If you’ve been following me with my blog here, you should know that you need to have a clear goal. If you want to be successful but you don’t have a goal, you will never achieve what you want in your life.

I’m not going to tell you why you need to have a goal in your life or how to set an empowering goal in this article. What I’m going to share with you here today is something that I found interesting.

I believe that almost everyone who sets their goals fail to make their goals come true.

I don’t know about you, but this has happened to me before. Why is this so?

And in this article, I’m going to share with you the idea why most people fail to achieve their goals and how you can make a different and achieve what you really want in your life.

Your Goals Are Not Your Dreams

First of all, many people treat their goals like dreams. They have big goals, and I mean really big goals. It is great to have big goals, but the problem is, can you really achieve it?

Too often, people set their goals too big until they’re overwhelmed by their goals. In other words, their goals are just unrealistic.

Before you set your goals, make sure they are really within your reach! If you set your goal as to make a million dollar by selling a $1 key chain, do you know how many sales you’re going to make before you can achieve that target? Do you know how many rejections you’ll have to go through before you can finally cross that 1 million dollar mark? Can you really stand the rejection? Are you really committed to put in the crazy hard work?

This is what is happening to most people. If you’re trying to earn a million dollar by selling a $1 key chain, you’ll give up faster than you can ever imagine.

What is more worse is that people will set a very short deadline for their goals. For example, they want to lose weight and they want to lose it fast. It is just like you set your goal as to make $100,000 in just 24 hours, which is not really possible.

I’m not saying that you cannot set big goals or it is impossible to achieve such a big goal in a short time. What I’m suggesting you is…

Start With Small Goals To Stretch Your Muscle

You have to start small. You have to make use to goal setting and you must train yourself, your muscle and your brain about achieving goals.

If you set 100 goals but you fail to even make anyone of them come true, what will you do? Do you think you will feel de-motivated and give up forever?

Of course you will! So use goal setting in the right way. Start from setting small goals that you can attain.

Let me give you an example here. If your usual wake up time is 7am and you want to improve it to 6am, what you can do is by setting small goals to train yourself in achieving it.

You can start by waking up at 6.50am for 3 days, 6.40am for another 3 days, 6.30am for the next 3 days and so on until you achieve your ultimate goal.

It is the same if you want to adopt the habit of reading. Some people will feel sleepy once they open their book. So what you can do is start from small task. Train yourself to read for 5 to 10 minutes. And then slowly increase the time you spend into reading until you get use to it and eventually achieve your goals.

You must not OVERDO yourself. You’re not superman and you will never be! (and I hope you don’t want to be a superman because you’ll have to wear your underwear outside! )

The whole message of this article is this, do not set goals that are unrealistic or outside of your reach, at least not when you’re new in goal setting. Make sure your goals are attainable.

Always start with smaller goals that you can achieve to build up the momentum. Once you achieved your goals, you will feel happy and extremely fulfilled. So what good is this?

You will be motivated, you will take even more action and set even higher goals in your life.

Therefore, if you’re not achieving your goals, maybe this is one of the reasons for it.

So try to break down your goals into smaller goals and start taking action, right now!

Achieving your goal is not something difficult. In fact, as long as you’re serious in making your goals come true, you’re definitely able to achieve them. It is just a matter of time to achieve your goals.

One of the most common reasons people fail to achieve their goal is that they don’t even know what their goals are! Some people do not know about the power of goal setting and hence, they never set any goals in their life. While some people heard about goal setting, they just did not do anything about it. What a waste if you are not using this powerful skill to the fullest.

Another reason is that some people had set their goals, but they are not setting their goals correctly. Let me give you a very simple example. If you set your goals to make $100,000 in just one month, this will be a wrong goal. Not that it is impossible to be achieved, however, you must consider your current situation.

Just like if you’re only making $1,000 a month and you set your goals as to earn $100,000 in just one month, it will be almost impossible to achieve. This is a common mistake that most people will do in goal setting. It is true that you must think big and dream big, however, the goals you set must be realistic.

It is preferably to set smaller goals when you just starting out. This is so that you can build up your confidence because it is easier to achieve smaller goals. Don’t think about reaching the sky in just one step. You have to break down your goals into smaller goals and write them down. As the saying goes, “Rome was not built in a day”.

So find out what you really want in your life, set your goals and be realistic in goal setting. Follow through the guides in Goal Setting in my blog. There are tons of great information, tips and strategies how to set and achieve your goals here in my blog.

Here are the 5 guaranteed steps how you can achieve your goals…

1. Be 100% Committed In Achieving Your Goals

You must be committed and serious in achieving your goals. If you are not serious, you’ll never take action and I’m sure you’ll procrastinate. If you’re not serious in achieving your goals, why do you set goals in the first place? So if you’re going to set goals, make sure you’re serious about it and always take the necessary action to make your goals come true.

Too often, people are lazy to take the necessary action to make their goals come true. So you have to make it a ‘do or die’ situation. When you know that you cannot fail, you’ll definitely achieve your goals. Burn all the bridges so that you have no other choice but to achieve your goals. If you do so, you’ll put in 100% commitment into making your goals come true.

This is one of the most obvious differences between a successful person with someone who fail to achieve their goals in life. Successful people treat their goals seriously and do whatever they can to make their goals come true. However, ordinary people will give excuses, blame and delay their actions.

2. Affirm Your Goals Twice A day

Affirming your goals once after you woke up and once before you sleep is a MUST DO if you are serious to achieve your goals. Many people underestimate the power of affirming their goals. Think about it, affirming your goal is not something difficult, it only takes you a few minutes a day and if you do this everyday, the result it brings are amazing.

Therefore, try to apply this simple but effective technique at least twice everyday. If you truly follow through and do this everyday, you’ll submerge the idea of achieving your goals into your subconscious mind. You’ll keep on thinking about your goals and be motivated all the time to achieve them.

One of the success strategies is that you must always think about what you want often. Successful people think about what they want most of the time while ordinary people think about what they don’t want most of the time. The more you think about your goals, the more you’re going to take action because you’re motivated about it.

3. Stop Blaming and Giving Excuses

If you fail to achieve your goals, which most of the time you’ll face, don’t blame anyone or anything and don’t give any excuses. Instead, take 100% responsibility and try to learn from the feedback. Why did you fail to achieve your goals? Are you using the right strategies? Are you goals too high? Are you taking enough action? Learn from the feedback that you received and you’ll improve in your life.

People will give excuses and blame other factors when they fail to achieve their goals most of the time. But if you’re someone clever, you’ll know that when you blame and give excuses, you’ll lose the power to control and hence stay at the same point in your life.

Success is not about blaming and giving excuses. It is about learning and improving. The more you learn from your mistakes the more you’re going to improve. The best is to learn from other people’s mistakes. Smart people learn from their own mistakes and feedback; smarter people learn from other people’s mistakes and feedback.

4. Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Are you ready to take the necessary action to make your goals come true? You must be willing to get out of your comfort zone if you want to achieve your goals. You’ll definitely change your life slowly as you achieve what you want in your life and getting nearer toward your goals everyday. So be ready to get out of your comfort zone.

You don’t have to change your life drastically, but you must be willing to improve your life a little bit everyday. Often, it is the small changes that will bring you toward your success. For example, you can develop the habit of affirming your goals twice a day until after you’ve made this a habit, only then you start to develop other empowering habits.

5. Get Busy Paying The Price

Achieving your goal is easy, once you’ve set your goals, get busy paying the price. Meaning, you have to keep on taking action to make your goals come true. Goal setting is not a magic wand, you’ll not achieve what you want by just writing it down. You’ll have to actually do something to make your goals come true. If you’re not doing anything, don’t expect to see results. It is impossible that success will fall from the sky automatically.

Many people seem to misunderstand and thought that once they set their goals, they’ll achieve their goals automatically. The real in making your goals come true is in taking consistent action. So ask yourself whether are you ready to sacrifice and take action to make your goals come true?

These are the 5 guaranteed steps that as long as you follow through, I’ll guarantee that you’ll achieve your goals. These are not big secrets, they are just plain mindset and habits. Success require no secrets, but a lot of hard work and determination to make it come true.

Always remember this, success is about getting things done, it is a process and not a destination. So get ready and be prepare to do what are supposed to do right now. Start paying the price to make your goals come true.

Do you have a goal? And if you do, did you achieve it? Most people know that if they want to achieve success in their life, they need to have a clear and specific goal. The problem with this is that most people still fail to achieve what they want in their life even if they have set their goals.

Why is this so? Is that goal setting does not work? No, it is not goal setting that does not work, it is you that do not work! Before you can achieve your goals, you have to understand that it is action that will bring your goals come true. That means, without taking any real solid action, you are not going to achieve your goals. Action produces result. Make this clear.

Now, once you knew that in order to make your goals come true, you need to take action. However, what actually drives you into taking all the action? Most people fail because they procrastinate, they did not take enough action to make their goals come true. So what is the #1 reason you fail to achieve your goals? To answer this question, you need to know what drives you into taking action.

It is the Reason Behind that will Drive You into Action

This is the #1 reason people fail to achieve their goals. It is the reason behind you that will drive you into taking massive action. Think about it, if you your reason is not strong, will you do whatever it takes to achieve your goals? Hardly. Read: What Actually Drives You Towards Your Goals

Let me give you an example here. There is a father, who smoke all the time. And one day, he realized that he needs to stop smoking because it is a bad habit for his daughter. So he set his goal as to stop smoking. However, his reason is not strong enough, he just could not stop smoking. Until one day, her daughter cry and tell him, “Papa, I don’t want to lose you. I just cannot see you die because of lung cancer. My teacher taught us that smoking increases the chance of getting lung cancer!”

After this event, the father stops smoking completely. Why? This is because the reason has become stronger than before. When the reason for you to do something is stronger than to procrastinate, you will take the necessary to make it come true.

Take the example above, and imagine that you are that father who cannot stop smoking. And one day you went for medical check up and the doctor tells you that if you keep on smoking, you will die within 3 months because of cancer. Now, do you think that you will stop smoking and live a healthy lifestyle? You bet.

Therefore you see, when the reasons are so strong behind your goals, you will do whatever it takes to achieve it. People fail to achieve their goals simply because their reasons to achieve their goals are not strong enough. Just like if your goal is to become a millionaire, is becoming a millionaire a MUST for you? Or it is just a wish? For most people, becoming a millionaire is just a dream, it is just a goal for them to live a better life, it is not a must. And this is why most people are not millionaires.

Your Goals Must be Consistent with Your Values

Another big mistake most people make in goal setting is this, their goals are not consistent with their values. What I mean here is that the goals that you set must be aligned with what you really want to achieve in your life. If you hate mathematics, but you set your goal as to score A in maths, will you achieve this goal? Not likely because you don’t have the passion for it!

That is why I said that your goals must be consistent with your values. A lot of people set goals that they hate to achieve. Money is a very important subject in our life, people set goals to make more money in their life by doing things that they DON’T LIKE. If you are serious in achieving what you really want in your life, find out what really passionate you, then set goals in that area and you will find that it is A LOT MORE EASIER to achieve those goals.

I hope you can see it clearly now. Go through your values and find out what you really want to achieve in your life. Your future lies within your hand. Know where your passion lies and what you really want to achieve in your life today, take as long as you need to find out the reasons behind your life. Ask yourself what really drives you into taking action and what keeps you going in your life.

The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. Hence, take the first step to find out what you really want. Then follow through my post in Goal Setting, craft and design your road map to success.

As you may already know, goal setting is not the same as strategy planning. However, both goal setting and planning are important in our life, because with both of them, we can basically achieve anything we want in our life.

So What is Goal Setting?

Like what I told you, goal setting is not the same as planning. Goal setting is writing down WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE in your life. For example, your goals can be to buy a sports car or to earn $1 million dollar in just 3 years. These are what I called your goals. If you did not write down your goals, they will be dreams. Once you write them down, they will become goals for you to achieve.

There are many ways to set your goals, if you are not sure what are the criteria for setting an effective goal, read Goal Setting for more information. Always remember to write down your dreams, let it become more tangible in your life. Write them down and go through them as much as possible everyday, go through them at least once before you sleep and once right after you woke up.

What is Strategy Planning?

For me, strategy planning is different from goal setting. Strategy planning is something EVEN MORE tangible, they are what I called ‘steps’ that you must take in order to achieve your goals. Like goal setting, you too, must write down your strategies how are you going to achieve your goals. Yes, strategy planning are the steps how are you going to achieve your goals.

Take the example above, if your goal is to earn $1 million in just 3 years, how are you going to achieve it? Are you going to venture into the world of internet marketing? Or maybe you have strong desire in network marketing? What about stock or property investment? As you can see now, strategy planning are the steps that you can actually TAKE to make your goals come true.

You Need Both to Succeed in Your Life

Yes, you need both goal setting and strategy planning to achieve what you want in your life. Without anyone of them, you will never achieve what you always dream of.

Let’s say that you have set your goal as to earn $1 million from internet marketing in just 3 years. So your strategy planning can be:

1. Penetrate your target market using affiliate marketing.
2. Set up a lead capture page to capture visitor’s contact.
3. Make use of email marketing to close sales.
4. Drive traffic to your lead capture page with article marketing and forum marketing.
5. Improve the system and make at least $500 per week.
6. Decide whether to launch another program to profit from or keep on improving the sales.

I believe that you are clear now and you can see the big picture of what goal setting is and what strategy planning is. Now, both goal setting and planning can be as specific as possible. In fact, the more specific your goals and your plans are, the easier you are going to achieve your dreams. (How to Catalyze Your Thoughts and Dreams)

Goals are just like your target, they keep you stay focused so that you will not running out of the direction where you are heading. As for strategy planning, if goal is your target, then planning will be your arrow and your bow. The arrow and the bow are how you are the tools how are you going to hit your target with.

If You Don’t Know What You Want, You Are a Walking Dead 

I hope that you are clear with goal setting and planning now. They are not the same, but their reasons are the same, that is to help you achieve what you wanted the most in your life.

If you still don’t know what you want to achieve in your life, make sure you find out the answer before you sleep tonight. Life without dreams and goals is meaningless.

Have you ever watched Resident Evil? If you don’t have a clear goal of what you want to achieve in your life today, you will be just like the walking dead in the movie. You don’t know where to go and you don’t know who you are. All you do is attacking those who still live, why? Because it is what every walking dead did!

So you see, if you don’t have a plan today, you are going to end up in somebody else’s plan, you are going to end up doing what everyone is doing. That is why 95% of the people in this world are complaining about their life, only 5% of them are satisfied with their life, because they know exactly what they want in life, they determine their life’s meaning. You are no different than the undead if you don’t have a clear goal and a specific plan of how to achieve them in your life.

Therefore, find out what you really want in your life today, make sure you write down your dreams and develop plans for your goals. The journey of a thousand leagues start from a single step, so take that first step today, make your dreams come true. Read 4 Steps to Achieve Anything You Want in Life.