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11 Keys To Achieving Your Goals

by Iris J. Chapman

Goals are central to why some people accomplish much more in life than others. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to your courage. It takes courage to make real goals that mean something to you and keep them. Here are 11 keys to help you achieve your goals:

1. Before setting a goal, think about what you really want in your life. Ask yourself, "Am I setting goals based only on what I think others want me to do?" Even if you were to achieve such goals they would never bring you true happiness.

2. Are your goals in alignment with your priorities in life? When your goals and priorities are not in alignment, you are going to spend valuable time fighting with yourself. You may feel overwhelmed or blocked and not understand why.

3. Ensure that your goal is realistic and achievable. Many people are doomed to never reach their goals, because they were hoping to achieve the impossible.

4. Write your goal on paper, and keep this piece of paper in a place where you can look at it every day. Less than 3% of all adults have written goals. Research shows that people who write their goals down are much more likely to achieve them.

5. Make a commitment to yourself to reach the goal, ensuring that you understand the effort that will be involved in doing this.

6. Visualize the end result. Close your eyes, and create a mental movie of how this will look. In the mental movie, visualize yourself as you enjoy the results of your hard work. Repeat this visualization daily, picturing yourself as if you had already achieved your goals. This will help you get comfortable with your success.

7. Describe and write down the benefits of your goals. Read the benefits whenever you struggle with doing the things needed to reach them.

8. Develop and implement an action plan. Determine the steps that you will take in order to achieve your goals, and write these down. It is easier to work on one small step at a time than on a big goal.

9. Reward yourself as you reach each milestone along the way. As you celebrate your accomplishments, your enthusiasm and energy grows and you will be able to accomplish more.

10. You've got to loosen up. Although you will set a date for accomplishing your goals, allow yourself flexibility to adjust the schedule as emergencies and other events occur.

11. If you make a mistake, give yourself permission to start again. You can use your mistakes as learning opportunities to become even stronger than you previously were.

The most important thing about achieving your goals is seeing then through to the end. Unfortunately, many will never succeed because they gave the battle up much too early. When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you; until it seems that you cannot hold on for a minute longer, don't give up then, for that is just the place and time when things will come your way.

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