“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
― Ernest Hemingway

Goals should be:

Measurable: If your goal is to remodel your room in 30 days, that’s measurable. There is a time limit. When 15 days go by, you should have started something. If not, get your ass moving!

Realistic: Your goals should be realistic. Losing 50 pounds in a month isn’t realistic. Losing 10 pounds is, maybe 5. Start small and work your way up. Over accomplish that goal and adapt accordingly. This elicits a feeling of accomplishment and success. Both are supposedly good for you. Both can be used as fuel for more.

Praise all your accomplishments:

That’s right.

When you accomplish your goal, give yourself a pat on the back. Give yourself some praise. Why? You deserve it.

Even if you started within the 15 days of remodeling your room or what have you, you should praise your accomplishments. Find motivation from within, not extraneous things. Looking for motivation outside yourself will be ephemeral.

Your actions:

When approaching your goals, there are the actions that help you build up to it.

For example: Weight loss and being healthy = healthy eating + daily exercise.

Those are two simple steps, but as you know, the world of dieting and fitness turned into a battle royal with over 4,000 ways of  achieving that one result. People think that specific nutrition or that certain machine or that certain workout will yield them their final result. I’m not saying those aren’t important, but they aren’t steps one and two.

This is the issue: we have learned to focus on other steps and not the fundamentals.

Time to go back to the basics.

Think of it as a ladder. Here you are at the bottom of the ladder. You tilt your head up and you see your goal all the way up there, whatever it may be. It wouldn’t be smart to jump as high as you can and reach for step 10.

Instead, work you way up — slowly. Focus on the steps that bring you up to the next. Focus on the steps that yield true value. Don’t be distracted by quick-and-easy, or shortcuts, or immediate gratification. Those are all lies. Your efforts will only be rerouted.

Goals are essential because it motivates us to achieve success in certain areas in our life. It gives us a sense of direction. It allows us to see what we’re aiming at. For a long period of time, I lived without goals. This elicited a lot of idle time, self-defeat, and aimless living.

When implementing goals in your life, the key is to start small and to focus on the steps that bring you to the next.

What’s your take on goals? And how do you go about accomplishing them? How do you motivate yourself? Share in the comments below.