How to Achieve Your Goals

When it comes to setting goals, most people focus on the end result rather than the process. They look at what they hope to get and ignore who they need to become in order to achieve what they desire. In order to do what you have not done before, you have to become who you have not been before. It means you need to step up to be able to achieve at the next level. The old you cannot achieve new results. To get new results, you need a new you.

Let me give some illustrations. Imagine your goal is to win the Olympic gold medal in 100 meters sprint. Currently, you are a University student with a best time of 12 seconds. Setting the goal of an Olympic gold medal is not enough to take you to the finish line. You have to become an Olympic athlete to achieve that fit.

That means you need a world-class team of coaches, trainers, doctors, physiotherapists, nutritionists, etc. You need to go on the Olympic diet, training regimen, etc. You need an Olympic-class training facility. You need the psychological preparation and everything that goes into becoming an Olympic athlete that runs way below 10 seconds. Your time must beat that of your competitors. You need to be able to hold your head before the crowd and an intimidating array of competitors to repeat the feat you achieved in training. In summary, you need a new you. Setting a goal is not enough. After setting the goal, you have to become the person capable of achieving that goal.

Again, imagine you buy 5 new air conditioning units for your home and you depend on a generator for most of your power needs. You did not make provision for this new unit of air conditioners when buying your generator years earlier. Common sense dictates that you need a new generator big enough to carry the load from your 5 new air conditioners. It will look foolish if you run your old generator and attempt to switch on all 5 air conditioners. Your poor generator will go out.

That is what happens when the old you (old generator or University athlete) makes an attempt at a bigger goal (carry new airconditioners or win an Olympic gold medal). It will end in failure. The load will become too much, and you will give up. You need to upgrade your capacity to achieve more. You have to work on yourself and get to the point where you can successfully carry out your goal. A major advantage of big goals is that it stretches you.

If you approach it the right way, you stretch first before you make an attempt, and if you fail, rather than give up, go back and stretch some more, and keep going back until you finally make it. By the time you make it, you are performing at a new level. After winning the Olympic gold medal, you never go back to becoming a University athlete. You are now world-class. The only way you can go is up, maybe break a world record, or whatever mountain that is left to climb in athletics.

What you become in the process is much more important than achieving the goal. To achieve the goal, you have to invest in personal growth and development which places you at a higher pedestal of performance. You may have pursued a financial goal, but by the time you achieve it, you would have grown as a person, become more self-disciplined, and self-confident, have higher self-esteem, be healthier and fitter, and become a better husband, father, brother, and grow spiritually.

It impacts all facets of your life. It is quite amazing. After achieving that big goal, your life is never the same again, because you have come so far from where you started, and you never get back to playing small.

The secret to achieving your goal is to become the person capable of achieving that goal. You need to develop the self-discipline, focus, and persistence required to follow through. When you focus on yourself, you raise the stakes, and you will find yourself clearing the hurdle effortlessly because it is the new you taking the shot, not the old. Focus on you, and everything will fall into place