If you haven't read Part 1 - Setting Proper Goals or Part 2 - Creating an Effective Plan or both, I recommend that you read them before moving on.

By now, you should have a proper goal set and a plan to achieve that goal. If you don't, I encourage you to take some time do that now.

With your properly set goal and well thought out plan, you are finally at the point where your dreams will become reality but before you get what you want, there is one thing you must do:

Take Action

This is both simple and difficult. Simple because you just follow your plan. Difficult because so many things get in the way. The key thing to remember is without action, your dreams will stay dreams. Even though thoughts, ideas and plans are necessary, without doing anything, you would not realize your dream. Your ideas will remain ideas and your plans will remain plans.

So what can possibly get in the way between you and your goals:

Not Having Enough Time

You already have a busy schedule. Work is unpredictable and sometimes it is just too tiring to work on your goals after a long day's work.

How can anyone blame you for wanting to just relax?

Rest is important right?

If you set a goal that is relevant, broke your goal down to daily tasks and tested your plan's feasibility, you really shouldn't be having this problem.

If you do have this problem, there is one fix:

Make Time for Your Plan

Carve out a specific time each day to work on your plan. Make sure to give yourself some extra time. In the beginning, take the energy you would normally spend to make excuses and channel it into doing your plan at the specified time. Once you've built the good habit, things become easier.

Waiting for the Right Time

It's never going to be the right time. Get over it.

Be flexible enough to make adjustments along the way. Think homing missile.

This also goes for waiting for the right people.

Ready, Fire, Aim.

Procrastinating

"Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week." -Spanish Proverb

For some reason, it's easy for us to put things off until tomorrow. For every reason to do something now, I can come up with ten reasons why I should do it later. Maybe it's laziness that stems from a incompetence or stress from being overwhelmed by uncertainty but whatever the reason, procrastination is the enemy of execution.

A nice fix against procrastination is:

Just getting up and doing it. (The long version of the Nike slogan)

For those interested in going in-depth into the reasons for procrastination and how to overcome it, check out Steve Pavlina's article. For a shorter and more hands-on guide, check out The 8 Most Practical Ways to Stop Procrastinating.

Not Knowing What to Do First

Different tasks take different priorities at different times.

Be clear on what should be done FIRST and do that thing FIRST.

As you are executing your plan, you may find that you lose sight of what your top priority is. When that happens, think about the outcome you want to achieve and make sure that your current daily task reflect the most important actions that will help achieve that outcome. If you have trouble deciding, try out one of these prioritization methods. For those of you find it hard to prioritize because everything seems important, check out this lifehacker article.

Losing Interest

How many dreams have been abandoned because interest was lost during execution?

It is always exciting to think about the possibilities of achieving your goals and the rewards after you fulfill your dreams but what should you do when you begin to get bored before you reach the finish line?

Revisit Your WHY Often Through Mental Rehearsal.

When you set your goals, you made sure that your goal was relevant to your vision and purpose. Mental rehearse what it will be like to achieve your goal. Engage all the senses. What will you see? hear? feel?

Now check to make sure that you are doing the task that will have the biggest impact in achieving that vivid outcome. Extrapolate your action into the future. Will you get what you want if you keep doing what you're doing?

Another point to keep in mind is that some people lose interest when they begin to lose faith. When they don't think they can achieve their goals, their interests wanes. If you are having a faith issue, read How to Always Achieve Your Goals.

A Bonus!

I mentioned this in Part One already but it is worth emphasizing.

The difference that is going to make all the difference is ...

... get a pen and paper ready because this is important ...

Tracking Your Progress in Writing

In addition to tracking your daily progress (here is a free online habit tracker), ask yourself on a weekly basis:

1. Am I able to work towards my goal daily? If not, what is getting in my way?

2. Is the goal still relevant to my vision and purpose? How is it relevant? Is it still the most impactful thing I can be doing to realize my vision?

3. Am I getting the outcome that I want from completing this goal?

Write those answers down.

Once you reach your goal (notice that I use "once" and not "if"), reward yourself.

Take time to recognize and appreciate yourself for going for and getting what you want.

This memory can serve to motivate you in future endeavors. Take time to review your lessons learned so you can achieve future goals more effectively.

You now have the basic framework you need to turn your dreams into reality and get anything that you want. Feel free to share your goals, plans and progress. I would love to hear how you do.

I hope you enjoyed this series!

The post Focused Execution – How to Turn Dreams into Reality – Part 3 appeared first on Embrace Possibility.

Now that you have your specific goal that is relevant to your passion, stated in the positive with a definite deadline and written in a place where it is visible every day, it's time to develop a plan of action.

Here are the steps for creating an effective plan to achieve your goals:

Step 1 - Mind the Gap

Pardon the pun but the first step for turning your dreams into reality is to understand your current situation and the gap between where you are and where you want to be. During this step you want to explore and brainstorm all the different possible paths that go from where you are now to your destination.

Example: If my goal is to be healthy by losing 20 lbs in 3 months, there are many ways I can go about it. I can choose any one of the countless weight-loss methods out there (Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast, etc.), hire a personal trainer and nutritionist or decide to create a custom regimen based on my research from the internet.

Step 2 - Choose the Best Path (for You)

In most cases, it is not possible nor is it efficient to try all the different ways to achieve your goal so you need to choose one method. Your choice will depend on your resources (time, money, environment, etc.) and the nature of your goal. My general advice is to choose the path that will give you the best "bang for the buck" (most benefit with the least effort).

Example: If money is an issue, hiring a personal trainer will be out of the questions and I will most likely create a custom diet and exercise program based on my research done on the internet and through books borrowed from the library.

Step 3 - Create Daily Milestones

Now that a path has been decided, it is necessary to break down your goal into smaller chunks. What will you do on a monthly, weekly and daily basis to achieve your goal? The key is to clearly define what you will do every day to get closer to your goal.

Another benefit to breaking down our goal into smaller pieces is that we can test the feasibility of our deadline. If after breaking down our goal into daily tasks, we find that it is too difficult to consistently do on a daily basis, it may be better to extend the deadline date. If the timeline is feasible, then we know by doing the defined daily action, we will achieve our goal. Of course, unexpected things will happen so it is important to factor in some "extra" time just in case.

One thing to keep in mind when breaking down your large goal into smaller ones is that the proper goal setting rules apply for both the large goal and the smaller goals.

Example: If I decide that I will create a custom diet and exercise routine for myself to lose 20 lbs in 3 months, I will break down those 3 months first into weekly tasks. Week 1 may be to research and create an exercise and nutrition plan. Week 2 may be to start plan and track results every 3 days. Then I will further break down my weekly tasks into daily tasks. I may plan that on Day 1 of Week 1, I will research effective exercise routines that I can do at home. Day 2 of Week 1 may be to learn more about diet and weight loss from the internet. I will continue to break down all the bigger weekly tasks into smaller daily ones which include the days I will rest.

Step 4 - Review and Finalize Plan

Once you've broken down your goal into daily milestones, review your plan to make sure you can sustain it by considering possible obstacles. Once you've factored in ways to handle unexpected difficulties, you are ready to finalize the plan. The plan does not have to be perfect at this time and it will most likely change as you execute the plan. The important thing is to remember to be flexible, one of the 30 Qualities that Make Ordinary People Extraordinary.

Example: I've finished breaking down my goal to lose 20 lbs into my daily tasks for the next three months and I review the plan to make sure that each daily task is achievable and that the plan is flexible enough to handle unexpected distractions such as working late (no time to exercise) or going to group celebrations (high risk of overeating).

Most people begin to execute their plan after finishing Step 4 and there is nothing wrong with that but there is one thing you can do that can dramatically increase your chances for success. If you want to make sure you achieve your goal, I highly recommend that you include step 5.

Step 5 - Design an Accountability System

When you have a well-formed goal and a thorough plan, all you need to do is follow through. Unfortunately, following through is one of the toughest parts of achieving your goal. Think of all the obese people in America who want to lose weight, have all the knowledge and resources to do so but yet still remain obese.

Most people find ways to keep themselves accountable only after they've failed to execute their plan. Why wait until you are in trouble? Why not build accountability into your plan?

So how do you do that?

Here are three ways to build accountability:

1. Write down your daily tasks on a calendar and review the calendar daily to make sure you have finished your task.
2. Find an accountability partner or support group that you can announce your goal to and ask for their help to keep you accountable on a daily basis.
3. Put your money where your mouth is and create a Commitment Contract on StickK where you place a monetary wager on your own success. If you lose, the money goes to charity. You can even set it to go to a charity that you dislike to further motivate you.

So if you all read the first article in this series, you should all have your own properly set goal. Let's apply what you learned in this article to that goal.

1. Assess your current situation and explore the different ways you can achieve your specific goal.

2. Choose the method that best fits your resources and situation.

3. Break down your goal into daily tasks. Start with what you want to achieve each month leading up to your desired goal. Then break up those monthly milestones into weekly goals which you will then breakdown into daily tasks.

4. Review and make sure you have taken into account things that may go wrong when you execute your plan and to factor in a contingency plan for those situations. When everything meets your satisfaction, finalize the plan knowing that it will probably change in the future.

5. Make yourself accountable by creating a daily goal tracker for yourself and by enlisting the help of an individual or group that you will have frequent contact with to keep you accountable for your plan. If you want to take it one step further, create a commitment contract on stickk.com.

Let me know what you think about this series so far. I'm interested to hear about your plans and any other tips you have for creating an effective plan to reach your goals.

In the next and last article of this series, we will discuss strategies for successful and focused execution and what happens once you achieve your goal. If you follow all the steps in this series, achieving your dreams will not only be possible but inevitable.

The post Creating an Effective Plan – How to Turn Dreams Into Reality – Part 2 appeared first on Embrace Possibility.

But why don't we pursue them?

Why do we go on doing what we don't like to do just because we're supposed to?

Why don't we do what we really want like travel the world, start our own business or write that book we've tried to find time for?

Is it because it's not realistic, practical or feasible?

The short answer is ...

... no.

The long answer is no, but we are frozen by doubt in our abilities and we fear the consequences of failing and being wrong.

If you are not convinced that you can achieve your dream, I recommend that you take 5 minutes to empower yourself forever and then continue reading.

If you are afraid of risk, then you should also read this short article on why it is risky to be stable.

When you are ready to turn your dreams into reality, read on.

Most people fail to achieve their dreams because of four reasons:

1. They don't believe they can (If you took those 5 minutes to empower yourself earlier, you should be ok.)

2. They set poor goals

3. They don't have a plan

4. They don't execute their plan

Reason 2 is the focus of this part. Reason 3 and 4 will be addressed in later parts of this series.

So how do you set proper goals?

Be Specific

Your goal must be clear and more importantly measurable. How will you know when you've reached your goal? Engage all your senses. What are you going to see when you've reached your goal? How will you feel? What will you hear? You should be able to vividly imagine yourself reaching this goal. When setting goals, it is more important to focus on WHAT you want and not HOW you are going to get it.

State in the Positive

If you've ever told yourself not to screw up but you ended up screwing up anyway, then you know why you should state your goals in the positive. Our subconscious has problems recognizing the word "don't" and that's why "Don't Panic!" is the same as "Panic!". Whether you believe in the subconscious or not, it is more beneficial to you to set a goal like "I want to make money in my investments" as opposed to "I don't want to lose money in my investments". For more on this topic, check out Why Telling Yourself to Stop Bad Habits Never Work.

Make It Relevant

Make sure your goal is aligned with your purpose and passion. When your goal is relevant it becomes easier to stick to your goals. An effective method I learned from Tony Robbins is to first understand WHY you want to achieve your goal and then associate reaching your goal with intense pleasure and not reaching your goal with intense pain. This towards and away from motivation really works wonders.

Set a Deadline

When you set a deadline, a dream becomes a goal. To effectively achieve your goal, it is important to break down your goal into smaller chunks where each chunk can be finished within one week. For example, if your dream was to visit Nepal within one year, your chunks would be to research flights and hotel in Nepal, calculate how much you need to save per month, apply for a visa, etc.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step."

- Lao Tzu

Make Sure Its Attainable

Any goal is achievable if given enough time. With that said, make sure that your goal is attainable within the time restriction that you've set. The goal should be a "reach". It should not be so easy where success is guaranteed without much work but it should also not be too difficult where you are overwhelmed and success is borderline impossible.

There is one more thing you need to do that is vital to achieving your goal ...

... and I am not referring to How to Always Achieve Your Goals (although it is worth reading if you haven't done so already)

The one thing you MUST do that will make all the difference is ...

Writing Your Goal Down

I wish I could show you statistics for goals achieved when comparing those who write their goals down and those that don't because I am sure it would be staggering.

Before you do anything else and if you haven't already, I strongly encourage you to set a proper goal right now. It'll take at 3-5 minutes.

Just follow these simple steps:

1. Think of one thing you really want to achieve within one year.

2. Make sure it is specific, stated in the positive and measurable. How will you know that you've achieved it? How will you measure it?

3. Write down WHY you want to achieve this goal and make sure you understand how it fits in your life's purpose. Clearly list the pleasure you'll receive from attaining your goal and the pain you'll get if you don't achieve it.

4. Set a reasonable deadline for achieving your goal.

5. WRITE DOWN your specific goal, why you're going for this goal in particular and when you expect to achieve it. Keep it where it is visible every day.

6. You now have a properly set goal. All you have to do is create an effective plan (Part 2) then successfully execute (Part 3).

To help you move one step closer to your dream, I will review your goal to make sure it is a proper goal. All you have to do is share your goal in the comments section.

The post Proper Goal Setting – How to Turn Dreams Into Reality – Part 1 appeared first on Embrace Possibility.