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Do you remember the new year’s resolutions you set at the beginning of
this year? What are they? How are you faring in them right now? If
you’re like most people, chances are you’ve long abandoned those goals.
Some of you may not even recall what goals you have set. Which is
unfortunate, because goal setting works; it has never failed anyone. The
only reason why goals would stop working is because the person who has
set the goals, i.e. you, chose to give up on them mid-way.
During the past few years, I’ve been working relentlessly on my goals –
be it blogging, setting up my new business, improving my diet, losing
weight, making like-minded friends, improving my relationship with my
parents, and so on. Over the course of the past 2.5 years, I’ve made
significant progress on those goals.
For example, I lost about 7-8kg this year and am at my desired weight
today. I’ve switched from an unhealthy, junk food diet to a healthy,
vegan diet which I’m proud of today. I created my personal development
blog, and built it from 2 readers a day (me and my good friend) to over
600k page views/month – making it one of the top personal development
blogs online. I’ve created a successful business out of my passion in
personal development and am earning a steady, passive income from it. I
resolved a deep-seated emotional eating issue which I’ve been struggling
with the past decade. My previously sour relationship with my parents
has dramatically improved for the better in the past 2 months.
I’m not sharing the above to distance myself from you, or to put myself
on a pedestal. Quite the opposite – I’m sharing the above to let you
know that because I’ve achieved my goals, you can achieve your goals
too, no matter what they are. It’s all a matter of staying focused.
If you constantly get distracted in your goal pursuits, here are 8 tips
I have for you to stay focused:
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Concentrate on 1-3 goals
If you constantly have trouble keeping to your goals, maybe you’re
spreading yourself too thin. Pick 1-3 goals that are most important to
you, and stick to them. Don’t bother yourself with any other goals until
these goals are achieved (or unless priorities shift and these goals no
longer reflect what you want in life).
For me, my top priority goal is to reach out to more people through my
blog, so I ensure all my daily actions ladder up to this one goal.
Majority of my time in the week is spent either writing new articles for
the blog, maintaining my facebook and twitter account, maintaining the
blog and forums, processing my emails or creating upcoming plans. If I’m
caught up with something else for a long period of time, it’s a cue to
me that I’m off-track.
Such laser focus has allowed me to make much more progress, compared to
when I juggle across 4-5 goals and make little progress in them. |
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Create a vision board
A vision board is a collage of pictures and images that represent your
goals and dreams. Creating a vision board helps you to visualize your
end goals more clearly, which inevitably inspires you to take consistent
action. Not only that, it also serves to remind you of your goals every
day when you see the board. I’ve a vision board in my bedroom which I
see every time I’m in my room. Every time I see my board, it reinforces
my goals to me, and reminds me to take action so as to move forward. |
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Create milestones
If you just set one huge goal, it can be discouraging – especially when
you don’t achieve it after a short while. When that happens, some people
may procrastinate on the goal altogether – which is quite unfortunate. I
find it’s helpful to break a big goal into smaller goals, after which
you concentrate on achieving the smaller goals in the short-run. Just
like when you go on a long road-trip – You set pit-stops to
rest/recuperate throughout the trip. |
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Track your results
It’s important for me to track the results of what I do, because
otherwise it feels like my actions are not making a difference. Hence,
every time I work on a goal, I will identify 1-2 performance metrics,
then track those metrics daily/weekly. They are my connection to the end
goal, because they let me know whether I’m on track or off track, which
in turn lets me know whether to tweak my actions or not. |
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Be clear on why you’re pursuing the goals
If you keep giving up on your goals halfway, perhaps you were never
serious in them to begin with. For me, if I’m really serious about a
goal, I’d never give up on it – I’d keep hammering away at it,
regardless of the obstacles, until they give way and I’m enjoying the
fruits of my labor.
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