How To Achieve Your Biggest Goals In Life

You’ve set your goals, you’ve created an action plan, but when it comes time to follow through, the demands of life take over and derail you. Amiright?

It’s easy to get so caught in the hustle of everyday life that your dreams take a backseat. Or maybe you don’t even know where to start on those big goals of yours so you feel overwhelmed and shut down.

Whatever the case, pop the bubbly my friend because with these tips you’re going to actually achieve your biggest goals this year, and I’m going to be on the sidelines cheering you on. So without further a-do, let’s get the ball rolling.

1| Set deadlines for your goals

The first thing I do when setting goals is write them in my calendar with a strict deadline. Writing your goals down will help you stay on track and setting a deadline will motivate you to go after them.

At the beginning of the year I set a new focus for the rest of the year. I choose one large SMART goal to focus on, break it into mini goals and then divide the year into quarters where I’ll accomplish a couple of mini goals each quarter until I’ve completed my entire goal for the year.

Breaking the year up into quarters makes accomplishing your goals sooo much easier and less stressful.

You can learn more about my goal setting process here.

2| Use a task manager to stay on track

Task managers help you stay on track and focused on achieving your goals. Without them you’ll have a goal but no plan to actually accomplish it.

Task managers not only help me with the daily planning, but pig picture planning (5-10 years) as well. I like to look at the end result and work backwards, breaking down each goal into smaller steps along the way. This makes everything so much easier and less overwhelming.

Google calendar, the bloom daily planner and the productivity planner are my go-to for staying on track. These three cover my monthly, weekly, and daily planning needs.

My gcalendar is used for planning my month and time blocking my weeks, my blood daily planner is more for daily planning, and my productivity planner is used for setting goals and staying on track.

If I want to write down notes or a bucket list then I’ll simply use the notes app in my phone, but Evernote is great for this as well.

All of these together create consistency and keep me on top of my plans so I’m not stressed out, overwhelmed and putting out fires in my life.

3| Plan results

A huge mistake I used to make when goal-setting was focusing on the amount of time tasks would take rather than the results they produce.

So, for instance, I would write in my calendar “write 6 blog posts in 3 hours“ rather than “write blog posts.” For you that might be “write study notes for chapters 2 through 5 of {textbook name},” rather than “write study notes.”

Notice the difference? The second one is much more specific and results-based than the first one.

Measuring your goals based on productivity instead of time is so motivating because the more you see results, the more you want to achieve. Also, it provides the clarity necessary for you to stay on track and not get easily derailed.

4| Regularly update + revise your goals

At the end of each quarter (around 3 months) I look over the last quarter and make any necessary tweaks to my plan so the next quarter will be successful.

Sometimes life happens and you’ll have to adjust your plans (and that’s okay). Sometimes we aim and miss the mark. So, you simply readjust and aim again, improving your strategy along the way.

5| Get clear on what you truly want

Finding fulfillment in your life starts with understanding WHY you do what you do. You’re “why” is your purpose, your anchor to keep you grounded and moving forward, even when life gets tough.

It’s easy give up after not seeing progress for a few months. Heck, 92% of people never reach their goals. But. if you’re reading this, I’m willing to bet that you’re not one of those people. I bet that you want to be part of the 8% that hit the ground running, overcome their biggest obstacles and cross the finish line with a sense of pride.

But in order to get there you need to have something to lean on when life gets hard, and that’s your “why.” So whenever you feel like giving up or like you aren’t moving forward, I invite you to remind yourself why you started in the first place and why you held out so long. Oftentimes that’s enough to get us back on track and moving forward.

6| Take massive action

If you want to succeed at anything in life you must take massive action.

Massive action is taking action until you get the result you want. To persevere no matter what obstacles get in your way.

It’s much easier to use failure as an excuse. Many of us turn back the other way the first time we fail.

Oftentimes we equate failure to our identity, as if failure becomes a part of our character. As if “I failed” turns into “I’m a failure.”

But in order to succeed you have to accept failure as a part of the process and be willing to keep failing until you get the results you want.

After failing you may have to regroup and go back to the drawing board, but you need to rekindle that excitement, that commitment, that you made to yourself in the first place and use it as fuel to keep chasing after your goals.

7| Track your progress each week

Once you get into the groove of setting goals and actively working towards them, you need to consistently track your progress.

You have to evaluate your progress in order to see what’s working and what isn’t so you can adjust your plans accordingly.

Every Sunday I’ll spend 1 hour going over my week. I look at my calendar and evaluate what worked well, what didn’t work well, and what can be improved. Also I take note of how I spent my time. Then I tweak my plans according to my notes so I can ensure that the next week is even better then the last.

You don’t have to just do this on a weekly basis either, you can also do this at the end of each month or year. Tracking your progress is so important for ensuring that you’re moving forward and consistently improving, so make it a regular part of your routine.

Final Thoughts

These steps are a large part of the process I use to achieve my goals. You can use them to help you achieve your goals, too. It’s never too late to go after what you want in life.

As a child my parents always told me that you can do anything you set your mind to. This is a fundamental belief I’ve held onto and it’s served me well in my life. The older I get, the more I realize how true this is.

Your thoughts create all of the results you have in your life. Your thoughts frame your feelings, which drive your actions, which bring you your results. So, in order to get what you want in life you have to re-frame your thoughts to support your dreams.

That’s how you design your future and create the life you’ve always wanted.