Go Beyond Goal Setting, Be A Goal Achiever!

“We won’t get everything we fight for, but everything we get, it will be a fight .” Frederick Douglas

To achieve your goals, you need strong belief and persistent action. This is very simple but of cause, not easy!

I’ve a written a number of times before about goal setting. Goal setting is normally the easy part. This is what most people do when they are motivated or inspired by something like a powerful motivational talk, seminar, conference, workshop, book, etc. Goals only become real beyond this phase where one is pumped up and this phase is goal achieving. Now, after setting a goal with clear strategies (what you specifically need to do), tactics (how you must do it) and then wrap it up with a clear process/plan, real work begins. Unfortunately most people never even reach this above step, they just write down, if at all, what they want to achieve and they call it a goal. For the purpose of my today’s topic which is about goal achieving, I’ll assume that the goal setting phase is done well. 

The goal achieving process begins with the habits that are coherent with your strategies, tactics and process. The question you should be asking yourself for each ‘strategy or what’ is, “what habit or ritual should I engage in on daily basis in order for me to achieve this strategy?” When I wanted to be a professional speaker, my goal was – To be a professional or paid up speaker. 

My strategies and Tactics were the following: 

1. Get a coach/mentor; 

2. Read books on public speaking;

 3. Join Toastmasters International – public speaking organisation to hone my skills;

 4. Practice daily, and  

5. Choose a subject to speak on.   

I then developed a plan on how I would achieve these on a daily basis, weekly, monthly, etc. This helped me plan my days and form required rituals. This is what forces you to form required Habits. To achieve anything new, you need new habits and new thinking. Like Albert Einstein said that, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” To be honest with you, this is the most difficult part of the process. This is where most people dismally fail. They mostly fail because they want to approach the new with the old thinking and habits. This requires you to understand your habit patterns and how they are formed. A habit loop consists of three parts: 1. Trigger, 2.Routine, and 3. Reward. Let me use myself as an example to clarify this point. When I woke up (This is the Trigger); I reached for my phone to check the messages and social media updates (Routine) and then about an hour or so later, I would feel great about myself - a sense of having achieved something (Reward). 

So, my first hour of the day was when I lost my power and control. I started responding to people’s messages or demands; I learned about people who had died, raped and the sick ones too which also made me sick in a way. You can imagine, by the time my first hour was over, I was sad and having negative and that’s how my days started. Achieving your goals means, taking control of yourself and habits. I had to change that to create positive energy and claim my power back. I started off with the same Trigger (waking up), instead of reaching out for my phone, I took a book (Routine) and read it and after an hour I felt a real sense of achievement (Reward). You don’t need to change the Trigger and the Reward, you need to focus on changing the Routine (what you do). 

Your habits are driven by your Beliefs. This is what you believe is true for you. There are two types of belief:

1.   Explicit – external. This is what you claim when you are with people. This is what you tell people you’ll do. This is what people see. 

2.   Implicit – internal. This is what you really and honestly believe when you are alone. This is about the real stuff. Your self-image – what you see yourself in your mind, “Am I good enough?”; “Am I deserving?” ; “Am I smart enough?” and “Am I worthy?”, etc. This is what determines whether you’ll achieve your goal or not. 

Whenever I speak or coach, my emphasis is always on beliefs, implicit beliefs that is. To change your life, change your beliefs. Your beliefs create your world. They create your boundaries, limitations, standards and habits, period!

To achieve your goals – everything I’ve mentioned above: Goal setting, Strategies, Tactics, Beliefs and Habits must be coherent or always you’ll just be a master goal-setter who never achieves them. 

Once again, to change your life, change your beliefs! You deserve the best that life has to offer.

Veli Ndaba is a Professional and Motivational Speaker, Life-Coach and Neuro Linguistic Programming Practitioner, Author of four books (You Are Born to Win, Your Dream is Calling You and SWITCH ON! And Set Your Soul On Fire!), Newspaper Columnist and Entrepreneur. To book him to speak at your next event or to help you and your team unleash your greatness, contact him on [email protected] , www.velindaba.com or +27 83 304 9773