How to set bold goals and achieve them

Here there is some guidance on setting ambitious goals, I am talking about the type of goals that challenge and boost your confidence when achieved.

So much has been said about goals and the importance they have but still, some people have no goals and no clue. If you are one of them, don’t worry, you don’t have to wait until the end of the year, the end of the month, or Sunday. You can do it right now, as you read this text.

I will go straight to the point. Imagine that your life is like a football game. Whether you like football or not, you probably know that the objective of the game is to score as many goals as possible while the game lasts. Now imagine all those people in the game running around without aiming to score a goal… The keyword here is ‘aiming’ – not in every football game there are goals but their wanting to score is what makes the game worth playing and worth watching. 

Goals give the players purpose and reasons to work on their skills, their body, and their minds. They also have to work as a team, plan and strategise to win. And if they don’t win, it doesn’t matter because losing is part of life, and while they might have lost a game, they always win when it comes to resilience, plus it’s a great opportunity to reflect on their strategy and take it to the next level.

Can you imagine that you are a footballer and your life is a game? Can you see the need for having goals? Let’s set them now.

1- Write down a huge goal for vision, direction, and filtration – this goal is not to be achieved but as a guide and to filter opportunities. You will have a good idea of what things you need to say NO to because they will take you off course and you will end up somewhere else.

I feel it’s important to make a parenthesis here and tell you about the compound effect. 

The compound effect is predictable and measurable. All you need to take is a series of tiny steps and stay consistent in doing so. By understanding the compound effect, you will rid yourself of instant results expectations so you can endure the process until the end.

Now create 2 columns. In one of them answer the following questions:

1- If money was no issue (you have more than you can spend) what your day would look like?

2- In what kind of environment you will be living?

3- Is there a specific location?

4- Do you want to travel?

5- Are you there with family or alone?

6- Do you work or have any hobbies?

7- Do you have a business?

After you have written those answers, write down the opposite in the other column. The point of this exercise is to help you define the two extremes so you always know where you are heading when you think of the actions that you take every day.

Now that you have a clear picture of what your ideal life could be like and what the opposite would be, you might have gained much more clarity.

You don’t need to worry about motivation when you have enough clarity. Clarity needs to happen first and motivation will follow.

To simplify this process, let’s set goals for 3 main categories:

• Health
• Wealth 
• Relationships – including spirituality.

For each of those categories, write down a goal that you would have achieved 5 or 10 years from now – depending on how optimistic you are feeling. You can always adjust the deadline.

Continue to write down a goal that you would achieve in 1 year, then in 1 month, and in 1 week.

For example:

In your Health category, let’s say your goal is [Achieve a Yoga Milestone]

You could be very specific and decide that you will master a challenging pose or complete a certain number of consecutive days of practice.

Each goal needs to be broken down to its simplest expression until the actions you need to take are not frightening but they are specific enough so you can measure them and track your results. What doesn’t get tracked doesn’t get improved.

To your success!