How To Achieve Goals In 5 Remarkably Easy Steps

Do you want to know the secret recipe on how to achieve your goals as quickly as possible and in a way that will unleash your inner greatness?

If so, read on to know what these secrets are.

Secret 1: Find Out and Visualize What You Want

This is the first step on how to achieve goals.

Let me explain.

Imagine living your life without any sense of desire.

How would it be?

It would feel as if you were hopeless, right?

In that instance, nothing motivates you.

You have no purpose without knowing what you want.

And this is why you must find out what you want before going after something.

Otherwise, you won’t be motivated.

You will not put any dose of energy into what you are doing.

People will notice this when they talk to you.

You can’t fake enthusiasm and you can’t fake energy and heart into what you are doing.

Knowing what you want is the genesis of this process. You’ll sell yourself better as to why people should help you over the other guy.

If you have any trouble finding out what you want, I’ve written a detailed activity in another article that you can follow to ensure that you know exactly what you want and most importantly, WHY it’s important to you.

You can see this article here. I promise you it will be worth your time to read.

If not, I’ll make it worth your while to change your mind.

Read on and I’ll show you why that is.

Now, visualizing what you want to accomplish is the essence of being a visionary.

Why is this significant you might ask?

Because being a visionary means you can foresee the future when no one else sees it.

It gives you a crystal ball in a way.

This crystal ball says that if you do these things correctly without error, you will achieve this result.

Some people might doubt you and some people may encourage you, but the crystal bal, vision remains the same.

The reason?

Self-continuity.

What is this you might ask?

This is a psychological concept that explains the phenomenon of achieving something provided you follow what you know you need to follow and avoiding things that will prevent you from achieving this goal.

Many people have used this concept to achieve their goals, most notably when they don’t view themselves as a stranger, but rather, as a continuation of who they are today.

Many research studies have proven this concept time and time again.

The best way to do this is to picture yourself in your mind already accomplishing the goal.

Next, you must ask yourself if it is truly something you want. This will drive you to put your full effort every single day without any signs of quitting and lackluster effort.

Once you have these things, the vision will be less of a stranger to you and you will naturally drive yourself to take necessary steps every day to get where you need to go.

This is the first stage towards accomplishing what you want to accomplish.

Of course, there’s more to the story, so let’s explore what these other stages are.

Secret 2: Identify The Knowledge You Need

You can’t accomplish the rest of the steps without getting this addressed.

Plain and simple.

This is the foundation to which you will take your path towards achieving your goal.

It affects how long it will take for you to achieve your goal, it will affect how you will achieve your goal and it dictates how confident you are in your abilities to achieve the goal.

All of these things stem from the knowledge you receive with respect to what you need to know to achieve your goal.

There is a saying amongst journalists that says you are only as good as your sources.

That saying is extremely true when it comes to achieving anything.

So with this, the 2nd stage starts with seeking out the best sources to help you achieve your goal.

This could be books, mentorships, YouTube videos, blogs or whatever source it is that is reputable, honest and actually provides a quality education.

It doesn’t necessarily need to be university, but the source better know what they are talking about.

As you might know, a bad source is going to drain your time and, in some cases, your money because their training is not up to par with what is going to get you to achieve what it is you desire.

So before consuming any content, you MUST vet all sources with not only testimonials and reviews, but with applicable laws that say how a seller can or can’t sell their program and in the case of university, not only verifying if they are the correct resource for what you need, but if they are accredited or not.

This is a big deal since this accreditation verifies the quality of the information you are receiving and it can give you confidence that your hard-earned money is being spent on a product that actually produces results for you provided you follow it.

If any program does not have an accreditation or some other way to verify the quality of the information you are receiving, you are making a questionable investment at best.

So be extremely careful and, if you can, institute a non-negotiable refund arrangement to which you shall be fully refunded your money if you follow the program and don’t get results.

Another thing you can do in this situation is arrange a deal whereby you don’t pay until you get results.

This ensures the seller that he/she has to provide you information that produces results provided you follow the advice or there will be negative consequences for them.

After you get the correct information, you must do another important thing to achieve your goals and that is to:

Secret 3: Set a Deadline For Your Goal

You need to do this.

The reason?

So you can develop a sense of urgency to get moving when you don’t want to move and so progress can be made.

The biggest mistake people make when it comes to achieving a goal is they do not have a sense of urgency to complete the task for whatever reason.

Very often, it’s from not having a deadline.

Studies show that when we impose deadlines on ourselves to complete a task, we are more driven to finish the task to avoid the negative consequence of not meeting it.

It’s like taking a test in college.

Are you more driven to read a textbook and do practice problems when you are out of school and working at a job and there’s no one to tell you when you should or should not be studying or are you more driven to pick up that textbook and do those problems when you are given a test date and you have to meet it?

If you are like most people, it’s most certainly the latter.

In the first case, there is no negative consequence to not meeting the deadline. Therefore, your motivation to complete the task drops.

In the second case, there IS a deadline and there are negative consequences associated with not meeting it.

Therefore, you fear the circumstance of what happens if you don’t meet it and you study like crazy to make sure that you do meet the deadline.

It’s when you are uncomfortable somehow that you develop a sense of urgency to complete what you need to do.

Now having said all of this, you MUST make your deadline realistic.

I’ll give you an example.

Let’s say that you know nothing about a class and you are asked to take an entire final exam on the entire class in 2 days.

And you do not have the prerequisites to take the class.

Do you think that it is realistic for you to take this test even if you studied without sleeping for 48 hours, let alone do everything correctly to properly study for it?

You can bet your life that you won’t pass this test as a result.

Now, a realistic deadline would be this (using this class example):

I’m starting the class and I seek to get an A in it. I have the prerequisites and the 1st test is in 5 weeks from now. It is on the 1st 4 chapters of the book.

I will complete a chapter a week and read at least 2 sections per day until test time.

I will also do all of the necessary homework and ask for help when needed.

Did you see what I did there?

Read that again and I’ll explain that in detail.

This was a time based deadline with qualifications already set.

In other words, you have the right education to complete the task you set for yourself. This makes getting an A in the class a realistic goal.

Read that last sentence again.

Next, the deadline is a time based deadline with actionable chunks to be completed on a consistent basis.

You see, there is a chapter per week and 2 sections of reading per day.

This is a manageable deadline to which you can hold yourself accountable to so you can make progress in the class.

And also, the goal is broken down into chunks so you can achieve a small thing every day that will eventually add up into something much larger.

THIS is a goal that can be accomplished.

Not “I want to build a rocket to go to Mars tomorrow.”

The goal of getting an A in the class is a SMART goal.

One with deadlines and that is realistic to accomplish.

Every person who has achievable goals follows this template every time they set a goal.

No matter who you ask, this is it.

The 5 components of the SMART goal for your reference are:

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Actionable

R = Relevant

T = Time-Bound (aka: deadlines)

In the above goal, getting an A is a specific goal since it is a concrete outcome you wish to achieve.

It’s not a goal like “I want to get a good grade” that’s vague.

Concrete goals are NOT vague.

They are detailed and have meaning to them.

Getting an A is measurable since you can see how you have been coming along with following your plan and how you have been doing on assignments and how you’ve been doing on tests.

This way, you can monitor your progress and refine your strategies if necessary to accomplish your goal.

Getting a good grade is actionable since you can clearly take steps every day towards accomplishing the goal and you are qualified to take these steps.

Provided that you are a student studying to get into a career where grades matter, getting an A is relevant to your cause and hence, it’s a worthy pursuit.

An irrelevant goal in the pursuit of getting into a career is rushing the frat and drinking booze to show off to the bros.

No, focus on your studies (or on work if you are out of school already).

And last but not least, getting an A is a time based goal since you will have sections to complete by certain days and problems to complete by certain days and you have a deadline for finishing your tests and hence, accomplishing your goal.

Do you understand?

Great, because understanding the SMART goal process is KEY to doing the next step, so let’s get right to it.

Secret 4: Commit

Commitment is what separates those who have what they want and those who dream all day and do nothing.

This is why many people don’t achieve anything at all with their lives.

They don’t commit to whatever they are doing and they don’t put forth the maximum effort required to achieve their goals.

To give you such an extreme example, just look at Olympians.

Do you think they are NOT committed to achieving success at the Olympics?

They would go as far as to do Performance Enhancing Drugs to do this (if you plan on getting into the Olympics, don’t do PEDs. I double dare you).

If you were an Olympic athlete, you better be sure that you are committed or you have ZERO shot at even trying out for the national team.

And it’s rougher in business.

If you are not committed to your goal, I promise you that there will be someone somewhere working his or her ass off to take over the world in whatever they are doing.

And if you are in the career that person is in, you better wake up and you better wake up fast or you will be eaten up alive with no remorse.

Really.

So commit. Your life depends on it.

And now for the biggest step of all.

Secret 5: Give It Your ALL

This is critical.

The person who does this will win the war he or she is fighting.

Why?

Because when you give it your all, you put your heart into what you are doing.

And you only put your heart into what you are doing when you know your purpose for doing something.

That purpose must be so strong that you feel a need to go that extra mile or take that extra step to get to your desired goal.

Otherwise, you simply won’t be motivated enough to take the action steps you need to take to outhustle everyone else.

If you are not convinced about this, consider this story:

Have you ever heard of Kobe Bryant?

If you haven’t, or even if you have, he was by far the hardest worker in NBA history.

His work ethic compared to everyone else was unfathomable.

In fact, it was so unfathomable that even though he was on an Olympic team that was going to win the Olympics, he would still show up 7 hours before the official start time of practice.

This was just the Olympics, which is not a big deal for NBA players relative to winning the Larry O’Brien trophy (the NBA Championship).

Imagine what he did at the NBA!

Well, this story goes back to when he was 12 years old according to this article here.

It came to my surprise that he was the least skilled basketball player in the basketball camp when he was 12 years old.

He was almost ready to quit basketball for good.

But he didn’t.

He read about Michael Jordan and how he was not picked to be on his high school basketball team when he was a sophomore in high school.

Inspired by this story, Kobe did not give up hope to become a great basketball player.

Instead, he learned that he needed to work harder and smarter than everyone else in order to get what he wanted.

And that is what he did from then on out.

He showed up to the gym at 5 am every day in high school and never left until very late at night.

This led him to become the best high school basketball player in the country. 

As a result, he skipped college and went straight to the NBA.

When he got to the NBA, he would show up every day before everyone else and he would preach about putting in the work before the arena lights turned on.

And that’s exactly what led him to become a 5 time NBA Champion and one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

He simply outworked everyone to the point of exhaustion.

And every player who played with him testified to this.

A lot of players even hated playing on Kobe’s team simply because he was ruthless in his desire to be great.

And that’s how you have to be when you REALLY want something.

You have to be a ruthless animal that has, in some cases, no remorse for everyone else’s performance.

It is what it is and you have to own that fact in order to get where you need to go.

It’s that simple.

So take matters into your own hands and learn from the success and failures of others in order to chart your own path to your personal greatness.

Do it starting today.

You won’t regret it.

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And feel free to comment below with what you got out of the post and your results from reading it. It’d be great to see!

Until next time,

This is Evan signing off.

PS: Did you read the post I recommended earlier? It’ll be the wisest and most enjoyable investment in your life. Guaranteed.