So what is the number 1 skill you need to Achieve your goals? It is learning is to dust yourself off and pick yourself back up. It is learning to develop resilience which is the ability to cope, adapt, overcome, and withstand challenges, failure, or crisis.

If you want to succeed, you need to set goals. Without goals you lack focus and direction. Goal setting not only allows you to take control of your life's direction; it also provides you a benchmark for determining whether you are actually succeeding. Think about it: Having a million dollars in the bank is only proof of success if one of your goals is to amass riches.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back stronger and better each time. It is understanding that challenges and failure is actually an opportunity to succeed. One thing I have learned is that tough times don’t last, it is tough people who do. It isn’t about life getting easier, but us getting stronger and more resilient.

How would you like to increase the odds of achieving your goals?  Whether you desire to lose weight, create financial independence, build a healthy marriage, or raise responsible children, the formula for achieving any goal is the same.

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Once you have learned what you need to know, divided your plan into daily activities, and blocked out time each day to do the assigned tasks, it’s time to Work Your Plan. Start tomorrow! When the time you’ve blocked out arrives, push yourself to do what you know you should do without any further delay. It’s time for action. You could continue to study dozens of books, listen to CDs, and interview successful people (all helpful), but the greatest, most practical knowledge comes from implementing what you’ve learned.


Think as if your life depended on it

When you shift to a determined, creative mindset, you begin to discover solutions for challenges that you may have believed were out of your control. If your life depended on it, would you come up with a new idea or strategy to save yourself? Absolutely.

The goal you want to achieve or the problem you want to solve probably is not a life-or-death scenario, but many creative solutions come when you put everything on the line. While your life may not be at risk, your happiness and success are.

Be specific about what you want to achieve

Most people don't know what they want to do with their life, and even after thinking hard, they don't come up with something they really want to do. This is one of the main reasons that in spite of so many books on success, most people live an average life.

Refuse to allow excuses

The No.1 reason people fail to achieve their goals is because they allow themselves to make excuses for not doing what they know they should do. One of the most crucial keys to success is doing what you know you should do, every day, even when you don’t feel like doing it.  This means NEVER allowing yourself to justify not doing what you know you should do. Make a commitment that you will not make excuses under any circumstances!


True passion

When you love what you do or want to do for a living, you’ll be naturally inspired to reach your career goals quicker. Find something you are interested in or enjoy, research the possibilities and make your plan of action. This may even involve enrolling on a short course to get you exactly where you want to be.

Draw up a plan of action

A well though out plan will give you direction and structure. Make a plan and write down what you want to achieve in a given period, say six months, and break this down to a week-by-week schedule. Whether it’s a long-term or short-term plan, make it detailed and try to stick to it. Good intentions will always give you good focus.

Devote as much time as you need to find a goal or goals, even minor goals are okay. Not everyone really desires great success and is willing to completely change his/her life. Not everyone desires to be a millionaire, or possesses the talent to make money.

After finding a goal that you really desire to achieve, draw up a plan, being as practical as possible.

Make a list of steps

List the steps you need to take, such as signing up for a course, studying, reading, developing the required skills, looking for a job, etc, and other steps you need to implement that will take you closer to achieving your goal.

 Act, do not be passive

Take action and follow the steps on your list. Don't just wait for things to happen.

 Read and listen to advice

Read books or articles about what you want to achieve. Meet people who can help you and listen to their advice, but use your common sense and reason before accepting anything.

 Examine your goals periodically

Some goals aren't worth achieving. Circumstances and people change. Some goals lose their importance. It is a good idea to re-examine your goals regularly and weed out the worthless ones.

 Repeat affirmations

Affirm with faith and feelings that your goal has already been achieved. If you don't undo your affirmations with doubts and lack of belief, they will be accepted by your subconscious mind, which will then provide you with more desire and motivation.

 Visualize your goal

Visualization will also affect your subconscious mind, which will keep you motivated, focused on your goal, and more aware of ideas and opportunities.

You’ve got to want it more than you don’t want it

 Everything will exact a certain price from you—energy, effort, patience, resources. It’s natural to want the good things in life without paying the price: You want to lose weight but don’t want to exercise or sacrifice your favorite foods. You want a promotion but don’t want to put in the extra hours. Success comes when you hit a tipping point and begin to desire your goal more  than you dread the cost of reaching it.


 Take action

Don't just affirm and visualize and do nothing. Take any action required to bring your goal into fruition. Follow your intuition, new ideas and opportunities that present themselves, and accept help from other people.

Learn from those who have already achieved “your” goals

Once you are clear on what you truly want to achieve, your next step is to learn what you need to know. The best source of knowledge will come from those who have already reached goals similar to yours. Identify people you respect and admire, who have achieved the goals you desire, and learn as much as you can from them.

Don’t let gravity pull you down

Just as massive planets produce gravity—drawing everything toward them—it seems that tough problems and challenging obstacles have enough mass to pull you away from getting what you want. This force gets bigger and stronger as the challenges get larger and tougher. Don’t give in.


Positive mindset

Believe in yourself and what you are capable of. Criticism can knock you off your career journey. Sometimes it can inspire it. Most times, it’s about how you accept it. Make honest targets, stay focused on your plan and reach high.

Identify what’s important to you

The only goals you will succeed in reaching are those that are truly important to you. If a goal is not meaningful or significant to you, you will quit when faced with obstacles. Take 30 minutes and make a list of the things that are truly essential in your life; those that you highly value. Then highlight the most important points on that list and set your goals.

Be accountable to others

You want to spend time with people who build you up and can encourage you when you fail. They will pull with you, pull for you, and pull against you if need be. Studies have shown that having a workout partner greatly increases your chances of working out.

Why? Because both can hold each other accountable in helping to make sure that they exercise even if they don’t feel like it or something gets in the way. There is a famous proverb that states “As iron sharpens iron, so one sharpens another.” This involves humbling yourself and submitting to others’ advice and mentorship.

In addition, you are who you hang out with. There is a saying that you are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with. One study found that the rich are very careful who they spend time with. They want to be with people that are positive, help them grow and be a better person of yourself.

If you are with negative people that complain all the time and are toxic, then eventually that will become you! Dave Ramsey, a best-selling author and radio show host, referenced research that shows most people will earn a salary comparable to their closest friends—within +/-10%.

If we want to become successful in a certain area of life, such as money, then why would we allow ourselves to be continually influenced by people who haven’t been successful? Get to know and become influenced by successful people, especially those that have one

Ask, “Am I willing to pay the price required to achieve my goal?

After you complete your plan, be honest with yourself and determine if your goal is important enough to you that you will discipline yourself to do what’s required each day to achieve your goal. One of the biggest reasons people fail to reach their goals is because they are not willing to do what’s required over a sustained period of time.  How about you.

When you can’t control your circumstances, don’t let your circumstances control you

On March 22, 2012, the state army of Mali stormed the presidential palace, overthrowing the western African country’s 20-year-old democracy. In the turmoil, Islamic militants took control of two-thirds of the country and crushed the upcoming democratic elections.

It was a tragic moment when the coup happened, says Yeah Samake, mayor of the small town of Ouélessébougou, located approximately 40 miles from the chaos. “I came into my living room and completely collapsed on the couch. My wife came and kicked me. I couldn’t believe it. I told her, ‘I am looking for sympathy here. Why are you kicking me?’ She only said, ‘Get out there and go do something.’ ”

Whether you get off the couch on your own or require a little nudge from somewhere else, the point is to get out there and do something.


Determine the person you need to become

Far too often people focus on what they need to do to achieve their goals and fail to consider who they must become. To accomplish something you have never accomplished before, you must be willing to do what you’ve never done before; go where you’ve never been before; become someone you’ve never been before.

As you learn from those who have achieved “your” goals, pay as much attention to their personal attributes and characteristics as you do to what they did to realize their goals.

Here are five qualities you need to reach your biggest goals:

1. Be positive.
I have always believed that everything starts with a positive mindset. What you put your mind to is where you will put action to. You have to believe in yourself and stay positive as much as you can. Some of the best ways to do this are to surround yourself with positive, inspiring people; journal your progress; and start each day reading an inspirational article or listening to something positive and motivational.

2. Be persistent.
At times when you are trying to reach a large goal, there are people that are going to say “no” to what you want and need. I have been told that and you will, too. Strong, successful people do not give up. You don’t want to push too hard on people—sometimes it just takes a 15 percent shift in your strategy. And sometimes it’s that very next person who will say “yes.” So keep moving forward on your goals. Always believe that today is going to be your day.

3. Be patient.
You must also have amazing patience when going for your biggest goals.  We all want to achieve our goals today. We want the fruits of our labor right now, but sometimes the timing isn’t right for our goal. As Beverly Sills said, “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” Get into a mindset that the wait will be worth it. Take massive action on anything that you can, but remember that great things take time. Your dreams are worth the wait.

4. Be resilient.
Throughout our lives, there are people and situations that will try to throw us off our path to success. There will be people that will try to tell you that you can’t do it, and there will be challenges along the way that might want to make you quit. Resilience is definitely a quality that you need to have in order to make it. If you find yourself doubting yourself at times, one of the best things you can do is hire a mentor or coach to help you positively push through. Alone you can do a lot, but together with the right support system, you’ll find that you’ll accomplish so much more.

5. Be adaptable.
As Og Mandino said, “Always take the attitude of a student. Never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.” You must always learn and grow through life because that will help you achieve great success. You must have an open mind to the awesome possibilities and opportunities out there. Surround yourself with really smart people who you can learn and grow from. When you surround yourself with others who have already taken the path that you are on, it’ll open you up to awesome strategies to achieve success.

You deserve to achieve your goals and dreams. If want it, you have to go for it—but you have to do the right things to achieve it. Be positive, persistent yet patient, have resilience and always be adaptable.