10 Ultimate Tips How to Reach Your Goals in 2021

How many times have you set goals, but fail to achieve them?

We all know that goal setting is one of the most powerful tools that is freely available to help us achieve what we want in life, but it seems like most people fail to reach their goals, year after year.

Why is that? Well, this is because most people have no idea how goal setting works and they thought that goal setting is just a process of writing down what they want, and their goals will magically materialize.

My friend, goal setting is indeed a powerful technique that can help you achieve what you want in life, but it will never work if you don’t work on it or do it in the wrong way.

The key is to follow the right steps and do it correctly.

Just like baking a cake. If you follow the recipe and the instructions correctly, most likely, you will end up having the delicious cake that you want.

So, how do you set goals and reach them? Here are 10 ultimate tips on how to do so…

1. Set Super Exciting Goals that Align with Your Values

Many people set income goals and weight loss goals, but the problem is that these are NOT the goals that they truly desire to have.

For example, if you see people are making a lot of money from the internet, and that inspires you to set a similar goal to earn from the internet, most likely, you’re going to fail.

Why? Because the goals may not be exciting for you.

You want to set goals that drive you internally, not because of someone else or something else.

Think about it, if you have no passion for piano, do you think setting a goal to become a great pianist is going to be exciting? Not for you.

Many people fail to reach their goals because they set goals based on other people’s opinions. They have been influenced by others and they set their goals based on that.

As a result, they don’t feel the excitement to work on the goals.

When a goal is not in harmony with your values, you will find it extremely difficult to get motivated to work on the goal.

Hence, if you want to reach your goals, make sure you set an exciting goal that aligns with your inner values.

You should check out my masterclass, Goal Setting Formula.

2. Make a 90-Day Goal

Here’s an interesting statistic:

“According to the University of Scranton, a whopping 92 percent of people who set New Year’s goals never actually achieve them. You can count me in that group. Failing to meet goals is pretty frustrating and can set you back.”

From Inc.com

And do you know what that means?

The study from the University of Scranton saying that as high as 90% of people who set New Year’s goals fail to achieve them is telling you that annual goals don’t really work.

This is because yearly goals are too far away for most people to focus on.

There are too many things that can happen within a year. Plus, when you work on something for weeks and you don’t see results, you will mostly lose your motivation for it.

Hence, this is why annual goals don’t really work, especially for individuals.

Instead of setting annual goals, I suggest you compress your annual goals and turn them into 90-day goals.

When the timeframe is shorter, it allows you to focus better and build stronger momentum.

One more thing, try to focus on just one or two core goals. You don’t want to split yourself too thin with 10 goals to work on.

Rather than trying to achieve 10 goals at the same time, work on just 1 or 2 that truly matter to you and make them happen.

You can have many goals, but when it comes to priority, you can only focus on just one or two, no more than that.

Therefore, identify your most important goal and then turn it into a 90-day target so that you can work relentlessly on it, and improves your chances of achieving it.

3. Identify Your Main Obstacle and Get Rid of It

What is holding you back or stopping you from achieving your goal?

One wrong perspective most people have is that to get more results, they will need to work hard or longer hours. That’s just not the case.

You don’t have to work harder or longer hours to produce more and better results, instead, you have to get rid of the constraint that blocks you.

In my post, How to Achieve More by Getting Rid of What’s Stopping You, I shared a story from the best-selling book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less about how to get rid of the constraints that stop you can catapult your success.

Imagine you are driving a car with the handbrake on. If you want to go faster, what do you do? Most people would push the pedal to accelerate the car faster.

But you don’t have to do that. All you need to do is to release the handbrake and so the car can go faster and smoother.

That’s what happens with most people in life. They are working harder and pouring in more time and effort into their goals, which may not work out well.

The key is to learn how to identify what is stopping you and get rid of the obstacle.

Just like when a door to your house is locked, you don’t have to bang the door and destroy it to get in. Just look for the key.

Work the smart way so that you can produce more with less work.

Read my blog post to understand better: How to Achieve More by Getting Rid of What’s Stopping You

4. Get an Accountability Partner

One of the main reasons people fail to reach their goals because they lack accountability. They know what they want, but they just don’t have the accountability to work on it.

This is why having an accountability partner is important.

When you know someone is monitoring your work and you have to report to your superior, you will make sure you get the work done on time.

Ever wonder why most people wait until the last minute only to get things done? You will never do it when you are responsible for yourself.

There are way too many distractions that will take away your attention.

When you want to work on your goals, your colleagues will come and talk to you. When you want to write an article for your blog, your friends send you a message and ask you to check out a funny video on Facebook.

This is why it is important to hold yourself accountable. And to do that, you will need the help of an accountability partner.

When you get someone to check on your progress from time to time, you feel the pressure and are more likely to stick to your plan.

I suggest you read this book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution. It is a great book about setting and achieving your goals.

In the book, the authors share 4 disciplines you must adhere to to produce real success in business and life. And one of the disciplines is none other than having accountability.

5. Create Action Commitments

You can’t just write down your goals and then go and eat a sandwich and pray that your goals are going to come to you automatically.

Most people thought that goal setting is all about identifying their goals. Some choose to write down their goals while some don’t.

The thing is that goal setting is more than that. After you set your goals, you need to plan for the action commitments so that you will understand what you need to do to get there.

You can’t leave things up to chances. You must plan for your goals and know what you need to do to create the results you desire.

Too bad that people who fail to hit their goals are usually those who only think about their goals in their heads, they don’t even write them down.

And most people don’t plan and create action commitments for their goals.

You have to list down what you need to do to get to your goals. Just like when you want to build a house. You need a step-by-step blueprint to follow.

You can’t build the wall when you don’t even have the foundation built yet. And you can’t build the roof without the wall.

Here’s a good guide to help you turn your goals into action commitments:

How to Turn Your Goals into Actionable Plans

6. Commit and Take Action

Success isn’t going to fall from the sky and your goals are not going to manifest themselves. You need to work for them.

No matter what you want to achieve in your life, you can get them if you are willing to work for them.

The problem with most people is that they only work on their goals at the beginning of the journey.

After a couple of days or weeks of not seeing results or when they get distracted, they fail to stick to their plans.

The more they procrastinate and not taking action, the less committed they feel. And the less commitment they have, the more likely they are going to lose interest in their goals.

Eventually, they lose their momentum and stop taking action altogether.

This is when they will give up on their goals and decide to do something else or to pursue other goals or projects.

Never let this happen to you. Focus on getting things done.

You don’t have to work on your goals 24/7 but make sure you do something to progress forward each day.

Follow the Rule of Five: Every day, take 5 action steps to move forward to your goals.

Read: 7 Easy Ways How to Increase Your Commitment to Success

7. Review Your Goals Every Week

If you want to make sure you reach your goals, then you need to review them every week.

Why? The reason is so that it keeps your momentum high and keeps you posted on the progress of your goals.

One main reason people fail to achieve their goals is that they lose the connection with their goals. They got distracted by their daily busy life and they forget about their goals.

Never let this happen to you.

This is why you want to spend time to review your goals at least weekly.

When you review your goals, you can ask yourself 3 simple questions:

1. What is went wrong this week?
2. What went right this week?
3. How can I make changes and improve the following week?

If you review your goals weekly, you will not only keep yourself updated on your progress, but also improve yourself by stop doing what’s not working and start doing what’s working.

Remember, goal setting is not one-time work, but it is continuous progress where you need to re-engage yourself with your goals every day.

Hence, do a weekly review of your goals to make sure you recharge yourself and re-engage with your goals for better momentum.

Read: How to Evaluate and Review Your Goals

8. Use a Scoreboard to Track Your Goals

Peter Drucker once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” And that’s why you want to create a scoring system for your goals.

You have to come up with a tracking system to measure your goals and results.

“People play differently when they’re keeping score. If you doubt this, watch any group of teenagers playing basketball and see how the game changes the minute scorekeeping begins. However, the truth of this statement is more clearly revealed by a change in emphasis: People play differently when they are keeping score. It’s not about you keeping score for them.”

An excerpt from The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Yes, you will play differently when you are keeping score. When you keep score, it means that you are playing to win.

Nobody wants to play a game to lose. And the moment you keep score, you know it’s game on.

You want to play the game to win.

This is why tracking your goals and progress using a scoreboard is an effective method to keep you motivated.

Ever wonder why companies often share sales charts with their staff? Well, they want to motivate their salespeople to work harder, to remind them of their progress, and to let them know how far they are from their sales target.

You can do the same by using a scoreboard to keep track of your goals and progress. But how do you do that? Read this guide:

How to Track Your Goals: 5 Fabulous Ways You Should Consider

9. Invest in Yourself and Focus on Improvement

You can’t get to where you want to go if you continue to stay where you are. The only way to get there is to work on improving yourself.

You see, you are where you are right now because of what you know and who you are. So, if you want to achieve greater success in life, you must transform yourself and become someone worthy of the success you want.

Hence, the only way to do so is to invest in yourself and focus on improvement.

Yes, you want to achieve your goals, but you can’t get to your goals if you continue to be who you are.

For example, if you are earning $100,000 a year and your goal is to earn a million dollars, you must work on yourself to gain the knowledge and skills to earn that amount of money.

You can’t reach the goal if you continue to be who you are.

You have to upgrade your skills, knowledge, habits, characters, mindsets, beliefs, etc., to get to higher ground.

Without working on yourself, you will never get to where you want to go.

I like to use the example of playing games. If your character in the game is at level 3 and the enemy is at level 5, it will be a difficult fight.

However, if your character is at level 10 and you face the same enemy at level 5, it will be an easy fight for you.

Do you see why improving your level is important now?

If you want to succeed and reach your goals, whether it is to earn a million dollars or to lose weight, you need to equip yourself with the right mindset, habits, and characters to achieve the goals.

Thus, work on improving yourself. Read books, take courses, upgrade your skills, build productive habits, and eventually, you will become the person worthy of the success you want.

Read: Why Learning is Important to Your Success in Life

10. What to Do When You Fail

Failure is inevitable when it comes to success. And you don’t have to worry about failure for it is not the opposite of success.

In fact, failure is on the same side as success.

The more you fail, the more you will learn. And the more you learn, the more success you can produce.

Hence, don’t be afraid of failure.

If you take action and work tirelessly on your goals, but still fail to achieve your goals, don’t give up.

Instead, learn from your failure and mistake. You can become better through experience.

But sadly, most people don’t learn from their failures.

• They invest and lose money in stocks; they quit and stop investing in stocks ever again.
• They start a blog and work for a couple of weeks; when they don’t see results, they quit and they don’t learn why they fail.
• They start a business and they fail; they concluded that business is hard and the competition is too tough.

Here’s a great saying from Bruce Lee:

“Defeat is a state of mind; No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.”

Bruce Lee

You can face many defeats in life, but you must not be defeated.

So, what should you do when you fail to achieve your goals? Here’s the answer…

7 Things You Should Do When You Fail to Achieve Your Goals

Conclusion

Goal setting works if you work on it the right way.

If you follow the 10 tips above, you will have no problem reaching your goals in 2021 and make this year your best year ever.

Want to learn more about setting and achieving your goals? Check out my masterclass, Goal Setting Formula.

Do you like my 10 tips so far? Let me know in the comment section below.