The Key to Achieving Your Goals | Jack Canfield

Hi there, I'm Jack Canfield, co creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and the author of the Success Principles. And at this time of year, a lot of people start thinking about what they've accomplished in the past year and what they would like to accomplish in the year ahead. And if you have big dreams you'd like to achieve in the upcoming year, or if you weren't able to achieve your goals this year once again, perhaps, and aren't sure why your dreams continue to elude you today I have some important information to share with you. You're about to learn the most important thing to keep in mind when setting your goals. To make sure you will actually achieve them by your intended target date. Are you ready for it? Alright, here it is. If you want to guarantee that you achieve your goals for the year ahead, you have to make sure those goals are realistic. Now, that might seem obvious, but you wouldn't believe how many people, when I encourage them to set big goals for themselves, are prompted to choose goals that are downright impossible within a timeline that they set for themselves. For example, I'll be talking to a first time business owner who's launching a brand new program that sells for, let's say $297. They tell me that their goal is to generate 1 million in profit in the first 12 months. Or I'll be talking to a beginner coach who's just starting out and their goal is to coach a thousand people in the first year in business. Now, unless you're already very wealthy and or extremely well positioned in your industry with a full team to help you with all of the marketing, the technical maintenance, client communications and everything else, chances are those goals aren't going to be achievable in that time frame, at least not within the first year. It's absolutely possible to achieve such a goal, say in three years or five or ten years of business. But if you're just starting out and you don't have the experience and the skill set and the team, you need to do everything that needs to be done to achieve those goals, you're going to find they remain steady, stubbornly out of reach. So today I'd like to teach you how to make sure your goals are realistic so you can actually achieve them and build on that momentum to set even bigger goals that will accelerate your progress toward making your most ambitious dreams actually come true. Now, you may be familiar with the idea of setting smart goals for yourself. A smart goal is one that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time Boundaries. Now, your goal has to be specific because they goals don't really do the job of explaining exactly what your goal is or how to tell when you've achieved it. For example, if your goal is simply to work on your book, that's not very specific and it's impossible to know when you've achieved it. It's better to be specific and say, I'll finish the first draft of my book by such and such a date, or I'll find a publisher for my book. That way you know exactly what you're committing to achieve and will easily be able to tell when you've achieved it. That's also why it's important for your goals to be measurable. If your goal is simply to lose weight, well, what does that mean? If you lose a single pound, does that mean you've achieved your goal, you've lost weight, but probably not. By making your goal specific and saying something like I will weigh 165 pounds by May 1, 2022, you are being extremely clear about what you want and how you know when you've achieved it. Your goals also have to be attainable, and by that I mean physically possible for you to achieve given your current life circumstances. For example, if your dream is to move to Japan and work as a Japanese translator, but you don't know a word of Japanese beyond sushi or sayonara, then you're not going to be able to achieve that goal within 12 months of setting it. Not unless you're a linguistic genius who's able to complete four years of learning in a matter of months. So if you want to make sure your goals are realistic and achievable, choose ones that you can actually accomplish within your constraints of time, money, environment, as well as your skills and abilities and other important factors that you need to consider. And finally, make sure your goals are in alignment with your values and desires for your life. For example, maybe you set yourself the ambitious goal of writing a complete first draft of your book in three months. Now, theoretically that's possible even though you have young children and are already working a full time job. But it will require you to give up your social life, maybe survive on three hours of sleep every night for the next 12 weeks. But it is technically possible for you to do it. But if one of your values is also spending time, quality time with your friends and family, you're likely going to be miserable for those 12 weeks because you won't have given yourself any time to enjoy something that's deeply important to you and that misery is likely going to make you give up and quit on your efforts long before you achieve that difficult goal you set for yourself. And that's why whenever you set a goal for yourself, really take the time to consider what's going on in your life and what you're going to have to give up, what kind of experiences you want to have along the way, and make sure your goal is compatible with your current commitments and the direction you want your life to go in. Now, you'll get better results if you give yourself enough time to complete your goals so you can experience the satisfaction of checking them off your list than you will by setting unrealistic deadlines that you never managed to achieve. Now, every completed goal creates momentum that propels you forward. Now, please understand that this doesn't mean that your big, ambitious goals are impossible. I strongly encourage you to set goals that push you past your perceived limits and expand your sense of what's possible. So if you dream of becoming a millionaire or coaching a thousand clients, hold on to those dreams. Because those things are absolutely possible to achieve, but they're more likely to be long term goals or mid term goals than something you want to commit to accomplishing, you know, in a very short time, like the next 12 months. So if you want to achieve those big goals, the best thing to do is what we call chunk them down into smaller, more realistic goals that are achievable within one year or less. And then use the momentum you build up through achieving those smaller goals to propel you closer to your ultimate vision. Here's a quote I read earlier this year that I've been telling all of my students. It's this. Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in 10 years. And I share that with you because it's been true for most of my students. All right, that's it for today. Except one more thing. Now, what I'd love you to do is to commit to achieving one specific goal in the next 12 months. It can be a big goal or small goal, but it must be realistic. In other words, you need to really carefully consider your current situation and your responsibilities and, and how much time and energy you can realistically devote toward achieving your goal each week. And then define the parameters of your goal accordingly. If you want to write a book, maybe your goal is to finish and complete a first draft in 12 months. If you want to get physically fit, maybe your goal is to run a half marathon by Labor Day. Whatever is realistic and achievable for you. Considering where you are right now and when you've chosen your goal, I encourage you to post it in the comments. I love being inspired by your commitment to go for your dreams. And for some additional tools and videos on how to experience more joy, more happiness, and more success in life, make sure to check out the Resources page on my website@jackcampfield.com you'll find there's a ton of great free stuff there. So thanks again for watching and have an amazing day. Now, if you find this video helpful, make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like like this one. And for some additional resources on how to elevate your success and happiness, visit my website@jackcampfield.com.