Achieve Your Goals and Success: Be Realistic
   

When it comes to setting goals, it is important to dream big and to never sale yourself short. Never allow yourself to “self talk” yourself out of working toward your dreams. At the same time, you need to be realistic about the goals you set. Setting goals that are unrealistic or unattainable will only set you up for disappointment and failure.

Determining Your Goal

When you think about your dreams and goals, you need to put a great deal of thought into what is realistic and what is not. Expecting to find someone, fall in love, and get married within the next year, for example, is unrealistic. After all, you don’t know how long it will take to find someone you love and who loves you back. You can, however, establish a goal to make yourself more available for dating and make a concentrated effort to pay more attention to this aspect of your life.

You also cannot set a goal that is out of your control. Setting a goal to win the lottery, for example, is not in your control. There is absolutely nothing you can do to ensure you will win the lottery, unless you plan to purchase every possible combination available. This, of course, wouldn’t be worth it by the time you pay for all of those tickets! You can, however, set a goal to increase your earnings potential, then lay out a plan for improving your skills or business contacts in order to create a larger income. Or, you can set a goal to start a business that you think might be successful. These goals are ones that you have complete control over and that you can make a plan to work toward achieving.

Avoiding Disappointment

After determining your goal, you will need to make a plan to reach that goal. Again, you need to be realistic about what you can accomplish given your situation and the timeframe you have to work with. For example, if your goal is to become an electrical engineer and you have not yet taken any college courses, it is unrealistic to expect to graduate in three years and to have a job in the field. Be realistic and realize that it will probably take at least four years to earn the degree, perhaps more depending on your level of knowledge, your available finances, and the time you have each year to devote to going to school.

Never set a schedule that will be impossible to keep up with. Even if the electrical engineering degree takes four years to complete if you go full time, realistically assess your situation and decide if you can actually go to school full time. You might have a family or a job that you are trying to juggle at the same time. In this case, it will most likely take longer than four years to complete the degree. Be realistic when setting your timeline. Otherwise, you will be disappointed when four years rolls around and you still haven’t graduated. This disappointed can lead to stress and make you want to give up on your dreams.

Expect Problems

No matter how well you have laid out your plans, you will most likely experience problems along the way to achieving your goal. If you go into the situation with a realistic outlook, you will not allow these set backs to take the wind out of your sails. On the other hand, if you walk into your plan expecting everything to go perfectly – which is a very unrealistic outlook – you are in for a great deal of disappointment that will most likely make you feel like giving up on your dreams.

Don’t Expect Others to Want Your Dream

When creating your plan, you need to be careful about the expectations you make on others when it comes to achieving your dream. If you expect your spouse to financially support the household while you follow your dream of being a famous musician, for example, you need to make sure he or she is truly prepared to do this. In addition, this shouldn’t be your only plan for success. Relying on others can lead to failure, because you can never be sure they will be able to live up to their end of the bargain. At the same time, it is unfair for you to expect others to put their lives on hold for the sake of you and your dream. Don’t set unrealistic expectations on others and you will be less likely to be let down or to alienate the ones you love.

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by SolveYourProblem.com : 2006

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