Achieving Your Goals!

Goals are amazing things to aspire to. Having a vision of something you'd like to change or do better is what drives us as human beings, and gives us hope for the future. Without goals we never would have reached the moon, or seen slavery abolished, or watched the Berlin wall come crumbling down.

I've been challenge by a very smart, inspiring man to develop more discipline in my life so that I can achieve the goals I have placed there. The man is Mr. Michael Hyatt, and you can learn more about his work here: michaelhyatt.com. I enjoy listening to his weekly podcast called "This Is Your Life", and you can subscribe to it for free on iTunes, Zune, or RSS.

Here are the steps that Mr. Hyatt recommends to developing more discipline in your life, and a few of my sincere comments about them. I hope this post proves helpful to you as you strive to achieve goals in your life, and I hope that simplifying is one of them!


1. Determine Your Goals - Have a Specific Vision to Work Towards


    Some would say this is the easiest part in the process of becoming a disciplined goal-achiever, but honestly, determining the right goals for yourself is half the battle. The acronym S.M.A.R.T. helped me as I determined goals for my life.

Specific - Use your calender and place specific deadlines on your goals.

Measurable - It always helps to have measurable goals so that you can see your progress as you work toward achieving your goals.

Actionable - Start your goals with verbs. 

Realistic - Having a goal that you cannot possibly reach is even worse than having no goals whatsoever. Make sure that your goals are attainable.

Time Bound - This is probably the most important aspect of a goal. I know for myself if I don't place a deadline, the goal will probably never be accomplished.


2. List Your Reasons for the Goal - Positive and Negative


    It seems rather obvious, but if you know WHY you're doing something, it makes it that much easier to work toward it. Take time to reflect and refocus on the goals in your life.


3. Identify Likely Obstacles


    This doesn't mean you're being pessimistic. If you have an idea of what might keep you from achieving your goal, it will be much easier for you to overcome the obstacle.


4. Develop New Behaviors


    Your goals should change you as a person. They should help you develop better character qualities, and with that will come new habits or behaviors. However, don't try to change too much at once. If you attempt to change too many things at once, you may end up failing to achieve any of your goals. 


5. Stay Focused


    Review your reasons why, read your goals daily, and anticipate the obstacles before they come. You will encounter adversity. The way to success is consistently starting again when you experience a set-back. It takes adversity to shape our character, and if you stay focused, you could end up achieving more than you thought possible.


I hope these five simple steps will help you as you place goals in your life and work toward achieving them. However, I would like to add one more step of my own that as a Christian I need to think of when placing goals in my life.


6. Be Flexible


You know by now that I think goals are needed if we are to accomplish things in life, but I also think that our goals can change if the Lord clearly leads us to pursue something different. We need to be flexible to His leading. 


With this final step I'd like to end with this thought. God's plan may be different than our plan, so we must constantly seek His will instead of our own, and place goals in our life according to His plan, not our plan.