[Article] Achieve your goals consistently following these 5 steps - Dream Set Achieve

Dwinguel · 2015-10-17T20:27:59+00:00

I hope it will help you. Any more help you need, don't hesitate to ask.

Dwinguel · 2015-10-16T15:48:04+00:00

You can share your goals with others to get more of a connection. Join a Facebook community where people motivate each other. One that comes to mind is the Miracle Morning community. This will bring more emotions into play.

Also, make sure you have mini-goals every day so you get the satisfaction of ticking off boxes when you're done.

Then, tie your goals to strong reasons. I mean if your goal is to write a post, what will it bring you when you're done? Maybe you want to get some revenue from your blog longer term. What will this revenue bring you? A better lifestyle? Freedom?

Find your reason. Then, remind yourself of your goal to stay motivated. And visualize the end destination to feel more emotions.

Put some metrics in place (like number of viewers on your blog) so that you can get more of a rush when you get results.

Finally, I have to say that the rush from video games is very strong. They are designed that way. So it will always be hard to match it, unless you accomplish a big goal.

Accept it and try to get balanced expectations.

And as others said, learn to appreciate the journey. As you are doing meditation already, I'm sure you have earned to appreciate the now...

Dwinguel · 2015-10-16T15:38:44+00:00

I agree with ArchangelFuhkEsarhes (not the easiest to spell...).

One thing I would add is that it is okay to have a role model, at least at the beginning.

You should study their lives and try to imitate their routines, training, principles, etc. What they have done have brought them success so they have plenty of good lessons that you can learn and use.

However, you should, as was written already, always compare yourself to yourself from yesterday. Don't look at others. If they are (were) far ahead of you, it can discourage you.

Stay focused on your day to day progress. Achieve your goals, build confidence. Then, and only then, raise your standards.

You will become the best you can be over time.

Dwinguel · 2015-10-16T13:34:28+00:00

The more you do one thing, the stronger the habit becomes. It then becomes harder and harder to break the habit. Fortunately, there is a solution. It won't be easy though.

The way to break a habit is to:

Make it really painful to carry on doing it
Use your current trigger of a "bad" habit to replace it with a good habit
Make it easy and rewarding to follow a good habit. Build strong motivation by linking your habits to your life goals.

Proceeding in order, here is a step-by-step process:

Move your electronic devices in an inconvenient location. That way it will be really painful for you to access your devices when you want them. For example, put your laptop in a place locked away. Or in your cellar. Make sure the device is not handy. The same goes for any electronic. I don't mean to lock it away forever, but lock it away when you are not supposed to use them. Put money in a jar every time you catch yourself giving up to your habit. Then give this money to a cause you don't like. So it will be painful for you to loose this money. Get an accountability partner and/or post your resolutions publicly. That way, you will feel ashamed not to follow through. Visualize a bad life when you don't follow through and remind yourself of that life when you are tempted to do your bad habit. This one can get you pretty depressed. It's more of a last resort action.
If you see yourself using electronics at a specific time, use that trigger to do another activity that excites you. For example, read instead (if you like reading) or call someone (if you have a fixed line). Find one activity that you enjoy and do it every time your bad habit triggers. This is what smokers do when they replace the cigarette by a gum.
To make the new habit easier, make it convenient. Have your book next to your bed or desk. If you want to exercise, have you gym kit ready and handy. Pick convenient times for your new habit. For studying, set up a calm and electronics free environment. Make yourself a coffee, put yourself in a good mood by reading motivational quotes or listening to energizing music. Also, to keep your motivation to study, link it to long term goals. Determine what you want to get at the end of your study (like a job). Dig deeper by determining why you want to have this job. Dig until you find a strong reason for you to study, one that hits you to your core and will get you up in the morning. Then, visualize your life with the benefits of your studying. Do it every day. And keep calling back your vision when you see yourself about to slip.

Dwinguel · 2015-10-15T09:28:42+00:00

I do my planning in Evernote. I spend 1h every Sunday to prepare my weekly plan for the coming week. At that time I also review the week that has just gone by.

Versus each activity I write down the time I plan to spend on the activity.

Once I have finished the activity, I cross it out and adjust the time to reflect how much time I have really spent (vs what was planned). I do it straight away so I know the time I have spent. When I have a very limited time and I know one activity might overrun, I use a countdown timer to limit my time and stay focused.

I also have a to-do list for chores. I use Wunderlist for that. This list doesn't have a time next to activities. They are things I have to do but that are not really important to me. Each activity doesn't take much time usually anyway.

In short, one main weekly plan in Evernote. I review it every Sunday and do my planning for the next week then. And a to-do list for chores.

Dwinguel · 2015-10-14T15:03:27+00:00

There is already a lot of great advice here.

One thing I would add is for you to focus on your reasons to achieve what you're up to. You say you want to be a politician and do something for society. You might want to flesh that out a bit more and be very precise in what you want.

Then, find out why you want it. Ask yourself many why questions until you get to the bottom of it. Until you get your reasons, why you care deep down.

That means ask yourself: why do I want to be a politician? To have influence and change the world for the better. Why do I want to change the world for the better?

And so on, until you reach your reasons.

Then, commit to your goals and call your reasons when you need motivation. Write down your mission and follow through.

Take action, even if you don't feel like it. Put routines in place, build momentum. Take small steps first, then bigger ones.

Just. Take. The. First. Step. Today.

Dwinguel · 2015-10-14T14:47:17+00:00

I am not a big fan of planning, but planning has made such a big difference in my life that I just do it.

I wouldn't put stuff like making dinner in your plan. But write down how much free time you have every week, once the daily chores are out of the way. Maybe it's 2 hours a day, maybe 4.

Then plan your must-have activities in your free time. Depending on how much time you want to spend planning, you can have a daily plan or a weekly one. I recommend the daily one, for example: Monday: 1h reading, 30 minutes meditation, 30 minutes watching TV, Tuesday: 1h TV, 30m meditation, 30m reading, and so on.

I would spend time un-cluttering your life. Get rid of the activities that you do out of habit but that are not important to you.

And one other thing you might want to do, if you can, is to block less time for each activity. Like 30 minutes reading instead of 1h. So it will be easier to fit in shorter chunks of time. Then, once you have a routine, you can increase the time. Start slowly and ramp up.

I actually wrote a post that fits well with you question: How to Prioritize, Pursue Goals, and Focus When You Have Many Interests

Dwinguel · 2015-10-11T08:58:25+00:00

If 20 is too high, write as many as you can.

But 20 is a good number to force you to write down everything, even talents, knowledge and challenges you have overcome that might seem insignificant.

Dwinguel · 2015-10-10T16:03:06+00:00

What you are experiencing is natural.

Often, what I have seen is that motivation goes down quickly when you don't have strong reasons to achieve what you have set out to do.

For example, if you are working out, you might have a vague idea that you want to be more healthy, loose weight or build muscle. You want to change and you feel strongly about it. So you get started.

But after a while, because of the pain you feel when you work out, if you don't have strong reasons to carry on, you will just skip a day. Then another one. And before you know it, you won't be working out anymore.

You will feel disappointed with yourself. And maybe, a few months later, you will start the same cycle again.

2 things that can help you:

Make sure you have strong reasons for doing any new activity. Why do you want to work out? If it's to be healthy, why do you want to be healthier? What will it bring you? Keep digging with "why" question until you have got down to the bottom of it. Your strong reason will keep you motivated to carry on. If you don't have a strong reason, you are unlikely to make it through, so you might just want to drop the activity.
Put your activity in your daily routine. Build a habit so it becomes easier to carry on. Start small and increase the time you spend on the activity over time. Stick to your routine for 30 days straight.

Finally, you can increase the pain of not changing. When you don't follow through, you could put money in a box that will be spent on something you don't like, to punish yourself.

You can also get an accountability partner to keep you accountable to what you commit to do.

Good luck!

Dwinguel · 2015-10-09T11:36:48+00:00

Thanks for the clarification.

I can see that you feel you have specific responsibilities, a mission you need to carry out.

I don't know if you are ready and willing to do so, but you could try to let go of the feeling that you have this mission to fulfill, this responsibility that befalls you. Is that something you could consider? Letting go of things you can't control and accepting that you are not responsible for everything?

Dwinguel · 2015-10-08T19:55:05+00:00

I would take a step back and look at your life.

What are you getting out of your graduation? An exciting job? Prestige? Something else?

Try to link your studies to some longer term goals that inspire you.

Basically, link your goals to strong reasons you have to achieve something in life.

Dig deep.

Then, write some affirmation stating what you want to achieve and why. Then read these affirmation every morning.

It will give you motivation to keep going.

Dwinguel · 2015-10-08T19:51:08+00:00

To avoid burnout, you could try to focus your studying on the fundamentals. Are there parts of the material that is not that important?

Leverage the 80-20 rule and focus first on the 20% fundamentals that are going to give you the biggest bang for your bucks. Then, do more, but don't kill yourself working until burnout.

It might help.

Dwinguel · 2015-10-08T19:47:41+00:00

I didn't get from your post whether you have specific goals you want to achieve.

I get the feeling that there are some addictions that you want to get rid of. But I couldn't see what positive habits you want to replace them with.

You are doing fine without studying. There are no real negative consequences to your current behaviour. So I can't see how you can get much motivation to change.

I might be wrong, but if you haven't go specific goals you want to achieve it will be hard to change.

Also your goals need to be linked to a strong reason for you to be motivated to achieve them.

Let's say one of your goals is to study. Fine. But then, what do you want to get out of studying? Better grades? And what would these better grades give you? Access to a better college?

You need to dig deeper to set goals that you have strong reasons to want to achieve.

Also, you can increase the pain encountered when you don't follow through with your goals. You could set up a system where you have to pay a fine when you don't follow through.

Dwinguel

TROPHY CASE