Setting and achieving goals can be an intimidating
process. When you start out on a new path, you
probably have little to no experience in the field at all.
It’s hard to imagine that you might one day consider
yourself an expert in that area. Rather than getting
overwhelmed with everything that comes with starting
a new venture, take a step back, plan out your path,
and take the first steps toward accomplishing your
goal.
1. Start small
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
It is always the same step, but you have to take it. —
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars
Like I said, it’s easy to get
intimidated when starting
something new. When I
started playing guitar, I
was amazed at how
incredible some of my
friends already were. Of
course, they’d been playing
since they were 10 years
old. I couldn’t just pick up
my guitar and start
shredding like they were
able to; I had to learn how
to tune it, how to hold it,
and how to play open
chords before I could
move on to more advanced techniques like arpeggios
and diminished 7th chords. Figure out how you’re
going to learn the basics before you try to try to tackle
something you’re not ready for. It might be boring to
start slow, but building a solid foundation will ensure
future success.
2. Attack one goal at a time
However, not all goals are created equal: Merely
fantasizing about your goal is de-motivating-it actually
tricks the brain into thinking you have already
achieved it. — Vanessa Van Edwards
Starting with the basics can also be intimidating, as
you’ll find there is a lot to learn. Don’t stretch yourself
thin by trying to accomplish more than one task at a
time. Using guitar as an example again, it would make
no sense for me to learn how to play chords before I
knew if my guitar was in tune. Training my ear to
recognize the exact note each string should be tuned
to was the absolute beginning of my path as a
guitarist. If I learned how to play a chord before
knowing exactly what that chord should sound like, I
would have been doing myself a huge disservice. By
setting your sights on one goal at a time, you’ll be able
to carry the knowledge you learned with you onto the
next step in your journey.
3. Understand your
goals
The starting point of all
achievement is desire. —
Napoleon Hill
In high school, I (and I’m
sure many of you) used to
wonder “when am I ever
gonna need this?” Because
I couldn’t picture my adult
self needing to know how
to calculate the area of a
triangle, I didn’t really care
much for math, and,
naturally, didn’t do too well
in the subject, either. At
the time, I didn’t
understand the importance of learning the materials
my teachers presented. The goal wasn’t to learn, but
to pass the class. If I understood that learning the ins-
and-outs of the periodic table in 10th grade would put
me on the path toward curing diseases in my adult life,
I might have paid a bit more attention in chemistry
class. The point is, you should know beforehand why
each step in your journey is important. Understand
your goals by using this goal wheel. Knowing this will
allow you to put your all into every step you take.
4. Truly want to succeed
Rather than dispensing goal setting as a benign, over-
the-counter treatment for motivation, managers and
scholars need to conceptualize goal setting as a
prescription-strength medication that requires careful
dosing, consideration of harmful side effects, and
close supervision. — “ Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic
Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting” Harvard
Business School
I just mentioned how my goals in high school were
simply to pass the test and move on. My grades
allowed me to pass but they weren’t good. Any
knowledge I gained for one test immediately left my
brain after the test was over, since, to my teenage self,
I had accomplished my goal and no longer needed to
keep that information stored. If I had the drive to
succeed that I do now, I would have taken my studies
a bit more seriously, knowing that what I learned then
would benefit me later in life. When trying something
new, you have to be passionate about every step you
take. Not everything you learn on your path will be
interesting or fun. But the result of truly learning from
each step will ultimately lead to success. One day,
you’ll surprise yourself at how much you know about a
subject you learned 10 years ago — because you took
the time learning it the first time around!
5. Make your goals public
Discipline is the bridge between goals and
accomplishment. — Jim Rohn
When you set out to accomplish a new goal, don’t hide
your efforts. Tell your family and friends about your
new venture. Doing so will have more of an effect on
your efforts than you realize. For one, you won’t want
to embarrass yourself by petering out, and you’ll push
yourself to succeed so others see how far you’ve
come. Secondly, you won’t want to let others down. If
you tell your wife you’re going to start exercising
more, chances are she’ll be excited at the prospect of
you having a little less of a gut and a little more in the
bicep region. I’m not saying you should only want to
improve for others, but I am saying there’s nothing
wrong with getting motivation from external sources.
6. Get excited about improving
There’s a great satisfaction in knowing that we’ve
made good use of our days, that we’ve lived up to our
expectations of ourselves. — Gretchen Rubin, Better
than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday
Lives
When learning a new skill, there’s an alternative to
being intimidated by others who are currently better
than you: getting inspired by them. Going back to my
days as a novice guitarist, I was definitely intimidated
by my friends who, to my beginner ears, were
incredible musicians. But as I got better at playing
guitar myself, I realized that I could reach their level of
expertise with more and more practice. I went from
thinking “There’s no way I’ll be able to play like that” to
“I’m actually better than that!” in the span of a few
short months. Not only that, but analyzing my
progress helped me visualize my future progress as
well. As you progress on your path to success, you’ll be
better at setting realistic goals, and will start
surpassing them with ease.
7. Anticipate success
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental
attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on Earth can
help the man with the wrong mental attitude. —
Thomas Jefferson
This goes along with the last section, in that once you
start succeeding at smaller tasks, you’ll begin to see
the big picture. You’ll stop thinking “Let’s see if I can do
this,” and begin thinking “Once I complete this, I’ll be
able to move on to this next step.” It won’t be a matter
of “if”, but a matter of “when.” You’ll be better able to
make a gameplan for success, since you’ll know where
you’ll be the following day in terms of skills and
abilities. Once you see where your progress is headed,
you should make a checklist of what you want to
accomplish, and what you’ll do next after you reach
that goal. Soon enough a 5K will turn into a marathon!
8. Make visual representations of your path
Students who invest in their goals also demonstrate
greater persistence, creativity, and risk taking in their
achievement of those goals.– “ Setting Goals: Who,
Why, and How?” By: Harvard Initiative for Teaching
and Learning
Don’t just think up a checklist or to-do list; physically
write one out. Once you accomplish a small task, take
the time to check it off your list. You’ll be surprised
how motivating it can be to see a long list of tasks you
need to do get smaller and smaller. Also, create a
schedule. As I mentioned, you’ll eventually be able to
anticipate what your future self will be able to
accomplish. Setting a schedule which predicts future
accomplishments will keep you on task to ensure you
reach those goals on the day you thought you would.
Writing your goals out makes them tangible, and you’ll
be less likely to put work off, no matter how tired you
may be.
No comments:
Post a Comment