- Confucius
How cool is it to set a goal and accomplish it accordingly?
It is very easy to talk about what you want to do in life and all the dreams you have. The hard part is putting it into action. Many people say "I'm going to lose 30 pounds this year" or "I'm going to save more money this year" but quit after only a few weeks.
The worst part of this is the distraught felt everyday when you realized you did not stay true to your word. It becomes very troublesome, especially if the goal has emotion attached to it. Maybe you have insecurities about your weight or you want to find success as an entrepreneur. Emotion plays a big part in securing such goals.
When you put an goal in your mind that you want to accomplish, it is important to actually follow through to the end for the sake of building confidence in yourself. Imagine if your parents told you they would pick you up from school everyday but they only did it once every few weeks. Eventually, you would lose faith in the idea of your parents picking you up from school. This is what happens when you tell yourself you want to accomplish a goal but only tend to it every so often. If you want to lose weight, you can not go to the gym once a month or eat one salad a week; if you want to do better in school you can not only study one day a week or go to class every blue moon. This forms habits of failure and inconsistency.
In 2016, I have dedicated myself to avoiding the habits of failure and inconsistency in life and want to share with you the vital components of accomplishing goals efficiently. These techniques have helped me accomplish numerous goals in fitness, academics, and other areas that many people struggle in being successful. These FOUR STEPS TO SUCCESS have been the foundation to my progression over the past year. Whatever it is you want to accomplish in life, the following steps will help you tremendously.
Step 1: SET ONE GOAL
Of course, the first step to accomplishing a goal is setting actually goals. However, one mistake people make is setting many different goals at one time. For example, people enter the new year with multiple goals like working out more, eat healthier, smoking less, etc.
When you try to attack multiple goals simultaneously, you will find yourself juggling your goals and never being able to give 100% effort equally to the objectives. Instead, set one goal you want to dedicate all of your effort into. The process necessary to reach that goal will become second nature, then you will be ready to start on a new one.
After you decided on the goal, decided on the exact parameters of the goal. Instead of saying "I am going to lose weight this year" say that "I am going to lose 10 pounds in three months." Instead of saying "I want to study more during the week" say that "I will study 2 hours a day." It is hard to attack broad goals, but when you have an exact idea of what you want to do, it is easier for your brain to acclimate itself to working towards that idea.
Step 2: MAKE A PLAN
This is probably the most important step, make a plan. Any goal without a plan is a failure already. Let's put this into perspective. Imagine if you were presenting a project to a billion dollar company and did not plan what you were going to say or if you were making a road trip to Miami but did not have a plan of directions. Both situations would probably result in disaster and lost time. This is what happens when you set goals without plans. You find yourself doing random things with no sense of direction or progress.
This same principle applies to fitness. You need to create a plan of what workouts to do, what foods to eat, when you are going to gym, among other things. Many people go into the gym and do random workouts expecting results. Random actions produce random results (a quote from one of my favorite Youtubers - Brandon Carter). If you want great results, you need a plan. Plan your meals, plan your sleep, plan everything you are serious about.
When Steve Jobs died, he left behind a 4 year plan of new products and blueprints for Apple, which is why the company continued to thrived. Without that plan, Apple would of saw a progression and production halt. Whenever you begin college, they give you a 4 year plan of what classes to take to reach your goal of graduation. Imagine going through college without a planned curriculum, you would probably find yourself taking random classes with no area of focus.
Apply this idea to any area of your life and you will see the same correlation. I often wonder why I have a hard time saving money. It is probably because I do not plan my spending, I often find myself spending randomly. Budgeting is not as important to me, so I have yet to develop a plan to become better at it. Maybe you are not as passionate about something as you think, especially if making a plan for it sounds like too much, and that is okay. But if you come to the conclusion that a certain objective is important to you, make it a goal and create a plan to reach that goal.
Step 3: TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
As a college student, I hate when a professor does not post grades. It makes it hard for me to track my progress in the class. At the end of the semester, it is essential for you to have all of your grades tracked so you can calculate what is needed on the final exam to get your desired grade. This same is true with any goal. If you are serious about your goals, track your progress and adjust accordingly. Tracking your progress helps you figure out what is working, what is not working, and what must be changed.
If you set a goal to lose 10 pounds by the end of the month, track each week what you ate and how much you exercised. If you lost a few pounds at the end of the week, than you know you are doing the right thing. If you did not lose weight, you can look back and adjust what you ate and adjust your workouts to get better results the following week. Fitness, much like everything you do in life, is personal. What works for someone else may not work the same for you.
There are many ways to track your progress. The old school way would be to just write everything down, I saw my best fitness results when I was writing down what I ate, what workouts I did everyday, and how my weight changed each week. The idea of tracking progress keeps you accountable. You are able to recognized where you are faltering to help avoid the mistake next time.
Step 4: GO HARD
This is the final step. Go hard at your goals, and enjoy the process. Once you reach your goals, you will be able to look back and admire where you came from. Conquering a goal builds confidence within yourself, making it easier to accomplish other goals. There will be bad days but remember, with consistent effort over a long period of time, the good days will ultimately outweigh the bad days. Nothing worth having comes easy. Once you have created a goal, remain consistent and diligent. Research new ways to attack the goal, find what works the best for you and go hard as you can!
Now, go and attack your goals and become the best version of yourself!
When you try to attack multiple goals simultaneously, you will find yourself juggling your goals and never being able to give 100% effort equally to the objectives. Instead, set one goal you want to dedicate all of your effort into. The process necessary to reach that goal will become second nature, then you will be ready to start on a new one.
After you decided on the goal, decided on the exact parameters of the goal. Instead of saying "I am going to lose weight this year" say that "I am going to lose 10 pounds in three months." Instead of saying "I want to study more during the week" say that "I will study 2 hours a day." It is hard to attack broad goals, but when you have an exact idea of what you want to do, it is easier for your brain to acclimate itself to working towards that idea.
Step 2: MAKE A PLAN
This is probably the most important step, make a plan. Any goal without a plan is a failure already. Let's put this into perspective. Imagine if you were presenting a project to a billion dollar company and did not plan what you were going to say or if you were making a road trip to Miami but did not have a plan of directions. Both situations would probably result in disaster and lost time. This is what happens when you set goals without plans. You find yourself doing random things with no sense of direction or progress.
This same principle applies to fitness. You need to create a plan of what workouts to do, what foods to eat, when you are going to gym, among other things. Many people go into the gym and do random workouts expecting results. Random actions produce random results (a quote from one of my favorite Youtubers - Brandon Carter). If you want great results, you need a plan. Plan your meals, plan your sleep, plan everything you are serious about.
When Steve Jobs died, he left behind a 4 year plan of new products and blueprints for Apple, which is why the company continued to thrived. Without that plan, Apple would of saw a progression and production halt. Whenever you begin college, they give you a 4 year plan of what classes to take to reach your goal of graduation. Imagine going through college without a planned curriculum, you would probably find yourself taking random classes with no area of focus.
Apply this idea to any area of your life and you will see the same correlation. I often wonder why I have a hard time saving money. It is probably because I do not plan my spending, I often find myself spending randomly. Budgeting is not as important to me, so I have yet to develop a plan to become better at it. Maybe you are not as passionate about something as you think, especially if making a plan for it sounds like too much, and that is okay. But if you come to the conclusion that a certain objective is important to you, make it a goal and create a plan to reach that goal.
Step 3: TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
As a college student, I hate when a professor does not post grades. It makes it hard for me to track my progress in the class. At the end of the semester, it is essential for you to have all of your grades tracked so you can calculate what is needed on the final exam to get your desired grade. This same is true with any goal. If you are serious about your goals, track your progress and adjust accordingly. Tracking your progress helps you figure out what is working, what is not working, and what must be changed.
If you set a goal to lose 10 pounds by the end of the month, track each week what you ate and how much you exercised. If you lost a few pounds at the end of the week, than you know you are doing the right thing. If you did not lose weight, you can look back and adjust what you ate and adjust your workouts to get better results the following week. Fitness, much like everything you do in life, is personal. What works for someone else may not work the same for you.
There are many ways to track your progress. The old school way would be to just write everything down, I saw my best fitness results when I was writing down what I ate, what workouts I did everyday, and how my weight changed each week. The idea of tracking progress keeps you accountable. You are able to recognized where you are faltering to help avoid the mistake next time.
Step 4: GO HARD
This is the final step. Go hard at your goals, and enjoy the process. Once you reach your goals, you will be able to look back and admire where you came from. Conquering a goal builds confidence within yourself, making it easier to accomplish other goals. There will be bad days but remember, with consistent effort over a long period of time, the good days will ultimately outweigh the bad days. Nothing worth having comes easy. Once you have created a goal, remain consistent and diligent. Research new ways to attack the goal, find what works the best for you and go hard as you can!
Now, go and attack your goals and become the best version of yourself!
Bless Up,
- young king
be sure to leave a comment. I would love to hear your perspective.
- young king
be sure to leave a comment. I would love to hear your perspective.
