I hope this is not an unfamiliar situation. Everyone would have come across this in our life. Every year, we set new goals, don’t we? Are we accomplishing it? Have you ever thought why we fail miserably in our goals after few days? What makes it to stop doing things for which we were so excited few days before? How to achieve our goals?
I have done plenty of mistakes in goal setting before I found out a system that would help me to set realistic goals and achieve those goals easily. Before we get in to that, I want to highlight why goal setting fails in the first place.
Below are the four common mistakes that we tend to do on the goal setting process.
Aiming High
When it comes to goals, it is absolutely essential that you set an achievable goal. Setting unrealistic goal is the sure way to failure. If you want to lose 10 kg of weight, it is fine. But if you want to lose 10kg weight in a month, then it is a recipe for disaster. So, avoid setting unrealistic goals.
Motivation Needs to Be Watered
Just like a plant needs to be nurtured and watered every day, motivation needs to be taken care every single day. You need to stay motivated if you like to see progress in your goals. How can you stay motivated? There are plenty of online forums and communities. Join them, connect with like-minded people and share your journey. This will help you to focus and regain the motivation whenever the initial enthusiasm is worn out.
No Plan No Gain
No plan is planning to fail. Once you set a realistic goal, you need to work on your plan. If you want to reduce 1 kg each week, but you have no clue on what you need to do in order to reduce that weight, then you cannot make progress. Be sure to have a plan.
Lack of Clarity
Sometimes we fail to achieve a goal mainly because we don’t know ourselves what exactly we want to achieve here. Suppose say you want to write a page every day. This is not the correct way of defining a goal. Because, it lacks clarity. Why do you want to write a page every day? So set a clear goal. Have a purpose. So you know why you started the goal in the first place.
So you should set a goal like write 1000 words every day so I can complete 30000 words in a month for my book. This goal gives more clarity and defines the purpose.
How to Achieve Our Goals?
I have already explained the mistakes we do frequently that prevent us from achieving goals. Now I will explain the steps I follow to reach the goals.
Set a Realistic Goal
Suppose say you want to set a writing goal. Say you want to write 15000 words each month. That means you need to write 500 words each day. It will take 30mins to 1 hour each day. This is quite achievable and realistic.
Have an Action Plan
Then you need to decide on how you are going to allot 30 minutes to work on your goal. What are the resources you need to make this happen? You need to plan your day and free yourself for 30 minutes from other activities so you can work on your goal.
For writing 30 minutes you need to know the topic/book you want to write about. In the time allocated to write, you can’t think about topic you want to write. So plan ahead and make yourself ready before the 30 minutes.
Track the Progress
Now you have started to write. That’s a great improvement. You need to track this everyday so you that when you are low on motivation this will gear you up. You can easily look at this and think how much you have done to attain your present state. Also, tracking helps you to improvise your actions.
In case of our writing example, you can track what is the time you started to write, ending time, no of words you typed, etc. After few days of tracking you will realize which time you write well, what works best for you..etc.
Make Adjustments
When you track your progress, you will be amazed to find out what works best for you. Make adjustments to your plan according to your findings.
For example, you might realize that you write well when you go out and work on a coffee shop, then you might need to change your plan to go out frequently. Improvisations and adjustments are the key to achieve any goal.
Accountability
Accountability will help you to focus on your goals and will make you work hard. Share your family that you are going to write every day and show your work to them. By doing so, if you feel that you don’t want to write someday, you will think of doing it at least to show it for your family.
These steps have worked for me. I have achieved many goals by following the above simple steps. If a goal doesn’t work, it means we need to review and change our action plans. Change your actions and not goals. This will help you reach your goals. So far you have read my system to work on goals, now it is time to share your tips to achieve the goals.
