Tips and Tricks to Achieve Your Goals

What would your future look like, if you knew you could not fail?

I remember when I was going to primary school. In grades 3-6, you had to write a story. The title of the story was “Myself as a …………………… ” blank. You as the student had to fill in the blank portion. What would you like to be? I remember my grade five teacher Ms. Riley going around the classroom saying,

• “what does it do?”
• “what does it feel like?”
• “what colour is it?”

You may be wondering why is Uylander taking me back to my childhood days? Especially if writing is not my forte. I know as we get older, life and responsibilities get in the way and we no longer dream or write for that matter. Today, we will be talking about those dreams that have been buried or are yet to be born.

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Ability to Dream

There is only ONE person in all this world, who will be able to answer this question. Drum roll, You. No one else will be able to answer with question except you. What would your future look like if you knew you could not fail? What would you do? What would you create? How would you live? What’s at the uttermost part of your being? That thing that you feel pulled, pressured into creating. You don’t feel that you can be at peace until you do this one thing. Here are my recommendations:

• Take 10 minutes each day. Yes, turn off tv, phone, radio, every distraction. Complete this in a quiet room. The bathroom works. Outside in the yard works as well. If you need to get up earlier than the rest of the family, so be it. Do what is required. This is your life we are talking about.
• Get a pen
• Get a little notebook. An old exercise book works. I would prefer for you not to work on a loose leaf of paper because you may lose it. Here’s the million dollar question that you will be answering:

Once you have answered that question let’s go back to elementary/primary school. Spend 5 minutes writing your story. Myself as a ………………………………….. you fill in the blank. You are the author, designer, sculptor of your own destiny.

SMART GOALS

If I didn’t have to think about money, what would I do? Write down as many ideas that comes to your mind. In fact, set a timer for two minutes and just write, nobody cares about spelling at this point. Just WRITE. 

Management gurus tell us: Your goals have to be SMART. Not as in person smart. It’s an acronym which means

S- specific – the goal needs to be as detailed as possible. What does it feel like? How does it smell? What colour are you wearing? Where are you (building, locale)? Are you sitting or standing? What objects, furniture, people are around you? What activity are you doing? Furthermore, why are you doing this activity- the purpose, reason.

M-easureable – how will you know when you have achieved the goal

Attainable/Achievable – the goal should challenge you but not be too far out of reach. It is better to make smaller goals until you reach the bigger goals. For example, you want to save ten thousand dollars by the end of the year. Right now, your bank account has a balance of zero dollars. Break down the ten thousand dollars into the number of months for the year. You will need to save a total of $833 per month. This can be further broken down in the daily amount that needs to be saved to reach your goal. $833 divided by 20 working days = $42 per day.

Realistic -sometimes we get bogged down with all the details and stop the process of dreaming. I want us to get the barebones, the skeleton first. Dream first then you get to put on clothes on those dreams. This is where the realistic comes into being. How will I get this done? How can I get this done? What do I need to do?

Time bound – when will this happen, short term 1-3 years, long term 5 years out.

Getting Older

I remember when I used to work with MBA students. These adult learners would come into my office and say “Uylander, this is going to take forever. I can’t put my life on hold for this.” I would say “No, next year this time you will be one year in. You would have completed 50% of your journey. Or the more mature learners would say, “but Uylander I am too old for this.” My response “No you are not, we are all getting older anyway. How about aging with an MBA instead of without one. How will the MBA improve your life and opportunities?

Facing Your Fears

Don’t let fear stand in your way. Do your do diligence. Yes, do research. Check your facts and then just move. No, I am not asking for an earth shattering movement. One step in front of the other. Baby steps. Now that you have written down some things. How do you get started. Are you thinking of a career move. If so, will you need to go back to school? What subjects do you need for the program? Which school offers those subjects

Conclusion

Finally, we are all getting older anyway, let’s dust off those dreams, aspirations and get to working on them. Only You can do what You do and do it best.

Tips and Tricks to Achieve Your Goalshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQlJbMkLq-wT

*Stock image provided by Pixabay.