It’s estimated that 45 percent of Americans usually make New Year’s resolutions while at least 24 percent of people fail to keep their resolutions every year. A study on goal setting by the Dominican University of California showed that participants who wrote their goals down, broke them into action steps, and shared them with friends were much more successful in achieving goals than those who didn’t.
Pamela Yellen who is a financial investigator and the author of two New York Times best-selling books, including her latest, “The Bank on Yourself Revolution: Fire Your Banker, Bypass Wall Street, and Take Control of Your Own Financial Future” (BenBella Books, 2014), discusses five P’s of successful goal setting—passion, persistence, planning, people, and positivity. Read on for these helpful tips on how to achieve your goals.
1. Passion: You’ve got to want the goal badly enough that you won’t allow yourself to become discouraged when the finish line proves hard to reach.
2. Persistence: Cliché as it may be, if at first you don’t succeed, don’t give up. Any goal worth attaining is also well worth missing—as many times as necessary.
3. Planning: The road to defeat is paved with good intentions. The surface of the ‘road to success’ is smoothed with actual planning. Successful businesses begin with a well-thought business plan. Successful goal setters also require a carefully considered goal-plan. Each goal-plan should include these elements:
- Ways to break the main goal into smaller, easier-to-accomplish parts
- A realistic timetable
- Strategies and resources (including mentors) you can utilize
- A system for tracking your progress
- Fallback positions for when you encounter potholes and detours
4. People: Family, friends, and coworkers can give you the extra boost you require to reach your goal. Whether they are running alongside you, cheering you on from the sidelines, or handing you advice based upon their own failures and triumphs, enlisting the help of others will increase your chance of success.
5. Positivity: Mental attitude can carry you forward, even when circumstances aren’t working out. Is reaching for a goal a burden, a responsibility, a sacrifice, or even a punishment? Well, it can be if you decide to think of it that way. But you can also picture your path as an adventure, an opportunity, a competition, and a growth experience.
“The task is the same regardless of how you view it,” says Yellen. “The outcome, however, is far more likely to be to your liking if you remain upbeat and optimistic at each step along the way.”