On Acheiving Goals

[David Biagi]

It's been a while since I've been active here, but yesterday I made my second weight-loss goal for the year (year-to-date weight loss is 103 pounds). I've shared with this community the importance of setting goals for achieving personal advancement. Today I want to talk a little about the single greatest tool that literally anyone can use to achieve their goals.

The silver bullet of achievement is perseverance. Not giving up is the single greatest thing a person can do to accomplish their goals. And the great thing is, anyone can do it! It takes literally no training to decide you aren't going to give up. Opportunity comes and goes, luck and your skills can fail you, but if you continue to pursue your goals, nothing can stop you. There were weeks where I didn't lose any weight at all, and it was pretty discouraging. There were even a couple weeks where I gained weight from my last weigh in, and I just wanted to give up. But perseverance turns those defeats into fuel for your advancement. The weeks that followed those defeats were among my best in terms of weight loss, because I was able to take the blow in stride because I knew that one bad week was nothing up against the monolith of my refusal to give up.

Here are a couple practical steps to persevering through the tough spots in your financial and physical journey. First, you have to decide that you're not going to give up and realize that the super-human endurance you posses in persevering will carry you through to the end. Second, no matter how big a problem appears remember that it is only a set-back and not the end of the road. Finally, knowing that any problem is only a simple set back, learn from those set backs and use them to fuel your further achievement.

I want to thank this community for the support you've shown me. I've been participating for months, but I'm just now beginning training to run my first 5k. I'll keep you all updated as I make progress!

[David Biagi]

Hey Chett, you know I'm always happy to share if there's even a remote possibility someone else can benefit from it. In the post above I talk about how perseverance is your single greatest tool for achieving your goals, but how do I persevere? For me perseverance is two fold and comes down to focusing on how you start and how you want to end all at the same time.
Starting out is where will power comes into the equation. If you can will yourself to start and keep at something long enough to make it habit (it takes 30 days to make or break a habit) the momentum will carry you through to the end. Previously I've talked about how when you start pursuing a long-term goal it's good to start with small goals. For me I started out with the goal of losing two pounds a week. It was a small, reasonable and easily attainable goal. Based on my past experience, I knew that after a month of losing two pounds a week I would have the momentum I needed to keep myself going strong.
So if using your will power to start small and strong is how you focus on the beginning, focusing on the end is the catalyst that pushes your goal-attaining-power to the limit! When starting out it's good to find something that you can't do now that you'll be able to do after you achieve your goal and imagine yourself doing it every day. For me that meant I thought a lot about running and playing ice hockey. You're not going to sell yourself on achieving your goal by fixating on the process and the hard work, so you've got to concentrate on the end result and what it will allow you to do. If you're paying down debt, it might help to think about the first big purchase you're going to make when you're debt free. Fixating on the first thing you're going to buy in cash and the pride of ownership without debt you'll get from the experience will give you strength to continue paying down debt. And how awesome it will be when you make that purchase! It's absolutely intoxicating!
This mental duplicity, concentrating on your start and finish simultaneously, builds a level of obsession that makes it easier to succeed than to fail. For the first month or two, between the focus necessary to build the routine required to succeed and daydreaming about the end result, I didn't think about anything else. But eventually it becomes second nature and you don't have to think about it so much, because you're accustomed to the new routine and that image of success is so imprinted in your mind that it's not a future possibility, but a future fact.

[Chett]

David,

I want to thank you so much for the encouragement you provide to others. Your continued striving toward your goals is inspiring. I was wondering, other than pure will power, what keeps you on track for your goals. Do you have an image in your mind, a concrete milestone, or something else specific and tangible that keeps you going?

I ask this because so many people have a hard time sticking to their goals on will power alone. I know when we were paying our way out of debt, I held on to a feeling of comfort that I knew I had when there were no financial worries. I also kept very close the memory of struggling to pay bills and the anxiety of finances. When will power seemed like it was going to fail me, these emotions kept me going in the right direction.