What is not started today is never finished tomorrow
– Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
A goal is a wish with a deadline. The key to success as a beginner investor is your ability to set wealth-building goals. When you set goals and achieve them, your confidence to take on bigger challenges increase.
The problem for many beginner investors is they lack the skills to follow through on goals. I shall be sharing with you the secret to achieving your goals
Desire your goals
Your desire to achieve your goal is very crucial to succeed as an investor. Napoleon hill says you must desire to achieve your objective to the point that it becomes an obsession.
I recently read an article by Michael Masterson, bestselling author of ready, fire, aim: zero to $100 in no time flat. He pointed out the lessons, we can learn from the drug addicts. The average drug addict had only one desire-to get the next fix. In addition, would go to any length to get the money to fund his habit. Mr Masterson is right, when you hear of the crimes drug addicts commit just to get a fix.
Write your goals downs often.
Another secret to successful goal setting is to develop the habit of writing, your goals down. The landmark Harvard study, I talked about in my post goal setting-the master skill to success… brings home the importance of writing your goals. The Harvard graduates with clearly written goals and took time to work on their goals earned 16 times more money than their peers did after 10 years!
There is a connection between the hand and the brain. The more you write out your goals the higher your chances of achieving them. Brian Tracy talks about his moment of epiphany while he was still a broke seasonal labourer…he was able to double his income , buy his house and pay off all his debt within a space of one year. He was also able to double his productivity by simply writing his goals every day without referring to his previous notes.
Here is what I think happens… when you write your goals continually, you are engraving your goals in your subconscious. and your subconscious mind -one of the most creative instrument- set to work every day 24 hours, 365 days to work on making sure your goal is achieved. Imagine what happened when you started learning your multiplication tables in your junior years. Do you remember? It was difficult at first but as you wrote them and read them out, you remembered your tables without thinking.
I think we have said much about writing down your goals…it is the key to keeping you on autopilot to achieving your goals.
Focus on your most important goals
I think the difference between success and failure, when you set goals is focus.
Let me explain…
We have many goals we want to achieve in a year…but are all our goals important. The best way to focus on your goals is to prioritise your goals. Stephen Covey, bestselling author Seven Habits of Highly Effective People talks about how we should think about achieving goals. He talks about drawing up four quadrants and allocating your tasks:
Urgent and important…quadrant 1
Important and not urgent…quadrant2
Urgent and not important… quadrant 3
Not urgent and not important…quadrant4
Quadrant 1 tasks are the task you must do or else there will be crisis
Quadrant 2 is where the important task, that will contribute to your success on the long term to your goals.
Quadrant 3 tasks are pressing things like emails, phone call that can wait but are always pressing you to be done. They have no great impact to your long-term success.
Quadrants 4 are the tasks that eat up your time and add no value to the attainment of your goals.
Here is the secret… successful people focus on doing the quadrant 2 task most of the time. The result is they are very productive and successful
You should for the same for your goals… I struggled for a long time until I started applying this technique.
Here is another useful tip to maintain focus…
Each waking day, write a list of your goals for the day, then identify the top three goals that will have the most impact in achieving your goals. Start with the number one goal and work on it before moving to the next goal. If you put this technique to work you will find, that you will sleep better and feel fulfilled every day.
Apply Pareto’s Principle
Vilfredo Pareto observed in 1906 80-20 effect. Pareto principle states that 20 percent of causes produce 80 percent of effects in most things you do.
In order words, 20 percent of the steps you take in achieving your goals will produce 80 percent of the results towards achieving your goals.
I urge you to apply this principle to your goal setting.
here’s how apply this principle…… list out the steps you need to complete your goals, then look at those steps ,which by taking them will produce 80 percent of the results you need to achieve your goals. When you have identified them, start doing them. Promise yourself you will do the most important tasks that have the greatest impact on your goals. Where possible delegate, or ditch the other tasks.
Eat that frog
Do you procrastinate on your important task? I do.
The secret to success is to “eat that frog”…that is doing the most important task first. One of the main obstacles to achieving your goals is beliefs, psychological barriers.
The best way to overcome procrastination is to start working on your goals. Don’t wait until you are motivated. Take action every day. Do the difficult things first.
There are many ways to achieve a goal. The best way is to break your goals down to objects, then into task. You then start doing the tasks gradually.
When you do these five things to achieve your goals, you will have a higher batting average in achieving goals.
To your success
Think rich and grow rich