Successfully reaching your goal

What drives a person to turn their dreams into reality?

Published on: 07/10/2022 | Author: Maria-Christina Spießberger

Plan your goals using these criteria, and the likelihood of achieving them will increase significantly. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day!
Maria-Christina Spießberger Associate Expert

There are so many different paths and methods that promise to get us from A to B, but what must a goal contain for us to take the leap, embrace the risk, and take serious action?

First, we need to understand the criteria for an achievable goal:

• self-initiated
• positively formulated
• achievable
• attractive
• time-bound
• as concrete as possible

How to reach your goal

1. Self-initiated

If it is not within your power to act and you cannot initiate your next steps yourself, it will be difficult to move forward. At the very least, parts of your goal should be self-directed and not dependent on a specific outcome or reaction.

2. Positively formulated

Our brains don't process "no" well. Try not to think of a pink elephant. That is why you should formulate your goal positively. Instead of thinking, "My goal is to get away from this job," think, "My goal is to pursue my calling."

3. Attractive

To roll up your sleeves and get moving, a goal must first and foremost be attractive. Why else would you want to work toward it? If you don't get anything out of your workout, for example, why would you bother? This applies to many steps in our lives. There may be some sub-goals that aren't attractive, but they lead to a highly attractive larger goal. The prospect of the big picture allows us to tackle even the less appealing aspects.

4. Time dimension

It has been proven that the likelihood of achieving a goal is much higher when you set clear deadlines. This probability increases even further if you tell someone about it, thereby creating a sense of accountability. For example, if you want to write an article and commit to sending it to a friend by a certain date, the likelihood that you will actually sit down and do it is much higher than if you set a silent deadline for yourself.

5. As concrete as possible

Another important aspect here is how concretely you visualize your goal. The vaguer the goal, the harder it is to take action. You simply lack a concrete direction. Think about all the aspects your goal entails. What values will you embody once you have achieved your goal? Who else is affected by you reaching your goal? How will you feel then? The more you can come up with, the better!

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