How to Achieve the Hardest Goal: 11 Steps (with Photo) - tips

Video: How to Achieve Your Most Ambitious Goals | Stephen Duneier | TEDxTucson

Content

Steps
Advice
Warning

Some of the most valuable goals are often quite difficult for you to accomplish. It takes a considerable amount of time and effort to achieve significant results, and it can be easy to get discouraged and give up. If there's any huge task you're trying to accomplish, there will be times when you don't know where to start. Or perhaps you did it but are having trouble finding the motivation to move on. Either way, establishing thoughtful plans and fresh habits will help you accomplish your toughest goals.

Steps

Part 1 of 2: Development of an Action Plan

Evaluate your level of commitment. Before you start working on a difficult goal, you need to ask yourself how committed you are to achieving it. Your level of commitment is crucial to your success and your ability to achieve your goals.
- A commitment can represent a personal contract / commitment to himself and to his or her goals.
- If you don't see your commitment to accomplishing a difficult goal, you won't be able to succeed. In this case, you should reconsider your goals.
Make sure your goals are quite specific and measurable. The easiest goals to accomplish are goals that are specific, and clear enough for you to see when you will reach them.
- An ambiguous goal is difficult to achieve because it is not clear what action will be needed and when you will accomplish it.
- You may not be able to accomplish your most difficult goal yet because you have not defined it.
- For example, the goal of "becoming a better person" may not be possible. It's very vague, no matter how "good" you become, you can become better. In this case, you should think about your definition of a good person. What concrete factors do you need to be "better?". Calling your mom once a week? Volunteer to raise money for charity 10 hours a month? Share more chores? Make your goals as specific as possible.
Break down your goals. The next step is to divide your challenging goal into smaller chunks. They should also serve as a clear and measurable purpose.
- Breaking down your goals allows you to formulate a step-by-step action plan to achieve your "big" goal.
- It will also provide an opportunity for you to document the progress you have made. This will help keep yourself motivated.
- For example, if your goal is to get a PhD in physics, think about what you need to do to achieve this goal. You need to apply for graduate program. You need to be admitted to the school. You will need to complete any required courses. And need to pass the qualifying test, etc.
- If you don't know your purpose for you to break it down, you should do some research to break down your goals in such a way that you can accomplish them.
Set up a specific schedule. Once you have developed a set of small goals, you should organize them on a suitable schedule to consider how long it takes to accomplish each goal.
- Your schedule will help you take responsibility and maintain focus by adding a sense of urge.
- Remember, not meeting a small goal on time does not mean you have failed. You just need to review your schedule and go in the right direction.
Be prepared to face obstacles. Accomplishing the toughest goals often means overcoming arduous obstacles. Take time to think about what is stopping you from getting what you want.
- Thinking ahead about obstacles you might face will help you form a plan to deal with them.
- For example, if you are training yourself for a marathon, what factors are likely to get in your way? Perhaps you will get injured during the training session. Or, something will happen to your work or personal life that keeps you from keeping track of your coaching schedule for a while. What would you do if any of these things happened?
- Having a backup plan to deal with the inevitable struggles on the way to achieving your goal will help you get up easily when you fall. It will help you keep making progress when problems interfere with your plan.
- Surely you cannot foresee all difficulties. But thinking about them in advance will boost your confidence even if you run into problems you never expected.
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Part 2 of 2: Make Your Goals a Reality

Change your mindset. An important part of accomplishing that difficult goal is having the right mindset. The important thing to remember is that even though there are factors beyond your control, you can still create your own destiny.
- Many believe that life is something they have given them, rather than something they can build on their own. This thinking is called "external orientation". This is a mindset that the owner of it often blames on an opportunity or on someone else when things don't work out as they expected.
- External orientation is self-harm thinking. Instead, you should form a "internal force" orientation for yourself. This is the type of thinking in which you tell yourself that you can control your destiny. This mindset can be quite powerful and will keep you motivated to accomplish a difficult goal.
- Pay attention to self-talk. When you find yourself thinking, "I can't do anything about this" or "this is my life," ask yourself if this thought is true. . Maybe you really have to face a difficult situation you never created. But in this case, think about what you can do to improve the situation instead of surrendering.
- Remember that you always have a choice.
Determine the impact. Another great way to motivate yourself is to try to visualize the impact your striving for your goal will have on your life.
- Visualizing yourself at different stages in your goal realization can increase your motivation by helping you realize the benefits of your goals.
- This may be a good time to write down a few ideas as you work to consider the positive consequences of pursuing your goals.
Form the right environment. Challenging goals are easier to hit if you create environments that encourage you to focus on what you want to achieve.
- For example, if you're an alcoholic and trying to quit drinking, an important step you need to take is to remove all alcohol from your home. You should also refrain from meeting with whom you drink often. They can be an incentive to get back into your old habits.
- Instead, surround yourself with someone pursuing your own goals, and report to them on a regular basis. This approach will help you take more responsibility for yourself. These people will also provide you with helpful advice or point of view, especially if their goals are similar to yours.
Dedicate the necessary time. Eventually, you will be able to achieve difficult goals in a few hours (or days, or years) of effort. Understand that there is no other shortcut that can help you accomplish your goal quickly, and that you must devote the amount of time needed to this process.
- Building a daily routine in which you need to schedule a specific amount of time to work on your goal can be helpful. If you want to run a marathon, you need to spend a few hours training for the race every day.
- After a while, working on your goals will become a habit. This will help ensure continuous progress and make the process of meeting your goal less "mechanical".
Stay motivated (and try to get better even if you aren't). Because your toughest goal is likely to be your biggest challenge, it's easy to lose your motivation or retreat. There are quite a few things you can do to prevent this from happening.
- Use reinforcement. Reward yourself (positive reinforcement) when trying to accomplish small goals. Or you can allow yourself to let go of something you don't want to do (negative reinforcement). Buy yourself a pair of new shoes, or skip the one-time sweeping quest as a reward for completing your schedule.
- This small reward can help keep you motivated. They will help your mind learn to associate the good with your goal effort.
- Reinforcement is a more effective method than punishing yourself for failure.
- Sometimes, no matter how much reinforcement you do, you won't be able to stay motivated. Maybe it's because you are sick, tired, or something bad happened at your job. If you are not able to follow your routine from time to time, try to find other alternatives to make the process easier for you.
- For example, if you can't force yourself to take up a physics book and study for an exam, you can do a less mentally tiring task. Rearrange your notes, review study guides, or watch documentaries related to the topic. From there, you'll still be able to make progress even when you're not motivated.
Keep track of your own progress. A great way to stay motivated is to regularly monitor your progress. Use your phone app, calendar, journal, and take notes on tasks you've done and small goals you've accomplished.
- When you feel that you are just “stomping around”, review the note. You will see what you have accomplished and this will increase your motivation. It will also help you hold accountable to yourself and to your plans.
- When trying to achieve difficult goals, you can experience a lot of stress and anxiety. A good way to deal with this problem is to keep a journal of your progress. Use a journal to write about everything you've done and how you feel about the process. Letting go in this way will help ease your anxiety and will also help you stay focused on the task at hand.
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Advice

Write about why you want to achieve this goal. Understand your reasons. Write down as many reasons as possible. Check the list every time you feel a lack of motivation.
Motivating in your surroundings. If you are trying to train for the marathon, you should put the race flyer in your bedroom, on the refrigerator, etc.
Find out information that can help you achieve your goals. Knowing what you hope to achieve will make this process easier.
Write down each day small goals on a calendar or planner. This is a great habit that you can develop and it will help push your self-responsibility to the next level.