From Dreams to Reality: 7 Ways How You Can Increase Your Chances of Achieving Your Goals in 2008

Year after year people make New Year Resolutions: I want to get out of debt this year; I want to buy a new car in 2008; this year I’m going to Hawaii for my annual holiday – the list is endless.

But how many of these resolutions have you seen come to pass? One? Two? Three?

Yes, for some of us is only a few and the rest of us is none. Only one in a million people do have everything ticked off their list of New Year Resolutions when they come to the end of the year.

What is the cause? The absence of a detailed plan. A detailed plan? What do you mean?

1. Set definite goals

If you want to have ticked off everything or nearly everything on your list of New Year Resolutions when you come to the end of the year, the first thing that you have to do is to turn your New Year’s Resolutions into goals. Goals are the things that you set out to do to achieve your ultimate purpose in life.

You need to set SMART goals; goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.

Your goals must be specific – what you want to do should be clear from the onset, e.g. to write a book.

Your goals must be measurable – it should be possible to measure both progress towards and the attainment of your goals, e.g. if your goal is to write a book, you’d look at how many chapters you’d have written to measure progress and the attainment of your goal would be the actual book ready for publication.

Your goals must be achievable – simply put, your goals should be attainable. It is possible for me to write a book, I have the talent, the skill and the capacity to do so.

Your goals must be realistic – sorry, I don’t believe in magic. Your goals must be realistic, they should not be an imaginary fantasy that nobody would attain even if the tried.

Your goals must be timed – you should set a specific date on which you want to see the completion of each of your dreams.

And that’s not all. Add ER to your SMART goals and you have SMARTER goals. Goals that are not only specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely but also excellent and rewarding.

Your goals must be excellent – who said you should not have standards when you set your goals. Well, I think that you should and your standard should be excellence. A simple definition of excellence would be giving be best that you can out of what you can give.

Your goals must be rewarding – ask yourself what’s in it for me? Or someone who you genuinely would like to benefit from your efforts. In other words, are your goals worthwhile goals?

2. Take each of your goals and break it down into sub-goals

The second thing that you need to do is to take each of your goals and break it down into sub-goals. Identify all the things, big and small, that you need to do in order to achieve your goal.
Your objective in doing this is two tired. First, to get a clear picture of everything that you need to do in order to achieve your goal. Second, to break down an unthinkably huge chunk into small chunks that you can manage.

For instance, if your goal is to publish a book within the next six months, you break down the process into writing the first draft, the second draft, the third draft… and the nth draft; editing; proof-reading; fore wording (if applicable); contacting the publisher; publishing; right through to organizing the launch.

3. Sequence your sub-goals

After you get your sub-goals down, arrange them in the order that you are going to pursue. What are you going to do first? Then what after that?
Make sure you do this before you start doing anything. This may take a considerable amount of your time as you will be actually doing it, but doing it will save you a lot of time and energy in the future.

Which do you prefer? Coming out of the shower to realize that you have no clean change of clothes left or coming out of the shower to see the clothes that you washed over the weekend are waiting for you to put them on. (Should I also add, I prefer that you pick out the clothes that you want to wear before you take the shower)

4. Identify the resource requirements

What resources do you need in order to achieve your sub-goals? Time? Money? Stationary? A laptop? Whatever it is that you need in order to achieve your sub-goals, set it aside or find a way to get it way before you begin working on your sub-goal.

Over and above identifying your resource requirements, quantify them. How much time do you need? How much money do you need? What type of laptop do you need? Try to be as specific as possible.

This will save you the hustle of trying to figure out where to find things when you desperately need them. When was the last time you missed something that was in your hand? Get the idea? I guess you do.

5. Identify the knowledge and skill requirements

It is also important that you identify the knowledge and skills that you need in order to successfully pursue your goals and sub-goals. After identifying them, ask yourself do I posses this or that skill or knowledge.

For every skill or knowledge that you do not have ask yourself whether you are going to acquire them or hire them. When I say hire them I mean asking or paying someone who posses that knowledge or those skills that you do not have to complement your efforts at what you will be doing.

6. Time the accomplishment of each of your sub-goals as well as your ultimate goal

If you are to accomplish your goals at the time that you set for them to be accomplished, you need to also time the accomplishment of each of your sub-goals.

If a sub-goal is accomplished later than planned, it may also delay the accomplishment of the sub-goals that come after it and also the accomplishment of your ultimate goal. The reverse can happen also.

But things do not always happen that way. Sub-goal one can be accomplished in time, sub-goal two may be delayed and sub-goal six may be finished earlier than expected causing you to accomplish your sub-goal in the time that you set out to achieve it.

Time the accomplishment of each of your sub-goals anyway. Having a rough idea of what you need to do and the time that you have to do it will help you manage your time more wisely. It will also increase your productivity.

7. Outline the benefits of each of your sub-goals as well as your ultimate goal

The seventh way you can increase your chances of achieving your goals is by outline the benefits that you will derive from pursuing your sub-goals and ultimately each of your goal.

Like all human beings, you are in constant need of motivation, and the easiest way to motivate yourself is to remind yourself of the benefits that you are going to reap from your activity. You should write down all the rewards that you are going to get from pursuing each of your sub-goals as well as your ultimate goal. Find out the benefits of each of your sub-goal in relation to your ultimate goal and in relation to subsequent sub-goals.

You’ll have sometime to motivate you each time you feel depressed. You just have to look at the benefits that derive from what you will be doing and automatically the knowledge that you are doing something that is rewarding should motivate you.

That’s all I have for today. Until next week, be inspired.