How is it that so few people end up living the life they dream of? What is it that separates the top performers in every aspect of life from all of the others?

I’ll tell you one of the top contributing factors – They set GOALS.

Write Down Your Goals
The cheesiest goal setting picture I could find…

Not only do they set goals, but they write them down and study them. They obsess over them. They live their lives for those goals.

By now I am sure most people know about the 80/20 principle – that 20% of your efforts will result in 80% of your gains (basically). There is also the 95/5 principle, which I am sure you can figure out. This can be applied to pretty much anything (at least in my head).

Applied to goal setting, we can assume that 5% of people in any given profession will end up with 95% of the “achievement”, usually money and happiness.

So how can you get into the top 5% and reap 95% of the rewards? How can you escape the treacherous reality that 95% of people that just stagnantly float through life without ever moving towards their goals, waiting for their lives to happen?

You have to SET GOALS, WRITE THEM DOWN and THINK ABOUT THEM CONSTANTLY.

Figure out what you really want and why you want it. If you do not have a specific action plan, strategy, and set of goals written out for the next 30 days, or the next 6 months, or the next 3 years…Dont be surprised when you dont accomplish anything!

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re going to end up nowhere.

Sit down and really THINK about a plan of action to get where you REALLY want to be. That means turn off all the electronic crap that doesn’t permit us to think clearly and VISUALIZE and IMAGINE where you want to be for AT LEAST AN HOUR. Seriously, just DO IT.

What kind of car would you drive? What would you do on your computer? What would you do in your free time? What would your daily work routine be? What would your mindset be like? Would your stance be different? What would you read? What kind of music would you listen to? What would your language and attitude be like? IMAGINE EVERY LITTLE DETAIL

Now think, HOW can I BECOME that person that is what I want to be. You must understand, the goal is not to get “things”, it is who you become as a person, the person that it takes to achieve all these goals. What your accomplishments and your journey will make of you as a person. You will be a different person after you achieve these goals than you are now.

Acknowledge that where you are right now is NOT where you want to be. Who you are as a person now is INADEQUATE compared to who you WILL be. You must make your brain dissatisfied with its current state of being.

BEAT YOUR BRAIN INTO SUBMISSION

Now WRITE DOWN how you will become the person you will be in the future, along with WHY. Figure out what it would have to take. IMAGINE how you could attain everything you were just dreaming of.

Review your written goals often and keep yourself driven and motivated. You must REVISIT and REREAD this piece of paper as time goes on to keep your subconscious mind FOCUSED and DISSATISFIED.

Once you have clarity and your subconscious understands what it is that you want and who it is that you want to become, you will start naturally moving towards your goals.

Couple that with drive and focus, and you will be in the top 5% of anything in what seems like no time at all.

Which is pretty awesome, Bro…

Author

Avatar for Will Mitchell
Will Mitchell

Will Mitchell is a serial entrepreneur and Founder of StartupBros. You can learn more about him at the Startupbros about page. If you have any questions or comments for him, just send an email or leave a comment!

9 comments add your comment

  1. Drifting sounds like less work. I’ve learned to accept my reality. Accept what you have, don’t worry about what you don’t. 1, life isn’t a race. 2, there is a finish line that everybody has to cross. Some cross it sooner than others, but we all cross it eventually. Once you’re dead, nothing matters, or ever mattered.

    • Hey guy,
      Very depressing. If you think that once you are dead nothing maters, you are missing the impact you could have on other people. The invention of the telephone changed the course of human history. Alexander Graham Bell is dead…long dead. What he did mattered and will continue to matter for the rest of human existence.

  2. dreams really give us power in our lives. without dreams we can’t fulfill our life.

  3. Hey Will,

    I recently came across your site and decided it was worth bookmarking for further reference. What’s impressive to me is how involved you are, responding to questions and providing further encouragement.
    Goal setting is difficult for me and being the natural skeptic that I am, I don’t usually open up much to self-help literature.
    All this being said, I have a fair amount of time and freedom in my life (no wife, kids, most friends busy with wife and kids). Now is a good time for me to focus and pour all my energy into something exciting rather pounding away at my mediocre job for years to come.
    The biggest difficulty I have is isolating and and planning for goals. I can make generalizations on what I want; i.e. the financial freedom to travel, escape from working for someone else, etc. I just can’t come up with specifics.
    At this point, simply leaving a comment for you is a minor goal I set to get done today.

    • Hey Tony,

      Awesome, glad to hear we made the cut! I write this stuff to connect with entrepreneurs – I like responding much more than writing the initial piece 🙂

      Yea, now is definitely the time to take action. Even if you did have a wife/kids/health issues/whatever, I’d STILL say now is the time! NOW is always the time to take action! Once you’re successful, you’ll be looking back at the time wasted that you could have leveraged to make yourself even more successful or happy or rich. Leverage that free time while you still have it!

      I’ve had similar issues – I used to know I wanted to do great things and try to set goals and plan around it, but it was always way too vague to do anything with. It’s really something that has to take your entire being, it takes a lot of time. The goal with goal setting is to understand why you want what you want, and figure out how to get yourself from where you are to where you want to be. It sounds easy, but it’s surprisingly difficult and uncomfortable.

      Have you ever tried setting goals for literally HOURS? I didn’t really understand the true value of setting goals and creating action plans until I did this. It’s gotta be a full immersion experience.

      It’s really visualization more than anything else. If you can imagine yourself going from where you are to where you want to be, you can probably create an action plan around the first few steps. The hard part is having a total grasp and understanding of that big picture of your life.

      Maybe I should write a post on how to actually set goals, that would probably be more valuable than this post! Let me ask you though, is it that you’re just overwhelmed with the options at every step of the way? Is it understanding how to transform an imaginative whim into a detailed action plan you’re excited to act on? Any insights you could give me would help a ton, cuz I think I really might do that “How To Set Goals” article 🙂

      Thanks for commenting,
      Will

  4. I gotta say, this is one of the better resources I’ve seen on setting goals and sticking to them.

    You’ve made a really strong case here that made me look deeper into myself than I’m normally comfortable with.

    I’ve always had a lot of trouble sticking to one thing at a time. I guess I’ve always had dreams, which I convinced myself were goals.

    Your article made me realize that a goal without an action plan is nothing but a dream.

    I think I’m going to spend the next couple of hours continuing over what you’ve talked about here. Like I said, I think it will be uncomfortable for me, but necessary if I want to be anything more than a wantrepreneur.

    Maybe you can write a post next about how to actually set the goals. How do we know what makes a good goal, what’s the best way to go about this thing, you know. It could be very helpful.

    Thank you very much for putting this out into cyberspace, it has helped at least one person!

    • Hey Vedran,

      Thanks a lot! I appreciate your kind words. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable though 🙂

      Taking steps to set goals and stick to them will definitely help you if you have trouble sticking to one thing at a time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your empire!

      You’re absolutely right, and you put it perfectly. A goal without an action plan is only a dream.

      That’s a great idea for a future blog post. Maybe I can help you through the process and then build a blog post from that 🙂

      Talk soon,
      Will

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