PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

How to make your goals the power of your Success

Last Updated 18 November 2023/ By Zineb DJOUB

How can you achieve your goals?

We are all longing for success; success in work, business, relationships, studies, etc. How can we feed off this instinct of success? We tend to view success as the outcome or the product we reach at the end of a process. But, success is a process in itself. It is the process to achieve our goals. It starts with knowing our goals and working towards achieving them. Thus, it involves decisions and actions that are relatively relevant, purposeful, and effective to accomplish those goals. So, to know how to achieve your goals here are my tips that can lead to success.

1# Know your goals

Making an effective goal setting starts with knowing your goals. To know your goals, here are the principles to follow:

Clarity

Clarify for yourself why you need to achieve this goal. What stimulates your motivation to pursue a goal is recognizing its worth in your life. So, to what extent achieving that goal would impact your life?

Indeed, goals are better identified when pondering over what is missing in our lives and visualizing ourselves as making them real. For that purpose, you can ask these two questions:

• What do I need?
• If I achieve that (goal) how would my life be?

Focus and Timeline

You need to prioritize by focusing on achieving one particular goal over a period of time (For instance, losing weight, developing a necessary professional skill, improving your relationship with your spouse, friends, or family, starting a new job or business, etc.). So, think about what you most need now and set a time frame for its achievement.

Passion

You need to feel passionate about your goal. But, where does this passion come from? Passion comes from vision and obsession to make your dream come true. You are fully thinking about it and feeling likely to have it.

Passion is essential because it gives you constant energy to pursue your goal. If you do not feel passionate about your goal, you are likely to stop chasing it at the first hurdle you face. So target a goal that is compelling or inspiring and plan for it.

Measurement

Moving towards your goal requires tracking progress to know whether you are heading in the right direction or not. It is necessary therefore to set a goal that is measurable.

Reality

If your goal is not realistic it will frustrate and dishearten you. So, ask yourself is it possible to achieve this goal within that time limit?

2# Set your action plan

The next step is to decide how to achieve your goals. This requires making an action plan. This plan is supposed to clarify your actions (what needs to be done), the procedures including the tools (how it needs to be done), the expected timing (when to be achieved), and anticipated outcomes (what you intend to achieve from each action).

However, since making this plan requires knowing what and how to do it, it is pertinent to get equipped with the necessary prior knowledge to make it more effective and efficient. This is through researching the most effective strategies to achieve your goal by reading, asking experts, watching, or finding out how other people have successfully realized it, etc.

Hence, you need to avoid over-thinking your plan and spending too much time making decisions because this is likely to make you self-doubting and procrastinating. Once you start executing your plan or acting to achieve your goal you will gain much more clues that help you modify your plan and direct your actions more effectively.

3# Take Actions

Here are some tips that can help you put your plan into practice:

• Stay focused on your goals and do not let anything distract you:  Visualize your goal by writing it down, drawing, or finding a picture that represents it and post it to keep your eyes on it. Also, talk about your goal with your close friends and people you trust and feel more comfortable with. This helps your brain develop pertinent thought patterns geared towards the execution of your goal (attention).
• Make your plan part of your daily schedule: Whatever job or responsibilities you are holding, start every single day with the intention of achieving something in your plan and try to do it. Think about planning your day and how you need to combine your ordinary tasks with those related to your goal. Even if you cannot do it according to the scheduled time, try to catch up with it, and avoid excuses and putting off.
• Track progress: Keep on thinking about the way you are executing your plan. What difficulties are you facing? How do you need to improve it more? How far are you from achieving your goal? How committed are you? Developing a checklist can support you in evaluating your commitment to your plan and thus unveil any existing gap within.
• Self-reward: Nothing would be more rewarding than tasting the pleasure of accomplishment. In such a case, praise yourself and enjoy the moment (invite yourself to somewhere nice, or buy yourself a present). This is going to boost your self-confidence and keep you going forward.
• Self-Reflect: If things are not reached as expected, there is a need to self-reflect. The potential of self-reflection lies in supporting you to identify any weaknesses or gaps related to your plans and/or actions. This looping process may call for learning more, making renewal plans and new decisions, and directing actions differently.
• Persist: Learning from mistakes, taking risks, and trying over and over again is necessary to reach the intended goal. So keep on thinking about how achieving your goal would change your life and go for it!

 

This is how to achieve your goals. What matters in life is not change, but how much progress is being made within this change. So, think always big and expand your goal. Even if you have arrived at your target, never stop and set another one that is more challenging and rewarding. You CAN achieve your goals and make them the power of YOUR SUCCESS!