The 3 Most Important Things You Need to Know and Do for Success

It's an epidemic in our culture today. We set goals and yet often never reach them. We dream big dreams and rarely achieve them. We aspire to something more, different, significant, impactful, or just better, and yet it never seems to be within our reach.

As a coach, I've seen this over and over again with my clients. I've seen it in business owners, "mompreneurs" and busy professionals across many industries. Life is crazy, busy, and FULL. We all have goals we want to accomplish, personally and professionally, but we often find that our dreams and goals get pushed aside in the whirlwind of life and things we "have to" do.

I've always wondered, when Noah was building the ark, how did he manage to stay on task?

Let's be realistic - biblical scholars estimate it took between 75 - 100 years to build the ark. That's a long time to stay on task with a big project. I consider myself an extremely focused person when it comes to accomplishing goals. I managed to work a full time job, a part time job, attend school for years to earn several degrees with a cumulative 4.0 GPA, balance my role as step-mom and wife, train for and complete a marathon, and compete to win four state mountain bike championships in two years. All at the same time. I'm not superwoman - I have the same number of hours and minutes that everyone else does. I just learned to use them very effectively. I even wrote a book on time management, priorities, goal setting and execution, and how I did all of that, but honestly, nothing I've worked on in my life has taken 75 - 100 years to achieve.

Noah had to be more than just diligent and focused. He couldn't take time off to surf the web, Pinterest, Facebook, or check out his LinkedIn newsfeed. He didn't have time to waste worrying about the latest movies on Amazon Prime, politics, or March Madness. He had to be laser focused on setting and accomplishing each step in building the ark. For 75, or more, years.

I can't tell you how Noah did it. But, I'll tell you how I would do it, and I'll share with you the three most important things you need to know, and then do, to build your "ark." Or, achieve anything else you dare to dream about, set out to accomplish, or work to achieve.

Getting to the point - The 3 Things To Know and Do To Successfully Reach Any Goal

Ask yourself: What do I need to keep doing? What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to start doing? And, then do it. Half of you reading will stop here, scoffing because you've heard this before and it didn't magically bring you success. But, did you really think about it? And, did you follow through with what you discovered when you thought about it?

Find a quiet spot with no interruptions. Close the door for privacy. Turn off your phone and email for a little while. Trust me, if you are going to build your "ark," you need a plan and you can't plan very well when you are distracted. Get out a blank sheet of paper and a few markers. At the top of the paper, write down your goal, dream, or your "ark."

Next, write down on that paper everything that you decide to do with your time. Everything. Every single way that you spent your time and energy last week. If you spent 10 hours last week watching TV, write it down. If you slept in an extra hour on Saturday morning, write it down. If you worked out, write it down. If you spent time with the family at the park, write it down. Get your calendar out and be really honest with yourself. You had 168 hours, or 10,080 minutes, last week. How did you spend them?

This is the easy part: KEEP DOING

Using your blue marker, circle everything that you need to continue doing with your time. If it's time and energy that is contributing to building your "ark," then circle it. If it's not necessarily contributing to building your ark, but it's time well spent on your priorities like family, or health, circle it. Whatever you need to keep doing, circle in blue. And, keep doing it. Rest and (some) recreation fall into this category - you can't build an ark if you are too tired, exhausted, or burned out to do it. Just make sure that it has an appropriate amount of time and energy allocated to it. Sleep is something you should keep doing. But, you probably only need 7-8 hours a night and if you are sleeping 12 every night, that's too much, and that's 4 hours you could have been working on the ark.

Now, here comes the hard part: STOP DOING

I assume your ark is something you've been wanting to do or accomplish for a long time. Maybe it's starting your own business. Maybe it's finding the perfect job. Maybe it's forming a non-profit organization that will change lives. It's something worth working for, dreaming about, and sacrificing for. Using your red marker, cross out anything you need to stop doing. Be brutal. Be real. Be honest. What did you do last week that wasn't time spent on your priorities like health and family and didn't help you build your ark? Facebook? Margaritas by the pool all day Saturday? Don't tell me you haven't reached your goal or dream because you spent endless hours binge watching every season of "The Walking Dead." Sure, maybe you can build your ark and still watch a little TV. I don't know - it's your ark. And, only you can build it. But, you can't work on it when you are doing other things. You must say no to some things so you have room to say yes to the right things. They might be good things, but they might not be your things. Volunteering for the PTA is good - but is it holding you back from working on your ark? You must set some boundaries for how you will spend your time - and how you won't. And, one thing you must stop doing is making excuses.

Here comes the most important part: START DOING

Get out your green marker and write down everything that you should be doing that you aren't currently doing. If your ark is earning your Master's degree but you aren't enrolled in classes, write it down. If your goal is to lose ten pounds but you aren't exercising regularly and watching what you eat, write that down. If your goal is to write a book but you aren't writing something every day, write it down. And, start doing it. You don't have to do it all day but you have to do it every day. As John C. Maxwell said, "Your dreams don't work unless you do."

"Dreams don't work unless you do." ~John C. Maxwell

I know it sounds simple. It is simple. It's simple, but it's not easy. The difficulty comes in doing it. Do it on the days when you don't feel good. Do it on the days when you would rather do something else. Do it on the days when you are tired. I'm sure Noah had days when he didn't feel good, would rather have been relaxing in his tent, and days when he was tired. He was about 500 years old when he started and it took 75 - 100 years to complete. But, he didn't quit. He didn't wait for someone else to prove it could be done. He didn't decide it wasn't worth it. As the popular Nike slogan goes, "Just Do It."

Like what you read? Don't stop there! Learn more about goal achievement in Ria's book: PRIME Time: The Power of Effective Planning

About the author: Like many, Ria faced adversity in life. Raised on an isolated farm in Alabama, she was sexually abused by her father from age 12 – 19. Desperate to escape, she left home at 19 without a job, a car, or even a high school diploma. Now a speaker and author of eight books, Ria went on to thrive. She worked her way through school, an MBA, and a successful career in the corporate world of administrative healthcare.