Five powerful tips to achieve your goals

Many of us make new year resolutions  and by 16th or 17th February (sometimes even earlier), we fail miserably. I used to  do it too--make resolutions and fail to keep them.
However, over the years, I have devised some fool-proof methods to keep myself going.

They work for me like magic and I am sharing them here, hoping they work for you too. They key thing here is that you must really want to achieve them--want them so badly that you are willing to do anything to be able to say 'Yes, I did it.'

Here are my top five tips:


1. Identify your time wasters and plug them:

All of us have our 'time wasters'. My biggest time waster in my early years of a career as a writer used to be the Internet. It was a double edged sword as my writing needed me to be on the Internet for research. However, I would begin reading something interesting, then there would be a nice tweet which popped up, or a blog-post i absolutely  had to read and before I knew it, three hours were gone. Whoosh! Down the drain.
I now am very careful about how I spend my time online. If it is directly relevant to my work, I read it. I don't 'waste time' on Facebook, checking out random people's photos and seeing what they have been upto. I check out pictures only of close friends.

You might have a similar 'time waster'--perhaps TV or phone calls? Identify your biggest time wasters and plug them. You will be left with more time to do the things that you really want to do----achieving your goals.


2.Be specific about what you want

"I will exercise more in the new year" is a vague goal. But I will walk at 4.5 km for 20 minutes on the treadmill on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday., and will do 15 suryanamaskars on friday and saturday" is a specific goal.

I will have a cleaner house in the new year is a vague goal. "I will clear my clothes wardrobe of clutter and will dust all the window panes every week, and I will tidy my desk every single day, and will put away things where they belong as soon as I finish using them," is a specific goal.

See what I mean?




3. Use these support systems:

 Try these two sites:
http://www.stickk.com/

or
http://habitforge.com/

The second site says that 21 days is all it takes to form a habit.
Surely , that is doable?


4.Do it in small chunks:


 Losing 10 kilos may be a huge task. But losing 1.5 kilos in 25 days is a smaller, achievable goal.When I do my work outs and when I am doing my cardio (I run at 8 km per hour alternate with walking at 6.3 km per hour), I set a standard number of songs in my playlist. Then I think "Only 5 more songs to go," or whatever the number os songs left. Basically what I am doing is breaking up my cardio workout  into smaller chunks.



Break up your goal into smaller chunks in order to make them more achievable.


5.Reward yourself:

If I achieve my goals set, I reward myself. I permit myself to call up a friend whom I have been dying to have a conversation with, only if I have written a certain number of words. Similarly I buy myself a nice dress, if I have managed to work out every day for that week/month or whatever target I have set.
The key here is that the reward has to be a motivating enough for you to want to achieve your goals.

Good luck with your goals! Hope you achieve them.
And if you want to share I am listening :)
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