As someone, who is walking on the path of self actualization and making myself and my life much better than it is right now. I find myself constantly setting goals and then achieving them, then setting another goal and after achieving that then another and another...
I believe, that’s the way that all of us handle our lives. In a sense, our life could be summed up into a series of goals that we chose (consciously or unconsciously) to follow through into. Many of these goals we achieve and many of them we fail. The critical deciding factor for both is the SAME.
Time management, action management, decision making, delegating, planning, discipline are all secondary compared to the fundamental key for the success of any goal. Napoleon hill author of “think and grow rich” calls it a “burning desire” and what I believe it truly means is ‘focusing on the goal.’ Focusing on the goal so whole-heartedly that it’s fruition becomes ones burning desire.
Time management, action management, decision making, delegating, planning, discipline are all secondary compared to the fundamental key for the success of any goal. Napoleon hill author of “think and grow rich” calls it a “burning desire” and what I believe it truly means is ‘focusing on the goal.’ Focusing on the goal so whole-heartedly that it’s fruition becomes ones burning desire.
Most people are truly ambitious in their hearts, with big dreams and desires. But the problem arises in the transformation phase from idea to reality. I know, from my personal experience, that when an idea comes into our mind, it gives us a kind of kick-start, ignition spark of energy, strength and zeal to just make it happen. Kind of like a hit of crack. Sudden and all-powerful. But the point where most of us falter is when we allow ourselves to get distracted from that idea (that thought). The distraction could be anything from negative criticism, to TV, society, health problems etc
You see, whenever we create a picture in our head of something we want to accomplish, at that instant we can feel the glory of what it will be like to achieve it. For me, when I imagine myself creating a new song or scoring high marks, I can feel the happiness, fame, and recognition etc I’ll get from making it happen. But as with all things in nature, there is a gestation period before anything can manifest itself. And this holds true for our goals too. It’s during these gestation periods that all the secondary elements come into play. Time management, planning and action steps and it’s here that we are usually distracted. Distracted not from the goal, but distracted from that feeling we would get after its completion.
Once you lose that feeling of realizing your goal, you start draining energy away from it. You start losing motivation, drive and discipline to achieve it. Consider an analogy of a printer. As long as its buffer has the data to be printed, it knows what to print and does so. But the moment the buffer is empty; the printer doesn’t know what to print and halts. Our mind is our buffer. So we have to consciously keep the feeling alive in us of what it is we are aiming to achieve. Consider this personal example:
‘I’ve bin trying to develop a strong muscular chest and forearms for a long time now. But every time I started on a routine, I’d be out of it within a week. This happened because I kept losing faith in what I was doing. I’d say to myself, “forget it, I’ll manage without a strong physique. I’ll be one of those intellectual skinny guys” but then I’d end up regretting that choice to quit. Eventually it struck me that my desire wasn’t strong enough, as it needed to be. I know I wanted this, but just couldn’t get myself to put in the effort. For someone highly disciplined, it could be a possibility that they could surpass the hurdle, but not me. At dinner, one night, my dad told me that if you love what you’re doing, then it’s not work at all. And that struck me like a chord. He’s right, and this belief can be applied to anything. We love something based on the kind of feelings we feel related to it. This was an epiphany for me. By loving to work out, I could get the kind of body that I really wanted, that I dreamed of. But then came the issue of how to love something that’s so demanding and physical? The answer in some form was – Repetition. Every night before sleeping and just before getting up, I’d see myself fully immersed in body building and enjoying the powerful chest and arms I had. I’d feel the happiness I’d feel with all the social status and power that comes from being physically strong and powerful. I let that image just concentrate and get so meshed into my mind that it was only a natural step for me to hit the gym next morning.’
In the same way, once you fall truly in love with your goal and it’s rewards are fully ingrained into your thoughts. You will find the steps that you need to take to work out the goal are just simple, natural steps to be taken and hardly require any effort at all. focusing on the goal, is really just about keeping in mind the WHY. Why do you really want to achieve whatever it is you are aiming for? By just answering this simple question and constantly keeping it in your mind, you can find the strength to make it a reality.