How to effectively achieve goals and enjoy the experience

What would you say creates more pleasure - achieving goals or knowing you are on the right path to achieve your goals through undertaking the required actions? From what I have studied it takes shape in two forms; the first being the initial pleasure in the moment of achievement but then there is a subsequent feeling of emptiness if there are no future goals to move onto. Likewise working towards a goal can be immensely satisfying and rewarding over a period of time, but only if you know you are moving towards the goal you truly want.

What I wanted to write about today wasn't about ensuring your stated goals are truly the ones you want, rather I wanted to explore what was required to achieve your goals more efficiently. But also as important, and often ignored, was how to enjoy the journey of achieving the goals and minimizing any stress involved in the process.

When it comes to setting and achieving goals, the majority of us think of something we would like to achieve because of a reason important to us at a point in time. The majority of us don't consider a range of goals or even where a particular goal fits in with their overall life plan...if they have a life plan at all that is! A goal is something in the future and the primary weakness in goal setting today, whether wealth creation, health, business or career is that not enough thought and analysis is put into what is required to achieve the goal. That is, what steps or actions must be undertaken, in a somewhat predetermined order, to achieve your stated objective.

People are generally good at planning or action but not both and this is why goal setting and achievement is always an area we can improve. But the first point I want to make it that time must be allocated to planning the actions and steps necessary to achieve any potential goals.

Time management is also crucial in achieving goals...not much point in setting a goal for the next year that will take an average of 4 hours a day to achieve if you only have 2 hours available. Thus you must know your schedule, be strict in what you do and don't think more inputs to a goal will get you there faster. Often less is more and it is important to minimize the tasks required - performing only what is necessary. But more important is ensuring you act on your plan once you have cleared your schedule accordingly. This is where tools such as neuro linguistic programming (NLP)are useful where old habits and perceptions need to be broken and new ones re-established.

Lastly, goals are often achieved to gain a positive experience or to lose a negative experience. Either way not achieving a goal should not be an option but so many of us set goals that are not achieved. Worst still this becomes a habit and leads to underachievement and future stress due to the fact that you recognize you are not achieving what you want. The solution...don't focus on the goal, just focus on the actions you have identified you must undertake. If it helps create personal principles underlying these eg wanting to get to work early could be attached to a principle around starting the day fresh and wanting to maximise each hour of your life for personal development...something like that but it must work for you. The benefit is that you are more likely to respect yourself for undertaking these actions and not be tempted to continually change or adjust the goal because you are focused on the actions. Focusing on the goal, particularly one in the far future, will lead you to change more often as you become impatient and if you don't achieve then your stress levels and life enjoyment will suffer.

How to ensure a satisfying career

Amongst us there are those who have completely fulfilling careers, both professionally and personally, those who have satisfactory careers and lastly those with careers that are disappointing from both a professional and personal level. The question that needs to be answered is how do you achieve option 1 rather than option 2 and definitely not option 3.

The start of the career path for each of us starts from a different place due to a number of factors; family wealth, educational background of parents, socioeconomic status etc but this does not guarantee you have a satisfying career. There are many people coming from a background of wealth and privilege who are underachieving, unmotivated and not satisfied with their career and career path. Likewise there are those from ordinary and disadvantaged backgrounds who would say they have fulfilling careers.

From what I have studied the responses given may or may not be based on expectations but we may have to consider that has some influence but it is also important to note that purely considering financial rewards does not result in a guaranteed positive response or likewise a negative response if the financial reward is low. It appears the key drivers to a satisfying career are; having control over the career path, having your personal goals satisfied, feeling useful, receiving meaningful benefits, and knowing why you are undertaking the career you are in. It is also known that if you consider your career satisfying your performance will be high and you should receive personal benefit. High performance will be achieved simply because you want to perform well and this will ensure your focus and dedication is strong.

So what this means is that you have to be clear on why you are undertaking your job and what you are gaining from both a personal and professional perspective, not just undertake a role for the sake of it and assume it will provide you with what you want. It is up to you to take the time to identify what aspects of a job are important to you, from a principle point of view, and ensure you align these with the career you undertake. The consequence of not doing this is dissatisfaction and lack of motivation, perhaps not initially but over time when you are not achieving what is important to you - however at that time it might be too late to change.