Achieving the goal: ways and means
Everyone wants to achieve their goals as quickly as possible and without significant difficulty. But for some, achievement is easy - they move rapidly through life, realizing everything or almost everything they strive for. And others can go for years to their goal, but not come close to it a step. Why this happens, how to set goals and achieve them correctly, this article will tell.
Why do people fail to achieve their goals?
Most people habitually measure life - their own and those of those around them - by achieved goals, achievements. They are considered the main indicator of personal performance. When there is no progress, or it is violated, it is impossible to achieve the goal, everyone begins to involuntarily start to wonder what is wrong with himself, what prevents him from reaching the goal.
Psychologists identify several possible reasons why people do not achieve the goals that they themselves have set for themselves.
Weak staging
This is the case when there seems to be a goal, but it is vague, vague, unformulated. It is this reason that is considered the most common. As a result, a person is constantly not satisfied with himself, his actions, those around him, but at the same time he cannot even clearly answer the question of himself, and what he really wanted to achieve in a given situation.
Inadequacy or disproportionate goals
Often, when setting a goal, people only express a desire: for example, “I want to learn French,” “I want to be happy in my personal life,” “I want to get more money.” Desire and dreams are good, but they have nothing to do with real goals. The goal is a clear vision of the result. Do you want to know French?
Set the time frame in which you will receive the necessary knowledge, ways to achieve this, select courses and get started. The same rules apply to other human desires.
Some of the goals are set openly overestimated. For example, a person receives a salary below the average subsistence level, but his “goal” is to travel around Africa on a private jet. Obviously, it will not be possible to achieve it if nothing is changed, if you do not develop a chain of consistent goals that will first lead to an increase in income, allowing you to both purchase an airplane and organize travel to those points of the planet that you dream of.
No fixation in time
If a person sets a goal that he intends to achieve "someday", he will never achieve it. Any task should be structured not only in content, but also in time. The absence of a clearly defined period leads to relaxation, makes it difficult to fight your own laziness, the attacks of which sometimes happen even to the most hardworking people.
The presence of deadlines, including for each intermediate goal in the chain, helps to maintain a constant intensity of the achievement process, which keeps it in good shape.
There is no plan
If there is no clear plan according to which you intend to go towards the set goal, you will certainly "go astray", at some stage you will go away from the goal, go roundabout ways, or never set off on this path at all.
You need to have a plan with deadlines, having previously checked the reality of the implementation of each of its points... Obviously, you cannot make a million in a month. But for another period - quite.
Calculate for which one, look for ways to optimize your earnings. Find acquaintances, friends, associates who are able to provide all possible help.
Lack of relevance or importance
Goals that do not change anything in the usual life can hardly be considered complete. They are usually not achieved, because the person does not have strong motivation - there is no reason to receive something that does not affect the course of events. Just learning French or Japanese just because it is fashionable now is not a goal, it does not bring real benefits and benefits. But if the goal is to learn Japanese, since you can get a new interesting job or move to live in the Land of the Rising Sun, then it will be realized while maintaining the level of motivation.
In other words, if the effort justifies the result, then the chances of achievement are increased. A striking example of irrelevant aspirations is parental expectations. For the time being, their passionate desire to see the child as a student of the medical university is perceived by the child as his own dream. But admission can put everything in its place, show that the goal was imposed from the outside, and, with a high degree of probability, a person will drop out and do something that is necessary for him, and not for his parents.
Conflict of Priorities
This is the reason that disturbs those who set too many goals. Even if each is “qualitative,” the quantitative factor can make it difficult to sequence and prioritize actions. A person runs the risk of losing strength in an attempt to have time to do everything planned, and at the same time he will not advance in any of his tasks.
It is important to highlight priority goals and less significant ones, which you can start in your free time or leave them for later.
There is a risk of negative consequences
Some goals remain unrealized, since their implementation is associated with certain discomfort for a person, his personal fears and concerns. In this case, he begins to unconsciously look for a lot of reasons to postpone the execution.
For example, you are studying Japanese so that you move to live in this country in a year. But in your heart you are afraid of the move, the unknown, the difficulties of emigration, you resist this. This goal will not be achieved.
Only careful work with your own fears, working out the possible consequences helps to overcome your own insecurity.
How to overcome laziness?
Laziness is a very common reason that interferes with achieving our goals in life. It seems that everything is planned and thought out, there are deadlines and the "rules of the game" are defined, there is a strategy, but to start moving towards the goal ... too lazy. How to be in this case? Naturally, declare war on your own laziness. As a "weapon", experts recommend that you adopt several rules and practice them daily.
- Unleash laziness... If you are too lazy to work and move towards the goal, deprive yourself of all actions, do absolutely nothing. Sit, stand in a state of complete rest, like an idol. Usually 15 minutes is enough for it to get pretty boring. As soon as this realization comes, feel free to get down to business.
- "Five minutes". The five minute rule is widely known today. If it is difficult to start doing something important to achieve the goal, agree with yourself that you will do it through force for just 5 minutes. Condition - focus on this business as much as possible, do not be distracted. In most cases, the effect will be unexpected - what you planned to devote only 5 minutes, will captivate and "tighten".
- Divide big into small. Divide all big things and ambitious goals into smaller ones, and small ones - into scanty tasks, tiny steps. This will help to move according to the plan not only strictly, but also quite consciously.
- Eliminate the routine. Laziness falls like an avalanche on those who are forced to perform monotonous tasks and tasks in the same established order. Try to diversify your every day. Even if you are doing the same thing, bring some novelty to the order of actions - add some music to the cleaning, change the theme of the computer desktop at work, please yourself with small "gifts" after completing a particular task.
- Use your morning effectively. Morning time is the most productive time. And if you are an "owl" chronotype, then for you "morning" comes according to the biological clock at lunchtime and in the afternoon, thus, the largest number of goals and activities need to be scheduled for these periods.
- Don't put it off... Once you have a to-do list, nothing should be put off until later. When this fails, reconsider the goals, cut off unimportant and insignificant ones. Something urgent and unplanned may arise already in the evening - it would be wiser to do it all the same the next day, having previously added it to the plan in the evening. Unfulfilled tasks risk becoming a "lump", which one day will roll and lead not only to a severe attack of laziness and apathy, but also to a decrease in self-esteem and guilt.
- Down with bad habits and overeating. Modern scientists have managed to find a clear relationship with the frequency and severity of bouts of laziness and a person's lifestyle. Those who often use illegal substances, alcohol, smoke, love to eat "from the belly" for the coming sleep, suffer more from laziness than those who replace bad habits with useful ones - walks, feasible physical activity.
- Maintain motivation. Start each day by remembering your cherished goal. This will help maintain interest in it - and the likelihood of successful achievement will significantly increase.
Fixed assets
It is important to be consistent and patient to achieve your goals.... What tools to use in this case is a private matter for everyone. It can be trainings for personal growth, independent work on oneself, an appeal to a specialist psychologist.
Motivation
At the beginning of the journey, everything is usually fine with her, but everyone knows how difficult it is to maintain proper motivation throughout the entire journey to the goal. At that time, it is obvious to everyone that it is motivation that is the driving force, and it is important to make sure that it is there. How can this be done in practice?
Do only what you like. If the goal requires you to perform actions that are unpleasant, the probability of success will be almost zero. If you don’t like the job, try to get to know it better, to love it - it is love in this case that will support motivation right up to the very embodiment of the plan. Find convenient and pleasant ways to achieve your goal, which do not imply any violence against yourself.
Be able to focus on the result. And by all means start each difficult stage with a small victory, that is, do what you do best in the first place. This will help to “ride the wave” of the positive to go further.
Organize work and processes so that there is time for both work and rest. Rested people find it easier to maintain motivation in themselves than morally and physically exhausted and exhausted.
Control
Control will help curb bouts of laziness and decreased motivation. Ask yourself more often, how strong is your desire to come to your cherished goal. For control, keep yourself a diary, in which you can enter the goal, the plan you have drawn up, a description of the methods and timing of achievement. Every day, mark in it how much you have progressed towards what you want, what you have already done.
Nothing is more pleasing than the understanding that you are on the right path and can overcome everything.
Cooperation
Understanding that the people around you are the greatest value possible in the world will increase your chances of success. People, if you know how to have them to yourself, will themselves offer help in the implementation of certain stages. Expand your circle of friends - you are never destined to know in advance in what situations and unexpected places you will meet a person who can easily change your life.
It's not a shame to ask for help. Accept it with gratitude, do not try to do everything alone.
Collaboration is also useful in terms of control, because your associates and allies will also control you and will certainly point out if they notice signs of laziness or weakening of motivation.
Optimism
Keep faith for the best. On the way to the goal, most likely, there will be both good moments and victories, as well as defeats, failures, when it will seem that everything was in vain. It can even lead to abandonment of goal-setting and depression. Maintaining optimism is also work.
Try to be humorous about everything, even negative events. It is better to perceive the latter as a whole not as a misfortune, but as a lesson: life simply teaches you, corrects mistakes, indicates what is subject to correction. In the end, all of these lessons will be useful in achieving your goals.
Smile more often, practice the "rule of ten smiles", which must be given to complete strangers in one day. These can be random fellow travelers in transport, a salesman in a store, a neighbor, passers-by, someone else.
Self-development
Continuously engage in self-development, even if the goal is not directly educational. Use the methods and techniques that are most convenient for you - meditation, affirmations, inner words of support, statements in front of a mirror, NLP (neurolinguistic programming) techniques, certain "code" phrases, which you will say every time, as soon as a feeling of your own powerlessness appears, or you are suddenly overcome by melancholy and laziness.
There are a large number of methods and books in which they are described. Many trainings and seminars are held, including on the Internet.
Proactivity
Proactivity is called a special concept of the human psyche, in which it is assumed that everyone has the right and is free to choose how to react to this or that external stimulus.
It is believed that proactive people achieve their goals more often and more easily. To be proactive means to understand your values, to act in accordance with your life principles.
How it works is best explained by the history of the term itself. It was first proposed and described by Viktor Frankl while in a Nazi concentration camp.There he wrote a book that revolutionized the concept of the human psyche. Being in extremely unbearable conditions, Victor managed to realize himself and understand that between the one who acts on us from the outside and our reaction, there is freedom of choice. You yourself have the right to decide whether to take offense at the boor or smile at him in return, take into account external obstacles or go towards the goal, despite the obstacles.
Persistence
Be persistent. In the process there will be everything - fears, apprehensions, doubts about the feasibility and possibility of what you want, perhaps even ridicule from others. Get ready for this.
Step by step achievement system
The methods are different, but they are all strictly based on a specific course of action.
- Set your desires correctly, formulate a goal. The desire to achieve it must be strong.
- Check if the goal is reasonable, if it is achievable in principle. There are very few unattainable goals, and therefore maintain the belief that you will certainly have the strength to fulfill your plans.
- Write your goal down on paper. It is important. Experts believe that by putting everything on paper, in a notebook, a diary, we structure the task and "program" our subconscious mind to strive for what we want.
- Determine the starting point - conditions and objective circumstances and the state in which you are now. Find within yourself several well-reasoned answers to the question of why it is so important for you to achieve this goal.
- Divide the goal into preliminary and component milestones., outline for each of them and the entire task your own terms.
- Identify possible obstacles immediately and honestly, write them down, analyze them, then adopt a plan to eliminate these negative factors.
- Determine what educational, financial instruments, books, courses, training or other opportunities you need, enlist the support of people who will help you with certain tasks.
- Maintain motivation, constantly monitor how you go on your checklist, whether there are lags or advances. Both are not the best strategies.
Here are some more helpful tips and tricks to help you achieve your goals effectively.
- Create your system. It is not necessary to use someone else's practices, maps, algorithms and diagrams. Each person's psyche and character are individual, and therefore it is best, having familiarized yourself with the common methods, choose the best of them, and make your own system. In any case, it will become optimal, more suitable for you.
- Use visualization techniques. Imagine what you want more often, try to feel now what you will feel when the goal has already been achieved. Fix feelings in your memory - during periods of failure and worries, call up these memories in order to maintain your will and motivation in a difficult period. Some people use the "wall of desires" for visualization, placing the images of the desired in a prominent place, where they will often catch the eye.
- Create a morning schedule. Be very careful with your schedule during your most productive period. Plan out everything to do in the morning to the nearest half hour or quarter hour.
The time from 9 to 11 am is optimal for intellectual work, learning new things, analytics, working with numbers. More time-consuming tasks should be carried out during this period of time. For physical activities, the time is optimal after lunch.
Brian Tracy's Technique
The world-famous American writer and business coach studied the stories of those who were able to become a millionaire from scratch and came to a simple conclusion - most people do not achieve their goals, because they are sure that success is for the best people, not for themselves. The scheme proposed by him involves the constant implementation of several steps and actions that will lead to the success of anyone. Briefly summarizing Tracy's methodology, you get a rough list of recommendations.
- Dream great set desired goals, several goals at once. Don't limit yourself to lack of self-esteem.
- Be clear about your goal, plan, every day take a small step towards what you want.
- Talk about your goal, it will become a part of life.
- Eliminate any excuses: self-pity, criticism of others and accusations. All responsibility for your life lies entirely with you.
- Circumstances around us change only when we change ourselves. Cultivate your best traits and qualities.
- Apply the Rule of Concentration - if you start doing something, completely devote yourself only to this task.
- "Pay yourself", each month putting aside at least a tenth of their income in savings to achieve the goal.