Tips to Achieve Goals

How to achieve goals?

1. First, you must write down your goals in clear specific language. Then

start with not only visualising but also seeing your goals as clearly as you have written down. For example, if your goal is to go to Italy and visit Venice, activate your imagination and see that you are in a boat in Venice. Likewise, if you want to buy a specific expensive car say BMW, you should imagine or see yourself riding the BMW.

2. You have to figure out that the sense of believing that you have already achieved the goal is to start looking at it.
3. Next, you need to understand the obstacles. If all things were very easy then nobody would need to create goals, write goals or work hard to achieve them. Things are not easy and they will never be easy. Once you see yourself achieving your specific goal, then you sit down and work out what are the kind of obstacles you might face. There will definitely be some obstacles, which you can visualize. And one more important thing to remember is that as you move forward towards achieving your goal, some unexpected obstacle will also come which you will have to conquer. It is only your determination, your decision and your perseverance that you will some way or the other help achieve the goal that you have already imagined.
4. Create a mental picture that the obstacles are coming and you are conquering all the obstacles. Imagine that there is an athlete who is running an obstacle race, while he is running fast; he is also crossing the obstacles. Likewise, now that you know what kind of obstacles will come, you imagine crossing those obstacles, picture yourself conquering those obstacles and still carrying on with your mission.
5. Many doubts can arise in your mind. It is normal. However, clear all the doubts, clear your mind of all doubts which often come, which are quite natural. You say to yourself, nothing doing, no such doubts will stop me from achieving my goal. I have a clear picture of achieving my goal, I am determined and I have created a mental picture of conquering my obstacles. Therefore, there is no doubt that I can do it. The goal itself is a challenge. And all the obstacles that you face while pursuing the goal, will also be kind of smaller challenges. Embrace the challenge. It is an opportunity which will definitely enhance your courage, which will give you more will power to pursue and to be successful. Stay on track. Keep up on the track following the same thing, which you have defined and seeing yourself achieving it. There should be no diversion. Staying on track will definitely make it easier for you to overcome the obstacles and reach your goal. Eventually show the world you can do it. As I say, SUCCESS stands for,

S – See your goal

U – Understand the obstacles

C – Create positive mental pictures

C – Clear your mind of self-doubts

E – Embrace the challenges

S – Stay on track

S – Show the world you can do it.

When the goal is a big project, define it and write it down. Then have a very strong desire for it. That is the kind of motivation, which is necessary to follow the steps that I have already mentioned.

6. Believe in yourself; that you can do it and then you will do it.
7. If it is an arduous task and a big project, split it up. Split it into smaller goals and then give a time line to those smaller goals. You must review these every day. You have to review what you have done. You have to check if you have come up to your expectations or not. This step is extremely important. Schedule it, add a timeline to all smaller goals and then do it.

Thanks for reading.

Four Simple Steps to Develop Good Habit

If habits are stepping stones, their choice should be the outcome of reality’s and targets’ cognitive approach. Acharya Rajneesh once proclaimed that “I am less interested in your chain-smoking but more interested in your habit. Any habit that becomes a force, a dominating force over you, is a great sin. One should therefore live more in freedom. One should be able to do things according to the situations but not according to the habits”.

1. Control Your Thoughts

If you don’t learn to control your thoughts or opinions, you will never learn to control your behavior and if you don’t learn to control your behaviour, you will never be able to build good habits. Habit creates the appearance of justice and progress has no bigger enemy than habit.

2. Change your thoughts & Actions

If you want to replace the bad habits with the good one, you have to change your actions, thoughts, habits and start doing small things differently every day. Habit change happens when you start with small things. Moreover, if you want to build courage, then simply act courageously. If you do something over and over again, you build a habit. Some people develop the habit of courage whereas some people develop the habit of non-courage.

3. Don’t Play a Victim

People who consider themselves as a victim will rarely produce positive result. Instead you must utilise the given opportunities and turn out the difficulties into a driving force to make yourself and the world better. Mind control is the result of self-discipline and habit. You either control your mind or the mind controls you. There is no half way compromise.

4. Be Practical

And at last, you realize that you can’t force loyalty, consistency, or even honesty.  You can’t force them to keep their word, or to communicate, or to realize something special is right in front of them. You can’t make someone to put up a fight for your heart or change his/her own ways. Take a step back and reflect if your relationship has turned into battlefield of harsh words, mixed emotions, and constant bickering, you must ask yourself whether it’s worth anymore.

It is estimated that up to 90% of our daily activities are habits. If you want to improve your time management, then you need to improve your habits.  Never ever allow ‘waiting’ to become your habit. Be fearless, live your dreams and take risks. Life is happening now and if you wait you tend to lose time. You are not required to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm. Remember your first duty is to ‘Yourself’ but it doesn’t mean that you have to be selfish. But it is necessary to be strong, capable and competent so that you can help others too.

The act of discovering who we are, will force us to accept that we can move further than we think. Success is nothing but a few simple disciplines, practiced every day, while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated everyday.

Always be yourself, respect yourself and have faith in yourself. Ensure to make plans and organize your discipline, thoughts, and devote attention to detail for creating something worthwhile but not for criticizing your own self. Karma comes after everyone eventually. You can’t get away with screwing people throughout your whole life. Don’t care about others identity, or what all the problems he/she undergoes around. Sooner or later the universe will serve you the revenge that you deserve.

Motivation is what gets you started, and habit is what keeps you going. It’s quite important to keep moving. There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that once unleashed can make any dream, vision or desire a reality.

Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. Either way it is all about your choice. So choose the right habits that enrich your lifestyle!!

Thanks for reading.

Five Ways to Break 10 Bad Habits

Bad Habits

Nearly everyone has a bad habit that they should break. Some people have less than others and some people’s bad habits are more grating than those of others.  Bad habits like excessive drinking, smoking, biting the fingernails, etc., starts slowly and gradually. They jeopardize your health — both physically and mentally thereby wasting your time and energy.

Bad habits are hard to give up, they are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out off.  However, you can achieve anything with the right amount of willpower and a realistic plan of action. With persistence and right mind-sets, it’s possible to break your bad habits.

Here are some ideas for breaking your bad habits

1. Change one thing at a time

It is most important that you don’t try to break all your bad habits, at once. You’re not a superhuman and trying to quit all your bad habits at the same time is probably going to be hard to achieve. Instead, prioritize and choose the habit that you need to change most urgently and then focus on that accordingly.

2. Prepare for weak moments

A positive mindset is significant but if you’re not prepared for those weak moments this can be a biggest mistake. Try to remove temptations as that can help you prepare for those weak moments. For instance, clear the cupboards of junk food, keep some distance from friends who encourage you to smoke/ drink and avoid stressful situations.

3. Set regular reminders

Bad habits are often so deeply ingrained in us that sometimes they can catch us unexpectedly. To help prevent those accidental slip-ups, try setting yourself regular reminders to resist those bag habits.

4. Reward your success

The key to breaking bad habits is to make the process as rewarding and enjoyable, as possible. If you are facing difficulty focusing on the long-term benefits of breaking bad habits, then arrange small rewards for yourself as you go along to help keep you motivated.

5. Remind yourself why you’re breaking those habits

In order to successfully break a bad habit, you have to be sure of your reason for breaking those habits. Find a solid reason for breaking your habit that really means something to you – such as improving your health, relationship or appearance – and keep your goal in sight. This will help you to carry on and stay strong in moments of weakness.

10 habits you must quit to be happy

When you quit doing the bad things, you make more room for the things that make you happy. Aristotle, a great philosopher once said, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit”. However, here are 10 habits that you need to give up in exchange for your happiness.

• Quit procrastinating on your goals
• Quit talking down to yourself
• Quit blaming others and making excuses
• Quit trying to control the uncontrollable
• Quit criticizing others
• Quit trying to avoid change
• Quit running from your problems and fears
• Quit trying to be someone you’re not
• Quit living in another time and place
• Quit being ungrateful

Thanks for reading.

Courage to Continue Denotes Success

The word success as defined in the dictionary means “ the accomplishment of an aim or purpose” . True as it is but definition of the word success changes from person to person. Every individual’s definition of success is different. And why Not? We all have different aims, objectives, goals and purpose of life. And accomplishment of those would mean SUCCESS

to each one of us. Though there is no common definition of success many successful people have presented their views on success. Let us now understand what success meant to them and how best we can add to our success from their experiences.

A writer, statesman and a leader as he was Winston Churchill who has contributed immensely to the Britain’s victory in World War II has quoted that

“Success is not final, Failure is not fatal; It is the courage to continue that counts”. Isn’t it true? Many people think that if you fail at something , it is the end of your life. The suicidal stories you hear after the academic results are declared clearly indicate people’s

attitude towards failure. The quote mentioned above re instills the value of courage to continue the effort in spite of several failures. In short, perseverance is one of the keys to success.

When one wants to achieve something one should turn deaf ears to what people say about your endeavors. Because as the quote goes,” At first they will ask why you are doing it ;But later they will ask How did you do it?

Yes, this is especially important for the people who are torch bearers. Torch bearers are people who attempt to tread the less taken path and are the first ones to do so. When you are pursuing something different and novel, skeptic people always try to ask the validity of such pursuit. Well, if you are convinced about your effort and are ready to give in your hundred percent you will be successful at it. And then the same people would ask you the ways in which you tried to achieve such an untapped feat.

Life is a mix of good and bad times. We are successful sometimes and sometimes we do fail. The most important thing in life is to “Be thankful for hard times as they have made you.” Hard times are testing times. Failures should be visualized as a lesson. I t is rightly said,” When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”! Every struggle to get successful will make you wiser and stronger.

While achieving success it is important that you put your heart , mind and soul into excelling at what you have undertaken. If needed you have to sacrifice a lot in order to achieve something great. Swami Sivananda has rightly pinpointed the secret of success. He

quotes ,” Put your heart , soul and mind into even your smallest acts”. It is also very evident that there is no shortcut to success. It is well known that there is “No elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” Hard work in proper direction definitely yields success. ease everybody.

Success is a result of focus, hard work, learning from failure , loyalty and persistence .Indeed when you strives to excel at certain thing you are bound to be successful. When you balance your hard work with persistence and loyalty the end result will be none other than SUCCESS.

Nelson Mandela quotes” Don’t judge me by success but how many times I fell down and got back again”. If you have persevering attitude in life, nothing can stop you from being successful. Perseverance is a factor which differentiates between success and failure.

Success is , thus, relative to each individual. Unfortunately, many people don’t have goals at any time in life. Life is very short and the most important thing in life to be successful is to set some goals. What is a life without goals? People misconstrue goals to be only related to career and finances.

Well, negating that opinion you can categorize goals as:

1. Career goals,
2. Financial goals,
3. Health goals,
4. Family goals and
5. Goals for society
6. Hobby Goals
7. And Spiritual Goals
   

You have to take charge and set goals for yourself. The priority of goals would differ from person to person. You may feel family and health goals are more important than the rest of the goals. An ambitious person may prioritize on career and financial goals. Hobby goals are the goals which are meant for yourself satisfaction. Society plays an important role in everyone’s life. You should also set some goals which will benefit the society. It is a way to give back to the society where you belong.

Maslow’s pyramid of self motivation has the self actualization need at the top of it! Spiritual goals help achieve that need of a person.

While setting up goals make sure that your goals are SMART.

SMART Goals mean

S- Specific

M-Measurable

A-Achievable

R-Realistic

T-Time bound

Well, to achieve success be specific about what you want to achieve. The goals should have some yardstick against which you can measure your success. You should always have realistic goals and not unbelievable ones.

An example of setting a goal could be “ I want to reduce my weight by 1.5 kgs in a matter of 15 days. Once you do that you can start working over it by chalking out a plan and then executing the same.

Always check on what you have achieved against what you wanted to achieve And keep on bridging the gap, if any. When diligently persevered, success becomes a habit!!

Thanks for reading.

 

Pursuit of happiness should also be pursuit of success

18 questions you may ask yourself in 8 minutes every day. Observe the change in your attitude to life week after week. The questions are:

1. Have you written down your goals? And SMART goals?
2. Do you keep in mind that striving for excellence and not looking for perfection makes you more successful?
3. Do you realize that struggle and obstacles are the first steps of your story of success?
4. Do you have a strong desire to succeed?
5. Are you a person committed to your values and determined to win?
6. Are you able to shoulder responsibility?
7. Are you always prepared to do hard work?
8. Do you remain composed in difficult time?
9. Do you make it a point to learn from past mistakes?
10. Do you always avoid resorting to excuses?
11. Are you always courteous and polite without being subservient?
12. Do you maintain your discipline?
13. Do you believe in yourself and say ‘Yes, I can’
14. Are you able to work without supervision or reminder from others?
15. Are you persistent in your efforts and approach?
16. Are you proud of your excellent performance, whenever it happens?
17. Do you believe in continuous learning and have a mentor to help?
18. Do you realize that for achieving high degree of success, you much stretch in your efforts?

Thanks for reading.

What is Success?

In my last posting, we had discussed about the relative importance of knowledge, wealth and power in achieving success. We carried out a poll which ticked votes as 527 knowledge, 66 wealth, 50 power. But I had explained that the definition of success needs to be created in one’s own individual terms.

Today, I shall talk further about success. What is success? Amassing Wealth; or becoming extremely powerful; or acquiring extensive knowledge? The common parameter for an individual’s success would be how he/she is able to achieve their goals. Indeed, when you set a goal for yourself and you achieve it you are successful.

But what happens when you do not set goals? Or when you set goals which are unrealistic or unachievable? Another question that comes to mind is do you have to be successful according to your own parameters? Do you goals have to be according to your own liking and desires? Or does your family/friends and well wishers have any role to play? Should you/should you not take into account their expectations or even the current trends in the society? If one is a member of a community how can the same be totally disregarded?

One thing for sure is extremely important; that any success worth its name should bring you happiness.

For me true success is achieving bit by bit my goals which I must set as under:

1. My health goals
2. My Career goals
3. My financial goals
4. My social goals
5. My hobby goals
6. My spiritual goals

It means that I need to have some kind of measure for reviewing my success. I have classified these in the order of importance so far as I am concern. But how does one go about defining these goals and setting them according to one’s own priority – well that is a subject for any discussion.