The market is flooded with articles on goal-setting. What about goal achieving? Isn’t that what goals are all about?

Here are my 7 Tips for Unfailing Goal Achievement:

Tip 1: Ask yourself: What do I WANT?

Tip 2: Get a clear image of what that goal looks like as fully realized.

Tip 3: Make use of the goal in your imagination.

Tip 4: Create affirmations to support your goal.

Tip 5: Make a list of action steps required to achieve the goal.

Tip 6: Take Action TODAY!

Tip 7: Write the goal on an index card and read it at least twice daily.

Let’s take a more detailed look at the tips:

Tip 1: Ask yourself the all-important question: What do I WANT?
Most people don’t get what they want. Most people get what they settle for. They are conditioned to accept lack, limitation, or something less than their best. Well, it’s time to shift the paradigm!

This is YOUR goal and you have unlimited potential and untapped reservoirs of rich ideas in your mind. So take the lid off your imagination and set a HUGE goal. Don’t set a goal that is “safe.” Set a goal that is so big and magnificent that it excites and scares you at the same time. Let the ONLY criteria of the goal be: what do I truly WANT. Then move on to…

Tip 2: Get a clear image of what that goal looks like as fully realized. Suppose you set a goal to earn an additional $50,000 this year. Ask yourself some questions. How does that goal change your life? Will you travel more? Will you give more money to your church? If so, how much? What will you purchase with the money? Gifts? Clothes? What type of clothes? What percentage of the $50,000 will you save or invest?

It’s not enough to simply have a big goal. You need to write out a description of the goal in every detail. This will take time and thought, but the exercise is well worth it. As you express the goal in writing, your vision will crystallize. You will be much more likely you will get emotionally involved in the goal. Once you have the details, move on to…

Tip 3: Make use of the goal in your imagination.
Think of a goal as a spiritual seed planted in the fertile garden of your mind. You sow the seed and eventually you reap the harvest. There is a season to sow and a season to reap, but they do not take place in the same season. This is where many goal-setters meet shipwreck. They give up too quickly when they see no evidence of the goal manifesting.

The goal is no less real when it exists in mind only. Spend some time each day visualizing yourself in possession of the goal. Get emotionally involved with the goal. Create a vision board or at very least a photo of the goal and look at it often. If you don’t see any evidence of the goal manifesting in the physical world, don’t worry about it! Bear in mind the words of Price Pritchett: “Absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence.” And then move on to….

Tip 4: Create a series of affirmations to support your goal.
Affirmations are positive statements made to support the goal. And since the goal already exists on the mental plane, affirmations should be expressed in the present tense. Breathe life into the goal with the power of your gratitude. Gratitude is faith in action. And faith is often described as the “evidence of things not seen.” By expressing gratitude, you are affirming that your goal is real and you fully expect it to physically manifest.

Start your affirmation with…”I am so happy and grateful now that…” Make a list of these affirmations or make an audio recording. Visit these affirmations often. KNOW that your goal is manifesting by the positive vibration of your thoughts, gratitude, and intention. As Thoreau said, “If you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams, and endeavor to live the life which you have imagined, you will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Referencing the $50,000 goal stated in the example earlier, your affirmation might be, “I am so happy and grateful now that $50,000 has flowed into my life and afforded me the luxury taking two additional weeks of vacation” or “I am so happy and grateful that I am now attracting financial riches in direction proportion to the richness of my mind.” After you’ve created a list of empowering affirmations, move on to…

Tip 5 Make a List of Action Steps
We attract the goal by creating it in our mind. We take possession of the goal by taking action. What action? ANY action that will bring you closer to your goal. If your goal is really huge (it is, isn’t it?), you might want to set some shorter-term, or stepping stone, goals that you can accomplish and celebrate along the way to keep yourself motivated and in a joyful, confident state of mind.

Identify as many steps as you can and don’t be anxious about having all the answers. You don’t have all the answers—yet! But the answers exist, just like your goal. Be willing to take action every day to keep the goal moving forward. Keep the valve of your intuition open for new and unprecedented action steps. The answers WILL be revealed to you. Once you have your initial list of action steps, it’s time for…

Tip 6- Take action TODAY!
If your goal is huge, it is not likely to manifest overnight. You will realize the goal only if you take action day-by-day. Now is all you have. It is the ONLY time you will ever have. So what do you intend to do with your now. Worry about what-ifs? Concern yourself with past goals that never materialized? You cannot act in the past and the future isn’t here yet. Thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow are the thieves that rob you of today. So get into massive, focused, intentional action NOW.

Wallace Wattles, in his immortal masterpiece “The Science of Getting Rich,” pointed out “Getting rich is not about doing certain things. Getting rich is about doing things in a certain way.” This is critical in goal-achieving. Focus on one action and then pour your unique personality and best effort into it! Do that ONE thing to the exclusion of every other thing. Don’t allow your mind to drift and become divided among the fifty other things begging for your attention. Do EVERYTHING in a certain way, no matter how trivial it may seem. As you develop this habit, you will be on your way to achieving any and every goal you set. So be sure to saturate your mind with the goal by completing…

Tip 7: Write the goal on an index card
I was personally trained by Bob Proctor, one of the teachers in the movie “The Secret” and one of the world’s most influential thinkers in the field of personal development. Bob is a life-long student of Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” and after reading the book years ago, Bob took Hill’s advice and wrote out a monetary goal on an index card and kept it with him at all times, reading it often. Years later, Bob Proctor is an internationally-recognized speaker who earns millions of dollars every year. This was no accident.

When you make statements like “it’s impossible to make money in this economy” or “I’m struggling to make ends meet” or “nothing I do seems to work” you are giving energy to those lies. The only reason those thoughts exist is because you are in the habit of thinking them. The good news is: you can think independent of current circumstances! So CHOOSE to think differently. Write your goal on an index card, read it often, and NEVER doubt the power of your mind to manifest the goal.

I have used these 7 tips to achieve many worthwhile goals in my own life and I hope you will do the same. Goals were meant to be achieved, not merely set. So get intentional, set a big goal, visit it often in your mind, and take action every day. To your success and abundance!

Author's Bio: 

Fred Ford is an author, professional speaker, and success coach. He is the creator and author of a daily empowerment e-newsletter (Our Daily Fred) and author of two books, one a memoir (“A Gift for Lila Rose: A China Adoption Love Story”) and the other an eBook (“Our Daily Fred: 365 Thoughts to Inspire Your Greatness”). To receive Fred's FREE e-newsletter or book Fred as a speaker at your next business function, send him an email at fred@ourdailyfred.net.