To set and achieve your goals, objectives and personal projects is very tempting but it is not always easy to be consistent enough to accomplish them. Sometimes we want to travel but we don’t really know where we want to get to, which makes us end up wandering and taking several detours before going back to the starting point. Other times we are very clear about where we want to go, but we start the journey with so much enthusiasm that we burn out before we make it to the finish line.
4 tips to help you achieve your goals
There are many reasons and not all of them require the same strategy. However, in this article, we want to share with you four tips that will make the journey to achieve your goals less bumpy and more enjoyable. After all, every endeavor requires the right equipment, right?
1. Calculate deadlines accordingly
Remember that carrying out a personal project has its own timeframe, but this cannot be organized in just any old way. As you may have read in other articles on this topic, the usual tip is that to achieve your goals, they must have their own expected deadline, because not setting deadlines is inefficient and reflects a lack of real commitment to your final objective.
Setting a specific deadline to achieve your goals helps you to commit to them.
However, when you decide, for example, never to do something again, or to do something for the rest of your life, it is important to meet those deadlines. Thinking about “forever” can be overwhelming, since it is a hugely hypothetical and challenging deadline to manage, especially since we don’t know how long that forever is going to last. Forever would be a kind of high beam when we drive at night; in this case, they indicate an ideal goal that is only useful as long as it serves as an inspiration, but it is no longer useful if it is too heavy or if it causes us to look only towards the future.
It is important to set goals in more manageable timeframes that have a more focused connection to the present: our life is today, these weeks, do not think it is always efficient to set it far into the future.
2. Specify the terms and conditions
Being aware of the components that make up our objectives is essential. It is an exercise in operationalization that helps us see them clearly, makes it easier to see the strategy needed to achieve them, and, as in the case of the calendar, indicates a greater commitment to the objective.
An undefined, vague, overly general objective is like a very lax law: there is room for everything in it, so it is very easy to break it because it does not make it clear at any time which conditions are being complied with. In other words, the more general a goal is, the more open the door is to make excuses for not being able to achieve your goal. Make your objective concrete, then you can change it as you go along, but don’t start the journey without knowing where you are headed to.
3. Follow your own path
It is one thing to be inspired by the example of those next to you and a different thing is to enter a competition with them to see who gets there first or who is capable of achieving the most ambitious goals in the shortest time. Everyone has their own motivations, resources, and limitations, so what others do does not always serve as an adequate reference to achieve your goals.
That is why it is important not only to not compare yourself with other people (especially if you always do it with those who are above you) but also to compare yourself with yourself to get a better idea of your own pace and progress. You don’t have to impress anyone, you just have to be comfortable with the things you do to achieve your goals.
4. Think carefully about your motivation
Be aware of why you are setting out to achieve your goals. It has to be something that, in some way, matters to you. Something you care about. Remember, the more ambitious your goals are, the more motivation you will need to achieve them, and that motivation will come directly from one source: how important is it for you to achieve your goals?
To make sure your journey is not pointless or too arid, it is essential that the things you set out to do have meaning to you, which will not always be what makes sense or is important to others. They must have a value for you, the expectation of achieving them must be exciting and the reality of achieving them must nourish you in a meaningful way, which is the opposite of proposing or achieving something that you don’t really care about, regardless of its difficulty. There may be no glory without risks, but it is clear that without purpose there will be no fulfillment either.
The goals you set have to be worthwhile for you. If they don’t matter to you, you won’t make any progress along the way.
