How To Achieve Your Goal

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Accidentally hit the channel with another motivational guru. It took me 15 minutes, but I got impressions for the rest of my life. Let me tell you for free in a nutshell what to focus on and where to start. Because by God, I'm ashamed of the nonsense that is sold to consumers at the price of an airplane.

The most important skill is learning to listen to yourself. It is strange when people are looking for answers on the side - after all, no one knows better than yourself what you want, know how, are afraid, what you suffer and what you passionately desire. The fact that it is easier to go through all the stages with a coach or psychologist is not even discussed. The point is that the main resources and knowledge are in you. They are inside, not outside. And work on yourself, too, for you. There are no magic pills or mystical practices. There is an iron logic of a business project, multiplied by an understanding of the psychological characteristics of a person. The coach can only guide, ask questions, motivate. But this is an absolutely ordinary person who cannot read minds, does not have the gift of foresight, and in general is not a fact that he is smarter than you.

To simplify greatly, coaches as rules come in one of three states:

1) You know what you want, and you need to help build a plan for how to get there.

2) You don't know what you want, but you understand your strengths and weaknesses.

3) You do not want anything, you do not know anything and are generally confused.

In the first option, you have a goal, but no means. In the second, there are means, but no end. In the third, you have to unravel the tangle to find both. The first option seems to be the easiest. However, often in the process of discussion, the original “know what I want” evolves so much that one is amazed. So I prefer to start with an "audit" in all three scenarios.

In marketing, there is the concept of SWOT analysis - in fact, it is a strategic planning method that is great not only for a business, but also for an individual. This is a comprehensive assessment of internal (Strengths - strengths, Weaknesses - weaknesses) and external (Opportunities - opportunities and Threats - threats) factors that affect goal setting and determine the ways to achieve it.

A reasonable question that worries many: How can a coach know all these things about me? And how can a person who is far from the realities of my profession give advice? The answer is no way. All this work will be done by you - as a person who knows himself and the specifics of his field of activity. Even if it seems to you that you have paws, believe me, this is not so. Sometimes the client is really confused, doubts himself and the surrounding reality, insists that he knows nothing, does not remember and does not understand. Straight a hedgehog in the fog - hug and cry. And the task of a competent specialist is to build the interview process in such a way as to “pull out” hidden knowledge from the client, help to understand the area of expertise or outline ways of development if the existing knowledge is objectively lacking.

Neither a coach nor a psychologist advises anything. These specialists have only knowledge of basic algorithms and know how to apply them to your benefit. Real resources, knowledge and opportunities are always at your fingertips. And it is you who will have to conduct an audit of your own knowledge and experience, a comparative analysis of the market and competitors, look for ways of development and call schools and refresher courses.

Although in fairness, I cannot fail to note that in addition to “universal” coaches-motivators, there are specialists in a narrow field. For example, I have an MA in communications and PR plus an MBA in marketing and international business. So I am quite capable of speaking the client's language in these areas. There are career development specialists who can do some of the work for you: rewrite your resume and convert your profile into linkdin, making it competitive and attractive to hunters. There are specialists in finance, branding, digital, etc. I will not name names - you all know them. And those who do not have the time, desire, or sufficient motivation, but have the money, may well outsource their task.

So what is important to know before setting a goal?

First, you need to understand what skill you want to take as a basis. Who you are? A manufacturer (writer, artist, carpenter, programmer), an intermediary selling someone else's skills or property (tour operator, realtor, education worker, headhunter), an expert in a particular field (financier, psychologist, consultant) or general employee working for hire (manager, marketer, accountant). Depending on this, you will build your further actions to achieve the chosen goal.

For example, a manufacturer will look for a niche where it can fulfill its potential. The intermediary will look for a manufacturer and develop a promotion algorithm that can take the product to a new level. The expert will invest in the development of his own professional skills and the promotion of his personal brand, positioning his knowledge as unique. The middle manager will strive to expand the range of skills, build a client base, make useful connections (networking) in order to cover different markets and increase their competitiveness.

Also, it is important to understand what this goal is for you. What do you want? Fame, money, recognition, respect, gratitude? The choice of the field of activity and projects depends on this: corporate, social, charitable? Ideally, any process should be enjoyable. Considering that work takes up at least 50% of our time, the favorite thing is happiness. And it is important to learn how to choose a field of activity not only for your skills, but also for your desires. If you are a joker and the soul of the company, it will be hard for you to sit alone all day, compiling the logistics of transportation in a computer program. If you function better in peace and quiet, you will find it difficult in a noisy office with no partitions, where the boss uses a scooter. If you love business suits and office negotiations, you will not like working remotely. And if you write the best-selling copy in your pajamas at night, daily deadlines and custom-made articles will make your life hell.

If you do not know anything at all and do not know how - yes, this also happens due to age, and for a number of other reasons - it is worth taking as a basis what you want to do. And along the way, determine how much effort (money, training, etc.) you need. If you are young, you can choose almost any path. If you are older, it is advisable to audit your existing skills, find intersections with your area of interest, and figure out the path that requires the least amount of effort.

For example, if I want to become a programmer, I will have to learn from scratch with my experience and education. It is possible, but after 40 it is difficult and not very attractive. But my skills can be easily used in the areas of marketing, HR, advertising, PR, teaching and even literature. All you need is a small upgrade and a couple of refresher courses.

Suppose you are a conventional "expert" - the owner of certain narrowly focused knowledge and skills, striving for wealth and fame. This is a great formulation, but not the goal yet. The goal is more specific. For example, in a year to become a corporate trainer in company X and have an income of Y. Or to get 1 million subscribers on Youtube within 6 months. It is important not only to understand "who you are" (SWOT) and "why do you need this" (realized desire / need), but also what exactly you are striving for (result) and how soon you want to be there (time line). That is, a specific result must be planned with a clear time frame.

And another vital point: don't be afraid to change your goals and their components. Sometimes you have to stop and look around. And if you realize that you are going in the wrong direction and want not to, feel free to turn around. There are situations when “losing” means “winning”. It is quite possible that in the process of movement, your final stop will be intermediate, and the global focus will shift, for example, from “wealth” to “fame” or “influence”. This explains, for example, the political ambitions that appear among especially successful business representatives. Doctors go to administrators, stylists open their own salons, and journalists and screenwriters prefer freelancing. The goals - they are "alive" - and change with you. Stagnation in this case is not equal to stability. Survival is the one who knows how to adapt in time.

In order to break through among your own kind, it is important not only to be aware of your own uniqueness, but also to be able to sell it. Any novice salesman knows that “pushing” is ineffective, and you need to sell not just a product or service, but a means to solve a client's problem. Moreover, if the client is not at all aware that he has a problem, he should be enlightened.

Numerous pyramids of average gurus are built on this simple principle. A person lives in a zone of comfort and grief, you do not know, until he suddenly hears that he is living wrong. Someone will brush it off and go on, and someone will suddenly stop and realize that, indeed, the existing reality is pressing him, he urgently needs to run somewhere and do something. And the guru with his advice is right there. And after all, in most cases, a person of such an enlightened listens and thinks: "Oh, okay, these are obvious things, seriously?" And around him thousands of people clap, stamp their feet and write down clever thoughts. Will not will, you will think that it is not with them, but something is wrong with you.

In fact, everything is so, of course. And this principle works great. You just need to use it for its intended purpose, selling not air and the obvious-incredible, but your real knowledge and skills, which really have value. If your profile is too broad, it makes sense to choose a narrower specialization. If you are passionate about something, start developing that interest by turning your hobby into a specialty. If it seems to you that everyone already knows it, think about how you can present information so that it sparkles with new colors. There are no hopeless situations - there is laziness and fear that prevent you from moving forward. Discomfort is normal. It is with him that development begins.

Everyone has a distrust of new things and a fear of failure. Many professionals for many years feel like impostors, and, despite their fame and sold out, every time they worry that they will not succeed. These are normal mechanisms of the human psyche. You don't need to resist them - you need to be friends with them. Use mistrust in order to find new facts and forms of information presentation. Turn fears into opportunities (“if I could, so can you”). To present weaknesses as highlights, attracting the audience with their human appearance and frankness.

The spirit of competition works great for motivation - you can pick a competitor and try to do more and better. Or, having seen a successful model of behavior, follow this example, bringing in something personal and adapting it to your circumstances. There are a lot of options. The main thing is not to be afraid to try, listen to feedback and remember to enjoy the process. Well, and if you wish, you can always use the help of a professional to develop an individual action plan. If anything, you know where to look for me.