by Kumar Mehta
Setting goals is easy; everybody has the same lofty goals and everybody dreams of reaching the top. But only the rarest of people achieve them. If you want to make your crazy dreams come true, your best bet is to use the approach that the most exceptional people have taken. The following steps show you how the best in the world think about goal setting and developing the plan to achieve them.
1. Set a clear goal: You have to start with a clear vision of what you want, even if you don’t have the capabilities to realize it. Usain Bolt wanted to become the fastest human on earth even before he was a 100-meter runner. He did not, as yet, have all the tools to reach his goal, but he knew precisely what he wanted to achieve.
If you can establish a goal that you want to pursue unwaveringly, you will have attained a level of clarity and purpose that most people will never experience. When you sincerely believe that you can do something exceptional, then everyone around you begins to share your belief, and the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. And soon, the improbable becomes probable, and the unachievable is within reach.
2. Write it down: The next step after establishing your goal is to write it down in as much detail as you can. Don’t keep your vision in your mind; physically write it down on paper. Also, don’t simply write what you want to achieve; note why you want to achieve it and what you are willing to sacrifice in exchange. This written statement becomes your “personal declaration.”
You will need to read to your declaration frequently—maybe every day, perhaps every week, or whenever you need it. This repeated reinforcement keeps you thinking about what you want to achieve, and it reminds you why you are putting in the effort and prompts you to put in even more. Your declaration is a direct connection to your future because, in five or ten years, the only certainty is that you will be either half a decade or an entire decade older. However, what you will have accomplished at that time is determined mainly by your actions today.
3. Periodize it: Periodization means breaking your goals into specific milestones that you need to achieve. You start with the end and work backward. For example, you may have a ten-year target to become the CEO of your company, or perhaps your ten-year goal could be to save a million dollars, win a major championship in golf, and so on.
If your goal is to become CEO in ten years, ask yourself where you need to be by the ninth year. Most likely, you would need to be an established senior leader in the company. If your target is to save a million dollars, what would your net worth need to be by the ninth year? Or, if you aim to win a major championship in ten years, what would you need to have accomplished by the ninth year? Continue this exercise and ask yourself where you would need to be in the eighth, seventh, sixth years, and so on till you get to the first year, your first period.
4. Focus only on the first period: Now that you know what you need to accomplish during the first “period,” all your energy should be diverted towards bridging the gap between today and your first milestone. When you do that, you will have taken a big dream and converted it into a clear outcome that is just slightly out of your reach but is something that you can accomplish reasonably quickly and with concentrated effort.
Most people fail to achieve their goals because they don’t have a plan, and they attempt to tackle a big goal in its entirety, which is a near-impossible task. But when you set a clear purpose, internalize it by writing it down, develop a periodization schedule, and focus only on achieving your first milestone, your grand dream has a good chance of becoming a reality.
Source: Forbes