goals

7 Ways to Guarantee You Achieve Your Goals

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Achieve your goals with these 7 techniques

What will you accomplish this year?

I cannot believe the number of people I have heard complaining about 2022, because they fell short of achieving their goals. Many of them claim that it was a dismal year. They say there were no opportunities, or their progress is coming slower than expected. That seems like sour grapes, and here’s why.

Every situation provides opportunities. Where some see roadblocks and complain, others view the same as a challenge to be conquered. Mindset is everything. 

No matter if you are focused on New Year’s resolutions or achieving other goals which you have had your sights on for a while, it takes work to make progress. Studies show that less than 10% of people who set goals achieve them. Looking back on last year, what did you accomplish? How could you have done more?

We often worry about creating the perfect conditions for starting the journey to success. However, no matter what you do to lay the groundwork, things will change as soon as you start down the path.

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My year started with a lot of promise, launching my first online workshop (Discover Your Ikigai) in January and several coaching consultations. It then took a big hit when my father passed away the next month, my grandmother in May, and my uncle died in October.

My coaching and freelancing opportunities didn’t go so well either after that big burst of initial success. However, by summer, I had a new job running the APAC technical training program for SOTI, an enterprise mobility management service. 

All tolled, I had eleven major accomplishments in 2022. Those ranged from long time achievements (200th story posted on Medium.com and clearing Level 3 of Toastmasters’ Presentation Mastery track); to beneficial losses (my gallbladder and its pain left me in December, and a troubling wisdom tooth fell out on its own in September). I also conquered a bucket list achievement, surfing for the first time, and hit the waves six or seven times.

My goals for this year are even more ambitious. They include presenting training in at least three countries, having a regular coaching clientele of at least 5 people, and writing one or more stories with over 10,000 reads. What are your goals for this year?

Instead of looking at why people fail to achieve their goals, let’s examine what you can do to find more success. Here are seven techniques which helped me and could help you too.

We tend to overestimate what we can do in the short-term, but underestimate what is possible over the long run.

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Use routines to create a foundation for your goal

Being consistent in your approach, especially in the morning and evening, provides a foundation that keeps you focused. My morning routine includes meditation, reading, a dose of positivity, and breakfast. This starts my day off with a feeling of achievement.

My evening routine is a wind-down. I often listen to jazz or classical music while reflecting on the day’s successes and failures. Then, when my head hits the pillow, I visualize success in an area that is important to me.

Go for big goals

We often worry about creating the perfect conditions for starting the journey to success. However, no matter what you do to lay the groundwork, things will change as soon as you start down the path. 

Instead, think of goals as a lighthouse showing the way in the dark. You may not know how you will achieve your goals, but having that lighthouse to aim for makes adapting to adversity easier. Thus, setting your goals big and positioning them a few years out will allow you the flexibility to learn along the way and reduce feelings of needing to achieve perfection. You may not make it to that big goal, like 10,000 reads. But you will exceed the smaller, limiting expectations, you have for yourself.

We tend to overestimate what we can do in the short-term, but underestimate what is possible over the long run. Go long and go big!

Write them down and display your goals proudly

Writing down what you want to accomplish helps you to keep that in the front of your mind. Posting your goals in a prominent spot, one where you will see them often, can serve as a constant reminder of what you are working towards as well. My goals, for example, are mounted above my desk. 

I also have a dream board. It contains images of things I want to achieve and sits over the threshold of my office door. Turn my head to the right, and there it is. An everpresent reminder of things I plan to achieve.

When your goals are top of mind, things will begin to happen that bring them closer to reality. You may suddenly get a burst of inspiration about how to clear a difficult task. Or an opportunity could serendipitously fall into your lap, moving you towards what was seemingly impossible. Magic happens when you know what you want and have a sense of awareness for how to attain it.

Break your goals down

Goals are nothing more than big projects. Whether you aim to cut your body fat to 30%, get a new job, or write a book; you can’t do it in one big step. You will need to endure many micro-tasks to get you there. Decide on the next steps you have to take. Whittle them down to individual tasks, schedule time to complete those, and get to work. Success is accumulated in ticking boxes that lead to recognizable accomplishments.

Learn along the way

Taking time to analyze your work will help you have more success than just ticking off boxes and moving quickly to the next task. Recently, I’ve began using three questions to analyze my progress: highlights, lowlights, and next steps. This makes it easier to understand progress.

Highlights: What are the things that went well? Consider not only the expected successes but also the surprises.

Lowlights: Make a list of the difficulties and performances that did not meet your expectations.

Next steps: Are there corrections to be made in your lowlights? Based on what you know now, what do you need to do next? This evaluation will give you a clear development path.

Put goal related tasks on your schedule

Another way to ensure you get things done is to calendar them. When you see that programming class on your calendar Thursday evening, you know that you’ll need to spend some time preparing for it and will probably do so. 

If you set a weekly recurring task to write on Tuesday nights from 8 – 10, your mind will start working on the prewriting before you even sit at the computer. Adding time to your schedule to work on your goals will ensure you are making progress.

Don’t be too hard on yourself

We all make mistakes. We all backslide, and we all set unreal expectations. What matters is not what you are doing wrong, but what you are doing right. Avoid comparing yourself to others, and give yourself credit for the effort you have made. Look hard for progress, and celebrate even the smallest of victories. Doing these things will make you better tomorrow than you were today. 

Anyone can make goals, but it takes a special person, like you, to achieve them. When things seem bleak, keep focused on what you want and take baby steps toward those goals.

What are your goals for this year? How can you stretch those beyond your expectation? Write your goals down and place them where you can see them. Finally, make sure to give yourself time to make progress a habit. As you do so, you will continue to learn from both the successes and the failures. Even if you fall short, using these seven techniques will ensure you are not disappointed in your progress.

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You Can Use the Power of Visualization

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Jimmy is giving a presentation to senior management on Thursday about his ideas for a new marketing campaign. He is feeling pretty comfortable about it, even though he got sick before his last presentation and spent half an hour in the bathroom with severe stomach issues due to the anxiety he had about speaking in front of others and nearly missed the meeting.

Visualization is the art of projecting your success into the future. You are imagining yourself achieving your goals and overcoming any difficulties along the way. Athletes use this mental technique to conquer obstacles, see themselves using perfect form, and simulate their performances.

Top executives use visualization to understand what challenges lie ahead and how to overcome them. They may also use the technique to consider how to achieve their KPI or goals for growing their company’s bottom line.

A 1980s study conducted by Dr. Biasiotto at the University of Chicago had three groups of students shoot free throws. The first group practiced for an hour every day for a month, the second only visualized making free throws, and the third group did nothing. After 30 days, the improvement in the first two groups was virtually the same (24% improvement for those that practiced, and 23% for the students that only visualized). The third group showed no improvement. Can you imagine what results they would have achieved if they had done both practice and visualization!?

In her Tedx Talk, Fitness Instructor Ashanti Johnson explained how she visualized a parking lot full of cars belonging to the customers of her soon-to-be-launched fitness program. With hard work and through a mountain of adversity, she was able to build a business that helped her clients shed a combined 20,000 pounds and filled the fitness center’s parking lot with customers, just as she had imagined.

Learning to use our mind as an ally can be one of the greatest gifts we learn through sport.

Doug Jowdy, Ph.D Tweet

If you don’t have much experience with visualization, start with imagining the outcome of your efforts as Ashanti did. See the audience clapping for you as you wrap up your presentation, or crossing the finish line first while a stadium full of spectators cheer you on.

As you develop your skills, start to envision yourself in the activity. If you were Jimmy, maybe you are effortlessly answering questions, or smoothly moving from point to point in your presentation. Imagine yourself saying the words or overcoming the issue. Whatever it is that you want to achieve, act as if you are there in the moment.

Then a funny thing will happen… You will confuse your brain, and it will believe you have already achieved what you have visualized. This will not only sharpen your skills and progress, as it did for the basketball players but also quiet hypercritical thoughts that can sabotage your progress.

Here is an easy exercise that I do every night as I continue my entrepreneurial journey and you can do it, too. Before you go to sleep, imagine yourself achieving your goals. Be in the place, see the surroundings, conjure up the feelings, the smells, and even the taste.

If you are doing a sport for example, you may taste your salty sweat and feel the hugs of your teammates after winning the game. I often place myself on the balcony of a high-rise apartment, taking in the view of Yokohama Bay and sipping a peaty whisky as I reflect on what it took to get there.

If you are performance-focused, see yourself working through the event in as much detail as possible. I imagine changing the slides in a presentation and what I would say. But not just that, I see the room, the people in the room, and the expressions on their faces. I envision myself perceiving a troubled face in the audience and asking them if they have a question, then answering to their satisfaction, and the concern turning to a smile. This is a good exercise to do in the morning or when you are faced with a dilemma as well.

Jimmy learned these visualizing techniques. Instead of being nervous during his presentation on Thursday, he perfected his performance through dozens of imaginary presentations (and several rehearsals as well). He is feeling confident, ready to answer any question, and smoothly gliding through the material with the confidence of someone who has been in the situation hundreds of times before and crushed it every time.

Visualization can help you to have more success too. Start broad and continue to work on the image until you see yourself effortlessly achieving your goals. Soon, you will be doing the same in real life, too.

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Image credit – Yokohama Bay
Photo by Nagatoshi Shimamura on Unsplash

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Why Having a CEO’s Mindset is Important

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a woman sitting at the table

No matter what kind of work you do, you are working for yourself. One day you may wake up and discover that your company is letting you go, your big freelance clients suddenly went out of business, or the social media account where you communicate with customers has blocked you for breaking one of their antiquated rules. Ultimately, you need to be responsible to yourself (and your family). Consider being the CEO of your career.

Being the CEO of your career means that you think of your professional life with passion and vision. You consider your revenue streams as customers. And become more strategic about managing your career: not so that you build an attractive resume, but to do work that aligns with your mission and values. Here are four ways to do that:

Start with a vision

Entrepreneurs and executives alike have a vision of what their companies stand for and what they want them to become. They make decisions based not just on the immediate but also with an eye on the future. 

Consider where you want your career or business to be 3-5 years from now. Then make a plan to get there. You will probably not follow that plan to the letter, but it will help you stay focused.

As the leader of your organization, you should have a mission and driving values that are the essence of why you do the work you do. If you have a company, these are the seeds of your corporate culture. As an individual, we call this integrity. Staying true to this vision will make others want to follow you.

You don’t need to be a genius or a visionary, or even a college graduate for that matter, to be successful. You just need framework and a dream.

Michael Dell, CEO of DELL Tweet

Understand what your Stakeholders want

There is always someone else impacted by your work: your family, customers, boss, and colleagues. Understanding how you can meet their expectations and put forth your best effort while serving them is vital to achieving continued success. If you are not sure of your stakeholder’s expectations, ask.

Use goals to advance the mission

Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, made the goal-setting technique V2MOM popular in his book Behind the Cloud. This model for measuring success can help you focus on growth. 

  • Vision – How do you want the future to look?
  • Values – What are your core values, and how does your vision align with those?
  • Method – What are the actions you are going to take?
  • Obstacles – What are the real and perceived obstacles to getting you where you want to go?
  • Measures – What are the objective metrics you use to measure your progress?

We have already talked about vision and values. Next, let’s look at method. Method focuses on the tasks, or deliverables, you need to achieve to make improvements, grow your market and achieve success as you define it. 

As a teacher, I started planning lessons with the end in mind. At the end of the lesson, I wanted my students to be able to achieve X. Then worked the process backwards to the very start of the class where I chose an exercise that allowed me to evaluate their ability to achieve the target. Then, followed the adjusted plan for the remaining time. 

Your choice of method is much the same. You know the goal. What do you need to do to achieve that? Once you understand that, the other pieces fall into place: What are the pitfalls you may experience (obstacles), and how do you know if you are making progress (measure)?

A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.

Bruce Lee Tweet

Obstacles are the things that get in the way of your success. Do you need to work another job while you develop your passion? Are there too many applicants for the job you want? Is the cost of advertising or sales too high? Considering the roadblock to your success and coming up with some alternatives to break through those will improve your chances of success.

Finally, measures – you need to have some way to measure your success. Choosing effective measurement metrics will help you realize early on if you are moving in the right direction. Then, aid your ability to navigate effectively into the future. 

When choosing your measurement metrics and evaluating your initial data, take the time to study the results and consider if you are measuring the right things. Do the results of your metrics equate to the success you hope to achieve?

An example of this I recently encountered was in running Google Ads. My impressions and click-throughs looked impressive until I realized that people from 18-24 were being served up the ad impressions. No wonder they were not converting to my goal of booking free consultations. I adjusted my campaigns to reach people from 30-60, and now I am attracting the right prospects.

Do the stuff you do best

Focus on the areas where you make the biggest impact. As solopreneurs, we often need to do everything. Regardless of if you are a company of one, an employee, or a business owner; it is vital to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Then, delegate, as much as possible, the things that someone else could do faster and better. 

In a company, we may ask someone who is skilled at making pivot tables to do that for us while we turn the draft of their report into a clear and well laid-out document. When we work for ourselves, it may be better to pay someone else to do the work that is not in our skillset. Then, we can focus on more valuable work.

By thinking like a CEO, you will improve the way you look at your work, no matter what it is or your position in an organization. You will make better decisions about how to grow your skill sets and live a life of value. It does not matter if you are the manager of a big company, an individual contributor, or a solopreneur; taking control of your professional life will enhance the value you provide to your stakeholders. And that will ultimately enhance your level of success.

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Interested in developing your CEO Mindset? Check out my CEO Bootcamp Course.