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Since the setting of your goals on New Year’s Eve, how do you describe your journey and its achievements?
Are they accomplished?
If your answer is no, then let me assure you that you are not alone.
Most of us have no idea how things roll out after we set our goals.
Life starts becoming freaky disturbing, and somehow things do not happen as we plan.
The right time to work on our goals never comes, and this truth too never dawns on us until the time we had set for our goal accomplishment has run out to the last second.
What do you think might be the blockage in the process of achieving your goals or the obstacle between you and your “goals?”
Is there any shortcoming in your strengths? NO.
Are you afraid of achieving success? NO.
Then probably it is because you are missing the right strategic plan to knock your goal.
A study by Dominican University on Goal Research concludes that they saw 33% of increase in the competition for goals by the sample of people that had written down their goals, strategized an in-action plan, and shared it with a friend.
You Can Do It – Strategize Smart Goals
Framing a strategy is not tough, and if right now you feel like you are lost, you are actually not.
You have come to the right place and are reading the exact post that can help you to change your game and accomplish your goals, without selling your peace of mind.
Disclaimer: This post is not something that will turn your goals into reality, out of nowhere, like magic. No. This post will show you how to set your goals in a way that they are attainable and that too if you are ready to take action right after reading it.
Sounds good?
Start, shall we?
1. Have A Daily Routine
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle
Having a routine in your life is most important.
A structured and organized way of living can bring in you those inner desires that can be your calling. These desires are often buried under what we call temptations in an unorganized life.
When you are bound by a daily schedule or routine, you tend to feel positive and light because you know what you have to do every particular day.
It kind of builds momentum for you, in the long run. Imagine, writing at least 1000 words daily. By the end of the year you would have completed 365,000 words that are good enough for a book!
Setting a routine also helps you beat procrastination and thus saves you loads of work backend (which often gets piled up due to procrastination).
You do not need to have the “perfect” routine. Don’t make it so stringent that you never follow it. Create a routine that has enough time for both, your goals, and your recreation.
2. Take Your Goals As A Challenge
Taking your goals as a challenge can dramatically affect your performance on it. Don’t try to take up goals that are beyond your limits.
Similarly, do not chase goals that are too easy for you to attain. Having an optimum pressure for your goal getting is the key to proper goal setting.
According to Yerke-Dodson’ law (or the inverted U method as it is popularly called), peak performance is only achieved when people are subject to moderate levels of pressures.
With huge pressure, their performance begins to decline and having no pressure for goal getting also drives them in a sloppy, poor performance graph.
Other factors that play a major role in the consideration of what makes a goal challenging for an individual are:
• Skill level – Check out the skills required for achieving your goal. Learning a new skill for a specific goal can demand time so make sure to include it in your deadline.
• Personality – Every individual has a different personality. Set the goals keeping your personality in mind.
• Trait anxiety – Trait anxiety is how you handle yourself under pressure. People who motivate themselves and are positive can complete a given goal in time while people who have negative criticism for themselves often delay in getting goals.
If you are amongst the latter, don’t worry it is not something that cannot be solved. Practice positivity and move closer to your goals.
Here is a perfect guide for staying positive under any condition.
• Task complexity – This is what level of dedication your task needs to get completed. If your goal is a complex one requiring high levels of attention, you need a relatively calm and serene atmosphere for completing it.
3. What Is Your Version Of Goal
Allow me to share a short story.
On the morning of April 6, 2007, a lady was lying in her home office surrounded by a pool of blood. She had her cheekbone broken and her eye cut nastily by hitting the office table while her way down.
Upon waking up, she found herself subjected to numerous medical diagnoses, from MRI to echo-cardiogram to CAT scan. The doctors found no serious internal injuries, and the problem for her collapse was nothing but hard work.
This lady had been working for 18 hour work days, seven days a week and hence the sleep deprivation and burnout. (Source: Thrive)
Before you figure out this lady as a seeker of success, let me tell you she had seen more success than almost anyone in this world before this tragic collapse. Her name is Ariana Huffington.
She had founded The Huffington Post in 2005 and was chosen as one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine.
So, was this the success (goal) she aimed her whole life? Did she dream of working 18 hours a day 24*7 after all the success she had seen?
Definitely – no.
Hence, make sure what you want from life before setting your goals. Goal selection has a crucial role in the strategic action plan for goal accomplishment.
One wrong goal and you could be chasing your success for the whole life, like a mirage.
Ask yourself this question. What is your version of goal?
Is it money and fame? Well, these both are extremely crucial in deciding one’s success but are these only factors?
Having a goal to earn money is no harm. The concern is you should know when it is enough so that you can enjoy life.
The right goal should aim at taking us forward from where we are. It should have nothing to do with proving something to somebody.
If your version of goal has to do something with what others are going to perceive of you, I am sorry, you will end up in a tunnel where you can never feel proud of yourself.
So, discard all those “will show them” type of goals because they are the ones that block your way to achieving goals that matter to you.
Your goal action plan should be to move closer to authentic goals that change the meaning of your life rather than getting entangled in the endless web of hoax goals.
4. Set Proper Time Limit For Your Goals
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.” ~ Bill Gates
Do you know that timing is very important when it comes to making your dream come true?
Just like work pressure discussed above, timing too is an important aspect of any strategy towards goal getting. Allocating less time to a goal might not let it happen on the given day.
Similarly, taking too much time for getting a job done might dilute your enthusiasm for getting that goal accomplished.
The key here is to set realistic goals and set the appropriate amount of time it needs.
For example, you can write a book in the next six months.
However, what if you are told to write it in a week time. I do not think it is a feasible idea.
Always break your goals into smaller tasks and allocate a time for each chunk of goal you got. If you are to complete a book within six months, break this goal into writing a chapter every week or ten days.
This way you not only get a large pile of work done seamlessly but also put in more dedication to each part, and hence the quality of work increases significantly in your final version.
5. Stay focused
Staying focused is becoming numb to every external stimulus, till you want to get a goal is attained.
While you are working upwards towards your goal, try to cut the rope for every distraction that can pull you down.
Distractions when internal can be tough to handle. These are mainly temptations that pull you from working towards your goals and push you towards indulgence and procrastination.
Often when goals seem to take longer time, smaller and wicked satisfactions try to replace our goals. So, there should be nothing that should take your focus off your goals no matter what.
If you think you need to work on focusing towards your goals, this article will definitely help you.
6. BHAG
Pronounced as BEE-hags, BHAG is the short for Big Hairy Audacious Goals. BHAG have goals on a bigger frame, often with a visionary aspect.
According to Wikipedia, a true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as a unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit.
It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines.
While this strategy is usually used by bigger brands or business with teams and huge goals, I will tell you how to use it for your goal accomplishment.
For example,
SpaceX has a BHAG to enable human exploration and settlement on Mars.
Sam Walton, set a BHAG for Walmart of reaching $125 billion in sales by 2000, he did it in 1998.
Microsoft in its BHAG chalked out that it wanted, a PC on every desk and in every home.
You do not necessarily have to be one of those bigger firms to set a BHAG for yourself; Sam Walton was not a big guy before he founded Walmart.
He just set a BHAG for himself to take his home business and make it most profitable in Arkansas. The rest is history.
What to do for setting a BHAG:
The first and foremost rule of setting up a BHAG is to envision how you are going to see yourself in the next 20-30 years.
I know this is kind of big, but it ultimately will help you to align your smaller goals systematically.
The main aim of BHAG is to get you out of the small bubble. You should think big, outside the box, and work towards achieving it.
In a common example, a father can have a BHAG of seeing his children acquire high-quality education and a respectable life.
In order to achieve this goal after 20-30 years, he should align all his smaller goals in order.
This can be getting himself into a position to afford them quality education.
Other smaller goals can be investing in a mutual fund or any similar policy so that he stays secure at a time of adversity and so on.
7. Learn To Win From Your Loss
Winning is not a universal truth. People, sometimes fail, despite giving their hundred percent. This does not mean they should never try to rise.
Failure is the stepping stone to success is what we are taught at the very beginning of our school life.
If one goal was unattainable, it does not mean all our future goals will get ruined too.
In her post on how to rise every time you fall, Harleena Ma’am has clearly described how keeping an ACE up your sleeve can help you change the game and accomplish your goals.
ACE here stands for:
Accept: your failures
Change: your approach towards goal getting
Explore: new opportunities to get work done easily
Having the ACE approach can help you move closer to your goals, in a more practical way. The key principle of the ACE approach is to stimulate progress.
Winding Up
One of the most challenging aspects of making a goal come true is your journey towards achieving it.
In case you still aren’t able to discover your calling, you should work towards finding your goal that will define you in the near future.
However, if you are sure about what you want from yourself, you should then try to frame a path towards achieving it.
This guide will surely help you in framing a path that leads you to your goals and helps you to change the game.
Over To You –
Have you found the purpose of your life? If that’s a yes, how is your journey towards your goals in life? I would love to know what helps you to keep to your goals. Do share your strategy about goal-getting. We’d love to hear your action plans, please share them in the comments.
Hi Harleena and Swadhin,
Thank you Swadhin for the in-depth guide on goal setting,
Yes, turning regular work into a habit really helps. Instead of setting it up as a job, if we turn it into a habit – it will become much easier to achieve. Excellent mention about writing 1000+ words a day which is something that I have been trying to do for some time – and have nearly made it a habit as well.
I did not knew Ariana Huffington used to work 18+ hours a day and even had an accident in the process. Ages back when I was in school, I used to do this myself – I remember not sleeping for 48+ hours … that is working throughout the night and without sleeping, and then starting the next day. It worked out for me, but will surely won’t suggest that routine for anyone. Making goals for success isn’t a great idea – the goal must be for living a better life.
thanks,
Uttoran Sen,
Hi Uttoran,
Most welcome buddy and thank you for the appreciation.
Writing one thousand words has changed my life completely. To an extent that I sometimes write more than 27,000 words in a week. These includes research for my blog posts too. I am sure you can do even better once you act on your habit.
Surprising right? Who’d have thought that a personality like her needs to work for such long durations? But, she just lacked reflection of what she wanted in her life I guess. And that’s what she has written in her newly released book “Thrive” too.
Whoa! 48 hours! I remember getting depressed when my friends used to boast that they read for the whole last night. I cannot ever miss my sleep no matter what! And you did it for 48 hours! Man this is a news.
I agree these working for longer stretches of time might be well and good for one or two instances but not in the long run.
-Have a great time ahead. 🙂 And yes happy Durga Puja 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Uttoran,
Absolutely an in-depth guide to strategizing your smart goals to achieve success, isn’t it? 🙂
Yes indeed, once your work becomes your habit, it becomes your passion, so it’s much easier to accomplish your set goals.
I wish more bloggers and those who work non-stop for long hours would understand the side-effects of lack of sleep, not resting enough, and generally tiring themselves to no end. Once in a while it’s alright, but not as a routine – it certainly would affect your health in the long run. Our goals are to help us life a happy and successful life, so they better be made with care.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views with us. 🙂
Hi Swadhin
What a lovely post… I love the way you have decorated the post with wonderful examples. I have read a lot about Arianna Huffington. She is an awesome lady. I have learnt a lot from her. But, I didn’t know about the story mentioned above. You gave me the another reason for following her. Oprah is also a fine example.
I am glad I have found my passion. I started my digital journey without any monetary expectation. I didn’t know anything. At that time, I was a complete beginner. Gradually, I realized my goals. Then, I started working on refining my skills. I completely agree with Aristotle’s quote. Habit is everything.
I have learned a lot of things from my setbacks. All the dull phases are really important for understanding our true worth.
Best of luck for your new E-book. As I mentioned earlier in the fb post, I am sure you are going to rock it. Thanks Ma’am for having Swadhin as a guest author.
Hi Yatin,
These words of appreciation coming my way from another motivational expert is a treasure to rejoice. 🙂
Ariana is so inspiring and what makes me follow her is she is SO down to earth. Oprah is wonderful and inspiring too.
So glad you found your passion. Nothing matters more than finding your calling in life and then following it religiously. I am sure you were new to the digital world, But your journey is definitely inspiring for many.
Learning from the setbacks only helps us to move forward with a clear conscience and stronger motivation. I have always found at least one lesson from each of my setbacks.
Thanks tons for your best wishes Yatin. Much needed! 😛
-Swadhin
Hello Swadhin,
First of all congratulations on this guest of yours at AhaNow. Calls for celebration.
Well chosen topic. It is so relevant to today’s world. We all want to achieve success but without a strategy in place it can be like a ship without a captain. I grew up in an environment where I hardly ever heard anybody talk about having GOALS. If we had it at school I must have missed it. Personally I had never learnt to set goals until I came Australia. I started Uni and now GOALS were the word of the day during every lecture.
I was lucky enough to have a mentor who taught me the art of goal setting. Just as you mentioned of setting the first rule of where I want to see myself in 30 years….I was told to think about what my lifetime goals are. Man! That was tough. It took me almost 6 months to figure those lifetime goals which are stirred away from money making, fame etc.
I guess when it comes to goal setting there’s no one way.I like to keep things simple and I like working hard. Everytime I set a goal, I ask myself the ‘why’ question. If my answer to the why is meaningful I will work hard to follow it through. This WHY keeps me going when things gets tough.
I don’t want to be boastful, but this year has been my most productive year….Yesterday I met a friend and during our conversation she asked me how do I find time to do all the things that I do….she was surprised of the amount of things I fit in in one week. She goes, “Your one week timetable is equal to one month’s of mine”.
I haven’t mastered time management yet…but I am on track. I have certainly achieved more than I thought I would at the beginning of this year.
I totally agree to having a daily routine and setting proper time limits. I remember listening to a talk where the speaker says, you got to make measurable amount of progress in reasonable amount of time and that results is the name of the game.
For instance, how long would you allow your kid to be in Grade 4? If he’s a good kid would you allow him to be there for 3-4 years…NO! You will pour in the pressure and make sure that he/she takes just the reasonable amount of time to finish Grade 4. For some reason we forget to apply this pressure on ourselves. We allow ourselves to take more time than we need to achieve a goal. When we let time pass by the goal lose its intensity and we drift away from what we planned to achieve initially.
I have certainly so much to take away from your post Swadhin. I had never heard about BHAG before. The inspiring story about Ariana Huffington. Who would have thought? Thank you for allowing me to reflect.
Great post:)
Wish you a wonderful week:)
Hi Hema,
So glad to see you here. Yes Harleena maam was definitely kind to allow me to interact with her readers. I am so glad I cold ad something that added value to the blog. 🙂
What a coincidence! I too am a place where people don’t talk about all these and wake up to do what they are intended to do and then off to bed. I only learned all these in the past one year when I got into the online world and met inspiring people.
I am glad you are at the right place because a place where you talk about goals and routines is a place that provides you the enthu to go for it.
Congrats on having a mentor and setting p where you finally want to be in life is equal to what you want from your life. Inspiring it is to know your goals are stirred away from the materialistic goals.
No you are not boastful at all. In fact, you shared a piece that can inspire many including me. I am sure you are managing your time well and I hope your friend takes some good lessons from you.
Definitely, we foot to apply those rules on ourselves and imagine what can we do if we did the way the speaker said! I believe our human bodies are engineered to stay the way we train them to.
Yes BHag is a truly golden concept. In a way, you already came across BHAG in your life. Remember what your mentor told yo? he asked what you want in the long run of your life. That is BHAG. Setting up a final big goal and then fine-tuning the goals throughout the life into achieving it.
The pleasure is all mine! 🙂 I am so glad you liked my post.
Have a great time. 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Swadhin and its really great to see you here at Harleena’s blog; welcome to the club. 🙂
This a mind blowing post to me and several shocking points you have revealed with the help of your extensive research. Appreciate your hard work and brining monumental value into this post.
I once read somewhere a proverb that “the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago and the second best time is just today”; we can replace the action planting a tree in this proverb with any positive activity and start it from today.
Planning a daily routine is so easy but sticking to it stubbornly is damn difficult. While reading about daily routine in your post I missed the famous German philosopher Emmanuel Kant who was so punctual and regular to maintain his daily routine that people around him used to check their watches by observing him doing any work to know if their watches are working right.
You very interestingly defined about the version of goal and it is right just setting a goal following the common trend is so easy its really cost is ascertained when one has to put himself for achieving it.
Thanks a lot for sharing this very inspiration, motivational and informative post on goal setting and achieving them eventually by following a proper strategy.
Have a great week
Hello Mi sir,
Great to see you here too.
Haha I too have read that line and it’s true to every word. Not only planting trees, we should act on every other task of life as it is our final time to act.
Sounds funny but Emmanuel was truly an inspiration. Having setting up routines and then not following them is all due to setting of unrealistic routines.
Most of us get so excited while commencing a new task that we leave no time for rest or recreation in the time table.
thank you so much for the kind words sir.
Have a great time 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Swadhin,
Great to see you here on Harleena’s blog.
When it comes to reaching goals, I’ve learned the hard way two things: 1. We must be realistic about time management and 2. Have a miscellaneous time factor put into a yearly goal. Just like we can do accounting with numbers, the same goes for time.
Our yearly goal is already completed ahead of time this year because we stuck to the many small tasks it took to create a big goal.
We wrote down the goal our business had to make by the end of the year. Broke it down to months, weeks, days and even hours. Pretty much sticking to it but never forgetting the “Miscellaneous” time that life throws at us. No anxiety, just black and white on paper. If we had a day where nothing could be done, we worked double time the next day.
I do believe that knowing your self, and being true to the energy we know we can spend is the crux of goal setting.
I liked all the suggestions you have given because they are so true!
-Donna
Hello Donna maam.
Its so nice to hear a few words from you on my post. I know you are quite inspiring to me and hence your comment is precious for me. 🙂
Couldn’t agree more! Time management is the key to all successes. One cannot simply dream of fantasy time management, you have to be realistic. When it comes to time allotment, I take my abilities to perform a task into consideration. I also see if a task requires a longer time so that I can give small breaks to replenish my energy and mood.
Wow! its only October and yo have completed your goals! Congratulations maam. Dividing one big goal into smaller goals makes them digestible and easily attainable. These things on a whole lead to the success of the bigger goal.
Yes, we don’t have control of our lives and hence things don’t always go as planned. I too am facing a tough time these days as my aunty is diagnosed with cancer an my whole time goes either taking care of her or travelling to a hospital 1342 kms away from our living place for the chemotherapy.
So, I will take your advice work up double the next free day I get to make for the loss of time.
I am so glad you liked the post. Nothing better than this feeling!
-Swadhin
Hi Harleena,
Good to be back on your blog and it’s good to see Swadhin as your guest this month. What a wonderful topic too.
I can appreciate the goal setting strategies Swadhin, I think that anyone moving into a new year has plenty of thoughts about what they want to achieve in the coming year. It’s odd though how things usually don’t pan out as planned. I think maybe they aren’t quite sure how to move forward or perhaps it’s that they did but didn’t get their desired results so they ventured off to try other things. Next thing you know those goals are a thing of the past.
You definitely need to write down what you want to accomplish and then plan those things out. Without a daily routine then it’s going to be hard to follow through. We all know how important consistency is now don’t we!
I’m not sure about the challenging part actually. I think that if your plans are to achieve something in particular then no matter what the tasks are that will get you there, they need to be done. Granted, if we challenge ourselves more with some things then we’ll learn how to accomplish those and move on to others.
Wow, that’s a bad story about Ariana Huffington but it sounds more to me like she was just driven. That will do that to some people but I know for myself I have to get a certain amount of sleep or I’ll make myself sick. Then I’ll be out for days which in turn is worse off so we have to know our limits for sure.
I think the main lesson here is to know what you want to achieve, write it down, do the work consistently but don’t kill yourself in the process. Granted, some things do take a lot of time and if you have a full-time job and you’re building something on the side then you’re probably going to have to dedicate more hours to it. You definitely have to stay focused on the end goal.
Great share and I wish you both a terrific week.
~Adrienne
Hello Adrienne maam,
Its a delight seeing you here. Thank you for your comment and kind words as they always encourage me to do things better.
New year always comes with a lot of hopes and new promises and as you said things rarely pan out as planned.
Great tip! Writing down our goals and action plans can help us stay even more focused. I even know some who create beautiful “vision boards” and keep it at a place of notice so that they are focused.
Maam, do you prefer taking notes on a desktop word processor or the moleskin notebooks?
After that working towards the goals is the key to progress.
Yes, Ariana surely had a bad time but, she was kind enough to let us know her story and learn from it the way she did. I think we also owe something to our “own body”. This body is there for us 24*7 an if we don’t do simple things to give it some rest it can be dangerous.
I never miss my afternoon nap. Lol and if I did it’ll surely take a toll on my night work.
Thank you for the wonderful advice maam.
Have a great time!
-Swadhin
Hi Adrienne,
It’s certainly good to be back to the blogosphere in full swing now as well 🙂
So glad you liked Swadhin’s post and could relate to it. Yes, sometimes things don’t go as planned and there could be various reasons to it. But we need to remain consistent and keep putting in our best till we eventually achieve those goals before going to the next ones though.
Penning your thoughts always helps to implement the plans made, and so does following a daily routine, which all happens once you streamline your life and follow a disciplined lifestyle. Focusing on what’s important and prioritizing work is what matters.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your words of wisdom with us. Have a nice weekend as well 🙂
Hi Swadhin,
I do use some of your tips, especially daily routines, challenge and time limites. What I haven’t done yet, but something I’ve considered for a long time, is to get an accountability partner. I know that if I had one, I’d be even better at achieving my goals.
-Jens
Hi Jens,
Glad to know you already are doing so ood with goal setting and goal getting.
An accountability partner has so much positive effects on strategic movement towards goal getting. I hope you get one soon.
Do let me know how things change then 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Agrawal,
What a great post you have here. The thing about being successful is that many things are associated to it.
Goal setting and Time management are just one thing you have to get right. And your post did well to highlight both. I’m impress. I think with this blog post everyone will be on their way to success.
Thank you for this post and I hope to read more from you.
Hi Aderemi,
My mission is successful. I thought to write on this topic so that at least someone might get motivated and your words show I have achieved this.
Having a goal that would matter to you in the long term actually is very important and so is proper time management.
I would definitely write more of these in the future an woul love to hear about them from you 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Swadhin,
Awesome Blog post my friend. The first thing which attracted me towards this blog post was definitely the title of this post. It makes me read the whole post for 2 Times and I ended up saying “Awesome!”.
Everybody have some dreams and everybody want to make them true. But the thing which make some stop in the beginning was the fear between the Dream and turning it into reality.
We need to set Goals in order to divide our sucess into some little motivational steps. When we achieve the first Goal, we get enough motivation to work for more and there is also a lot of believe that If I can achieve this, I can also achieve the second one.
But the only thing which can dissolves all your achievement and success can be a wrong strategized Goal. While setting up a goal we have to think about it for a while and research all the aspects of the Goal we are going to setup. Thanks for sharing those 7 Awesome steps to Strategize and setting up our Goals.
Love to read more from you in future! 🙂 Sharing it on twitter with my followers.
~ Umair Akram
Hi Umair,
I am so happy you liked the post buddy. The fact that you read the post twice shows how interested yo are in brining positive changes in your life.
Yes, mostly fears try to stop us from using our full potential. An, without courage and will power it is impossible to achieve success.
Dividing our overall goals into smaller chunks of diestable goals prevents us from getting overwhelmed. And as you said these smaller wns provide us more motivation to achieve more in life.
Couldn’t agree more. Without strategising your plan of action I think all efforts will always be futile. As Abraham Lincoln once said, give me 24 hours to cut a tree and I will keep 23 hours for sharpening my knife.
Thanks a ton for speading the word on Twitter. I would love to write more on these in future. 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Swadhin,
I’m excited to know that you’re soon going to self publish your first e-book. I like ♥ the squeeze page you created for the Aha!NOW readers. 🙂
Many of us struggle finding out purpose in life and this post reminded me of a post which I wrote ✎ a year ago at my blog.
Link: www[dot]rohanchaubey[dot]com/2014/12/3-steps-to-plan-your-new-year[dot]html
I shared my new year resolutions with my readers. Your starting para forced me to re-visit that post and check how many goals I accomplished this year.
I’m so delighted to let you know that I’ve already achieved all that I wrote last year plus some more victories which I could never dream of in the past year.
➼ I’ve just recently discovered that I’ve a ISFJ personality. And I’m very realistic when it comes to goal setting. I delay my tasks A LOT! But at the end, I manage to finish them. 😉
Your first point particularly resonated with me. Reminds me of Mr. Robin Sharma’s advice —
This is something which I’m trying to do.
I believe the other six points you’ve mentioned too can greatly help in strategizing our way to success. 🙂
Swadhin I congratulate you for getting your guest post published at Aha!NOW. Thank you Harleena ma’am and Vinay sir for having Swadhin as a guest. I missed reading at Aha!NOW so much, so happy to have you both back. 😀
Happy Sunday, ツ
Rohan Chaubey.
Hi Rohan,
Thank yo buddy. So you liked my squeeze page? Thats a compliment because I am a big fan of your design skills. 🙂
Ha. You are the happiest one. I can believe you achieved all goals you’d set for yourself plus some more.
I am reading that post in a while so as to know what goals you’d set.
I guess I never heard of ISFJ. Would you mind telling me more about that? If you are not comfortable here you can mail me about it 🙂
That is true. Habits are a result of doing something so frequently that it appears natural. I have not tried particularly for 66 days but doing small things like waking up at 5am in the morning for writing my book has now become my habit. It’s because I practised it religiously for the first few weeks. 🙂
Glad to see you over here too Rohan.
Have a great weekend. 🙂
-Swadhin
Swadhin,
Great piece. I love motivational views, aspirations, and blog posts, of course. Successful people know this that they might get assisted (by subordinates and teammates), but ultimately they have to get something special done for themselves on their own…
So, in that perspective, whether someone is a struggling blogger or a business owner, this post is certainly for him/her.
I’m impressed and looking forward to reading more from you.
Thanks
Hello Hassan,
Tons of appreciation for your kind words. I agree with you there. You need to do something worthy on your own to get the success you dream of.
Rightly said, this was the original aim for the post. It aims at helping everyone on their way towards success.
Thank you again and I hope I will write something like this very soon because right now my upcoming book is keeping me busy, so yes once it is published I would certainly try to write something that helps the readers. 🙂
-Swadhin
Hey Swadhin,
What a great read!
Phew, I wipe the fear from my mind and can finally declare I have found my path and passion. I read a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell who says we are experts after working 10,000 hours on our passion. After reading this book, I could not see anything at all that I would want to pursue for that many hours, until I started taking writing seriously.
Now I love Mondays for the first time ever, in fact who do I speak to, to put in a request that there be more hours in a day. When I think of applying 10,000 hours to writing I celebrate the opportunity that I have created for myself to ensure I get to this 10,000.
I set six monthly goals. For example spending as little money on blogging in the first six months because I was at the (prove yourself Rachel-stage), thank god I only have three weeks to get there before I can add tools that will make my life easier. In that six months I had to break everything up like you say into the smallest of achievable daily steps, but stretch myself in the areas that I did not feel my strength was.
The next six months is more challenges and writing my product, broken into daily steps. When I am more disciplined I write a day to day and hour by hour routine which works like magic – but I don’t always do this even though it is beneficial and I keep my mornings for writing.
Thanks for the great post and the questions.
Rachel.
Hi Rachel,
Your journey in life seems to be inspiring. I have not read Malcom Gladwell but have heard that particular line as a quote many times.
Very few people have the courage to declare they do not like something as their career and I am glad you di not give up with something that did not excite you.
Now that you have chosen writing as your goal I wish you all the luck towards it.
That is the essence of life. When you do something you are passionate about you start enjoying it. That is why you are enjoying your Mondays. I wish everyone follows the process you did.
Having short termed or monthly goals is very powerful as they can give you confidence boost when you achieve them.
Thank you for your words of appreciation.
-Swadhin
Good Swadhin, but are there ONLY 7 steps?
OR 1 OR 10, or 5
I’ve never believed in counting any steps towards success. The perfect recipe for me is when you have dissolved the techniques into your blood and you flow naturally towards realizing your future!
Regards,
Ankush
Hey Ankush, Your comment caught my attention. One thing I like the most about your writing is… You’ve always got something “Out-of-the-box” to say.
Your perspective is unique and I find your view very interesting. 🙂
Being a secret admirer of Brené Brown(American scholar, author and speaker), I closely follow her work. In her TED talk she said —
I had a research professor who said to us, “Here’s the thing, if you cannot measure it, it does not exist.”
I certainly agree to that statement. If we can strategize our way to success, create a checklist for success, write a step by step plan, or maybe define our own process and methods, it would be a lot more easier to reach our goals. Would you agree?
Rohan.
P.S. I’m sorry Swadhin, but I could not resist from joining the conversation.Hope you don’t mind. 😉
Hi Rohan,
On the contrary your comment made me happy and you are welcome to the conversation.
When I was reading your comment, I thought wait I too had heard Brene Brown saying that and yes, we had the post of yours on DigitalGYD and you had embedding the TED talk there.
I also agree to what Brene said (when she talks she kinda charms you!) about measuring things and their relation to existence.
Having a strategic journey towards your goals makes them more easily achievable.
-Swadhin
Swadhin, you’re correct! I embedded Brené Brown’s TED talk in a guest post which I wrote for your blog. And that statement was taken from her talk.
Thanks for replying, let me get back to Ankush. I’m so much interested to know his MAGICALLY UNTRACEABLE path to success. 😉
Rohan.
Hi Rohan!
Good morning!
You find my views interesting because you catch my vibes. I come from a land in the mind where there is absolute creativity. A state of ‘No-Mind’ as Zen Buddhists say is where all ideas crop.
About Brene Brown, certainly she’s a researcher and holds a scientific and rational mind. A rational human being will obviously agree with whatever LOGIC is given.
However how about this:
1) A chartered path to success is certainly weaker in promise as compared to an OPEN SPACE.
2) The greatest minds have not achieved success by planning a strategy. As far as I know people like Newton, Einstein, Bruce Lee, APJ Abdul Kalam and many others may not have planned any strategy for their success. They just knew in their hearts what they wanted to create out of their love and passion.
3) When our mind is fixed on a strategy, it loses its creativity and becomes rigid. And a rigid mind gives rise to ideologies that may succeed in the beginning but in the longer run are NOT feasible to the society at large. A rigid mind may help you succeed but MAY BE HARMFUL TO OTHERS.
4) The real success is at a larger level. If you really want to succeed, you will have to think about helping others succeed as well. What you plan and strategize has to be at a socially larger level if you really want to succeed that way.
I used logic to explain myself here so again you may or may not agree with me. That’s the trouble with LOGIC 🙂
Have a great day Rohan!
Stay Blessed!
Hi Ankush,
Good evening, hope your day is going well. 🙂
I’m deeply interested in hearing others and being an introvert it is very easy for me to have patience to hear everyone’s views and opinions.
It’s more important to be rational sometimes, isn’t it?
In school, I was taught that Einstein was a physicist. And I guess physicists do use planning and designing which indirectly is “strategizing”. Please correct me if I am wrong. Same applies to Newton. Both did use their rational thinking to get success.
Here, in this post @swadhin generalized the key points to success. And of course everyone’s process differs. But saying that you don’t plan or strategize is incorrect because our brains won’t work without planning. Example: “Normally”, You won’t walk if you don’t plan to move your legs.
I’m sorry but I’ll have to completely disagree that APJ Abdul Kalam didn’t believed in strategizing. I guess, if that was the case, he would not be called “The Missile Man of India”. Kalam has a strong technical background.
For point #3 — If we don’t plan a strategy, I guess we will get diverted from our path to success.
If we don’t know what’s the process and path to success, how could we ever reach there?
You need to also look at things from a different perspective if you don’t, you get overly-rigid.
I agree to your #4. And of course strategizing does NOT mean that you only need to think about YOURSELF.
Have a great day you too. 🙂
Rohan.
Hi Ankush,
I am glad you have discovered your recipe for success. But I don’t think going NATURALLY (and not struggling) gives any success worth it.
However, nothing makes me happier, my friend, than YOU achieving success. So whatever is your secret, stick to it and keep being successful. 🙂
Best regards
-Swadhin
Hi Swadhin! Good morning!
Thank you!
As a matter of fact:
I don’t have ONE recipe for success. I have ALL the recipes that the Universe can offer me. 🙂
That is why I can succeed! That is why my success is guaranteed! I have the whole universe working for me because I do not stick to any strategy!
Have a good one Swadhin!
Stay Blessed!
Dear Swadhin,
Great Post!!
I could very well relate to most of the points which you have mentioned.
I’ve set personal goals and I’ve been following those diligently but will I able to continue with it is the question, only time will tell.
~Sunil
Th
Hi Sunil,
Thank you!!
So happy you found the post relatable.
I sincerely wish you all the luck towards achieving your goals. Why not! I am sure if you give your hundred percent, you are going to achieve them. 🙂
-Swadhin
Welcome to the blog, Sunil 🙂
So glad you liked Swadhin’s post and could relate to what’s mentioned. I agree with you, if we are not consistent and determined, it can become tough to follow the goals we’ve set.
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it. 🙂
Hi Swadhin,
I have met a lot of people who have been unsuccessful, who have been working hard, who have put in their best efforts but success always eluded them. I have always told them that we can’t expect to be successful in all the aspects of life. Actually success has remained an enigma to me, sometimes visiting like an uninvited guest and at other times eluding me despite all the possessions!
I must confess that I have never pursued success vigorously, never changed my style of looking for it, which is quite laid back. I have always waited for it to come to me rather than going all out to attain it. Your strategies are very meaningful for persons like me!!
However, Success is subjective; it can be defined in as many ways as you wish. To my mind, it does not refer to just achieving your goals and then basking in the glory of those accomplishments. There is no end to goals. They keep on multiplying with each achievement.
Success is a very wide term…Thanks for sharing some awesome points!
Hi Balroop ma’am,
Thank you forliking this post and I am glad it resonated with you. Yes, there are a lot of people struggling for success, working day through night and months through months. But, I would say they are a symbol of trying, of having faith in themselves and of hopesw. had they waited for success to come they would not even be where they are today.
I respect your opinion, truly. But, in my point of view when you wait for something to happen you lose the right to choose. If you want something of your choice you need to go, wear your shoes and strive towards getting it.
Definitely success is subjective. Its definition differs from person to person. I have seen a woman in flood who carried her son on her head and crossed the flooded river, for her success was finding land for her son.
Yes there is no end to goals but the end we stop expecting from lives what different would we be from something inanimate.
Yes, I visited your blog from the link over this comment. Tons of treasurable posts. I am waiting to learn from your experiences from life and will read as many posts as I can at the next free moment.
-Swadhin
Hello Swadhin and Harleena,
Congratulations on being a guest on Harleena’s blog. These seven strategies you shared will be helpful for many who know what they want to do but haven’t put it as you suggested here in your post and I agree with all of them.
The first one is very important. I don’t think I could make it through the day without having a routine. There is too much to do to “wing it”.
Another one that resonated with me was setting proper limits for our goals. When I first started I set unrealistic goals and when I realized a lot of my stress was coming from that, I changed it up so that they’re high but not unattainable.
What works for me is having a visual. I use my analytics to track my progress in the middle of the month to see how I’m working toward my goals and see what I can do to meet them if I’m not doing too well.
Thank you for taking the time to write this for us.
I hope you both are having a great week!
Cori
Hi Corina,
Glad to meet you here at Aha!NOW. Yes Harleena ma’am was kind enough to let me interact with her readers.
Oh wow yo follow a routine. That’s like having an organised life. I completely agree. Life would be a mess without a routine.
Yes, time limit is very important. Glad you realized and shifted path. I too had set very unrealistic goals (I think everyone does this haha) when I started writing. Thanks to Vinay sir who helped me and suggested to keep realistic goals and not compare myself with the already experts in the writing niche.
Having visuals is a great idea. They have a great effect on our understanding.
Ah, thank you instead for taking time to read this post and for the kind words.
Have a great time. 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Corina,
Yes indeed, these smart goals would surely help people achieve success, if they follow them. 🙂
Oh yes…I can relate to that too, and I think being working moms, if we don’t follow a routine, we’d not have anything done in time!
Changing what doesn’t suit us only makes sense, Cori. I am glad you chalked it all out for yourself, and I love how organized and consistent you’ve become over time. I like the visual idea as well and it does work!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a nice weekend as well 🙂
Hi, Swadhin (and Harleena and Vinay).
Great points.
It was interesting that you asked at the outset: “Are you afraid of achieving success? NO”. Often, people are afraid of success. It has happened to me, and I know a client who came to the same conclusion about himself.
Keeping a daily routine is a great idea. It’s not practical in my case, but I really want to be consistent about the routines that I have for each day of the week. For example, for Fridays to be the same, and so on.
I also love the proper time limit idea. There’s nothing like a sense of urgency when we need to get things done. That’s something I need to do much more often.
These points will be my focus for now.
Thanks for sharing. Tweeting soon.
Nathan.
Hi Nathan,
Yes sometimes the struggles before an achievement and a possible failure after it makes people hesitant to try something new.
You and your client are not alone here, I know many including me who have been afraid of success just because they cannot imagine the life after success.
Its all about kicking your comfort zone off and striving forward.
Yes having a consistent routine helps great. I like your idea od having similar days of a week to be similar. This way we exactly know what you have to do every friday or Saturday.
Thanks for your tweet and shares. I hope your tweet reaches someone who might need this post.
Have a great time Nathan.
-Swadhin
Hi Nathan,
So glad you liked all the points mentioned in Swadhin’s post 🙂
Yes indeed, people are afraid of success due to various reasons because each one takes success to be different and measure it in their own ways.
Following a set routine, except for the weekends, helps us achieve the days goals, which further helps us move forward to achieve success.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing the post, we do appreciate it. 🙂
Hey Swadhin,
This is a timeless post and concur on every point that you made.
I would have to say numbers 3 and numbers 7 resonated the most for me. IN setting my goals I didn’t have a lot of support so I developed the “I’ll show them” attitude where in actuality I should’ve been focus on the real reason why I set those goals. You figure that those unsupported people weren’t a distraction or reason why you set your goals in the first place so why let them discourage you.
Also for number 7 there were a lot of failures. Instead of looking at these failures as adversaries and obstacles I started to look at them as challenges and looked forward to what I can learn from them so I’ll know what to do whenever I come across those problems. I really like the ACE approach because I do want to keep moving forward.
Thanks for sharing Swadhin!I hope you’re having a great day!
Hi Sherman,
How are you doing?
Thanks you for your appreciation.
Point number 3 is my favorite too. When I learnt Ariana’s story, I was taken aback. We all know goals are indeed to make our lives happy and meaningful. Just setting a goal for impressing people we don’t like would be a wrong step.
Failures, yeah they are disheartening. They are sad but they also teach us how we should move forward. My principle is “cry over your failure, but only once. After that take an oath to turn your failure into success. ”
So glad to hear you have made your failures the path tellers of success. Your journey seems to be inspiring. Why don’t you write about it on your blog or here, as a guest author. I guess that would inspire us to move forward.
Have a great day ahead Sherman. Glad to interact with you. 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Swadhin bro and Harleena Mam,
First of all I would like to say congrats to you Swadhin bro for your Guest post on Aha Now. And thanks a lot Harleena mam, to give the awesome opportunity to Swadhin for sharing his awesome views to make strategies for better success.
I also need to follow the these point, because I has also strayed from my goal due to some personal and some health issues. But this post give me a new hope to stratetige my goals.
Thanks for sharing.
Naveen
Hi Naveen,
thanks a ton for your kind words. I am so happy I could write a post that could be of any help to you and other readers.
You are already doing good and it’s a pleasure to know you want to better yourself and strategize your goals for success.
What are your goals Naveen? Mind sharing them with our audiences?
Wish you all the luck for your future endeavors. 🙂
-Swadhin
Hi Naveen,
We had a long queue of guest authors waiting since long, so thought it best to start off these series, giving an opportunity to one and all, as the gates of Aha!NOW are open for everyone now- and Swadhin’s post is surely going to help many 🙂
I think we all need to follow these strategies to achieve success by following these smart goals. Hope you are well now?
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it 🙂
Hello Harleena maam and Vinay sir,
I am truly grateful to you both for giving me the opportunity to share something with my fellow readers of Aha!NOW. I am so excited to land this opportunity where I could share some of my insights on smart goal setting.
Most people dream of big successes but, the ones who achieve are those who woke up to those dreams, chalked out a smart action plan and worked all heart to achieve success.
I. myself have overcome from a situation where I was no better than an oar-less boat. But, taking smart steps and strategizing a feasible action plan has helped me to come where I now am.
In this journey, I have learned a LOT from you, from Vinay sir and the Aha!NOW life blog. Thank you for having a blog that not only is helping us to know and understand our lives better but also to help those around us.
No doubt, this is one amongst the top 100 life blogs of the world.
Lastly, I thank you for giving me the chance to touch the hearts of your readers and I would be happy if I can help anybody with my experiences.
-Swadhin
Hi Swadhin,
Welcome to the other side of Aha!NOW, this time as our esteemed guest 🙂
It gives us immense pleasure to have you over, more so, you’ve been such an important part of the ABC, and I know our readers are going to love all that you have to share with them today.
I loved the post with the message it carries and these are the smart ways to achieve your goals and eventually success. I am so glad you wrote about it as it would help a lot of people
You are certainly not alone to go through the phase – I think most of us go through it too, but what matters is how we get through it by overcoming our fears and failures. Yes, I remember from where you started, and look at you now! I think every step is an achievement, so feel proud of all the progress you make, even if it’s a little each day.
We are so glad if we have been able to help you in any way, though we wish we had more time in the day to help you and many others.
Thank you for being here today, and I leave you with our wonderful audience and commenters – this is your day to be with everyone. I’d hop in just to welcome the newbies or those comments that address me. 🙂
Thank you maam for the warm welcome.
Its a pleasure to be here.
It’s a pleasure to have you over as well, Swadhin 🙂