need to read a book or 2.
Break it down into small steps, then put all your power, energy and focus towards ticking off each task or step one by one until you have accomplished all of them.
Learn what you need to learn, acquire the skills you need to be successful, be realistic, stay positive and don’t give up until you have accomplished what you set out to accomplish.
Above all, stay positive and keep setting goals, newer and better ones, take the necessary action, learn to focus and control your mind, and I promise you no matter how big or complicated your goals are, you will be successful.
Famous Quotes On Goal Setting
“People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals—that is, goals that do not inspire them.” — Tony Robbins
“Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive.” — Robert H. Schuller
“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them.” — Og Mandino
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” — Tony Robbins
“Goal setting is the secret to a compelling future.” — Tony Robbins
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” — Albert Einstein
“In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.” — Author Unknown
“If you’re bored with life — you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things — you don’t have enough goals.” — Lou Holtz
If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” — Lawrence J. Peter
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” — Les Brown
“Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don’t quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don’t quit until you reach it. Never quit.” — Bear Bryant
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” — Bill Copeland
“A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” — Bruce Lee
“The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” — Michelangelo
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” — Zig Ziglar
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” — Henry Ford
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis
“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.” — Andrew Carnegie
“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.” — Orison Swett Marden
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” — Pablo Picasso
“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” — Earl Nightingale
“You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.” — Steve Garvey
“By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands—your own.” — Mark Victor Hansen
“One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.” — Michael Korda
“All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do. ” — Norman Vincent Peale
“Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.” — Jim Rohn
“If you set goals and go after them with all the determination you can muster, your gifts will take you places that will amaze you.” — Les Brown
“I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time.” — Michael Phelps
“You can do anything if you set goals. You just have to push yourself.” — RJ Mitte
“It’s important to set your own goals and work hard to achieve them.” — Yuichiro Miura
“You should set goals beyond your reach so you always have something to live for.” — Ted Turner
“It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” — Benjamin E. Mays
“The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run. It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact… those people have goals.” — Seth Godin
