How to Set a Goal & Stick to It

The majority of people don’t have a specific goal. They drift across the ocean of life without going anywhere and when they do, they often don’t end up liking it. Yet we know that this is the great difference-maker. When you set a goal for yourself, write it down, plan, take action every day and stick to it, your chances of ending up in a better place are significantly higher than those of someone who has no goals. So how then should we set a goal? What is a simple method that has the highest chances of succeeding? Get your planning notebook out and go through these steps. In my experience, the following steps are those that ensure you will set a goal that will likely succeed.

1. Define Your Goals Clearly

What is it that you wish to accomplish? Is it a financial goal, an education goal, a family goal? Whatever it is you need to make it clear. You need to define it. For instance, a financial goal may be to earn a specific amount of money within a time period e.g. I will earn $10,000 dollars by the 5th of March. If it is an educational goal, it could be, “I will earn a minimum 3.8 GPA this semester”. Now it’s your turn, take a piece of paper and write down what you want to acquire, achieve or do. Make sure you put a deadline for the accomplishment of your goal. Goals with no time limit are harder to achieve because there is no sense of urgency. So put the book aside for a moment and write down the goal you want to achieve in your planning notebook.

2. Outline How You Intend to Achieve Your Goal

Now that you have a clear idea of what you want. The second obvious step is to think of how you will achieve it. If it is a financial goal, what will you give in return for it? You don’t need to have it all figured out, but see just enough ahead to start moving forward. You should be thinking along the lines of putting in extra work, automating your system, implementing an idea that is likely to earn that much, moving to a better environment….etc. Will you get a second job or switch jobs? You must make sure that this part of the process is largely made up of things that you can actively do. Like working, producing, increasing your knowledge on a subject…etc. Put the book aside for a moment and brainstorm about what you will do to accomplish your goals. Think well upon it and write down all the ideas that come to mind in your planning notebook. Then refine your ideas before proceeding to the third step.

3. Write Down or Record Your Goal Along with the Means of its Accomplishment

Now comes the fun part. You will write down your goal in a place where you will access it daily, whether that is a card or a notebook and include the activity you will be performing to achieve it. It should look something like this:

“By the 31st of December 2020, I will have in my possession $100,000. I will acquire this sum by building my business and selling its products within the interim. I will work on the activities involved daily and diligently until I have reached my goal.”

From The Success Roadmap by C. A. Touré

Once you’ve written this down, a step I recommend is to record yourself reading this or listen to it if you prefer. Yet also keep the card or notebook close and read it whenever you can’t listen, as often as possible. Ideally upon waking up and before sleeping.

4. Visualise Yourself Achieving It

During your day, upon waking up you should always take a moment to yourself before doing anything. Sit or lie down comfortably and in your mind visualise yourself achieving your goal. See yourself at the end state, how will it feel to have that money, or achieve that grade or fix your relationship with your partner…or whatever your goal is. Let yourself be immersed in it with all your senses. You must really be there. See, smell, taste, hear, touch the goal. Doing this serves two purposes to keep you motivated and also to attract the events you see into your life.

Seeing yourself in your mind being able to achieve it, seeing that you have indeed achieved it, will help you believe in it and you will thus take all the necessary steps to bring that image into reality. Do this exercise as often as possible, but a minimum of twice per day. There is an extra exercise here, this involves seeing yourself performing those activities that will bring your goal closer. See yourself going to work, sitting down, having a great time, and accomplishing much. This will gradually seep into your subconscious and the habit of work will become that much easier to instil.

5. Act and Do All That is Incumbent Upon You to Achieve Your Goals

This is the step that truly makes a difference. You’ve done all the mental work and you’re continuously training your mind to be prone to act and believe in yourself. But without actually acting consistently on your goals you are implicitly acting against their realisation. You must do what is required of you, think of what that is and rarely fail to act. So long as you keep these five steps in mind, each step you take will bring you that much closer to your dream. This is the process in a nutshell of bringing dreams into reality.

Now I’ll offer some tips to help you build a small system based on what generally works and has worked for me. The easy way to make sure this all seeps into your mind is to automate it. What I do is set up alarms, or reminders that ring at specific times, before bed or once I wake up. Prior to sleep, I will leave the recording of my goal and the means of its achievement playing on repeat. While I listen, I keep replaying in mind the scene of my accomplishment. I see myself doing the work, getting up writing, I feel how good typing the last words of my quota will be. I think of what I will be writing…etc. These are the last things I’ll do before falling asleep. Yet the minute my wake-up alarm rings and I turn it off the first thing I hear is the recording. This ensures I automatically perform my morning visualisation. I stay in bed a moment, while it plays, and get up to begin my day.

Feel free to tinker with this suggestion or come up with a system that will work for you. Once you have established your goal, you must maintain the vision. Your vision requires feeding, you must do so for an extended period of time until it becomes your reality. The food of a dream is sustained action, belief and a plan. Don’t neglect to set some time aside to visualise your goal, see yourself achieving what you want. Infuse the vision with emotions as you see yourself where you need to go and believe you can get there. Do this daily, leaving out all doubt. The more charged your vision is, with emotion, love and belief, the less likely you are to give up.

_{This was an extract from The Success Roadmap which is currently free everywhere, get your copy at your favourite bookstore here. If it’s not available at your preferred retailer, shoot me a message through the contact form and I’ll have it added there. Take action on your dreams now! Life isn’t waiting.}