4 Simple Steps for Reaching Your Goals

Why is it that most people neve.r reach their goals? Why is it that those things you hold near and dea.r to your heart, the things that give you inspiration and hope, neve.r come true?

If you’re like I was a few short years ago, you’re probably stuck in the annual process of developing resolutions and goals for yourself. But if you looked back at last year’s goals, you’ll see that you didn’t really achieve what you set out to achieve the year before. If you don’t change your approach, what makes you think this year will be different?

It’s time to implement a simple 4-step process for achieving your goals. It’s a simple process, but unless you get leverage on yourself and take action, you might as well hit the snooze button on your alarm clock and sleep through another year.

But that’s not going to happen is it? Not when you can have the life you’ve imagined for yourself. Without delay, let’s get into the 4-steps:

Just four steps will do it:

What: Identify your long-term goals
How: Create a task list/map
Focus: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Act N0W: Take Action

What: Identify your long-term goals
I’ve discussed the importance of identifying your long-term goals at length in the past and it would take a whole article to write down how you should do it. To summarize, you need to really take a long hard look at what you want your life to be like years from n0w. What do you want to accomplish? What will make you happiest? Once you figure out your big dreams and aspirations, you put them down on paper and they become goals.

How: Create a task list/map
Would you ever set out on a trip without a map? Of course not, so why are you embarking on your life's journey without a roadmap? You need to develop a map and a plan for getting from where you are currently to where you want to end up in life. If you’re having trouble thinking up tasks and activities that must be done in order to reach your goal, don’t despair. You can get help from a mentor or a book or the Internet. Chances are someone has achieved the results you want. All you have to do is find that person, learn what they did and model their behaviors.

You also have to do something that most people overlook: adopt their mindset.

Most people forget to think about the mental transformation they must undergo in order to achieve their goals. You must think and act differently if you expect to achieve different results than you have experienced in the past. Adopting the empowering belief system of someone who has achieved success will put you 90 percent of the way to your goals. Remember, if you know exactly what you want and you believe you can achieve it, you often will.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Too many of the people I work with get caught up in all the minutia of their plans. They want to know specifically what they will do from the point of conceiving their goal to actually achieving it. They literally won’t take a step unless they plan what direction they are going to step and what kind of shoe they are wearing. The technical term for this is analysis by paralysis. I call it an excuse for not taking action.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against careful planning and figuring out all the little steps that you’ll take along the way. I just know that you’ll get farther faster if you focus on the important stuff. In short, as the mega-bestselling book series tells you, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

Focus on the key activities that will move you toward your goal. Ignore the rest.

Act N0W: Take Action
You need to become a more proactive and energetic person. You now have your major task list and have your goal firmly planted in your subconscious. Now you have to figure out what you can do within the next 24 hours to start taking action toward your goals. Why the next 24 hours? Because you need to take immediate action so that you begin to build momentum. Once you build momentum toward your goal, you become more energetic and more invigorated. Things begin to take on a life of their own. The second reason to take action within 24 hours is to kill the procrastination bug. If you wait to start taking action on your goals, you may neve.r begin.

Remember, success doesn't just happen in life. Nothing is the result of nothing, which is what you will get if you don’t take action.

In Summary
If you follow this 4-step formula, you will find that you will be moving closer and closer to your goal.

If you don't know what you want from life, you'll have to settle for what others give you and the last time I checked it wasn't much. Decide what really matters to you, figure out what the important activities are and start doing them.

If you do something and are moving toward a specific goal you will reach it. You must be persistent and keep moving forward despite any roadblocks you encounter. There is no such thing as impossible when it comes to the human will. Be willing to pay the price and stick to your dreams and you shall realize them.

Don't settle for less than you are worth. Create those goals, think about them constantly and plan on how you are going to achieve them.

It's all up to you. Decide what you want and go get it. Start today.

All the best.

fabman

© 2003, The Wealthy Pauper, LLC
http://www.fabmansecrets.com