Pursuing Your Life Goals

Life’s treasures are not typically handed to us, but they don’t all require unbelievable amounts of work either. Some things just require a little pursuit. It may be cliche but much of life is given to the doers, not the wait ‘n seers. This isn’t always obvious until we put forth some effort.

What can I do if I am not achieving my goals? Everybody, at some point in their lives, has or will experience some sort of failure. But what defines you is not your failure, but how you get back up after being hit.

First of all, you shouldn’t give up. Many of the most successful people have faced obstacles during their path to success. Those who refused to give up eventually became successful.

Assess what has happened, learn from your mistakes, decide if you need to tweak your goals a little bit, and create a plan to move forward and be patient, you’ll get there.

Remove “I don’t feel like it”

From your vocabulary. The idea of only being able to do something when you “feel like it” is toxic to success. Sure, inspiration often strikes us at random times, but don’t be reliant on inspiration to get things done. When we say to ourselves, “I just can’t get out of bed to exercise,” we are really saying, “I just can’t get myself to feel like exercising.”

Nothing is tying you to your bed, physically keeping you from jogging in the morning. The real hurdle is the idea that motivation only comes from inside, instead of from routine physical efforts. The most prolific artists and writers are prolific because they became reliant on work routines that forced them to put in a number of hours of work per day, regardless of how uninspired they might have felt.

Think of motivation as a verb, not a noun. Motivation is something you have to do consistently, not something you wait around to become.

Set specific goals

In terms that can be measured. Similar to “If-then” planning, setting physically measurable goals gives your brain a concrete place to begin striving toward. It is always important to try your best, but “trying your best” isn’t the best method of measuring your success. Instead of saying, “I’ll try my best to run a mile today,” say, “I will try to run this mile in under ten minutes today.” Since “your best” is a subjective term, you might be more likely to say that you’ve “done your best” when you find it hard to continue on with a task.

For example, when you find yourself getting slightly winded while running, you might say, “Okay, I’m done. That was my best.” Having a specific goal will help push you toward something that you can actually picture in your head.

If you decide to start thinking positively, you are not actually a negative person. Every time you start to think negative thoughts, catch yourself and turn them into positive thoughts.

Use “if-then” planning to think of the things you need to do. Give yourself specific parameters within which to do a task, otherwise you will constantly find yourself putting the task off until the last minute. Don’t say, “I’ll get around to writing that business plan later.” Say, If it is 2 p.m., then I will start writing my business plan .

By deciding in advance what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it, you won’t be tempted to deliberate when the time comes. Since you’ve already made your decision in advance, at 2 p.m. you’ll be less likely to ask yourself, “Do I really have to do this now?” or, “Can this wait until later?” If-then planning has been shown to increase goal attainment by 200–300 percent on average.

Have both short-term and long-term goals.

Setting only long-term goals can cause you to lose sight of them down the road, making you less determined or simply unmotivated. Short-term goals help remind you of why you’re doing what you’re doing. Achievement boosts your self-confidence by making you feel more competent. Setting up multiple short-term goals and achieving them in succession helps you see immediate improvements in your performance and increases your motivation.

For example, run a mile in under nine minutes this month, and then next month work toward 8:30. Your long term goal might be to run the mile in under seven minutes by the end of the year.

Success is more easily achieved when you’ve built a good momentum.

The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself. Bo Bennett

Thanks for reading!