How To Achieve Your Goals Successfully: Many people in this world feel as if they’re just wandering here aimlessly. They work hard, but they don’t seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven’t spent enough time thinking about what they want from life.

In short, they don’t have any worthwhile goals to achieve in their life. We have already discussed how to set the goals in Smart Goal Setting. In this post, we will briefly discuss some key points that will help you to achieve your short-term or long-term goals.

1. Get Clear On The End Goal To Achieve It Easily

“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.”
– Benjamin Mays

Do you know what is the single most important step in achieving your goals? Yes, you are right- It’s determining your goal first. Until you choose a clear and worthy goal, its achievement will always be doubtful because a noble goal keeps you always motivated. Apart from that, setting an ambitious goal not only increases your chances of getting success but also tends to make you happier.

But just setting a goal in your mind is not enough. You must write down your goals. When you write your goals down, they become real and tangible instead of a vague idea that resides only in your mind.

Struggling to keep your focus on that end goal?”Just ask yourself: If you were the person that you want to be, then what would that person do?”

2. Recognize Your Talents And Good Qualities

“Winning in life is more than outpacing out your opponents; it is maximizing your potential to the fullest of your ability.”
– Ignatius K. Otchere

Achieving worthy goals within strict deadlines could be a daunting task even for smart people. So it’s always better that first, you comprehensively analyze your talents or skills. Write down your abilities and skills step by step and think wisely about how can you utilize them in achieving your targets.

However, do not lose heart if you lack some qualities. You can always enhance your skill profile in the meantime. Try to pat yourself on the back a little and remember the things you excel at. Focusing on your better attributes will distract you from perceived flaws and boost your sense of worth.

Remember past accomplishments. It can be something other people recognize, like being at the top of your class, or something only you know about, like a quiet act of service to make life easier for someone else. Realize how great this was.

3. Make A Plan To Achieve Your Goals Faster

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”
– Tom Landry

Many people decide on a goal but never create an action plan to determine how exactly they will meet that goal. Your action plan should include the overall goal you’re trying to meet and all the steps you need to take to get there. By writing down your goals and the steps you plan to take to reach those goals, you have a plan for your future.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your action plan. Be innovative enough in planning to achieve goals and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination, and disregard for obstacles and other people’s criticisms, carry out your plan.

4. Work Towards Your Goal In A Steady Manner

“The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

Do you know why most people fail to achieve their goals? Because, as time passes by they get overwhelmed by the vastness of their goals. Trying to take on a huge project or task can be daunting and intimidating for anyone, even the best of us. Instead, learn to break off small chunks and work in bursts.

So first set a small goal and achieve it. Set a goal you know you can achieve, and then achieve it. You’ll feel good about that. Now set another small goal and achieve that.

The more you achieve small goals, the better you’ll be at it and the better you’ll feel. Soon you’ll be setting bigger (but still achievable) goals and achieving those too.

5. Do Not Bother Too Much About The Failure

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
– Paulo Coelho

One of the things that held me back from pursuing my dreams for many years was my fear of failure… and the lack of self-confidence that I needed to overcome that fear. It’s something we all face, to some degree, I think. Yes, failure is inevitable. It always happens. And it doesn’t matter. The only part that matters is that you get back up.

Everyone experiences setbacks, but not everyone gets back up. It’s the getting back up that builds confidence, and you’ve got to fail in the first place to do so. When your efforts are met with failure, you know you are on to something.

Because on the flip side of that failure is a real, substantial accomplishment that doesn’t come easy. Your failed attempt is simply evidence that you are reaching higher. And “higher” is always the best direction to travel in.

6. Focus on Solutions, Not The Problems

“One important key to success is self-confidence. A key to self-confidence is preparation.”
– Arthur Ashe

If you are a complainer or focus on problems, change your focus now. Focusing on solutions instead of problems is one of the best things you can do for your confidence and your career goals. Do something you’ve been procrastinating on. What’s on your to-do list that’s been sitting there? Do it first thing in the morning, and get it out of the way.

You’ll feel great about yourself. Sometimes it becomes inevitable to take risks in order to achieve something worthwhile. As the only way out is through. To get your desired goals, you’ve gotta encounter experiences that force you to learn.

You can’t be awesome at it right off the bat. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll never get better at…anything. So go out of your comfort zone to help you learn from experiences and grow more confident.

7. Expect Success To Achieve Your Goals

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”

– E. E. Cummings

Yes, Expect success. A lot of life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we think we’ll fail, we don’t really try as hard. When we think we’re not good enough, we often act not good enough. If you expect success, you may just draw it out. Pessimism can actually undermine your abilities.

So focus on what you want rather than what you don’t want. It’s hard to be confident in yourself if you don’t think you’ll do well at something. Beat that feeling by preparing yourself as much as possible.

But before we finish this article, we would like to share a great real-life inspiring story that may help you to know how to achieve your goals even when you don’t have much time in your busy life. Read this story that could inspire you for the rest of your life…

Story of A Woman Who Had The Vision of A Great Goal

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over.” I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from the Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. “I will come next Tuesday”, I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into my daughter Carolyn’s house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.
I told my daughter, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and my grandchildren that I want to see right now. I don’t want to drive another inch!”
My daughter smiled calmly and said, “We drive in this weather all the time, Mother.”
“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her.
“But first we are going to see the daffodils. It’s just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”
“Carolyn,” I said sternly.
“It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”

A Story That Tells Why Should You Work Steadily

So we went. After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign with an arrow that read, “Daffodil Garden”.
We got out of the car, each of us took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped.
Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes.
The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons, and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow.
Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirls and flows like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers!

“Who did this?” I asked Carolyn.

“Just one woman,” Carolyn answered.
“She lives on the property. That’s her home.”
Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.
On the patio, we saw a poster with the headline “Answers to the Questions, I Know You Are Asking”.
The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read.
The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain.”
The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop.
Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught me is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time.
“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn.
“What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it’ one bulb at a time’ through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way ,”Start tomorrow,” she said.
She was right. It’s so pointless to think of the last hours of yesterday. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, “How can I put this to use today?”

Story: By Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards