Get What You Want

As a living being we always want to improve ourselves. Society, famous people, even our mind creates wishes and goals to lead us to "happiness." I say "happiness" because sometimes what we want is not really good for us. Even though, I believe that every change and every achievement is an improvement, sometimes in our life and sometimes in our perception, showing us what is the right path to follow. With that being said here are some activities that I see in common with most successful people and that, of course, I use in personal life.

Before we start, do never set a goal that you don't think that you can achieve. Most people call that a dream.

#1. Divide your long term goal in short term goals.

First of all, I think that probably the most important think to do when trying to achieve something, what we can name as a goal, is to divide the goal. Smaller "checkpoints" to reach it. Seems a little bit confusing? I'll give an example.

Individual example:

When someone is overweighted or maybe just trying to reach a certain type of body is really important to measure and be updated of the improvement. If someone wants to loose 30 pounds in 3 months, for example, it quite demotivating to keep thinking how it will be so hard to loose all that weight. So, this tip consists in trick our brain making smaller achievements like:

Week #1: Loose 5 pounds

Week #2: Fit in my old Levis' jeans

Week #3: Weight 190 pounds (10 pounds lost)

and so on.

The effectivity of dividing a goal have been scientifically proved. In my opinion our anxiety makes us lazy because we keep that goal in mind (in this case, the 30 pounds) and regardless of the period that has already passed by we get demotivated by not achieving the goal. These smaller achievements encourage us too keep going because we feel that's also possible to achieve the main goal.

"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."

- Tony Robbins

#2. There is no achievement without hard work.

Sometimes we see a person achieving something and we think: "They are so lucky.". Let me tell you something, even if you believe in luck, don't think about it. Successful people work hard. They sacrifice their time, their effort, sometimes even part of their life because they are focused in their goal. Do you think that setting goals will make it easier for the person to loose 30 pounds? It will probably motivate them, but they still need to take the responsibility and go workout, run, have a better diet. No miracle will happen the day after they set short-term objectives and that they wake up with 15 pounds less. So when you are willing to achieve something you need the same willingness to work day in and day out as hard as you can.

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning."

- Pele

#3. Create a strategy.

After setting your smaller goals, you need to find how to achieve them as well. I put this tip after talking about hard work because hard work doesn't mean to kill yourself doing unnecessary stuff and thinking that you are really putting effort toward your goal. Strategies help us see the big picture and figure out the best way to achieve something.

Business example:

If you have the goal of creating your own company and your idea is based on the digital world, you don't need to spend hours learning how to use codes to create a website or how to send out automatic email if that is not something of your interest. You can hire a developer or maybe ask for a tech-savvy friend to help you with that, depending on the technology involved. You save your time and patience managing tasks to people who will take less time and effort to do it.

“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.”

- Lee Bolman

#4. Be assertive, but don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Every time you choose an option you are leaving at least one other option behind. AND THAT'S OK. Life is short and we will never know the outcome of a choice if we don't make that choice. Of course we don't want to make decisions that we know that are going to lead us to something bad. But don't be afraid to try new things, take risks and if you make a decision keep up with it, seize all the benefits, disadvantages and knowledge that your decision presents you. Sometimes we win and sometimes we learn.

“You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

#5. Stop Judging Other People

This tip is more of an individual advice. It's something that you need to change inside of you. As humans, we have the bad habit to decrease others' merit. Saying that your neighbor is a snob because he bought a new car, or that someone that you saw on the street did some surgical procedure because they are good looking will not affect anyone besides you, who is going to be wasting time. If you want to reach something that another person already did, admire them, let them inspire you, ask for advice, or do you thing that Steve Jobs used to waste time thinking about how Bill Gates was "lucky" or that his company was so much better than Microsoft and vice and versa.

“By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

To finish my opinion about achievements, remember to change your goal as little as you can. Most of the times that means that you are giving up. And try to always keep in mind these successful behavior that I divided in five groups. I hope that all your goals come true and that I was able to help you with it.