How to focus on your goals

As children our ambitions and goals feel limitless. We see no reason why we can’t become a Disney princess or score a winning goal for England, but as we get older our goals get smaller. Sometimes just the act of getting up in the morning feels like an achievement. While we may still harbour big dreams a lot of the time many of us feel as though we will never be able to get there. This is often the biggest hurdle stopping us from achieving our dream goals. But setting goals far higher than you initially believe you are capable of achieving greatly improves your chances of success.
So here are a few tips and hints to help you to achieve what you want in life:

Push Yourself

Without goals it is easy to get stuck in a series of default patterns of behaviour, never stepping a foot outside of your comfort zone. While this may feel safe, it is in fact denying all that potential you have locked up inside you. When you really challenge yourself and avoid always taking the path of least resistance you will discover you can reach new heights and discover amazing things you had no idea you could do. Start with smaller tasks; putting yourself in difficult situations, trying a new sport you’ve only seen on television or making it your mission to speak to a new person every day. When you accomplish these you can start setting yourself bigger targets; getting that promotion at work or signing up to run a marathon. You will discover you are capable of far more than you realised and from there you will have the confidence to tackle the goals you once thought were impossible.

Surround Yourself with Positive Energy

Focus your attention on the most successful and inspiring people around you, both professionally and personally. This will help you to raise you own performance level, often without even realising you’re doing it. Another good tip is to choose role models from history or popular culture whose success or career you’d like to emulate. When you learn that Oprah achieved all her wealth and success through her own hard work, perseverance and confidence in her own abilities this can inspire you to do the same. The knowledge that people in your own life, as well as celebrities, have it within them to achieve their biggest dreams means that you can as well.

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from setting yourself high goals. Accept the knowledge that even if you do fail at your first attempt to get there there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from trying again, and then again if necessary. There is also a lot to learn from our failures, as the world renowned playwright Samuel Beckett famously said, ‘Try Again. Fail again. Fail better’. Each time you don’t quite get to where you wanted you can learn from it and get a bit closer the next time. The higher your goal the more difficult the path will be to get there, but you will feel so much better when you do.

Once you stop putting limitations on yourself and doubting your potential, you will soon discover the great things you can achieve. So stretch yourself and aim as high as your imagination will let you; challenge yourself and aspire to be as great as your heroes, and soon you will have achieved what you didn’t think possible.