How to score goals

Recently I challenged myself to do a rather long skateboard adventure. On paper and in practice I probably shouldn’t have been able to do it. There was even times during the trip that I both physically and mentally almost caved. Although I prevailed, and in retrospect during the trip I learnt a few really good tips that helped me accomplish my goal..

Step 1 – Setting the dream!

When people try to set goals they are often to broad or to difficult. I.e. Broad; Want to loose weight, Want to run a marathon, want to create an app, Get a job, go on a holiday.
I’m not saying these are not achievable but these are achievements that you attain from your goals. These are closer to dreams. Your goals should help focus on your dream. When I did the 1000km Skate trip. My goal wasn’t do it, that was my dream to do it. I didn’t just go do 1000km.I also had a reason why, a motivation pulling me towards the end point; To prove I can do what I set my mind to and to help the charities that helped me.

So set a dream this can be something like what I mentioned. Something that you can aspire to. Something that will give you an overall motivation to keep going.
So my current example would be: to make an extremely versatile bag/companion and a successful business. That’s a hard goal to confirm your progress. So it’d be to have a successful Kickstarter, that’s how I’ll measure it, that’s how i’ll know the dreams achieved.
Dreams don’t have to appear realistic or seem achievable. In-fact a good dream will often be ridiculed by others that lack the motivation or energy to even think that big!

Step 2 – Now come the goals

After the dreams been set, then comes the time to create your goals. These help you achieve your dream. They can be as small as you’d like, as long as it makes progress towards your dream. i.e.
Dream; Loose weight
Goal; do 20 minutes of exercise 5x a week, stop drinking fizzy drinks, drink minimum 1L of water per day
Dream; Create an app
Goal; Do 2 hours of research, Create a draft layout, Make a DRD
Dream: Create a versatile bag
Goal: Create prototype, Test, Find all competitors, design, learn marketing(can be broken down further), learn SEO, organise meeting with contacts… meet contacts.
You can see you can create many goals, monthly, weekly but more importantly daily!

None of these goals will make your dream come true. However it’ll get you closer to it. Each time you tick something of the list you get one step closer. When I did the skate trip, my goal was simply skate 50km a day. That’s a far way of 1000km but it gets you closer each time. These should be specific and easier to define success.

Now “Chunk it” & Split it again

If your goal still seems to far or difficult then split it again. i.e. On the skate trip instead of 50km, I’d set 25-30km points where I’d allow myself to take a rest.
Doing this made it much more attainable and I found I could do 80-90km! I constantly surprised myself just by completing these smaller tasks I’d do massive amounts by just thinking about the next stop.

Tips

Focus of what’s in front

When heading towards your dream you don’t need to look all the way to the end of the road to see what you’re trying to achieve. That’ll actually demotivate you. Just concentrate on the next step, where is your foot going. You don’t need to think about what’s down the road, you’re not up to that yet.
i.e. On the skate focusing on 600kms left sucked, it sucked a lot. But thinking that in 17km I’ll be able to get a beer at the next servo was awesome!

Everything is perspective

Everything in this universe is relative (except for light, another post for another day). When you are going through a tough time or don’t think you’re achieving much it’s just the perspective you have. You could be upset because you only walked 500m today instead of a 2km run you planned and you’re watching all these people running laps around your house. Then remember there’s a lot of people who haven’t gotten out of bed. You can always change your thoughts.
You could be upset because you just got rained on, phone got wet and a parking fine on the way back to your car. Then remember there are people who walk 10s of kilometers for water. Oh and you can walk? and read? so everything is about your perspective and attitude towards it. Just as an overall rule be grateful.

Sometimes sit & relax

A lot of the time there’s not going to be anyone there to give you a pat on the back. Even though you just did something remarkable! May be solving a coding problem, new PB in the gym or made it to a destination you’ve been aiming for.
Stop, relax and treat yourself. This also help cognitively teaching you good habits of actually attaining your goals. Moments like this are always good to think about how far you’ve come. To look down the metaphorical cliff and respect how far you’ve climbed.

Be aware of what you’re afraid of. Then do it anyway

There’s often moments in your dream journey where you’ll postpone doing something. Could be a physical or mental challenge. These moments you have to self reflect realise why you’re scared then do it anyway. Often just doing it will move you towards your goal and definitely help you and boost your will power!

Expect the best, prepare for the worst!

It’s always is a benefit to be an optimist. Just thinking and expecting the best out come will motivate you and others around you. Help you keep focus on your goal. Although optimist have a flaw, when everything is burning around them they’re just sitting there whistling.
So before you begin your permanent positive perspective, sit and think about the worst possible outcome and plan for it! just anything that could go wrong think about it so it’s no longer a surprise.
i.e. trying to loose weight and your friends invite you over for there birthday and going away party. It’s a big event so you need to drink and eat. Wrong! tell them why you can’t!
As long as your reason ‘why’ is bigger then their reason then you can overcome any other persons thoughts or plans.