Success is in your reach

Setting goals and achieving them might sound easy and something everyone does. You might set goals in your career or studies. You decide to earn good grades or start exercising. You might want to learn to play the piano and you take up piano lessons. Everyone sets goals: in their mind, that is. It´s easy to loose your grip whenever things feel too hard. Do you really achieve your goal after all?

My unofficial hobby is to watch all sorts of motivational and educational videos on Youtube. There are plenty of videos from really inspirational people from who I´ve really learned a lot. I came across a video where Finnish Marko Kaarto talks about setting goals and achieving them. I realised why I have failed in some things I should have been able to do.

I´ve always known that I have certain skills and I´m able to do almost whatever I like. I believe in will power. (If you believe you can´t do it, you can´t. If you believe you can do it, you can.) However, there are some dreams and goals I have failed to achieve because I´ve made mistakes already when setting goals. Actually, I haven´t set goals in the right way. It´s impossible to achieve anything if you don´t make a concrete plan. It´s easy to think “I could do this and that, I´m capable of doing it”... But actually making it happen is another thing. That´s actually a good expression: making things happen. Things don´t happen by themselves.

A way to set goals is quite simple and here I want to present what I learned from Marko Kaarto.

1. Make the decision. It´s good to tell people about it or write it down (=make it concrete).
2. Consider if you are able to do it. The answer is of course “yes”. In other words, you need attitude.
3. Think of a plan. How can you achieve this goal? It´s also important to set a deadline!
4. Take concrete (small enough) steps towards your goal, preferably every day. Keep your goal in mind and don´t let anything distract/discourage you.
5. Hardships are part of the game but always keep going!

Achieving goals requires hard work and maybe giving up some things. It´s about prioritizing and channeling your energy and time in your goal. Apart from not taking concrete action you might lack persistence. You have to make a commitment and a long-term plan. Be prepared that achieving your goal takes time.

My New Year´s resolution was to stay healthy even during the flue season and I really thought about it often and worked for it. I didn´t reach that goal, though, since I was ill for two days and now I have no voice. I don´t feel I failed that much because two days is nothing: maybe when the next influenza arrives I´ll be sick for one day! Works go on...

I highly recommend setting goals and achieving them. That´s what real success is about even if it wasn´t anything big. One summer I decided I want to learn how to make a cartwheel. I started practising and I practised until I could do it. I feel good about it even years later. I want more of that feeling!

 

Oh, I forgot the very very first step in achieving goals...

DREAM!