Monday, July 11, 2016

What, Why, When, and How of Goals ?




Most of us go through lives without knowing what we want. The first question is to ask what is my purpose of life ? The purpose of life is to have a life of purpose. A life without purpose is wasted after meaningless pursuits, whether it is success, money or fame. Instead of that if you just define your purpose and pursue it, success, money and fame follow. Nobody else can define the Life’s purpose for you. You have to check your core beliefs, your inner feelings as to what gives you maximum satisfaction and joy. Once you decide what you want in life or what is your life’s purpose, half the battle is won.

The next question is why you want it?  What is your motivation? Your motive for action. Why you do whatever you do ? More important than the What is the Why. An Olympic athlete gets up every day in the morning and goes for his practice. Whether it is sunshine or rain, he follows the tough regime for four years in continuation. His motivation is that he wants to get laurels for his country. He wants to see the tricolour flying and the national anthem playing when he is on the victory stand. Similarly what is the thing that drives you ? What will make you get-up everyday and get going for your goal, all excited, filled with enthusiasm. What will make you rebound when you suffer a set-back ? So be sure of the Why of your goal and your What will become that much easier.

When do you plan to achieve your goal? Everything comes with a time limit. The electricity bill has to be paid in time. The mobile has to be re-charged in time. The gas has to be re-filled in time. Likewise, the goal has to be achieved in time. Suppose a student is in his XIIth, now. If his goal is to be a Doctor, he has to set a time limit that by 2020 he will be a doctor. Similarly, with all your medium, short and immediate goals you have to have a time limit. Every day you should know how far or how close you are from your goals. Like a pilot always knows how far he is, from his destination, both in terms of distance and time.

Most of us know the answers of all the above three questions but don’t have a clear idea of How to achieve it. It seems tough but it is not rocket-science. Firstly we have to program the inner software. I have given the way to do it in my earlier article IVR : Programming the Mind for Success.
 
Once you start practicing IVR your mind will be focused at your goal. The next thing you have to do is to take action and the action has to be taken in the present. Each action has to be a powerful action and it will be so when you are not thinking about the past or the future. Suppose you are making a resume for applying for a job. You may have thoughts of your past failures or anxiety of the future. Just get rid of these thoughts and focus on creating the best possible resume. Everything has got energy and if you put positive energy into anything it is bound to give you positive results. So, if you make all your actions, powerful actions your day is going to be a successful day. And if you have a series of such successful days, there is no doubt that you will have a successful life.

Life is very simple and contrary to the popular belief success is easy when we take the right steps in the right direction. So, answer the above questions. Write them down. Meditate on them and then take powerful actions and success will come knocking at your doors sooner than you think.

Sqn Ldr Manish Kumar (iinspire.in@gmail.com)
The writer is a veteran Air Force pilot, a motivational speaker and the Author of the inspirational fiction “Be Your Own Pilot.”

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