Path To Success: 5 Keys To Making Damn Sure You Reach Your Goals

Bottom line: You owe it to yourself to reach your goals.
Who freakin’ knows how much time any of us have left, so why put off achieving your dreams for some later time?
Do that shit now! Many of the things you want are right there in front of you if you’re willing to reach out and grab ’em.
So today, let’s focus on how to move from where you are now to where you want to be.

Realize That Someday Isn’t A Day

Look, we’re all guilty of this one. You want something, but you know it’s a lofty goal. You think to yourself, “Someday, I’ll have that.”
Guess what?
Someday? Not a thing. Looking at the calendar, I see Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They’re all there. Not pictured: Someday.
When you commit to getting something “someday,” you’re really saying, “My goal is to have this thing at some point in the future.” It’s a moving target. Someday is in the future now, and it’s still in the future in five years.
It isn’t until you commit a concrete date that you can make meaningful progress. “Oh, that thing? Yeah, I’m gonna make sure I have that in my life by January 2017.”
January 2017 is not someday. It’s real.

Raise Your Standard

This might sound counterintuitive, but if you’re not getting what you want, it might be because your standard is too low. Sounds backwards, right? If you can’t reach something, then shouldn’t you lower your standard so your goal is easier to achieve?
I’m feeling your logic, but unfortunately, brains aren’t logical most of the time.
If you have a low standard, your brain thinks to itself, “F*** that. That’s not an inspiring goal. I’m not getting up for this one.”
By setting an even higher standard than the one you already have, you have something to live up to. You have something inspiring. Motivation finds you more easily because you have to be on top of your game if you’re going to keep up.

Improve Your Reasons

One of the major reasons why people can’t seem to move towards their goals is because their reasons suck. They aren’t powerful enough. They aren’t personal enough.
For example, why do you want a new job? Is it because you hate your current job?
Well, that’s not an inspiring reason to leave. It’s based on avoidance, and it’s not offering a brighter future somewhere else.
Instead drill down and keep asking yourself, “Why?”
Why do you hate your current job? Is it what you do, or is it how people treat you? How exactly are people treating you that frustrates you? Really make sure you understand the f*** out of your current situation. The better you understand it, the better you understand why you need to leave and what kind of new situation you need to find.
From there, focus on something you want to move toward. Get specific about the kind of job you do want and why you want it. How will it improve your life, your self-esteem, your bank account, your self-image, your sense of purpose?
Imagine the things and feelings you would get from it. Even take a moment to imagine that you already got this job. “Try on” how it would feel. Remember that state of mind and allow it to inspire to reach your goals.

Be Willing To Leave Something Behind

Look, as nice as it would be, you can’t steal second base if you keep one foot on first.
Point is that you can’t get where you want to go by staying where you are and doing everything the same. You need to be willing to risk something — whether it’s money or failure or being alone — if you’re gonna reach your goals.
You also need to be willing to give up things (maybe cut down that TV time or video game time) and possibly put off other, less important goals.
The fewer goals you focus on, the better chance you give yourself to reach your goals. If you spread yourself thin, well, good luck.

Create Daily Habits

All right, so you’ve set ambitious goals that inspire you, they have deadlines, and you’re willing to set aside less important shit to make ’em happen. Now what?
The icing on the cake is to ingrain daily habits into your life that will take you to the promise land.
Think about it: You don’t just wake up overnight and suddenly discover that you’re wildly successful. That shit happens over time, after a lot of hard work.
So, it’s time to do that work.
First step is to start at your end goal. What is your life like? Take inventory of the type of person you will be when you reach that goal. What skills have you gained? What’s your bank account looking like? What people have you surrounded yourself with?
Now work backwards to where you are right now. Just do a little arithmetic. What’s missing today that you’ll need to add to reach your goals. You see, your goal isn’t one big thing; it’s a set of small things. You might be able to reach your big goal overnight, but you can reach a lot of these mini-goals every week. If you keep reaching these mini-goals, over time it adds up to achieve your big goal.
Next, create habits that move you towards each of those checkpoints. You might need to create a financial budget and check it once a week. You might need to sign up for some classes or read books to learn some skills. Maybe you need to make a habit of getting out there in the world to meet more people.
Once you’re able to take your big picture and reduce it down to this daily level, there’s no limit to what you can do. Your goals better start running because whether they want to or not, you’re accomplishing the f*** out of ’em.