Statement of purpose
Goals are a force that requires you to focus on what you want to achieve in life. Without a clear plan for the outcome, it will not be possible to achieve not only quick execution, but no execution at all.
You need to understand what you want to achieve in your life, both in the short term and for the longer term. To do this, you can create a vision of an ideal day in 10 years and decide to realize it. This will be your big goal .
Everyone knows how to formulate goals in words. But, in addition to scoring, you also need to know how to record them and how to achieve them . For many, this is a completely different challenge. To which special techniques can be applied.
Read useful tips on how to formulate goals that will change your life. Step-by-step instructions on how to set a goal in life.
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Write down your goal
You have identified a goal, you need to write it down. Although the main argument of the 1979 Harvard study in favor of goal writing is bogus, writing down goals is half of achieving a goal .
Writing on paper is a way to think and not lie to yourself . In our heads, we are capable of being #1 in Forbes in a few years. And practice - a sheet of paper and writing down the goals for achieving such a result, will not allow us to lie about our flourishing exaggeration of our abilities.
Building a hierarchy of complementary goals in your mind is like playing chess while keeping in mind the placement of the pieces on the board. Few people are able to mentally agree on 30 goals, eliminate conflicts in the required resources, and agree on periods of achievement.
So have some paper and pen ready. Writing down a goal will help you achieve more than anything else combined.
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Achievements of goals
Many people have already learned that in order to achieve a goal, especially a long-term one, it is not enough to simply make a promise to yourself and decide to work with your teeth gritted. In the process, laziness and a lot of excuses will certainly appear, and old thoughts and beliefs will return. As a result, the case will remain idle for weeks. What to do? You need to change radically and adhere to a step-by-step system for achieving goals, which we will talk about today.
Of course, there are people who know how to achieve everything they want. And they are very surprised that others cannot do this. They even write books about how simple it is. But most of these authors forget that a person is a very complex matter, that he is influenced by hundreds of different factors. You need to work very seriously with your psyche and thinking; just the desire to achieve a goal is not enough. At least because it can disappear the very next day.
Therefore, we will not just present a step-by-step plan for achieving goals, but we will also try to approach the issue comprehensively, understanding that a person always very passionately wants to return to a past state. Change is very difficult. Therefore, you need to study yourself carefully and adhere to some rules.
Let's start with excuses that almost all of us have achieved perfection in.
What excuses do we make for ourselves?
Goals, especially long-term goals, make us feel very bad. For various reasons: we haven’t felt progress for a long time, the path seems endless, and much more.
Therefore, we very often come up with excuses. It's our way of explaining to ourselves why we don't grab every chance to succeed in life. Here are the most popular ones.
- I'm not educated enough.
- I do not have enough money.
- I have no time.
- I'm not confident enough in myself.
- I just don't have enough experience.
- I'm not ready yet.
- I don't know where to start.
- It's too complicated.
- I'm afraid to make a mistake.
- I'm afraid.
- It's too risky.
All these excuses keep us in one place for a long time. Therefore, before you learn to set goals, you must work with yourself and clearly decide that you will no longer accept apologies.
Every time you catch yourself thinking such thoughts, immediately mark them as excuses. You can sit down right away and write about it in your diary. Awareness is extremely important in our business.
Excuses are also generated by laziness, so we will consider it separately.
How to deal with laziness?
Anyone who indulges in laziness loses huge amounts of money, time, prospects and opportunities. Perhaps this is the key difference between a successful person and a failure. Great people are not afraid to work, and they do it smartly, while average people look for excuses and stop thinking as soon as they leave the office.
To get rid of laziness, you need to take four important steps:
Determine why laziness occurs
Think about all the possible reasons why you fall into the trap of laziness and ask yourself:
- Why do I indulge my laziness?
- Am I bored, tired, lacking inspiration?
- Am I afraid of achieving something so I use laziness as an avoidance mechanism?
- What exactly am I afraid of and trying to avoid?
Study long-term effects
We often indulge our laziness because we don’t cause ourselves enough pain. It turns out that it is better not to achieve a goal than to achieve it.
Therefore, you must convince yourself that if you are lazy, it will lead to great pain in the future. Make a list of all long-term consequences.
Challenge yourself
When you challenge yourself, you feel alive. Ask yourself the question: “Am I really weak?”
Remind yourself every day that only by setting a serious goal can you build character and become a truly strong person.
Take action immediately
It is dangerous to engage in self-reflection without action for a long time. There is a risk of staying in oneself for a long time, becoming isolated: then the study of personality will only cause harm.
Study and get to know yourself, but in the process of achieving goals. Take small steps, develop your individuality and learn along the way.
Step-by-step system for achieving goals
The process of achieving goals must be divided into several successive steps, that is, a system must be created.
Step One: Create Your System
To do this, go through five mandatory steps.
Be clear about what you want
The goal you set is limited solely by your imagination. Therefore, you need to allocate enough time for this stage, without getting off with the banal: “I already know what I want, what’s next?”
Goals can be different: career, family, financial, as well as in the field of health, self-development, and public service.
In this case, the goal itself, in fact, does not matter. It is only a product of your true desires. Answer three questions:
- What exactly do I want?
- Why do I want this?
- When do I want it?
These questions will help you not to concentrate on the goal, but to look, first of all, inside yourself. It may turn out that many desires were unreal and did not reflect the real state of things in your soul.
People don't achieve their goals because they don't answer these questions. And they are very important because they allow you to gain motivation for every day. For example, today you desperately wanted to learn how to play chess. This desire is sincere. But in a few days it will disappear and time will be lost. Better ask yourself why this is needed.
And of course, set deadlines. Without this, you won't create a sense of urgency within. Without a deadline, you will not push yourself, you will become lazy and eventually give up on your goal.
Decide if the goal matches your personality
To understand what kind of person you are, you need to understand what it consists of: values, standards, beliefs, lifestyle and priorities.
We know that this sounds quite depressing. But don't skip to the next section, because this one is also incredibly important. Many people simply do not pay attention to what kind of individuals they are. They set wonderful goals for themselves and even begin to achieve them, but in the end they abandon them. These goals simply did not correspond to the core features of their personality.
In psychology there is a concept of congruence. This is the consistency of speech, ideas and beliefs with each other. In a broad sense - integrity, self-consistency of the individual.
You've probably had times when you did everything right and still felt miserable. Have you ever wondered why? The psyche senses a discrepancy between actions and personality parameters, so it transmits this information through a bad mood and the feeling that you are “out of place.”
Knowing yourself is a long process. But you can start with simple but correct questions:
- Is this goal consistent with my core values?
- Do I truly believe that I will achieve this goal?
- Does this goal fit my lifestyle?
- Could there be an internal conflict here?
- Perhaps I need to adjust my priorities to make room for this goal?
- Does this goal conflict with my other goals?
- How can this contradiction be resolved?
- When I achieve my goal, will I become the person I am trying to become?
The reality is that if your core values, beliefs and priorities are not in harmony with your goal, then there is little hope for results. But if you set aside a little time and set the right goal, then everything will go like clockwork: you yourself will feel that you are doing everything right.
Consider external consequences
When we set a goal, we think about how it will affect our life, personality and amount of time. But we rarely analyze what will happen to the environment and other people. And this can lead to big problems and conflicts.
Every goal you set has a number of consequences, both good and bad. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who could potentially be affected?
- How exactly?
Don't get overconfident and think that you can easily handle conflict in the future or that it's not something worth paying attention to. Such ignorance can be costly. It's best to take steps to minimize the damage. After all, if you decide to go to the gym every day, you will spend less time with your loved ones. It will inevitably affect your life in one way or another. So consider a variety of different scenarios.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What's good about my current situation?
- Having achieved this goal, will I be able to preserve all the good things that I have now?
Now you have a lot of time to spend with your children. But if you start working more, it will not be enough. How will this affect the family? You don't have to give up on your dreams, but it is important to understand that there will inevitably be consequences.
Ask yourself:
- What sacrifices will I need to make to achieve this goal?
- Can I really make these sacrifices?
This is the price of success. To make the right decision, consider the following:
- What are the consequences of giving up on this goal?
- What's at stake?
- What could I miss or lose?
- How will I feel?
Now you can see that even though you will spend less time with your family, it will only lead to better things in the end. You can earn more money and provide your children with a good education. As a result of the analysis described, you may also understand that you should choose a completely different goal.
There will be many questions:
- What will I get if I achieve this goal?
- What will my loved ones get if I achieve this goal?
- How will this change me as a person?
- How will I feel?
You've probably been hoping for some simple five-step system that you can write down on a piece of paper or learn in 10 minutes. But we suggest that you first learn a lot about yourself, and also learn to predict consequences. With this approach, the chances of achieving your goal will increase significantly.
Sketch your plan
It's time to make a plan to achieve your goals. It will help you understand what obstacles you may encounter. It is also useful to think about the resources that may be needed.
First, let's think about the obstacles. They can take many forms in the form of people, events, circumstances, fears, limited beliefs, lack of experience or knowledge. You can't prepare for everything, but remember that you always choose your reaction. Ask yourself:
- What potential obstacles might stand in my way?
- How can they hinder my progress?
- What should I do to successfully deal with them?
Resources can come in the form of tools, skills, knowledge, connections, and more. It may take a little time to get the information you need.
Every obstacle you encounter is nothing more than a problem that can be overcome with creative thinking, the right resources, and resourcefulness.
To learn how to plan for the future, ask yourself:
- What resources do I have?
- What resources might I need?
- How can I get them?
Remember also that you do not have to have all the skills and knowledge. Other people may come in handy for this. This means you must learn to find useful connections.
Take a piece of paper and start creating a rough outline. Consider all your answers that you have given before.
Make an action plan
Many time management experts debate whether an action plan should be too detailed. The answer is this: try both options.
It’s best to create two plans at once. The first is detailed, and the second is in general terms, which only points in the right direction. In a month you will be able to understand which is better. Or perhaps you will realize that both are good and in harmony with each other.
An action plan is a step-by-step guide on how you are going to achieve your goal. A simple example: you want to join a gym. Moreover, they already made one attempt, but in the end they gave up after two weeks. Action plan:
- Earn money for a subscription.
- Get an additional job (which you can then quit to free up time).
- Buy several books about sports and fitness.
- Buy a subscription and sportswear.
- Create sports affirmations in order to maintain the level of motivation at the highest level.
- Meet like-minded people.
- Create a new diet.
Step Two: Use Visualization Techniques
Visualization techniques help you get a solid dose of motivation every day. Each of us has experienced the fact that we wake up and have no desire to achieve our long-term goal. This condition is discouraging.
Sit in a quiet place where no one can disturb you. Start visualizing your goal. Throw yourself into the future and feel that everything worked out. How are you feeling? Who's nearby? What thoughts are in your head?
Now think about the last action you took to achieve this remarkable result. Next, move in the opposite direction: the penultimate action and so on.
“Be” in the present. Now you know how to achieve your goal. Moreover, they mentally survived all the difficulties and coped with them.
Step Three: Create a Morning Schedule
Everything is decided in the morning: once you give yourself some indulgence, in a few hours you will feel laziness of such strength that it will kill all desire and enthusiasm. Create the right mood with some repetitive actions.
Immediately after waking up
No matter how difficult it is, smile immediately. Probably nothing special will happen after this action. And this is normal, because no one promised a magic pill. But a start has been made.
Ask yourself some good questions while you're lying in bed:
- What am I proud of?
- What am I happy with?
- What am I grateful for?
- What do I expect from today?
- What am I going to do today?
Drink a glass of water. This simple act will help replenish the lack of water that has formed overnight.
20 minutes after waking up
Take up meditation. Set aside at least 5-10 minutes for this. With this exercise you will put your brain in order.
Take a journal and write down your goals for that day. If they are already there, just review them. It will only cost a few seconds, but will get you set up.
Read an inspiring book. It can be about self-development, about achieving goals, about dreams. The point of all this is to get enough motivation. Without it, it will be very unpleasant to get down to business.
Use the Brian Tracy Technique
If everything written above seems too complicated, then try something simple that you can use right now.
Brian Tracy does so much work in goal counseling that you might want to try this technique:
- Create a burning desire within yourself.
- Believe in yourself.
- Write down the goal.
- Analyze your starting point.
- Determine why you want to succeed in this field.
- Set a deadline.
- Identify obstacles.
- Determine what additional knowledge you may need.
- Determine what kind of people you might need.
- Make a plan.
- Visualize.
- Never give up.
Books
If you think that the techniques and tips presented in the article are not enough, there is always the opportunity to read several additional books on this topic. Reading large amounts of information helps the brain get used to (and it will resist) the fact that a change will come very soon. Here's a list of books to get you started. Just don’t forget that the main thing is action.
- "Achievements of goals. Step-by-step system" Marilyn Atkinson, Rae T. Choice.
- “A whole life. Key skills to achieve your goals" Les Hewitt, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen.
- “This year I…” MJ Ryan.
- "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.
- "Focus. Achieving Priority Goals" Stephen Covey.
- “52 Mondays. How to achieve any goals in a year" Vic Johnson.
- “Try it - it will work!” Seth Godin.
- The Psychology of Achievement by Heidi Grant Halsvorson.
- "The Habit of Achievement" by Bernard Ross.
Did you like the article? Join our communities on social networks or our Telegram channel and don’t miss the release of new useful materials: TelegramVKontakteFacebook
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Decision making system PrOACT
- Four steps to create a personal development plan
- Psychology of laziness
- How not to be lazy
- How to plan for the year ahead
- The principle of pain and pleasure
- Personal goal setting
- The difference between a professional and an amateur
- How to Develop an Effective Action Plan
- False Beliefs
Keywords:_C1047, _D1038, 1Time Control, 3Time
Break big goals into small ones
If you set a very large goal for yourself in the annual plan, then its implementation may take from 50% to 80% of all your resources. Such a goal can be formed as a global line of behavior - a strategic goal or a lifelong goal.
But you shouldn’t set such huge goals to achieve in the short term for the following reasons:
- You can already understand at the beginning of execution that in this form the task will not be completed .
- Having looked at the deadlines, abandon its regular review . Why re-read the plan once a week if there are only 2-3 goals and it is clear that they have not been achieved.
- You are depriving yourself of frequent victories . Instead of feeling progress from achieving 10 goals, you wait and languish when you close at least one.
Divide the huge task into parts, set a target time for completion. Break your big goal down into smaller, simpler mini-goals. This will allow the monstrous goal to be presented as a plan for achieving the goal, broken down into steps.
In addition, each short-term goal achieved guarantees progress in steps towards the completion of the grand plan. Divide and group your plan: by week, month, semi-annually and yearly respectively.
Make sure that each next step builds on the implementation of the previous one and brings you closer to the final achievement.
To make your plan a reality, create a to-do list every week and sort it according to the Eisenhower Matrix. A weekly list will help you understand whether you are making progress towards your goal or not.
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How to achieve results: 5 rules
Even the most correct and inspiring goal will not be achieved if it is not supported by action. Once the goal is correctly formulated, it is necessary to move on to the most critical stage - the process of achieving the result.
The first thing you will encounter is a lot of fears in your head, most often fictitious. Let's look at the 3 most popular fears and how to deal with them:
Work with fears
1. “I can’t do it”
A very common thought, and extremely harmful. Take a look around. Look at the incredible results those around you achieve: they create a million-dollar business, become screen stars, popular performers. Imagine that one day one of them would say to themselves - I won’t succeed. It would have stopped him and he wouldn't have even tried. Who would he be now? You don’t want to deprive yourself of future victories, success and achievements, simply because you are afraid of defeat?
In fact, it is not defeat you need to be afraid of . In any case, it will be experience, practice, effort. But what you really have to be afraid of is not even trying. Drive this fear out of your head, and constantly repeat to yourself - “I can do it!” Soon you will believe it yourself and achieve results that you only dreamed of before.
2. “The goal is unattainable”
You need to figure out why you think this way. If no one has achieved such a goal before you, then be the first. Many people were once the first in something, and this did not stop them.
And if someone has already achieved a similar result (especially if many), then you have every chance. You are no worse. Most likely even better. Now you are working on yourself, reading useful material. And this speaks of your determination. You simply cannot fail. I believe in you!
3. "It's too late"
A dangerous and very destructive thought. I liked to tell myself that too. When I was a student, this exact thought stopped me from achieving an important goal. And after many years, I finally returned to my goal and began to work towards achieving it. And I have already achieved good results. It turned out that even after many, many years it was not too late, and after many more years it would not have been too late. But then, when I was at university, it was the perfect time. It's a pity that I didn't understand this then.
If you now give up on achieving your goal, because... It seems to you that it’s “too late,” but many years later you will be very sorry and realize that it was “the right time.” Believe me.
Setting SMART goals
It is not always possible to set the right goal. When tasks are vague, it leaves us confused : how to complete them, how to measure progress.
Your goals must be precise and specific . Setting SMART goals involves being specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
By being able to set goals using a smart framework, you immediately get the details and context you need. Setting smart goals is not difficult. You just need to go through each letter of the abbreviation and adjust the wording of the goal.
Specificity means that the goal should not be achieved in general, but only at a specific point.
For example, you want to read a lot of books by 2030.
But setting a goal as “Read 26 books a year” will become specific and ensure that every book read is aimed at achieving that goal.
We get a ready-made action plan to achieve the goal: read two books a month.
Achievability refers to your abilities. To set realistic goals for yourself, you need to study your capabilities well.
Let's return to the example of books.
To read 2 books a month, you need to read about 25 pages a day. It takes 30 minutes.
But in reality, you only have the time and energy to read 15 pages. Question: can you achieve your goal? Not quite, unless you adjust the goal itself or the required resources.
Measurability refers to the quantification of progress. If your goal is to write 1000 posts on Instagram in 5 years to get a huge audience, then you need to calculate how many posts you need to publish per day (every 2 days).
And you definitely need to monitor the progress and the result - new subscribers. The only way you will see results is if you keep up with your plan.
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Metrics
It is necessary to clearly understand how you will know that you are going in the right direction. It's like weighing yourself, it's very easy to step on the scale and you see the results and understand where you are going, right or wrong.
Very often, when we set goals, we forget to define metrics. How will you know that you are going right? How will you know that you have already achieved your goal? Understanding this provides “vision” and “metrics”.
It is very important to know the metrics, I believe in the numbers approach. Define some metrics as subjective, and some as objective, and they will show the approach to the goal.
Taking action to implement
It's never too late to start doing what you dream of. Once the plan is written down on paper, immediately begin achieving your goal. Any path begins with the first step [1].
Your first step determines the outcome you will get in both your career and life. Most people do not even take the first step , remaining at the level of “keeping the goal in mind.” Provide the situation so that your first step will definitely happen.
Remember that even a small action brings you closer to something bigger. If after a while there is a feeling that you are going in the wrong direction, the plan can be changed. But at any moment there must be a plan and work on it should not fade away.
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Ritual
After the metric there is a ritual. When you look at these metrics, you determine what you should do next. Discuss with someone what corrective actions you can take.
If, for example, it’s weight, then every week or every day you step on the scale. This is the ritual. Then you think about which direction is right or wrong, what worked and what didn’t.
Also in business, when a business is created, a founder’s ritual is required for the first year. Create teams. Every week he must look at what we have done, where we have come, what is good, what is bad and what needs to be changed.
Ritual is very important.
Stick to the plan
Setting goals and creating a plan to achieve them is not easy for a beginner. For an experienced person, this is pure pleasure, maybe difficult, but joyful.
The real challenge for a newbie comes when it comes to sticking to the plan. When implementation problems arise, one must not lose hope and give up.
Stay focused on the goal, find motivation and work day in and day out.
If the initial goal “didn’t work”, replace it with another one that will lead you to the planned result, albeit in a different way.
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Set up regular checks
When you set out to do something new, you get a rush of adrenaline and a feeling of excitement.
But, it is enough to move a couple of steps forward and this feeling begins to disappear. This is the reason why so many New Year's resolutions are never implemented or are pushed back to February.
Any goal worth achieving is not realized in an instant. It takes time. To achieve results, it is important to regularly check progress , each time to make sure that you or your team are on track.
The possibility of feedback from the world, the presence of repeated reminders, will allow you to be motivated to achieve your goal. This is very important for large tasks that take months or years to complete.
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Action
After the “vision” we begin to act immediately! This is counter-intuitive, because many at this moment are drawn to obtain new information, new knowledge, and study the topic even deeper.
But, I prefer to act immediately. Because usually, in almost all the goals that we set in life, the first actions or the first things that must be done have long been known, they come from common sense, and not from some secret knowledge. Therefore, we immediately begin to act, and then we make adjustments.
It’s the same in business, I just started selling, then I realized that the margin was small and adjusted the product, I chose a different product.
The path itself showed me the ultimate goal, and I found a working business model. Of course you can make mistakes, of course you can fail. But, I always start with actions, and only then gain knowledge on how to do something better. I correct my actions and move on. Mistakes are inevitable.
Celebrate victories, even the smallest ones
A good idea for self-management to achieve a goal is to reward yourself. Reward yourself every time you complete even the smallest of steps .
Even the simple act of crossing out a task from a notepad can bring pleasure as good as a cup of delicious coffee. As a result, you will be charged with a small dose of joy in life, and fulfilling your dreams will seem like an unusually large source of high.
Do not think that until the goal has been achieved, you need to wait to celebrate small victories. Get rid of such thoughts, this is a very stupid idea. Of course, you shouldn’t set off fireworks, but you definitely need to learn to just be happy.
Small victories are the main source of energy to move on and stick to the right direction.
Here's what's going on in your head: A brain chemical called dopamine spikes when you're anticipating something important (like doing something you're intending to do) and gets a boost. This is motivation for the brain.
And by setting ourselves smaller tasks and then thanking ourselves for completing them, we increase the number of dopamine surges. These surges encourage us to stay in the resource.
Personal qualities are the key to success
There are several more secrets that allow people to achieve goals in life. All of them relate to significant personal qualities, without which any attempts to achieve something would be fruitless.
- Persistence
. You cannot allow anyone (or anything) from the outside to influence your desire to achieve what you want. For example, many decades ago, Soichiro Honda did not listen to representatives of the Toyota company, who did not hire him due to “unsuitability.” As a result of his hard work and self-confidence, the largest automobile company in the world appeared - Honda. - Continuity
. This point implies a willingness to be interested in other people’s achievements, adopt other people’s experiences, and learn from other people’s mistakes. Through a series of studies, Western scientists have found that other people's mistakes are an incentive for each of us to realize our own abilities and talents. And this is very important when achieving goals. - Stress resistance.
Only the ability to steadfastly endure adversity will allow a person not to “burn out” on the way to the goal. A striking example of stress resistance is the Russian fighter Fedor Emelianenko. After three unexpected defeats in a row, this athlete did not lose faith in himself and triumphantly fought three more fights. He outlined the goal of his life - to be a champion - and strives for it, despite the defeats that have occurred
