Sometimes just making a goal isn’t enough. To start improving your life and making your dreams a reality, you need to take action. It doesn’t matter how small the steps are, figuring out what you are going to do and then actually executing your plan is where the magic happens.

The process of Setting Goals can be a wonderful tool. If you aren’t setting goals for yourself, then you are effectively settling in this life. You are accepting that your current status quo is plenty good enough, and that improvement is not worth the effort. But this world in which we live is ever-changing and if you are not constantly improving, you are going to get passed by. We should always be figuring out what we can do to take the next steps in our lives, and then setting goals to help us get there.

While setting goals is critical, you cannot simply will your goals into reality. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to lose twenty pounds, pull yourself out of debt, or write a great novel. Research has shown that the very best way to meet your goals, is to start building habits. For most of us, this means that we are going to have to start being more intentional with how we spend our time. We need to find a way to carve out chunks of time in our daily routine to take actions that will help us get to where we want to be.

If you take a step back, you are experiencing some of the power of habits in your life without even thinking about it. You wear your seat belt every time you get in the car, which increases the chances that you will stay alive. You brush your teeth twice a day, because you want to maintain a presentable appearance. You check your email first thing in the morning, because you try to maintain good communication with your customers. There are countless other habits in our lives of course, but I want to instead talk about goals that fall outside of our normal routines.

I recently signed up to run in a half-marathon. I have never been a big runner, preparing for this event will certainly require me to develop some new habits. I need to build up my heart, lungs, and legs so that they can sustain my body over the course of running for two hours without stopping. As with most goals, I knew that I would need to start small when creating these new habits. I blocked off three windows each week that would be my time to run. These runs would start small (a few miles), and then gradually increase with time as the event comes closer. To help make sure I keep this habit rolling, I found some other runners in my life to use as accountability partners. You are far more likely to succeed in building a new habit if you have others to share it with. I invited my friends to run with me during these weekly windows as much as possible.

Back when we were paying off debt, we found ourselves having to build an entirely different set of new habits. We started an open communication habit where my wife and I blocked off time each month to review our budget and any expenses. We started new habits around the way that we were grocery shopping and preparing meals that helped slash our food expenses. Most importantly, we started a habit where we didn’t buy things that we couldn’t afford, and forced ourselves to save money up front if there was something that we wanted to purchase.

This same model can be applied to virtually any goal. Want to learn a musical instrument? Dedicate yourself to practicing for a half an hour every day. Want to be more social? Build habits into your schedule by joining meet-up groups or playing a sport. Want to improve your career? Build a habit to take some additional classes or spend one night each week developing a new relevant skill.

The power of building habits is undeniable. Start using it to your advantage today!