Step 1. Reflect

In order to achieve your dream in life you need to understand, what is it that you want and why you want it. How do you find out, if all that you feel is anger and frustration?

Your first step is to stop and reflect. There are a number of questions to ask yourself before you start to work on your specific goal. Some of them are listed below:

• What do I want to do? / How do I want to do this?
• What is/are my passion(s)? / What are my dreams?
• What is my future vision of my life? / What are my values?
• What would it be like, if certain things I am looking for would be present in my life?
• Who would I need to become to achieve my dream?

Once you have answered these questions, you can move on to the next section that will guide you through a self- awareness principle. These are important to think about, if you wish for your dreams to guide you to a better life.

Step 2. Raise awareness

Self-awareness involves comparing yourself to your own thoughts about what you could or should be. People are different and they have a tendency to focus attention either on themselves or on the external environment in different ways. How you compare yourself to the surrounding environment, will become critical in the decision-making process and the “if and how” you achieve your goals.

According to the concept of Carl Rogers, self-awareness is the highest level in the pyramid of human life and enables you to achieve your peak experience. An individual that is self-conscious strives for consistency, harmony, coherence and makes a creative effort to achieve their own goal that leads them to a better life.

Why is this important? Because with self-awareness and self-determination, you are able to work on a goal that is not only consistent with your values, but it leads to the highest performance and gives you the greatest satisfaction. 

Step 3. Set a Goal

If you are really serious about your dream, you need to be committed to work out the specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic goal within your agreed time frame. The summary below will help you define the most productive and satisfying goals.

You could also use the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will), that will help you look into the wider aspects of your goal, such as: assessment of your real world (Reality), or possibilities that you may have forgotten to consider (Options).

Goals need to be PRECISE:

• Outcome focused. Once you understand your WHY (AND it’s a good & enthusiastic WHY) you’re 90% there.
• In line with your values. The more a goal aligns with your inner or core values – the EASIER it will be to achieve. Note: You can achieve goals that don’t align with your values but it’s usually harder and less satisfying.
• Stated in the positive i.e. “I want a new job in a company that aligns with my values” rather than “I want to stop looking for a new job”
• Understood, relevant and ethical
• Clear, challenging, appropriate for the circumstances

Goals need to be SMART:

• Specific (so you know exactly what you are trying to achieve)
• Measurable (so you know, when you have achieved it)
• Action-oriented (so you can DO something about it)
• Realistic (so it is achievable)
• Time-bound (has a deadline)

Step 4. Set a Plan

When setting the plan, it is important to break the goal into stages and further sub-stages. Remember that time determines the performance of a given task – not the task determines the time of completion.

• Define the time frame to implement individual stages and sub-stages.
• Start with the most important tasks! [like the hardest and biggest rocks to carry!].

Evaluate the tasks from its importance and urgency point of view. You could use a model defined by Eisenhower, as Eisenhower Square. 

Step 5. Monitor your Goal

Goal monitoring increase the level of self-awareness in a specific area and self awareness facilitates self control. We are more and more surrounded by various tools to monitor our own behavior. Mobile applications, word/excel based documents, or any other tools could be a technical solution that you use to monitor your progress. What is really most critical is that you are accountable for your own goal and that whenever possible you have a supporting human resource, that helps you achieve your goal. This can be your business partner, family member, a true friend or a Coach who can ‘sit’ next to you like a passenger in the front seat of a car. Someone, who is there when you need him/her to support you towards your goal during the entire journey.

Research shows that we seem to often work better under surveillance. Think about it. When you are in the office and your boss is around, how do you work? Versus, when you are at home, how productive are you?

Research inspired by two psychologists, Wicklund and Duval, in 1974 proved that when people were placed in front of a mirror or told that they were being filmed, they worked longer in the laboratory tasks, they provided more reliable answers to questions and were consistent with actual behaviour.

Having that knowledge, how can you best monitor your goals? How do you make sure, you consistently progress towards your goal?