6 Steps to Plan and Achieve Your Life Goals

Ever since elementary school, you were asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
 
At that time, you most likely spit out the job of your favorite protagonist in the last movie you saw. This is one of the earliest times in your life that someone inquired about your life goals. As you grew older, you began to refine your answers and start to define what you felt was realistic to your life. Now, you look at yourself in the mirror and you may still ask the question, “What do I want to be?” You think to yourself, “How do I get there?” You wonder, “Am I reaching too high?” Or, “Is that something that I can really do?”

Stop! You can achieve your life goals. Realism, much like fear, is just an artificial construct of our minds that is based on a conceptualized notion of the future. Right now, you are thinking to yourself, “Wait a second! I’ve tried before and failed, and well, I didn’t like that feeling.” You don’t want to fail again. The question then becomes, can you achieve anything that you set your mind to? Now you should ask yourself, “What should my goal be to make sure that I don’t fail again?”

Knowledge is the most important part of any plan, and it is crucial in identifying your goals and taking steps towards achieving them.
 
Here are the 6 steps to planning and achieving your life goals:
 

1. Identify Your Life Goals

Create goals that are tangible and achievable, not goals that are abstract and hard to define. Be clear, organized, and thorough as you identify your life goals. For instance, if your goal is to drop a dress size (or several), you should first realize that your goal has nothing to do with weight, but rather size. If you would like to fit into your wedding dress from 10 years ago, your goal is to be a particular size, not a specific weight on the scale. You can be the exact same weight and still be a different size as your body changes with age and exercise.
 

2. Set the Bar High

No one has ever achieved their dreams by only aiming for survival. Realize that you are amazing, you are great, and you can achieve your wildest goals and dreams. What determines if you achieve your goals is not your genetics, history, or your level of entitlement. What determines if you are successful is your perseverance and effort. You need to set the bar high. If you lower your standards, you will no longer be able to get excited about achieving your goals. Your goals need to be something that excites you and energizes you, and keeps you moving in that direction. Remember: goals do not happen overnight, but they will happen in time with dedication and commitment.
 

3. Make it Quantifiable

Let’s pretend your goal is to get more toned. You need to consider what being ‘toned’ means to you. Your goal should be something that you can measure. If you want to be toned, calculate what body fat percentage it will take for your specific body to get toned. With a more mathematical goal, you can then figure out the steps to achieve it. When you can measure your goal, you can measure your progress, which is the key to staying motivated and ultimately reaching (and even surpassing) your goals.
 

4. Break it Down

Every goal, from conquering the world to crossing the street, can be broken down into simple steps. Take your goal and break it down… and keep breaking it down… until it’s something that you can control, keep track of, and follow. If your goal is to do more yoga, come up with a quantifiable amount of time (such as 3 classes per week, or 1 hour per day, etc.). Put it on your calendar and commit to your yoga schedule goal. If your goal is to eventually attend 5 yoga classes every week, start yourself off at a smaller goal (like 2 days per week) and gradually build over time. Remember, the journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.
 

5. Accept that Missteps May Occur

Part of the process of achieving your life goals is having missteps or mini “failures” along the way. Don’t be afraid to fail, and realize that your goals can change. If you miss your goal today, there is always tomorrow. If you don’t make it today, appreciate how close you came and make it there tomorrow. Don’t be discouraged – keep persevering. The important thing to remember is that attitude is everything. Don’t allow a small setback to dishearten you. Instead, identify what caused the issue, implement steps to improve, and then keep moving forward. No matter what, just keep moving forward.
 

6. Achieve Your Goal

After following the first 5 steps, you will ultimately achieve your goal! The end. Well, not really. Once you achieve that goal, you can now modify it, tweak it, or increase it tenfold. You’ve already shown yourself your potential and what you’re capable of – now you’re ready to raise the bar, up the ante, and continue striving for a new personal best. It will be challenging, but in the end, your perseverance will carry you through to goals that you never previously thought possible. That right there makes it all worthwhile.
 
If you sit around waiting for your dreams to come true, then you may be waiting a long, long time. If instead you are determined to aim for the stars and never settle, you will go further than you ever dreamed. View every circumstance that comes your way as an opportunity to achieve more, and you will turn any challenge into a positive, and any obstacle into an ally. You can make any opportunity become a turning point to your success. Now go out there and make your dreams a reality!
 

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