Goals are powerful for personal growth. They can help us to crystallize our vision of our future, motivate us to take action, and keep us ontrack. But, how do you set meaningful goals for your life and achieve them?
In the book, Awaken the Giant Within, Robbins takes you through a detailed Goal-Setting Exercise. In this article, we’ll breakdown the key steps involved, so you can start applying it today.
How to Set Achievable Goals
STEP 1: Brainstorm your goals without stopping
Set aside a chunk of time, and brainstorm, without stopping, all the potential goals you’d want to achieve between now and 20 years from now. Here are 4 key areas with some ideas to get your brainstorming going:
• Personal Development, i.e. ways you’d like to develop yourself e.g. improve your health or social skills, learn history, a master the piano.
• Career/Business/Finance, e.g. level of financial abundance, position or titles, amount of earnings each year, goals for your company, target net worth etc.
• Things to own/ do, i.e. things you’d like to have or experience, if there are no financial limits, e.g. own a catamaran or even an island, carry the Olympic torch, dine with you idol, star in a musical etc.
• Contribution, e.g. adopt a child, visit the old folks at homes, mentor someone leaving prison, build libraries, etc.
STEP 2: Add a timeline
Thinking we have abundance of time to achieve our goals prevents us from setting actionable objectives. It doesn’t matter how you’ll achieve them – just set a timeline to achieve them, to set things in motion.
STEP 3: Top 1-year goal
Decide on the top 1-year goal that you’d commit to achieve this year. Write a paragraph on why it’s so important and why you’re willing to commit to it.
STEP 4: Daily Rehearsals
The steps above will give you the top goals to focus on this year, helping you cultivate a growth mindset and activate your reticular activating system (RAS).
• Start by breaking down your goals into manageable steps that you can take daily for the next 10 days, like registering for a trial jazz class or test-driving your dream car. These intensify the sensations linked to your goal, and when practiced they will build momentum and create a sense of accomplishment.
• Twice a day (morning and night), mentally rehearse how it feels like to achieve your top 4 goals, tuning up the intensity each time.
STEP 5: Find role models
Surround yourself with role models and people who can help bring your personal goals to life. Having someone to look up to can keep you motivated and provide valuable guidance as you work towards your short and long-term objectives.
STEP 6: Review list regularly
Review your list regularly to ensure you’re still committed to your goals. Start the brainstorming process anytime to refresh your list and refine your goals based on your current circumstances.
Going Beyond Goals
Your goals are a means to an end—a tool to direct your focus and foster personal development. The ultimate goal is to unleash your human potential—who you become and the people you touch along the way. Sometimes, failing in 1 goal points you toward your real goal. For example, Michael Landon trained rigorously in javelin, failed at the sport, yet the mental and physical training prepared him for his subsequent acting career.
With clarity on your goals, you can now answer this question: “To achieve all that I want, what kind of person must I become?” In the book Robbins addresses many other powerful concepts, e.g. how to identify your hierarchy of values, change the rules, define your identity, manage your emotions, remove limiting beliefs etc. Get our complete Awaken the Giant Within summary to get the full mojo from this book. You can also read more here about the best ways to achieve your goals (going BIG vs taking manageable steps).
i want to achieve my goals and i didnt know where to start but now i know what to do and where my mind should be.