How to Easily Achieve Your Goals Every Time – The 10-Step Method
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Have you ever wondered if there is an easier way to achieve your goals? Having dreams and setting goals is fun, but to achieve your goals is a different game.
I’ve put together step-by-step instructions to take you from a goal setter to a goal achiever in no time.
This is my favorite way to approach goal achieving. Take these 10 steps and become a goal getter and start living your dream life today.
Read this article – 10-step method to to achieve your goals – if you want to:
- Know how you can easily achieve your goals
- Be honest to yourself about your goals
- Have goals that motivate you
- Be prepared to take first actions to get closer to achieving your goals
- Have step-by-step instructions to achieve your goals
Why you’ll need both a vision and action to achieve your goals
A Japanese Proverb says: Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
We’ve all been there. Having an amazing vision about how we would love our lives to be, but we don’t take action to actually allow us to have the dream life we are so hoping to have.
And at the same time we’re all also very busy in our lives! So in that sense we actually do take a lot of action because we have a lot of things we do!
But if there is no vision, we are just mindlessly doing a lot of things that take us nowhere.
So you need both a vision and action to
Dreaming about doing things is equally important as actually doing the things you dream about. But without action those dreams might become a nightmare. So let’s not let that happen!
In this article you choose one of your dreams and you’ll take yourself step-by-step to a place where you can achieve your goals.
Are you ready to become a goal getter? SUPER! Let’s go!
10 steps to achieve your goals
These are the 10 steps (in a nutshell) to take to achieve your goals:
- Choose a dream and write down your goal
- Why do you want to achieve this goal?
- Which things support this goal?
- Which things are making achieving the goal harder?
- What is going to be different after you’ve achieved your goal?
- Which things you have to give up on to achieve your goal?
- Which skills or what kind of knowledge you’ll need?
- Which internal resources you’ll need?
- What kind of steps are you going to take?
- What is the probability that you’ll achieve your goals?
Sounds like a lot of questions to answer?
Please take the time to go through these steps and you’ll thank yourself later. You’ll save that time (and much more) while achieving your goals because you are going to be more focused, determined and motivated.
And please note that sometimes the goal we think we want to achieve is not the right one for us at the moment. So to choose the RIGHT goal is one of the most important steps in this process and this method can save you a lot of headache and dissappointment as long as you’re honest to yourself.
Continue reading and go through the step-by-step instructions to achieve your goals.
Want to skip the post and get the full workbook instead? Super!
You can buy the full 10-page workbook that’ll guide you through this process with simple questions.
Step-by-step instructions to achieve your goals
Here are the step-by-step instructions to achieve your goals.
I have an example at the end of each step so you’ll have an idea what kind could the answer be. The example is about getting physically healthier and to run 5K. The example is just there to help you understand the steps. I am not an expert in running. Not even close! 😀
You can choose any dream or goal to do this exercise. If this seems difficult, I would advice to start with an easy one, so that you get familiar with the process.
Let’s go! I can’t wait for you to get closer to achieving your goals and living your dream life!
STEP 1: Choose one of your dreams:
- Choose one of your dreams (only one at a time!)
- Write down your goal
- Think about the timeline (1 week, 3 months, 2 years)
- What has happened when the goal has been achieved?
- For example: in three months I am able to run 5K.
Step 2: Why do you want to achieve your goal?
- What are the reasons that make you want to achieve your goal?
- List 1-5 things
- For example: I want to be healthier. I want to lose weight. I want more energy.
Step 3: Which things already support this goal?
- Which things in your life already support this goal? They can be about your current knowhow, your personal features and/or something you have.
- List 1-5 things
- For example: I have legs. I know how to run a mile. I have sneakers. My friend knows how to run 10K. I found a running course online that teaches you how to gradually run more and more without hurting yourself.
Step 4: Which things are making ACHIEVING YOUR GOAL harder?
- Which things in your life make the goal achieving harder? These can be about your current knowhow, your personal features, something you have, something you lack.
- List 1-5 things
- For example: I don’t have time. I’m busy taking care of my family. My knee is hurting. I don’t believe it’s possible. I don’t have proper running gear.
Step 5: What is going to be different after you’ve achieved your goal?
- How are things going to be different after you’ve achieved your goals?
- Close eyes, take yourself to the future
- What do you see? What do you hear? How do you feel?
- Feel with all of your sences
- How things are different?
- Which things have changed on the way?
- List 1-5 things
- For example: I am strong. I look great in my jeans. I feel free. I feel proud of myself. I’m running fast. My muscles are not hurting. I’m happy and smiling.
Step 6: Which things you have to give up on to achieve your goal?
- Which things in your life you have to give up on to achieve this goal?
- List 1-5 things
- For example: Sleeping late on weekends. Eating a pizza for lunch. Watching tv shows. Being away from my family.
Step 7: Which skills or what kind of knowledge you’ll need to learn so that you could achieve your goal?
- Which skills or what kind of knowledge you’ll need?
- Is there someone who could help you?
- List 1-5 things
- For example: I’d need to know how to run correctly, so that I don’t hurt my knee. I could ask help from my friend who is a personal trainer.
Step 8: Which internal resources you’ll need to get to your goal?
- Which kind of internal reasources you’ll need to achieve your goal?
- Internal resourses could be for example: willpower, strenght, persistance, motivation etc.
- List 1-5 things
- For example: I need willpower to go running every day. I need to be strong with temptation not to stay home when it’s not a nice weather. I need to be persistent.
Step 9: What are you going to do towards your goal?
- Which kind of steps are you going to be taking today to achieve your goal?
- What about in a week?
- In a month?
- Today?
- For example: Today I’m going to print out the running program that I found on the internet. This week I’m going to go for a walk 3 times and run a few minutes each time. In a month I’ve already established a great routine and I’m going to ask my friend to go run with me and check that my techique is good.
Step 10: What is the probability you’ll achieve your goal?
- The last step is to be honest to yourself and to find out how convinced are you?
- How much do you believe you will achieve your goal?
- How excited are you to achieve your goal?
- Answer with the scale 0-10
- Note: It’s good to start even though it wouldn’t be 10!
- For example: If you are at 7, think about what you should do so that you could get to 8 and then to 9
- What is keeping you from not being on 8 or 9?
- Go through the 10 steps until you are convinced enough and then go for it!
- Note: If you still are not totally convinced, it’s good to think twice – maybe this goal is not the right one for you and you should go get another goal.
Download the 10-step method cheat sheet
DOWNLOAD: Achieve your goals cheatsheet
Next steps
To get familiar with being a goal setter and becoming a goal getter we need to practice, practice and practice.
Every time you have a smaller or a bigger dream or goal take these steps to evaluate your goal and take first steps to achieve your goals.
The first steps are the most crucial. Once you are in motion and taking even the smallest step towards your goal the rest gets easier.
Want to remember this? Pin this post – 10 step method to achieve your goals – to your favorite Pinterest board!
Great advice. I really like that you’ve broken things down into achievable parts!
Thank you so much for your comment, Amey! I’m so happy you enjoyed this post. I also like when bigger things, goals, and tasks are broken down into smallest possible steps – it just makes achieving anything so much easier.
Great post Cristina! I like the steps that you outlined for achieving goals. I feel motivated to use one of my many notebooks as a goal journal. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your comment, Elisha! I’m so happy you enjoyed this post! And I love your idea of using one notebook as a goal journal. That’s sounds so much fun (and so smart!). I think I’d like to do that too!
Love this! I always try to encourage others {and myself} to remember to put the pen down and do something about it. But…you need to know what it’s going to take and prepare your path. I especially love steps 4,5,6. I think those are highly overlooked but most important when achieving goals. Every worthwhile goal is worth a sacrifice and the super achievers make that distinction. kudos!
Thank you so much for your comment, Abby! I’m so happy you enjoyed this post! And I love that you encourage others (and yourself) to remember to put the pen down and do something about it. That is so valuable advice you’re giving. And I couldn’t agree with you more about making the sacrifice in order to achieve something bigger. I checked your site and I loved your post about 7 Books that Will Change Your World. I added the ones that I wasn’t yet familiar with to my “I can’t wait to read these books” -list. And I pinned the post too!
Thank you for the article! Sometimes we just need to put a plan in place in order to achieve our goals!
Thank you so much for your comment, Kimberly! And you are so right about the plan. One of my favorite inspirational quotes of all time is by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (the writer of the most amazing book called The Little Prince). He has said: ” A goal without a plan is just a wish”. I try to keep that in mind whenever I do anything.
This post Inspires and motivates me in so many ways. I can’t wait to put this advice into practice. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for your comment, Chantelle! I’m so happy to hear this post inspired you. And I’d love to know after you put these steps into practice if they helped you in any way when setting and achieving your goals.
This was terrific. I really enjoyed this and can already envision myself reaching some goals that I’ve been neglecting actually putting forth steps to actually achieve. Great read! Thanks so posting!
Thank you so much for your comment, Stephanie! I’m so happy you enjoyed this post. And I love that you can already envision yourself reaching your goals. That’s a super important step you’ve taken on your way toward achieving your goals!
Hi Cristina, thanks for sharing these tips with us. This is a great article that you’ve written. I know a few friends besides myself that could use these tips. Keep up the great job and Blog On! I have also subscribed to your blog.
Thank you so much for your comment, Mark! I’m so happy you enjoyed the article and thank you so much for subscribing. These kinds of encouraging comments are so needed and I appreciate yours a lot! I loved your post about Tips for Working Smarter not Harder. I tweeted it immediately!
Cristina this post is so good and thorough! Pinned and tweeted it because I had to share it with my people too. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Thank you so much for your comment, Sarah! And thank you for sharing this post with your people too – that is so nice! I loved your post about increasing your Pinterest viewers from 173 to 435k! That’s amazing and your tips are priceless!
Great 10 steps!
Thank you, Jessica! I’m happy you enjoyed the post!
Very detailed! Definitely a thought to ponder about #6 about choosing things to give up to obtain your goal. I feel that it what I need to do to finish a goal in order to find the extra time.
Thank you so much for your comment, Tracey. You’re on to an important thing – the “Letting go of something in order to achieve your goal” is super important step in order to achieve your goals. And sometimes that step makes us understand that we are not willing to let go of other things in order to achieve something else – and that’s ok – but if you do find things you can let go to achieve your goal, you’ll get to your goal so much faster and much less stressed 🙂 I hope you’ll find the extra time by letting go of something so that you’ll get to your goals faster. And I’m happy if this post was helpful.
I enjoyed reading this post as I’m getting ready to start a new job/position at my current company and setting goals for myself, even short terms ones as I’ll be learning my new job, will be important.
Great questions for self reflection. However, this isn’t only good for business but personal life as well. 🙂
Thank you for your comment, Chelise. And congratulation on starting in a new position at your current company! That’s super! And setting goals from the very beginning is a great way to start something new. I love your idea to set short-term goals in the beginning when you’re learning your new job. Congrats again and I’m so happy that you enjoyed reading this post!
These is a great goal getting guide. Nothing is achieved without vision, a plan, action and follow thru. Vision is always the easiest for me. Usually a plan comes well enough. But taking the 1st step of action and especially the follow thru is my tallest mountain.
But the most challenging of all for me is staying focused on one vision at a time until completion. I generally have so many sugar plums dancing in my head I get distracted too easily.
Thank you so much for your comment, Joyce! I feel your “pain” with the following through and staying focused with one vision and a goal at a time. I also have so many ideas going through my mind and I need to refocus (sometimes many times a day!) to stay on track. I like to keep my “why” – the reason I want to achieve my goal – somewhere where I see it, and that has helped me to stay focused when I’d rather do something else.
I love this!
I have issues reaching some goals sometimes and I think a big part is step 2!
I need to write down HOW to reach my goals.
Thank you for this!
Thank you so much for your comment, Britney! It’s so great to break down your goals and after writing them down and understanding your reasons, motivation, skills, and need of an extra hand you are so much closer to reaching them. I’m so happy to you liked this post!
Thank you for such a detailed process, Cristina! I loved it 🙂 I never thought about asking myself how probable it is to achieve my goals, but reflecting on this question I think everything nails down to how passionate + determined I am to make things happen. Thank you! 😀
Karen –
http://www.easyprintableplanners.com
Thank you so much for your comment, Karen. I’m so happy you enjoyed the article.
And you’re absolutely right, it’s so important to be honest to yourself and see how passionate and determined you are to make things happen. If the goal doesn’t resonate with you, then it might be a “wrong” goal.
Before I started to use this method to set (and achieve) my goals I had set a bunch of goals that I was never able to achieve. And I think the reason was that they were not my goals, but more like something I thought I needed to achieve and I wasn’t willing to dedicate my time and energy on achieving them.
Great article. So many people really need help with seeing how to actually set and achieve a goal. I am a big advocate for writing down our goals, finding the why behind them, and visualizing them already achieved. Loved the step by step process you explain here. I wish more people would dream big and go after their dreams. Life is so much more fun when we do!
Awesome post! I love this very detailed and step by step list that you’ve made up! It took me forever to realize that achieving goals and dreams is not something that happens by accident but by lots of hard work! And this list definitely will help others see that and the steps necessary to take!
Hi Teya.
Thank you so much for your comment! I’m so happy to hear that find this goal-achieving process helpful.
Whenever I have a bigger goal in mind I use this method to see if I’m truly motivated and willing to do the work to achieve my dream/goal. And sometimes I notice that it’s not actually my dream but more like something that I think I should be doing. And if the “goal” is one of those, I ditch it and concentrate on another goal that will serve me better.
And I checked your blog and like you, I’m a big believer in continual self-growth. And I loved your article about the habits to start now to achieve your goals. My absolute favorite is number 4!
Have a wonderful weekend!
-Cristina | SaturdayGift