goal achievement

The 3 Steps To Goal Achievement

January 4, 2016 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

The Three Steps To Goal Achievement — The first step is to read this blog post 🙂

We all have goals. Not only do we all have goals, but we all want to accomplish them. This is basic information.

And then beyond that, the enigma dwells.

“I have big goals but how do I accomplish them? I never feel like I have enough time!”

Sound familiar? I have heard many excuses and admittedly made excuses myself (I don’t anymore, but I used to). The most common excuse is a lack of time.

A few months ago, I gave myself a goal that seemed like it wouldn’t happen. The goal was to find some time in my busy schedule to play the piano every day and get really good at it.

When I first gave myself this goal, it seemed impossible. I am a high school student, daily runner (unless I am resting), and entrepreneur all wrapped into one.

I would have to open up some time in my schedule to play the piano.

I knew goal achievement from a business perspective, but this was something completely different. I had to take a big leap out of my comfort zone.

This goal found its way into my head last July. I started playing in August. Now I play every day. I was attentive to my journey through the whole process.

How did I accomplish this goal? How could I use this knowledge to make it easier for me to accomplish my other goals?

How could I communicate this with my readers? This blog post is the answer to that final question. It turns out that goal achievement is EASY, but only if you know what you are doing.

Goal achievement can be broken down into three steps.

#1: Identify The Goal

The first way to solve a problem is by identifying that problem in the first place. The first way to accomplish a goal is by identifying that goal in the first place.

Chances are you have already identified a particular goal that you are heading after. One step down. Two to go.

#2: Put In The Work Every Day

In life, this tip alone is the closest thing you will find to the silver bullet. Want to become a successful blogger? Want to become a singer? Want to do something new?

Put in the work every day. You won’t get any closer to a silver bullet.

The more work you put towards something, the more committed you become to that work or idea.

If you put in the work every day, the work eventually becomes a habit. Habits eventually become a part of your life.

Working on my business and playing the piano are two daily habits that I hold dearly. If I don’t do both of them, I roll around in my sleep.

Okay, I don’t know if I roll in my sleep. I don’t have a security camera in my room, and I wouldn’t want to see video of myself sleeping. That would be in between awkward and creepy.

The point is that if I don’t perform BOTH of those tasks, then my day is incomplete. There are few things worse than going to bed at the end of the day knowing that your day is incomplete.

It’s the reason why I sometimes write blog posts past 11 pm. No matter how challenging the workload becomes, I always find the time to do something for my blog every day.

#3: Let Nothing Stand In Your Way

When new goals get added to our lives, we must create the time to make those goals happen. Creating the time for our goals means giving up other things that may be holding us back.

When I decided I wanted to play the piano every day, I knew I had to give something up. If I gave up blogging, I would have had a meltdown. I love writing these blog posts.

I also enjoyed playing video games. But much to everyone’s surprise, it turns out I didn’t enjoy them enough. Video games got the axe and I was able to play the piano every day.

If you are a teenager reading this blog post, then you know how fun video games can be. I played Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart are often as I could.

Suddenly, I would never be playing those two video games (or any others) again. Just like that.

When I first unplugged all of the devices and put them in the basement, there were some moments of fear. However, once the job was done, I knew I made the right decision.

When you make a significant decision to take away something standing in your way (especially something that has stood in your way for a long time), you get more commitment.

I gave up video games. I was not going to let the piano collect any more dust than it already had.

What stands in your way? Maybe you watch too much TV. Maybe you find yourself surfing on YouTube too often.

Something stands in your way. You have to get to the root of it and eliminate it. Once you eliminate something that has been standing in your way, you will gain more commitment towards the goal, but more importantly, towards yourself and everything that you stand for.

In Conclusion

I play the piano every day. The same songs that I thought I could never play are the ones that I can now easily play.

The reason I accomplish goals is because I follow this three step process. In the end, goal achievement is all about putting in the work each day.

Once you willingly put in the work every day, you automatically want to learn more. Nothing I ever do will be forced upon me.

The reason I have fun writing these blog posts, running, and playing the piano is partly because I chose those paths for myself. If you choose your own path, then you are bound to have more fun with it.

It’s not forced on you. At that point, you develop the natural drive that we all have as you go after your goals.

What are your thoughts about goal achievement? Which of these tips resonated with you the most? Do you have any other tips for goal achievement? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Get Better Results From Less Work

September 25, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Do you have a philosophy that goes along the lines of the more work you put in, the better your results will be? It’s a conventional way to view work that is reinforced by wages.

If you make $10 per hour, and you work for 10 extra hours every week, you make an extra $100 every week. That’s an extra $5,200 every year just by working 10 additional hours every week.

An extra $5,200 isn’t something to laugh at. But what if you were making $20 every hour. You would make the same amount of money by putting in half of the work.

Entrepreneurs don’t get paid a wage. In the beginning, most entrepreneurs get paid well below minimum wage. Some of these people make less than $1 per hour. Some of those same people eventually became millionaires.

Entrepreneurship is a journey and true test of patience. However, it’s different from the workplace. You don’t make more money by putting in more hours. You don’t make the extra $5,200 every year by working an extra 10 hours per week. As an entrepreneur, you may actually lose money (and your sanity) by working those extra 10 hours every week.

How then does an entrepreneur make that extra $5,200? How do entrepreneurs like Bill Gates make astronomical incomes (Gates makes over $25 every second)? The answer isn’t in the working hours. The answer is in the working efficiency.

It is possible to live the Tim Ferris lifestyle and only work four hours every week while making a few million dollars every year. It is also possible to work 80 hours every week and end up with no extra money on the table. Two different extremes with very different lifestyles.

The goals most people share are to work less and earn more. We want that balance with our lives so we can spend more time with family and friends. It’s a matter of saving time and getting better results. Here’s how you find time and get better results:

Examine Every Opportunity

Don’t be a yes-man/woman. Saying no more often than you say yes keeps your time and resources more open to the people and opportunities you say yes to. I don’t say yes to every joint venture proposal. But when I do say yes, I can spend more time on my end of the joint venture.

I am not crushing it on every social network because I know that would take too much time. I’d have to acquire a certain amount of knowledge and put in a lot of work for each of those social networks.

If you want to see successful no-men/women in action, then look no further than Shark Tank. Maybe you’ve seen some of the episodes. If you have never seen an episode, watch one of them to understand.

Most of the deals on Shark Tank get turned down. Even when one of the sharks agrees on a deal, there are several sharks who shoot it down first.

They rarely say yes, and that’s what makes them successful. Just because you get an opportunity does not mean it will have a big impact on your success.

In the beginning, take almost any opportunity you can get. However, as more opportunities—and in particular, the time-consuming ones—come your way, you must make choices.

Outsource The Maintenance Work

Ever wonder if everything you do is important? For most people, the answer is no (sorry to disappoint). Some of the work we do on a daily basis is maintenance work. Maintenance work is the (possibly tedious) work that any other person can do for you.

The list is big. These are some of my maintenance activities:

Follow people on Twitter
Unfollow people on Twitter
Send pins
Create pictures for my blog posts

If I stop growing my Twitter audience, it spells disaster for my social media strategy. Something I considered so important was actually maintenance work. So I got that work off my back by outsourcing it to someone else.

Now someone else follows and unfollows people for my Twitter accounts. I also have people who send pins on my account and create pictures for my blog posts. No wonder the pictures for my blog posts have been better lately 🙂

Create Time Efficient Processes For What You Do

One thing I will never outsource to anyone is the content that goes on my blog. However, I am always looking for ways to write the typical 2,000 word blog post in 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes.

In other words, I am always looking for ways to write the same amount of content quicker.

Now I have a time efficient process that lets me write blog posts quicker. Here’s a basic summary:

Write a bunch of blog post titles (I’ll usually write 20-50 at a time depending on how I feel)
Outline those blog posts
Identify which five blog posts I will write first
Repeat

This process allows me to save more time when writing content. Typing faster also allows me to save more time.

To create time efficient processes, you must specifically focus on the work that doesn’t fall under the maintenance category. Then search on the web and think of ideas on your own that can help you save time. Create your time efficient processes so you can allocate your time to other tasks.

Some methods you come across for creating time efficient processes may involve an investment. You may have to upgrade one of your social media tools to get access to certain time saving features.

The only reason I went from HootSuite to HootSuite Pro was so I could get access to the bulk scheduler. The bulk scheduler allows me to schedule over 100 tweets in six clicks. If I manually scheduled that many tweets, it would take me over four hours every day.

Spend More Time Marketing Than Creating

Walk into a library or bookstore, and it won’t take long for you to find a New York Times bestseller. Libraries and bookstores like to put the most successful books and new releases where we can see them.

So what makes a book a New York Times bestseller? The answer isn’t the content. The answer is the marketing. If Freakonomics got zero sales, it wouldn’t have been a New York Times bestseller (even though it is a fascinating book). It ended up getting over four million sales, all because of marketing.

It’s great to create numerous products, but you must spend time marketing them so they thrive. If you create a product but keep it a secret, you won’t get many sales (if any at all). It could be the most valuable product in your niche, but if you don’t market it, people won’t know to buy it.

Spending more time marketing than creating will allow you to get better results from your overall strategy. The best part is that as you accumulate more revenue, you can put that revenue into other areas of your business such as advertising and outsourcing.

In Conclusion

The amount of time you spend working is irrelevant with getting results. The way you utilize your time ultimately determines the results that you get. Understanding this fact will inspire you to utilize your time more effectively and focus on efficiency over hours worked.

What are your thoughts about working less? Do you think working less can lead to a bigger profit? Do you find yourself working too much? Have any insights for us? Sound off in the comments section now!

The 6 Step Strategy To Accomplishing Any Goal

August 10, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

How To Accomplish Goals

How often do you accomplish your goals? The answer varies from person to person, but each person agrees that they want to accomplish their goals. When asked why they don’t accomplish all of their goals, people often reference distractions from the outside world. However, we all have 24 hours in a day and our fair share of distractions. What allows some people to get their goals accomplished while other people in the same setting have difficulty?

The answer is their approach to goal achievement. The way you approach anything in life determines how efficiently you will perform that activity. A successful approach to goal achievement can be embodied in a six step strategy.

Step #1: Identify A Specific Goal

Step #1 may sound like an obvious step, but not everyone identifies a specific goal. Many people have a vague idea of what they want to accomplish, but vague is not specific. Instead of saying you want more blog traffic, ask yourself how many visitors you want to get by the end of the year. Do you want 10,000 blog visitors every month by the end of the year? How about 100,000?

While the specific goal you set for yourself must be realistic, the goals must also require a leap of faith out of the comfort zone. If you think you can possibly accomplish a goal by going all-in, then you most likely chose a realistic goal that will take you out of your comfort zone.

Step #2: Make It A Priority

When some people accomplish the first step for one goal, they like to perform the same step several times and create multiple goals. Although it is okay to have multiple goals, each goal takes up time. Think about it this way: 90% of the time, it is easier to accomplish one task in one day than it is to accomplish 20 tasks in one day.

If you have one primary goal that you know is more important than the other goals, then make that goal your priority. You can only have ONE priority, so choose wisely. That ONE priority must get at least 50% of your attention throughout the day.

Step #3: Plan Out Your Approach

The next step is to plan out your approach. How are you going to accomplish your priority, and how will you respond to the distractions around you? This summer could have easily been stressful for me because (as always) I wanted to do so much but knew I had a limited amount of time. I wanted to finish writing one book early so I could market it and create an advanced training course unlike anything I have launched before.

The stress quickly evaporated when I created a plan that brought to full clarity what I was trying to accomplish with my two products. I also created a list of all of the things that distracted me from my main priorities (they were not my priorities at the same time. When I finished the book, I moved onto the training course). Once I created the list, I devised several solutions which made it possible for me to achieve my goals in the summer.

Planning out my approach saved me from stress because I removed the fog around me. I discovered how I would accomplish my priorities by the end of the summer. The days of guessing were over.

Step #4: Implement That Plan

Step #4 also sounds like an obvious step, but the ease of implementation depends on what your plan is. If your plan is highly detailed, then you have a better idea of what you must do every day. It took me almost an hour to craft my plan for the summer, and the plan barely took up an entire page in my notebook. Regardless, I gained more clarity than ever before which made implementing the plan easier.

Step #5: Make Changes Along The Way

Just because you set a course of action for yourself does not mean you can’t digress from that course of action. If you find a better opportunity or think of a better product idea, it is entirely okay to shift your focus or make some room for other things in your plan.

However, I heed one warning. Don’t get attracted to shiny objects. It is easy to look at a new trend and think, “Well, if I get involved in that trend and really work on it, then sure enough I am going to make it big.” The problem with this thinking is that most people don’t make it big by following one trend. Even worse, this thinking results in trend chasers—people who constantly go back and forth between trends without establishing an authority on any niche.

It is important to make changes along the way, but you must also ask yourself how these changes affect you, your plan, and your brand.

Step #6: Keep Your Eyes On The Prize As You Do The Work

I always keep my eyes on the main prize. When I wrote my book, I always thought about it reaching the hands/tablets of thousands of people around the world. When I did videos for my training course, I always thought about it becoming a massive success.

Why does keeping your eyes on the main prize help you accomplish your plan? The vision gives you more motivation and allows you to realize what you are chasing after. Each time you implement a part of your plan, you are getting closer to that big prize. Let the joy of obtaining the big prize empower you as you accomplish your goals.

In Conclusion

Accomplishing your goals requires a plan and an effective strategy. Once your accomplish your goals with a plan and an effective strategy, replicate the entire process for your future goals so goal achievement becomes a habit.

Which steps of goal achievement have you been implementing? Which steps do you plan on making a part of your goal achievement? Which step do you think is the most important? Please share your thoughts and advice below.