Introduction

The majority of us are doing the same stuff every day, without pausing for a moment and asking ourselves, “what do I really want. Not what someone wants from me, but what do I want.”

At the beginning of each year, millions of people set New Year’s resolutions, dream about completing them, and by the time I created this video, the end of January, over 80% of people had already given up or forgotten about their goals, and another 12% will drop out in the coming months.

But why is that?
And what can you do about it to put yourself in the few percent that achieve not only something, but everything you want?

Without a goal we strive for, the here and now have no meaning.
And if you think to yourself that you don’t have any goals yourself whatsoever, you sure do.
Maybe you didn’t write them down, and you don’t have a plan, but there are wishes you have, that you could turn into goals.

There are 2 types of people when it comes to success, and yes, you can choose what category you will be in. 

First, the people who get what they want, when they want and how much they want

The second category is everyone else. 

In the second category are people that set goals and drop them off in the first few weeks, or couldn’t even be bothered to set some goals. Mainly because of fear of failure, analysis paralysis, procrastination, lack of belief, and previous disappointments, or the goal just seemed too big to be achieved.

 

The first step to jump into the first category is to be clear about the things you want in life. 

There is a quote from Antonie de Saint – “A goal that is not written down is nothing more than a wish.”

And this is so true. 

You have to write your goals down, structure them, track them, revisit them and adjust them consistently to be able to achieve anything.

And if your goal isn’t important enough to take the time and write it down, then what kind of goal is that anyway. 

 

Now here is the system and what I want you to do. 

 

Pick a notebook or a just paper.

 

Define your goals

 

Write every goal you can think of, that you would like to achieve in your lifetime.

Think about the key areas in life, like your career or business, relationships, finances, health, self-development goals, emotional and spiritual goals, or fun goals you might have. 

Those goals can be big things, like starting a business that should be the next big thing in the whole world, or something like learning to fly a drone.
Just write everything you could possibly think of. It is brainstorming time, so it doesn’t matter how stupid it may sound, you write it down. 

 

Categorize your goals

 

The First category are the top 10 Goals you have to work on right now. 

These are the top 10 things that are the most important to you. You need to do them, accomplished them, or experience them in your lifetime. 

And it can only be 10 things. No, it can’t be 11 or 12 or 13. 

You have to choose just a maximum of 10 goals.

That is already a lot for you to aim for. And that doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve more than 10 goals in your lifetime, but for the start you have to concentrate on what is most important for you right now.  

And if some of these are like massive goals, you should break them down into smaller goals. 

If you want to create the Iron Man suit, then you should break your goal into things that are achievable in a shorter period. Like learning engineering and robotics. Or starting even smaller. Because building an Iron Man suit, not going to happen overnight.

 

So, not something that could take you 100 years to achieve. But something you can do right now towards that goal, something in a 6 months to 1 year time. 

 

Second, goals you are going to work towards in the medium time span:

These are the goals that are somewhat important to you, and were also candidates for the top 10 but didn’t get to be on the first list. 

 

Third, goals you are working on in the long term:

These are the things you would like to achieve in your life but are not as important as the first two categories, and are put aside for now.  

 

Take your time to define your goals

 

Remember that this isn’t something you can do in an hour or two.

I know this may seem like too much work, but trust me, this is serious. 

You need to take your time for this like your life depends on it. Because it does. 

It may take a whole day or two, or even weeks. 

Take your time. This will guide your life from now moving on. 

 

Refine your goals

 

Now we have to refine the first category. 

And forget about the other two categories for now. 

The fewer goals you have, the more likely you are to achieve them.

Remember, the fastest way from point A to point B is a straight line. 

The more goals you want to achieve at once, the more directions and paths you need to take, and the harder it will be to get to point B. 

If you are taking steps towards point C or D, you are not taking steps to point B, and vice-versa.

 

Try to think how some goals in your top 10 list could be related to each other. How the achievement of goal B could move you towards achieving goals C and D. Be creative here.

That will keep you even more motivated to get things done even faster. 

 

Now you can answer the question, why the goal is important to you.
Would you be surprised if you failed? Why would you fail? Who could help you achieve your goals? And this one is critical, because the more people you have on board, the easier it gets.
Building a team that can help you will propel your success tremendously. 

 

A lot of times, by writing down why the goal is significant to you, you realize that actually, the goal maybe isn’t, in the end, that essential for you. At least not as much as you may think at first.

Now we need to refine those goals, and the acronym SMART will help us. 

 

S – Specific

Your goal has to be specific.

 

“I want to lose weight?” is not specific enough. 

A more specific goal would be:

I want to lose 20lbs of fat, while not losing muscle mass during that process. 

It’s easier to stick with and achieve a goal that’s specific because you have something concrete to work towards to.

 

M – measurable, the success toward meeting the goal can be measured. 

Your goal needs to be measurable over a certain period of time. 

For example, losing 20 pounds could be easily measured with a scale. 

You can measure yourself every day, take the weekly average, and evaluate how much did I lose from week to week this month. 

 

A-Achievable and Actionable

Your goal has to be achievable. 

If you have a massive goal you want to achieve, it is better to break your goal down into smaller chunks you actually can achieve in a reasonable time frame.

If you never went for a run in your life, then running a marathon this year isn’t as realistic as going for a half-marathon or a 10k or just 5k run. 

Then ask yourself, do you have the resources and capabilities to achieve that goal? 

If not, what exactly are you missing? What can you do about that?

 

Maybe you don’t know how to start a diet or train for the run.

What actions can you take to achieve your goal? 

You can hire a good fitness coach or learn how to diet and set up a running plan yourself. 

 

R – Realistic and Relevant

A SMART goal has to be realistic, in that the goal can be realistically achieved given the available resources and time you have for that specific goal. 

Ask yourself:

Is the goal realistic?

Can I reach that goal? 

Is it too overwhelming?

Remember, you can break your bigger goal into smaller goals that lead to the bigger one.

Losing 10 pounds is much easier than losing 20 pounds, and losing 20 pounds is much easier than the goal of looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his best years.

 

Is the goal reachable, given the time and resources?

Are you able to commit to achieving that goal?

Is your goal realistic given your current lifestyle or other goals you may have?

Traveling around the world to try different restaurants and foods may interfere with your goal of losing weight. 

 

T – Time-Bound

Simply saying what your goal is, won’t cut it. 

You need a time frame. When your goal should be completed?

Losing 20 pounds in the next 20 weeks could be a goal to strive for. 

Now you can think of actions that can be done weekly to move you towards this goal. For example, to roughly lose a pound per week, you have to do this and that every week.

 

Another example would be to learn a foreign language. 

I will learn 1000 words of Japanese by the end of this year. To achieve that, I will learn everyday Japanese for two blocks of 30 mins, and use spaced repetition with Anki.

Just for reference, Anki is a free flashcard program using spaced repetition, a technique from cognitive science for fast and long-lasting memorization. “Anki” is the Japanese word for “memorization”.

And it really is just a coincidence that I used the language example of learning Japanese with the Anki program, and that Anki actually used the brand name from the Japanese language. 

“Anki” is the Japanese word for “memorization”. 

Really weird coincidence. 

 

If you want to download this template you can download it for free on my website, link in the description below. 

 

One thing that helps a lot when it comes to achieving those goalsa is to concentrate more on the systems that will lead you to achieving those goals and enjoy the process.
That way, you won’t stress out over things that are not in your control.

 

 

Now for example, my specific goal could be to get 1 Million subscribers, and you could help me by hitting the like button, and subscribe to my channel, but that is not a good goal because it is something I don’t have a total control over.

Statistically you need over 3800 videos to hit 1 million subscribers.
So the specific goal would be – create at least 3000 videos. Sounds overwhelming.

So rather I will concentrate on the systems needed to get 1 Million subscribers. Like making videos every week. Make them each time 1% better, and give people the reasons to subscribe.
Those are things I have control over, and are short term goals, that i can achieve, and will keep me disciplined and motivated. 

And sometime in the future, maybe I’ll hit 1 Million subs, who knows.

 

 

I found it helpful to always have your goals somewhere written down where you can read them casually. You can write it down on a sticky note and place it on your Monitor, your wardrobe closet, or even your door to your living room. 

Perhaps not there. Not everyone should know your exact goals. 

 

So the bottom line is, write your goals down, and do something every day to achieve them, revisit them at the end of every month, and you all will be successful. 

 

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.