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I participated in my second marathon for the month of may after running the BMO Vancouver Marathon on May 1st, 2022. The Tartan Ottawa International Marathon 2022 was my second time running the Ottawa trail. I finished with a time of 4:37:39, an improvement from the Vancouver Marathon where I finished with a time of 5:00:31.

For the first time since 2007, a Canadian woman won the top prize for the women’s section. American-born Canadian long-distance runner Kinsey Middleton finished with a time of 2:30:09 and Ethiopian Andualem Shiferaw set a new marathon course record with 2:06:04, the fastest time set on North American soil in 2022.

Your job is not to figure out how it’s going to happen for you, but to open the door in your head. And when the door opens in real life, just walk through it. And don’t worry if you miss your cue because there’s always doors opening. – Jim Carrey

Be careful what you ask for, you might get it. As author Napoleon Hill quipped in his 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich: “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. We all want the same things at some basic level: Wealth, Health, Success, Peace of Mind, Relationships, and Happiness. Our definition of these aspirations may vary but at some level, we are all striving for happiness. The power of manifesting and willing your heart desires is one of the great insights shared by most successful people such as Oprah Winfrey, Jim Carrey, Drake, J.K.Rowlings, Steve Harvey among others.

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” – Jim Carrey

A Vision Board is a visual representation of your goals. It is a collage of all the things you want to get done, places you want to visit, and goals you want to achieve.  It is a tool recommended by some of the most successful people in the world such as Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Harvey, John Assaraf, and Jim Carrey among others. By Visualizing your goals, you impress them on your subconscious mind but you have to first set the goals and write down your goals. As author Napoleon Hill said in his 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Be careful what you ask for, you might get it. Our belief system drives our behavior. By impressing your goals on your mind constantly, and seeing your goals continuously, you stand a greater chance of achieving them. One of my favorite examples of the power of visualization is from a story shared by Comedian Jim Carrey. In a 1997 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Carrey described how he used visualization to earn $10 million through a check he had written earlier for services rendered.

The 2022 BMO Vancouver Marathon was held on Sunday, May 1st, 2022 and it had a record 18,500 registered participants. The 2022 edition was special as it was the 50th Anniversary of the Marathon that began with 32 finishers in 1972. It was my first Marathon since the Global Pandemic and I was super delighted to participate in the event.

We started the Marathon behind schedule as a suspicious device was spotted near the Science World on the Half-Marathon track. The Fastest Male was Canadian Chris Balestrini who finished with a time of 2:23:56 and the fastest female at the BMO Vancouver Marathon was Canadian Olympian Dayna Pidhoresky who completed the run in 2:34:30.

Indra Nooyi had just been named the president of PepsiCo with a seat on the board of directors. She was filled with excitement about her accomplishment. In her autobiography, My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future, she recalls a statement made by her mother on the night of her promotion. The story contains lots of insightss such as work-life balance and staying humble among others.

my-life-in-full-indra-nooyi

She writes:

Roger and Bob Morrison would serve on the board as vice-chairmen. Steve and Roger also decided together that I would be named president of PepsiCo and join the board. I was in my office late on Friday, December 1, when Steve called me from Dallas to share the news.

I was over the moon. This was major. President of PepsiCo. The board of directors. Wow!

To sour with the eagles, you don’t flock with the chickens. The eagle is a special kind of bird, it flies at high altitudes where no other birds try to fly. If you do what you have always done, you will get the same results. To get a different result, you have to change your approach. As theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once quipped, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Our natural state as a human is homeostasis (sameness/certainty). Homeostasis is from the Greek word “Homeo (similar/same) and Stasis (standing still). It is our tendency to stay the same. It is a process we use to maintain stability and survival.

Good fences make good neighbors. – Robert Frost

You got a dream. You got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves… they want to tell you, you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period. – Pursuit of Happyness Movie

On your path to achieving your goals, dreams, and aspirations, you would have to deal with the following sets of people: naysayers, critics, experts, killjoys, dream killers and stealers, the spiteful, frenemies and foes. You’ve got to find a way to protect your goals from these sets of people, especially when they do not see your big picture.  Dreams are somewhat fragile, exposing your dreams to any form of negativity can be detrimental to achieving them.  When you were young, your dreams were wild but as you grow older, the world beats it out of you.

It is the people closest to us who first indoctrinate us with self-limiting beliefs such as “You can not become successful because you are a person of color”, “Money is the root of evil”, and “You need to live cautiously” etc. Your spirit gets dampened by people you thought had their Sh**t figured out. But the reality of life is that: Everyone is trying to figure it out. It is ok to get feedback from people but you need to be mindful of who you share your dreams with. 

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.― T.E. Lawrence

The real test of your resolve for achieving your goals and aspirations lies in how you handle the tough and somewhat messy middle on your path to getting things done. When you first set a goal, especially New Year resolutions, it is set with much pump and enthusiasm. As we all eventually find out around mid-march, staying motivated all year round can be tough and challenging.

The Messy Middle shows up when the going gets tough like they often do, when you don’t feel like getting up from bed, not wanting to go to the gym because of bad weather, not reading the book because you are tired, dropping out of the online course or programming class because it is getting tougher, stopping swim class because you are not really seeing the progress. The Messy Middle can be a good excuse to stop but it is when you need to remember why you started or set the goal in the first place.

As British writer C.S.Lewis once noted “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” The road to achieving any worthwhile goal is usually rocky, messy and somewhat chaotic. The distractions are always there, especially in our social media, fear-inducing and anxiety creating 24/7 news cycle. There is always something ready to grab our attention- comedy skits, tweets, trending topics, insta stories & reels, tiktok videos etc. Energy & attention goes wherever your focus goes.

There are no unrealistic goals; there are only unrealistic deadlines

S.M.A.R.T is a mnemonic acronym for goal setting. The letters stand for Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time-bound. One of the great tools for achieving your goal is to make it SMART. A goal is a dream with a deadline. There are no impossible goals, what we have are unrealistic timelines and expectations. The human mind is the most powerful force in the universe. As author Napoleon Hill noted in his book, Think and Grow Rich “Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve.”

All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds Awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible. – T. E.Lawrence

In a 1981 November Issue of Management Review, consultant and former director of corporate planning for Washington Water Power Company, George T. Doran published a paper titled “There’s a S.M.A.R.T way to write Management’s Goals and Objectives“. In the paper, Doran describes the difference between goals and objectives, and he introduced the SMART Acronym. Doran emphasized the need to focus on the action instead of mere quantification. He writes:

Goals vs Objectives

In some cases, goals are short-term and objectives are long-term. In others, the opposite is true. To other organizations, goals and objec­tives are synonymous. Time should not be wasted in the debate over these terms. The important consideration is not to have the label get in the way of effective com­munication.

  • Goals represent unique executive beliefs and philoso­phies. They are usually of a form that is continuous and long-term.
  • Objectives, on the other hand, give quantitative support and expression to management’s beliefs.

“The establishment of objectives and the development of their respective action plans are the most critical steps in a company’s management process.”

How to write objectives

The critical question then becomes “How do you write meaningful objec­tives?”-that is, frame a statement of results to be achieved.  Dorna suggested using SMART for setting organizational goals and objectives, he stated:

Let me suggest, therefore, that when it comes to writing effective objec­tives, corporate officers, managers, and supervisors just have to think of the ac­ronym SMART.

Ideally speaking, each cor­porate, department, and section objec­tive should be:

  • Specific-target a specific area for im­provement.
  • Measurable-quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
  • Assignable-specify who will do it.
  • Realistic-state what results can realisti­cally be achieved, given available resources.
  • Time-related-specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

It should also be understood that the suggested acronym doesn’t mean that every objective written will have all five criteria. However, the closer we get to the SMART criteria as a guideline, the smarter our objectives will be.

smart-goals

Setting a SMART Goal: The Key to achieving your DREAMS.

Whether it is reading more books, losing weight, skydiving, learning a new skill, saving, writing, or running a marathon. The key to achieving any worthwhile goal is to make your goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. At the start of the year, we set new year resolutions with much enthusiasm but as the day goes by, we relent on achieving the goals. The beginning of most goals is set with enthusiasm but the middle is usually messy.

Whatever would go wrong would eventually go wrong. The hallmark of successful people is that they keep showing up day in day out. Even when they don’t feel like it, they are the first in the gym and last to leave the gym, studio, workout session, training, practice. They understand that “We get rewarded in public for what we diligently practice in private”.

your-best-year-ever-book-cover

Setting SMARTER Goals

New York Times Bestselling Author and Speaker Michael Hyatt describes a SMARTER system for setting and achieving goals based on the SMART acronym, in his 2018 book: Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals. The SMARTER system is based on insights from the best goal-achievement research available and are designed to drive results.

Hyatt writes:

We can make our goals more attainable by ensuring they check the right boxes. Write goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, risky, time-keyed, exciting, and relevant.

Attribute 1: Specific

The first attribute of SMARTER goals is that they’re specific. Focus is power. You can drive the same amount of water through two pipes and create greater force in one of them just by reducing its diameter. That’s similar to what happens when we narrow our goals. What the studies show is that the tougher and more specific the goal, the more likely we are to engage our focus, creativity, intellect, and persistence. Vague goals don’t really inspire us. And it’s hard to know where to put what little effort and creativity we are willing to invest.

Attribute 2: Measurable

The second attribute of SMARTER goals is that they are measurable. In other words, they have built-in criteria you can measure yourself against. This is important for two reasons. The first is the most obvious. How do you know that you’ve reached the goal? It’s not very helpful or inspiring to say that you want to make more money this year than last. How much more? There’s a big difference between a small cost of living raise and driving your commissions up 30 percent. Same with getting fit. Saying you want to exercise more often doesn’t do much. It’s not objective. Saying you plan to go to the gym four days a week is different. When the goal is measurable, we know the criteria for success.

Attribute 3: Actionable

The third attribute of SMARTER goals is that they’re actionable. Goals are fundamentally about what you’re going to do. As a result, it’s essential to get clear on the primary action when formulating your goals. How? It may sound simplistic, but I find it’s best to use a strong verb to prompt the action you want to take. You don’t want something like am, or be, or have. You want a verb like run, finish, or eliminate.

Attribute 4: Risky

The fourth attribute of SMARTER goals is that they’re a bit risky. Hear me out. Normally we talk about setting goals that are realistic. That’s usually what the R in SMART refers to. But if we start by asking what’s realistic, we’re likely to set the bar too low.

Attribute 5: Time-keyed

The fifth attribute of SMARTER goals is that they’re time-keyed. This could be a deadline, frequency, or time trigger. For example, if I just had the goal “Read more,” it’s missing a sense of urgency. It could happen over the next ten years. It could happen over the next twenty years. Even if I assume it’s a New Year’s resolution so it means sometime this year, it’s still just out there somewhere. I can put it off and stop thinking about it. But when I say I want to read two books each month, I’ve not only created a challenge but also focus. Deadlines demand attention and spur action. I’d better get in motion because the clock is ticking.

Attribute 6: Exciting

The sixth attribute of SMARTER goals is that they’re exciting. They inspire you, in other words. Researchers say that we stand a better chance of reaching our goals if we are internally motivated to do so. External motivations might work for a while, but if we’re not getting something intrinsic from the goal, we’ll lose interest.

Go with what excites you. If you don’t find your goals personally compelling, you won’t have the motivation to push through when things get tough or tedious.

Attribute 7: Relevant

Effective goals are relevant to your life. This is about alignment, and it comes at the end of the list because it’s a good way to gut-check your goals before committing to them.

If we’re going to succeed, we need goals that align with the legitimate demands and needs of our lives.

Talk they say is cheap, anyone can say they want to climb Mount Everest but the people that eventually achieve their goals are those that consistently show up daily through practice and execution. You do not have to be great to start but you have to start to be great. Every multinational started with a simple idea, every best-selling author started with a single word, everyone starts somewhere but you would set yourself up for success by setting SMART goals and executing relentlessly.

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. George S. Patton

All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

The Coronavirus has disrupted our lives and nothing would ever remain the same again. One of the unintended consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is the lockdown giving us the opportunity to spend time with ourselves, self-reflect and forced reset of our lives. The lockdown has been one of the most transformative period of my entire life. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions, grief, anxiety, loss, relationship recalibration, self-assessment and constant improvement.

it’s been extremely tough to deal with the challenges and also exciting to have more time to self-reflect as a result of the downtime. During this challenging times, it was also an opportunity to form new habits, regimen, and routines. One of the surefire way of achieving any goal and avoiding overwhelm is to take it one step at a time. As Greek Philosopher Aristotle once quipped “We are what we repeatedly doExcellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Gaining momentum through daily small wins is the key to achieving any worthwhile goal.

He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how. – Friedrich Nietzsche

 German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said “He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how.” Whether is starting a new business, setting a new goal, starting a regimen/routine, going on an adventure, or navigating the roller coaster called life; having a compelling why goes a long way in how far you go. Anyone can feel great and enthusiastic when things are going according to plan, the real test of your resolve/resolution shows when things are not going as planned. As former Boxing heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson once quipped |Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”.

“The real test of a man is not when he plays the role that he wants for himself but when he plays the role destiny has for him.”― Vaclav Havel

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones – Confucius

No matter how daunting a goal feels in the beginning, if you stick with it; you would eventually figure it out. It can be tough and overwhelming to execute on some goals but with the end in mind, Everything Is Figureoutable. As  American industrialist, Henry Ford once noted “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right” Everything is impossible before it becomes possible. What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. It all starts with the mind, a single step, baby steps that has compounding effect in the long run.

You do not have to be great to start but you start to be great.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Whether is starting a business, setting up a blog, writing an article, learning a foreign language/programming language, running a marathon, reading a book, or cooking. Everyone starts somewhere, crappy, not yet good enough but eventually with consistency and persistence, we all figure it out eventually. You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great. The secret of getting ahead in life is getting started.

 Scottish mountaineer and writer W. H. Murray noted in his book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition:

“Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man would have dreamed would come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now.”

There are no unrealistic goals, just unrealistic timelines.

It is that time of the year when we set new year resolutions, wishes, goals, expectations, re-order our priorities, change our routines, and pay more attention to our aspirational desires. A goal is a dream with a deadline, we all can achieve whatever we set our mind to achieve. Humans are the only animal that has that superpower to will anything they desire. We set goals at the beginning of the year such as exercising more, saving more, reading more books, nurturing our relationships, learning a new foreign language, the list goes on and on.

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve – Napoleon Hill

   By March, most of us begin to falter with our goals because the going usually gets tough, we got bills to pay, work deadlines to meet, children to raise, family responsibilities, etc. Most of us have the desire to achieve our goals but we have not developed the right strategies and techniques for achieving them. Here are 10 strategies that could help you in achieving your goals this year:

  1. Start with WHY

German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “He who has a strong enough why can bear almost anyhow.” It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. Whatever would go wrong would eventually go wrong (Murphy’s Law). When you are trying to achieve greatness, it is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, the middle is usually messy, the trying times would always come. The key is to persist by remembering why you started in the first place.

 The year was 2013 and I received the bad news of losing my closest cousin Aloma. I was shellshocked, devastated, and emotionally drained for a long time. During the early grief period, I saw an advert for an upcoming Marathon (Accra Milo Marathon 2013). The Marathon was three weeks away but I enrolled as I needed something to help with my mental health. I participated in my first Marathon as a result of grief and I finished around six hours plus. I ran, walked, crawled, limped, and eventually finished the race because of my Why (running for my deceased cousin). I since participated in 11 Marathons in 6 different cities (Accra, Cotonou, Lagos, Nairobi, Toronto, and Ottawa).

 It is the same for any goal you have set for yourself this year, it is ok to falter once in while. Miss somedays, walk instead of running, crawl instead of speeding up, but don’t forget why you started in the first place. With a compelling WHY, you can deal with any obstacle that would come up eventually.

“He who has a strong enough why can bear almost anyhow.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

2. Start Small

Research shows that people are more likely to achieve a goal if it is subdivided into smaller goals.  According to a 2017 study, Step by step: Sub-goals as a source of motivation by Szu-chiHuang et al – When individuals are initiating a goal and derive motivation primarily from the belief that the final goal state is attainable, the structure of sub-goals enhances the sense of attainability and therefore leads to greater motivation. Conversely, when people are completing a goal and the source of motivation centers primarily on the perception that their actions are of value, a focus on the overall goal (rather than sub-goals) heightens the perceived value of the goal-directed actions and leads to greater motivation. 1

“Behavior (B) happens when Motivation (M), Ability (A), and a Prompt (P) come together at the same moment.”

tiny-habits-bj-fogg

World-renowned Behavior Scientist at Stanford University and author of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, Dr. BJ Fogg makes a strong case for starting small and setting small achievable goals. He writes:

We live in an aspiration-driven culture that is rooted in instant gratification. We find it difficult to enact or even accept incremental progress. Which is exactly what you need to cultivate meaningful long-term change. People get frustrated and demoralized when things don’t happen quickly. It’s natural. It’s normal. But it’s another way we’re set up to fail.

One tiny action, one small bite, might feel insignificant at first, but it allows you to gain the momentum you need to ramp up to bigger challenges and faster progress. The next thing you know, you’ve eaten the whole whale. 2

“The essence of Tiny Habits is this: Take a behavior you want, make it tiny, find where it fits naturally in your life, and nurture its growth. If you want to create long-term change, it’s best to start small.”

3. Set SMART Goals

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timebound. The SMART acronym outlines a strategy for achieving your goal. Your goals should be:

Instead of I want to read more book

SMART Goal: I read 100 books by December 31st, 2022

  • Specific: I read 100 Books
  • Measurable: 100 Books.
  • Achievable: There are no unachievable goal, just unrealistic timelines. The 100 books goal is very achievable, you commit to reading two books per week for 50 weeks in the year. It is very doable.
  • Realistic:  Make sure your goals are realistic. Setting a goal to participate in an Ironman Triathlon when you find it hard to climb your condos ten story building is setting yourself up for failure.
  • Time-Bound: Your goal need a time constraint as that would push you to achieve your goal. Remember, a goal is a dream with a deadline.

Experiments have shown that people with SMART goals are more likely to seize on the easiest tasks, become obsessed with finishing projects, and freeze on priorities once a goal has been set. “You get into this mindset where crossing things off your to-do list becomes more important than asking yourself if you’re doing the right things. 3

Living without clear goals is like driving in a thick fog. No matter how powerful or well-engineered your car, you drive slowly, hesitantly, making little progress on even the smoothest road. – Brian Tracy, Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought by Brian Tracy.

4. Write down your goals

According to a study led by Professor Gail Matthews of Dominican University of California, people who wrote their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not write their goals down. The study involved 267 participants recruited from businesses, organizations, and business
networking groups. Participants were divided into five groups: : Group 1- Unwritten
Goal; Group 2- Written Goal; Group 3- Written Goal & Action Commitments; Group 4-
Written Goal, Action Commitments to a Friend; Group 5- Written Goal, Action
Commitments & Progress Reports to a Friend.

At the end study, Matthews found that writing your goals down enhanced achieving it significantly. 4

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” – John C. Maxwell

5. Routinize your goals

As the Greek philosopher, Aristotle once quipped “We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit.” To increase the odds of achieving your goals this year, try to include your goals in your daily routine. For example, to listen to more audiobooks, you can listen to audiobooks when you are on the treadmill at the gym, when lifting weight or other activities like that. One of the best ways of achieving your goal is to include it as something you do on a regular basis. Read on your commute to work, listen to audiobooks in the gym, read a chapter before you sleep, listen to educational materials while driving, etc

“We are what we repeteadly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

6. Prioritize your goals

I am often asked how I am able to read more than 100 books yearly, the answer is simple: Reading is a priority for me. I decided a long time ago to always strive to be a better version of myself daily by committing to lifelong learning. Hence my dedication to reading books daily, listening to audiobooks, listening to podcast among other activities. I challenge myself daily to read, think and relentlessly execute. A priority is something that is more important than other things and that needs to be done or dealt with first. Prioritization is the activity that arranges items or activities in order of importance relative to each other 5

priortize

If you don’t prioritize your goals, you would use your time on things that are less important. As German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once remarked “Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” If you don’t prioritize your time, you would fall inside someone else’s priority.

“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

7. Set Constraints such as Public Pressure/Accountability Partners/Commitment contract

Setup constraints for achieving your goals such as having an accountability partner, writing about your goals online, and sharing for public pressure, use a commitment contract with online tools such as Stickk. A Commitment Contract is a binding agreement you sign with yourself to ensure that you follow through with your intentions—and it does this by utilizing the psychological power of loss aversion and accountability to drive behavior change. 6

One of the fastest ways to bring accountability to your life is to find an accountability partner. Accountability can come from a mentor, a peer, or, in its highest form, a coach. Whatever the case, it’s critical that you acquire an accountability relationship and give your partner license to lay out the honest truth. An accountability partner isn’t a cheerleader, although he can lift you up.

An accountability partner provides frank, objective feedback on your performance, creates an ongoing expectation for productive progress, and can provide critical brainstorming or even expertise when needed. As for me, a coach or a mentor is the best choice for an accountability partner. Although a peer or a friend can absolutely help you see things you may not see, ongoing accountability is best provided by someone to whom you agree to be truly accountable. When that’s the nature of the relationship, the best results occur. 7

An accountability partner will positively impact your productivity. They’ll keep you honest and on track. Just knowing they are waiting for your next progress report can spur you to better results. Ideally, a coach can “coach” you on how to maximize your performance over time. This is how the very best become the very best. – Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

8. Self Compassion

When the going gets tough like they often do, don’t beat yourself up for not achieving all your goals. Have compassion for yourself, be grateful for life, and always make sure you do your best. If you try to do your best most of the time, you would be fine eventually.

Everyone’s life is different, and we are all doing our best. “Our best” today may not be “the best there is,” but it’s the best we can do today. Which is strange. And yet true. And could draw us down into helplessness and isolation if we don’t stay anchored. And the way we stay anchored is with gratitude. 8

When we’re struggling, we may reach a point of oscillating between frustrated rage and helpless despair. Solution: Choose the right time to give up, which might be now or might be never; either way, the choice puts you back in the driver’s seat. – Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski Ph.D. & Amelia Nagoski DMA.

9. Setup Reminders

To achieve your goals this year, set up reminders such as using timers, alarm clock, goal timers, the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a Pomodoro, from the Italian word for ‘tomato’, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used as a university student. 9

Setting reminders allows you to remember your goals, the reminder could be a picture of your goal, a frame, wallpaper, etc. The more you see and are reminded of your goals, the more probable you can achieve them.

10. Review your goals daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

By constantly reviewing your goals daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly, you increase your chances of achieving your goals. The more you can review your goals, the better. By reviewing your goals, you can impress your goals into your subconscious mind and with time, you would be on autopilot.

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. – General George S. Patton.

Achieving your goals and becoming great is not an easy task as we all find out yearly. it is not enough to set those lofty goals. You need to have a strategy for executing the goals. Anyone can set a goal of speaking a foreign language, what differentiates those that follow through and those that do not is persistence, consistency, and determination. Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.