How To Achieve Your Goals

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I speak to people all the time (predominantly women), who give me millions of reasons as to why they haven’t been able to achieve their goals. Usually, there is also an excuse in there somewhere along the lines of “I don’t have a certificate for this”, I can’t afford it, or my favourite, “someone else said it’s too difficult so why bother”.

Tony Robbins famously says, that failure is never due to the lack of resources, it’s the lack of resourcefulness. What he means is that it’s not lack of money that was the reason for the failure, the problem was that you weren’t creative enough to come up with a solution.

The truth is that we all have what it takes to succeed at any goal we set ourselves, and that is true for business, life, career, health and whatever else you put your mind to. The reality is, however, that most of us just need someone else to help point that out and show us the potential in ourselves.

I was the same. I had super low self-esteem, low confidence, I was “poor”, very negative and felt like I was just unlucky. I didn’t realise that I could change all of that or that I even had a choice! I not only managed to start my own dream interior design business but I also get to work for myself, from anywhere I please. In addition to that, I have the most rewarding position as a mentor that allows me to help others achieve their dream of becoming an interior designer too.

As a mentor, the coolest thing is helping a student realise that they’re good at something or that they have a beneficial personality trait that they couldn’t see in themselves. When someone points it out to them, all of a sudden they become this super person because they start believing in themselves and the possibilities. I love seeing the pattern of success in my students. I love noticing the reoccurring themes and seeing them achieve their goals, one by one.

Achieving your goals gives you the feeling of success. Success leaves clues, and I see them bright and clear in my students. I can also see the process that I went through myself to get from that place of sadness and hope to achieving my goals and living my dreams.

So how do you achieve your goals every time without fail? There is a system that works, and this is it! If you follow it, you will reach your goals.

• STEP 1 |  The first thing you need to do is write down your goal and a deadline to achieve it! As simple as that. Without a deadline, you can keep pushing your goal further and further away and you will lose the pressure and motivation to achieve your goal.
• STEP 2 | The next thing you need to do (which is often harder to do) is to believe in yourself. To start with, you need to believe in your abilities, believe that you have what it takes to achieve the goal. Without the belief in yourself, you’ll talk yourself out of it before you have even begun.

During the whole time you are working on achieving your goal, you need to tap into your passion and your desire. Why is it that you want to achieve the goal? When you figure out why you want it, it will help you get back to and connect with that feeling easier. It means that when you feel like giving up or when your motivation or willpower is lower than usual, you can go back to why and reignite the flame with your desire. It can be as simple as looking at images on a mood-board to help you remember why, meditating, visualising or listening to a song that has meaningful lyrics.

This one will be contentious with some people, but I tried it without and it rarely works, so you need it, even if it is deep down and hidden pretty far.

• STEP 3 | | You need to stay optimistic. If you don’t believe you are ever going to achieve your goal you make decisions based around that. So if you make decisions based on maybe, possibly, or even definitely, then you are making decisions based on faith that you are going to achieve your goal. If your daily actions set you up for failure, guess what you’re going to get? But if you stay optimistic (even when you don’t feel it), you are more likely to achieve your goal if you are not because your actions are subconsciously working towards making it come to life. Also if you are only quietly optimistic, its better than pessimistic.
• STEP 4 | The last thing you need to do to achieve any goal is to persist. Sometimes goals take a little longer than you expected them to take (I would say often!) I set a deadline for a goal sometimes and I don’t seem to achieve it, then at the eleventh hour everything falls into place, but I don’t ever give up until I reach my goal. Even if that means I need to change my attitude, tactics, strategy or anything else. Don’t ever give up. Think back to why, reignite your passion and keep going.

The first time I started a business it flopped. So did the second, third and fourth times… These days, I think it’s much easier to make a business succeed much faster. There is more information out there, and there is more support and help available. I ended up finally succeeding in business when I hired a business coach. I didn’t give up (even though by that stage I thought I was a total loser, but I found a way – and by the way, asking for help isn’t cheating. No-one ever achieves anything truly on their own).

For me, it felt like I could do everything, except earn money. I graduated top of my university class in architecture, I got the best jobs working for the best companies, I travelled the world, I worked on the coolest projects, but when I tried to make money working for myself, it was my biggest block.

I eventually did it, and I am so glad I never gave up. Keep your vision clear, set your goal, set a deadline, believe in yourself, stay inspired, stay optimistic and never give up until you achieve your goal.

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Jo Chrobak