Id like to begin a series of posts that I would aim toward a target audience of young people. I think most of these pieces of advice that I will write about are generated from my thoughts of things I wish I knew as a teen or young adult. This info covers a wide variety of topics that I think would be helpful to most young people, or even people who are getting a late start on the path to success. These will all apply to anyone, but my goal is for young people to learn from my experiences and get a bit of a jump start to their future dreams.
The first topic of advice I want to dive into is setting Goals. In my opinion, goal setting is the beginning of all of our successes and failures. If we do not have a target, then we are just wandering aimlessly through life.
The Goal
The goal can be anything. Most people should and do have many goals. Perhaps that is an inaccurate statement. Most people have many Dreams. A dream only becomes a goal when you put a plan in place to achieve it. The goals can cover any variety of topics. I personally have a significant list. My list of goals cover financial goals, fitness goals, relationship goals and several other areas as well.
Goals can be big or small. In most instances starting with a small goal is a good thing. This allows you to feel the emotion of success and often will drive you to bigger and better goals. I think a good goal is one that you view as challenging yet still attainable.
The goal should be quantifiable and have a timeline for achievement. For example, saying you want to lose 15 lbs can be a goal. But when you say I want to lose 15 lbs in 8 weeks you change the goal to have an expected result by a deadline. You have a point in time that dictates your success or failure. This also adds to the goal by making it more challenging. It places pressure on you to focus on how to achieve the goal.
The Plan
As I said earlier, many people have dreams but it only becomes a goal when you have a plan. Planning is the key to success in just about anything. I believe the saying goes "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." That is very true. If you have not put any effort into visualizing how you will reach your goal, then you will be wandering aimlessly. Maybe not totally, because you have an idea of what you would like to achieve, but you may wander off the correct path at some point.
The plan can also help to make the goal more attainable by setting milestones along the way to the ultimate goal. As I said before, a smaller goal is more attainable and can help you build momentum toward the final destination.
Adversity
Along the way you are bound to run into some sort of adversity. The key to overcoming that is to realize and accept what adversity is. In most cases, it is something that is beyond our control. Sometimes that fact can make it even more difficult to accept because it feels like outside forces are working against us. The truth is, they are. Life is always throwing us curve balls. We must learn to accept those difficulties and focus on a solution that will minimize the impact on your end goal.
Achievement
Achievement is when you finally reach the end of the plan with success. If you followed the plan with discipline there is a high probability of success. At this point you will have spent a good amount of time planning your goal out, tracking your progress, dealing with adversity, and enjoying the small victories along the way. The process will often feel like a roller coaster in that there are many ups and downs on the path to success. The progress and achievement of your milestone goals will help keep you committed and driven to reach the final result.
Keys to Success
1. Discipline. You must be disciplined to follow your plan. This means you will have to sacrifice some things in order to achieve your goal. Often it is a good time, friends, family, or many other opportunities that we must forgo in order to achieve our goals.
2. Focus. This goes right along with discipline. You must maintain focus on your goal in order to reach it. If you have too many other distractions going on, then you need to analyze what is important and realign your priorities.
3. Patience. Too often people fail at goals because they aren't willing or able to be patient to get there. I personally fall into this trap. I often find myself altering a good plan in ways that I think will expedite my achievement of the goal. Often, this will set you back in some form or fashion. Part of this goes to trusting that your original plan is a good plan to reach success. One thing to remember is that success is a marathon, not a sprint.
Additional tips to help reach goals
1. Write your goals down. Physically writing it will help it become more real to you.
2. Tell close friends and family what your goals are. They can help encourage you as well as the fact that you will be motivated by not wanting to be seen as a failure.
3. Set aside time each week or month to evaluate your progress. Maintain a progress sheet to detail how you are as a "plan vs. actual" tracker.
4. Milestones. Break the goal down into milestones to help make it more attainable. As I said before these small victories will motivate you for the long haul.
Thanks for reading and I hope this can help you achieve success in all aspects of your life.
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