We all have goals in life. We all want to attain something big or something better in the future. Unfortunately, time waits for no one, and these goals remain just that for many people. Let’s take the case of New Year’s resolutions. Setting goals for the new year has become a tradition for everyone. If you’ve remained faithful towards them by the end of they year, you’re probably one of the few who did. Most don’t even make it through the first quarter.
Reason and Passion
So why is it that many people find it hard to stick to their goals? The answer is pretty simple – reason. Plenty of people treat goals as conversation pieces. They don’t exactly have a reason to do what they promised themselves. They just find it cool to have one. It’s like trying to save money instead of committing to spending less. The former is easy to express and doesn’t involve any kind of consequence while the latter implies some level of desire. Then again, reason is just one piece of the pie. The other piece is desire, which fuels our intention to pursue the goal. If your reason is big enough, then your desire is most likely stronger.
Make Your Goals Inevitable and Hold Yourself Accountable
Eben Pagan introduced the concept of inevitability thinking. In a nutshell, it’s a mindset that is built on this idea:
If you set up the conditions so that the thing you want to have happen is inevitable, it shifts your thinking. Creating conditions so that something will happen itself is very different from trying to make the thing happen.
To make your goal even more actionable, hold yourself accountable by setting consequences that are painful to you. For instance, if you trade stocks and you want to be consistent, give $100 to a beggar or to someone in need every time you fail to follow your trading plan and lose money in the process. You should then write it in your trading journal so that you have a record of your mistake. With accountability, you put more emphasis towards getting the goal instead of simply setting it.
Give Your Goals a Schedule
In his presentation, Craig Ballantyne shares his strategy on setting goals from a business’ standpoint. He suggests focusing on just one long term goal and one short term goal. The long term goal should answer the question, Where do I want to be in 10 years? while the short term goal answers the question, what do I need to do in the next 90 days to reach my ultimate goal? If you keep on doing this consistently, you may not even realize that you’ve already reached your long term goal.
The videos below also teach you a thing or two about setting goals effectively. But before watching them, remember this:
