Have you had any goal that you really wanted to accomplish and never knew how. Well no worries my friends I’m going to breakdown 3 simple key behaviors to attain any goal that you want in life. I will give this disclaimer before we begin anything.
You Must Be Patient.
So lets not delay any further but get closer to your goals and more importantly your dreams.
Let’s say you wanted to lose weight, or maybe you wanted to learn how to play an instrument or maybe you want to earn a little more income or possibly start your own business. Accomplishing any goal all boils down to one significant factor. Without this you might as well not set any goal for yourself.
So what is the one thing?…
1. Choices
Whatever you want out of life or do in your life you must make the choice in reaching that specific goal. However, if you pay attention the word I used was choices and not just a choice. Let me break this down even further. The decisions/choices that you make every single day are the factors that add up to your big goal.
Simply put…
small goals + small goals = BIG GOAL
I know this sounds to easy to be true but it is true. To become a master means understanding and mastering the basics. So let’s not complicate the process. Once you have defined what your goal or goals are then your aim is to focus on the daily progression your making and not the ultimate goal.
For example, let’s say you have a huge staircase and your goal is located at the top of the stairs. Now that you know what your goal is, begin to focus on only the next step in front of you. Then the next step after. If you only focus on the progress steps in front of you over time when you look back you will be amazed on how far you have reached. Before you know it you will have reached your goal.
I did this with calisthenics. I wrote down that I wanted to be able to do 20 pull ups one day. I got so far ahead that I was working on other goals that when I found the book I wrote this goal in I was shocked to say “oh yea, I passed that and I’m currently now learning how to do front lever planches. It works trust me!
Oh and be sure to write your goals down, if not how will you know where your going if you haven’t written it down.
So now that you have clearly written your goals what follows after choices which leads to …
2. Behavior
To sum this up, these are your action steps towards your small choices. In essence, your daily game plan. How will you win if you don’t have a plan. Now its time to walk they walk from your talk.
So How Do You Begin?
This is where a little research might come into play. Let’s say you want to learn an instrument, say piano. There are daily basic practices that you would perform consistently overtime to begin the progress of your goal. You would first begin by learning the keys and building the muscle memory in your fingers. You then move to the next progression once comfortable. Ultimately a song. Remember to focus on the next step only not the BIG GOAL. Also it’s easy to get trapped in the comparison race, comparing yourself and telling yourself that your not that good as them.
Everyone Had To Start At The Beginning.
Instead of comparing yourself to that person try to use that as motivation while your building and growing. It’s just like working out. When you first start, you don’t jump in lifting 50lbs dumbells. You pick a weight moderately heavy but what you can handle, like 5-10lbs, and as you grow you increase 5-10lb in increments. Slowly progressing you will reach your goal of 50lbs.
Same goes with anything you want to learn. So, after you have made the choice you need to make a plan of action to help you get closer to that goal you are hoping for.
3. Habit
Last step, your behavior of daily practices of the choices you made now become habit. It takes approximately 28-30 days to create a habit, whether good or bad. But let’s breakdown what a habit really is and take out the time factor. In its simplest form it is an action that you unconsciously think about or do.
For example, lets say your morning routine, or whenever you might wake up. When I wake up the first thing I do is go to the bathroom handle my business and then brush my teeth and wash my face to get ready for the day. Oh I can’t forget my glasses I can’t see without my specs. When I’m done i’ve actually done about 3 – 4 actions without even a second thought. I mean think about it. When you were kid someone had to teach how to use the bathroom and properly brush your teeth, from the front to the back and all the in between. I can guarantee that when you first learned that it was either dumb, frustrating or hard and pointless. Now years have gone by and you don’t even think twice about the motions, you just do it.
A clear example how you learned a new skill that you don’t even think twice about.
What if we were able to do that with any skill you wanted to learn and master.
Repetition Is The Key To Any Skill.
So if this fact is true what are you doing everyday to reach your goal. Even if your not doing a particular task everyday. What schedule have you made to be consistent with your goal? because…
Consistency Is The Key To Success.
The question to ask now is how soon do you want to reach your goal? The more often you perform something the faster you will attain your desired goal. You will get their faster if you do something 5x a week then if you did it 3x a week. You still will get there but one road might be quicker. And it’s ok to take one day off. Rest is always good it rejuvenates the mind and the body, but don’t let it linger. I take rest days or cheat days depending on my desired result.
So What Do You Want?
Have you been putting down dreams that you always wanted because you were too scared or didn’t know how to attack the problem?
This simple plan will help get you started with creating a plan to get you where you want to in life.
From Choices ->Behavior ->Habits
How great will it be to look back and reminisce on when you first started something and say I remember when I couldn’t draw, or whistle, or do a pull up.
Here is a daily challenge calendar I created that helps me keep track of my daily goals of whatever challenge I would like to accomplish. Seeing a physical chart and having me cross out the day helps me to feel like I did something. Accomplished
I only put three goals on there because if you put too much you will not be able to focus and you defeat the purpose. As Jim Collins says
“If Your Doing More Than 3 Your Not Doing Anything At All”
So the best practice is to try and focus on one thing and then move on to the next once you reached that goal.
So there you have it 3 simple steps to help you get started on how to reach any goal. There is so much that can be spoken on how to reach a goal, but this is what has helped me and I believe it will help you as well.