Unlocking Success: How to Achieve a Goal?

Do you set goals? Sure, you do. Even if you rarely plan and enjoy spontaneity, you try to accomplish something every day. Is there any way to make it easier to achieve a goal? Decades of scientific research show that five specific factors increase the chances of success.

For some, the goal might be running a marathon, while others focus on getting out of bed and others on building their social network. The scale of the challenge may vary, but the general principle is the same: you’re at point A, and you want to get to point B. To achieve that, you have to exert effort – occasionally a minor one, and at times, a substantial one.

How to Achieve a Goal and Move From Point A to Point B?

Most people want to traverse this path as quickly as possible without encountering many problems. It’s normal. But how do you do it?

Dr. Edwin Locke and Dr. Gary Latham spent years seeking an answer to a simple question: what makes us achieve our goals? How is it that one person (or company) smoothly moves from point A to point B while it takes others a lot of time or never succeeds?

For decades, they conducted various studies and analyses. They described their findings in various scientific journals and a book. The most important conclusion is that every well-defined goal should meet five specific conditions.

The more challenging your project is, the more it’s worth planning. It is easier to create a WordPress blog than to construct an online store at WooCommerce Hosting, right? Perhaps sometimes it doesn’t work out for you precisely because you’re overlooking one of these elements.

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Five Steps Separate You from Your Goal

Precision, or SMART

First, you need to determine what you want to achieve. Most goals fail because they are too broadly defined. What does it mean to lose weight? What does an increase in revenue look like? You need greater precision.

Here, the old but reliable SMART comes to our aid, representing an additional five steps for setting proper goals. There’s a good chance you’re already familiar with this method.

So, if you want to create your social network, the goal “create a social network” is poorly formulated because it lacks precision. A much better version could be “launch a social network uniting 1,000 active copywriters by the end of the year”.

This change fulfills all the SMART conditions because the goal is:

• S (specific) – you know the group to focus on when creating your network.
• M (measurable) – you’ve introduced the number of users as an indicator that you can easily measure and track your progress.
• A (achievable) – you know how to reach copywriters, and you are confident that you can accomplish it.
• R (relevant) – this network is a crucial component of your business.
• T (time-bound) – you have a clear deadline.

Other example: Instead of “starting a culinary blog“, specify “writing 20 articles about cooking on the blog within three months”.

Challenge

Edwin Locke observed that in 90% of cases, specifying a goal wasn’t sufficient for success. Another element was needed – a challenge. Without it, it’s tough to find sufficient motivation to start a new project. Some incorporate this into “SMART” under the letter A (ambitious) while replacing “achievable” with “realistic”.

Both overly difficult and overly easy goals can be demotivating. To find a balance, try the Inverted-U Theory. It’s a concept that posits there’s a certain level of positive stress. Activities that come easily to you may not be the most encouraging. You prefer goals that pose a challenge, where success isn’t guaranteed, and you have to make an effort to achieve it.

Daniel Coyle, in the book “The Little Book of Talent”, identifies the optimum range between 50 and 80 percent success. If something works for you only every other time (or even less), it’s more about luck than skill. If something succeeds for you 8 out of 10 times or more, the task is too easy. You quickly get bored and lose motivation.

To determine this, use the metrics from the previous step to check how you’re doing. Choose a measure for your goal so that the probability of achieving it doesn’t fall below 50%.

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Commitment

To achieve a goal, sustained commitment over the long term is also necessary. In the span of a few weeks or even months, you might be able to work on a goal that doesn’t particularly excite you on average, but in the long run, you need a solid dose of motivation. Locke and Latham suggest paying attention to the process and intensity.

The process involves the entire course of achieving the goal. If you want to maintain commitment, it should motivate you not only for the reward at the end but also for everything that happens along the way. When creating a social network, both conceptual work, configuring your Social Network Hosting, modifying the CMS system, and marketing activities should bring you joy.

Intensity, on the other hand, speaks to how much pace you set for yourself. When building a business, it’s easy to overdo the amount of work. Choose a working pace that moves your project forward but doesn’t lead to burnout.

Verification

Regularly check how you’re doing to achieve a goal. To lose 5 kilograms in three months, you won’t weigh yourself only after that period. You’ll step on the scale at least every few days. It’s the same with all other goals.

There are at least three methods you can apply here:

• Scoreboard: Find a place where you can continuously track the results. It could be an application, a notebook, or a board in the office. Checking off each stage boosts motivation and helps maintain control. Nothing will surprise you when you’re regularly checking your progress.
• Journal: Thanks to this, you have a moment to stop and jot down a few conclusions. Without this, you would encounter a lot of dead ends. Develop your method for such notes.
• Weekly Review: Add an hour to your calendar for weekly summaries. Paradoxically, this will make you work less, all thanks to grouping and organizing tasks.Consider what is working and what can be improved. Check at which stage of goal accomplishment you are, and if necessary, intervene.

Complexity

The last element of the goal worth paying attention to is its complexity. Often, goals fail because you may feel overwhelmed. You take on a task that turns out to be much more challenging and intricate than you thought. Therefore, in addition to the overarching goal, it’s worth specifying smaller stages that contribute to it.

A healthy approach is also crucial. The goal cannot become an obsession or a torment and must align with your skills or experiences.

Conclusion

Precisely define your goal. Introduce numerical criteria that will help you monitor progress and a deadline for completion. Remember not to set the bar too high or too low. Keep in mind the range between 50 and 80 percent. Establish specific metrics to help assess how you’re doing and break down complex goals into smaller stages.

A good test is the emotions you feel when setting a goal. Do you feel the excitement when you imagine the moment when you achieve a goal? Are you eager to take action right away? If there’s a lack of commitment from the very beginning, it typically gets worse later on.

All these rules will help you plan your project effectively, and as a result, we’ll gain a satisfied customer for whom VPS hosting will soon become insufficient, and they’ll have to move to efficient VDS Hosting—while, of course, staying with UltaHost.

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