13 Simple Steps To Get Mighty Real On Your Goals

It’s the end of the year. It’s time to reflect and prepare for a new beginning. Isn’t this awesome?! 365days are gone, and we get another 365days for making our dreams come true.

It’s like the universe, God or whatever you believe in, high fives you and says:

Hey, I believe in your goals and dreams! I give you another chance to make them happen. Good luck!

Let’s get started. I am sure your head and heart are full of desires. They are so many that you don’t even know where to start. It’s overwhelming.

How about you close yourself at home or at some place where no one will interrupt you? And then you do the following:

1. Switch your phone off. Make yourself comfortable, put some good music on, light an aromatic candle.
2. Get yourself a cup of good coffee, some paper, post-it notes and a pen.
3. Start writing down your goals and desires, no matter how big they are. The bigger the better.
4. Write down how achieving each goal will make you feel. Take a moment to feel this feeling as if it has already happened.
   Example: I would like to learn to drive because I want to drive a convertible on Highway 1 in California and feel the freedom to go wherever my heart desires.
5. By now you should have written down the most obvious ones. It might feel like that’s all. But stay a bit more in the flow. Look out of the window and let your mind draft. Dream a little bit.
   Albert Einstein is known for doing that a lot, especially in his miracle year. He stared out of the window for hours and hours giving his mind space and time to come up with the revolutionary four papers which put the foundation of modern physics.
6. Ask yourself over and over again: “What do I want?” Write all wishes and desires that come to your mind. Free yourself from the burden of keeping all of that in your head.
7. It’s time to give some flesh and blood to your goals. Take a blank sheet of paper per goal and write down your acceptance criteria. How will you know if your goal is achieved?
   Example: I will have achieved my driving goal if I feel comfortable driving in traffic and I can park the car.
8. Divide and conquer. Break down your goals into smaller tasks. Write all the ideas that come to your mind on how you can possibly achieve your goal. All the little steps, people you need to talk to, online courses you need to take, etc. It’s not the full plan but a good starting point. I use post-it notes for this because I can easily remove them and add new ones. I love playing with them and I get energized by the vivid colors.
9. Add a deadline for each task – by when it needs to be done. This step is very powerful because it makes the task even more tangible.
   Example: “I want to learn to drive in time for my next road trip in 2months” is much better than “I want to drive some day.”
10. Add a picture to visualize how your goal looks like.
11. The big and scary goal is now a set of smaller tasks which belong to an invisible timeline. It feels much more achievable. Once all your goals are well defined, hang them on the wall so you can see them every single day. The bathroom mirror, your apartment door or the kitchen cabinets work wonders. I keep mine on a wall in the living room where I meditate every day so I see them all the time.
12. As you walk by, you will be reminded of your goals. Keep progress by marking each completed task. I use the black dots for this.
13. Keep evaluating what’s on the wall and keep adding new tasks as you go. The initial plan might not work out. It doesn’t matter. Just remove the post-it note and add a new one. This is an agile method and there are many ways you can get to your final destination.

The mighty goals wall

Of course, this method is only one way of doing it. But it’s far not the only way. The most important things are:

1. Write down your goals.
2. Break the goals down into smaller tasks.
3. Give the tasks a dead line.
4. Put them somewhere where you’ll see them every single day.

I want to fly on a hot air ballon on my birthday

After some time you might stop noticing the goal on the wall, but your subconsciousness NEVER NOT notices things. The wall will be a reminder in times when you lose motivation or get sidetracked.

This blog started out of a set of tasks

One more benefit: Many times I discovered I had vanity goals. I had picked them up from somewhere. They were things I though I ‘should’ achieve. But those weren’t my mighty real goals. They were staring at me from the wall and I felt indifferent to them. So I just removed them from my wall and my mind. It’s as easy as that.

And one last benefit: Your family and friends will know what you are after. They will intuitively know how to help and support you. Because who doesn’t want to help someone who is clear on what success means for them and goes for it? It’s even kind of sexy.

Let me know in the comments below what your methods are. And let’s bring those wishes and desires to the light of day and then into reality!