5 Proven Habits That Will Turn Your Biggest Goals Into Reality

For years, a friend of mine continually promised herself she would start her side hustle “next year.” However, “next year” came and went with no side hustle. Does that sound familiar? 

Here’s the thing: Neither talent, networks, nor fortune bridge the gap between setting goals and achieving them. Sure, those things help, but they’re not the final determinant of your success. In my own experience, I have found five easy but powerful habits that anyone can learn to master—turning dreamers into achievers. And you know what? They will work for you, too. 

Choose goals that scare you just enough. 

I regularly see people sabotage themselves in two ways: They either select goals that lack significance because they are too simple or they choose goals that paralyze them because they are completely unattainable. 

The sweet spot? Pick a goal that makes you feel uncertain about success but that allows you to visualize a possible path to completion. That flutter of excitement mixed with nervousness? It’s your internal compass leading you toward just the right level of challenge.  

Find your “Hell yes!” moment. 

Before you start planning the action steps toward achieving your big goal, first investigate your deeper motivations. What’s the real reason behind your goal? How will it make your life better? Choose the answer that triggers an emotional, physical response in your chest. 

A marketing manager wants to increase social-media engagement. This is abstract and uninspiring—just another KPI to check off. However, when she sees that this goal actually leads to fostering authentic connections with customers, the result is that her small family-owned business can level the playing field with large corporations—while giving her team of eight employees stable jobs with room to grow. Understanding this changes everything for her. Your “why” functions as motivation but also serves as your anchor during difficult times. 

Break it down until it’s no longer scary. 

Sometimes, goals feel intimidating because you can’t quite get your head around them. Launch a business? Write a book? There are so many steps to complete that it’s easy to become paralyzed. However, when you break a goal down into smaller steps (such as researching three competitors this week or writing 300 words today), then it’s not scary anymore. 

I learned this lesson the hard way when it came to organizing my home office. When I get in the zone in my work, I often lose track of time, and my office looks like a hurricane swept through it. I never found the time to fix it. That is, until I broke it down into steps I could do in 30-minute chunks—beginning with clearing off my desk on Monday, filing the papers that’s spread around my desk on Tuesday, organizing my bookshelf on Wednesday, and so on. My once massive task became a bunch of smaller ones. 

Make a timeline with milestones. Your brain loves checking things off. Make sure you provide plenty of chances to do that. 

Build systems that work even when you don’t feel like it. 

Motivation is like a cool friend who is often no-show. Because of that, the most successful people don’t rely on motivation, they rely on systems. 

Do you want to grow your business consistently? Relying on motivation to work on strategic initiatives during busy days isn’t realistic. Set up systems by scheduling non-negotiable weekly blocks for business development and automating your most important marketing tasks. Do you want to build emergency funds? Use automatic transfers to move a percentage of revenue into a separate business account without requiring any decision from you each month. Make the right business choice the easiest choice. 

Expect the inevitable plot twists. 

Every big goal you set is going to have obstacles along the way. The difference between quitters and achievers? Achievers anticipate obstacles and approach them as puzzles needing solutions instead of excuses for surrender. 

Imagine struggling to pay your expenses when a consulting client failed to pay their bill on time. Instead of interpreting the missed payment as proof you can’t succeed in business, look at it as a practical lesson to enhance your contracting and payment protocols. The changes you make will make your business stronger in the long run. Setbacks should be viewed as plot twists that enhance the narrative of your success story. 

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