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 The nature of these questions may seem to be simple, but they are worth exploring.

WHAT TYPES OF GOALS TO PURSUE?

1. Keep a higher goal – Goals we set for ourselves say a lot about what our beliefs are. There are situations in life when the goals are given to us, such as achieving business targets at work or a sports person chasing a dream to be fulfilled. Most often we set very high goals for ourselves. These goals should be achievable, otherwise they may remain unactioned.

   There are numerous examples of extremely talented sports people who dazzled the world but didn’t have a long career because in many cases, they didn’t know how to respond to adversities. From the beginning of their careers their talent had helped them achieve many milestones, but when they faced difficult situations, they floundered. Had they set a high goal, planned for and garnered support from the beginning, they would have achieved greater heights.

   Cricketer, Rahul Dravid always mixed his impeccable work ethics with his unmatched cricket talent. He is believed to have said that it is better to set challenging goals even if it means falling slightly short, rather than setting the target too low.

2. Life of service – Our mentor always encourages us to live a life of service for the others. What this means is that, while pursuing our own objectives, we should also find ways to help others.In all bookstores, you will find a section of “self-help” books, but never a section of “help others” books. This is where we are going wrong. A purposeful life is lived for the benefit of all and not just for your own self. For example – there is nothing wrong with wanting to make a lot of money but use some part of that money to help others who are less fortunate.
3. Failures are the pillars of success – One of the reasons why New Year’s resolutions fail is that people themselves are not serious about them. This is because either they do not strive for their fulfillment or they feel that they had aimed too high and are not adequate to fulfill them. While it is said that the failures are the stepping-stones of success, they are hardly treated that way. When an actual failure is experienced, we face fear, embarrassment and depression. We must change our attitude towards failure. Only then will we be able to set high targets for ourselves and attempt to achieve them despite difficulties or doubts. Failures are expected along the way. The key to success is to try and try again. Even if the pace is slow, keep moving.

(A goal should be high enough to challenge us, and it should also serve others; failures are part of the journey and only make us stronger. So, we should embrace the failures as well.)

HOW TO SET GOALS?

This is an exciting part of the goal-setting process. The way we set our goals determines the amount of interest we will have after a few months. If we set a 3-year target, it’s easy to lose track of that. So, the goals should have a realistic deadline, but we should break that goal into small parts.

1. Think of a goal as climbing a staircase, you have to take one step at a time to get to the top, there is no other way. If you break your goals into small & achievable targets, they become more achievable. For example – If you want to start exercising in the new year, commit to exercising today, that’s it. One day at a time. Our mentor says that if you do something for 21 days, it becomes your habit. So, you can start by taking a 21-day workout challenge, don’t think about exercising 365 days, just the next 21 days.
2. Goal-setting is a process that has been researched a lot and many books have been written on the subject. Defining the goal is paramount to its success. A goal should be defined in a way that is simple to understand and is time bound. As in 1958, the NASA-USA had many important goals. Although the leaders in NASA had ways and means to succeed, but they were not producing as many results as the Soviet Union. But in 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a pronouncement “land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth before the decade is out.”

This is how a goal statement should be made. It should be meaningful to you; it should be simple; it should have a finish line.

The snippet below shows the goals NASA had for themselves in 1958 compared to the goals after President Kennedy’s statement. Notice the difference between them and see if the goals are clear and simple to understand; how many are there, is there a finish line to them? NASA then successfully achieved that goal in June 1969, just a few months before the deadline.

HOW TO ACHIEVE THE GOALS

Indian cricket team needed to chase a target of 321runs against a very high-quality Sri Lankan bowling attack. To make it even more difficult, the Indian team needed to reach this target in 40 overs to qualify for the finals. India chased down the target in 36 overs. When asked, Virat Kohli, the Indian Captain, said that he thought of the target (of 40 overs) as two back-to-back T20 matches, and the Indian team was only focusing on the first twenty overs.

1. Focus in the moment, focus on the little tasks that lead to the goal – High goals can overwhelm a person, but great players have a way of making large goals look achievable. There are many such examples in the sporting world where the impossible appearing goals were achieved by breaking them into small achievable tasks. Any goals can be achieved if you focus in the moment and do what’s needed to be done at this moment, and not get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the goal itself. Some examples are discussed below –

• If you want your car to run smoothly throughout the year; what  you need to do for that in the moment are the things like regular service, optimum air pressure, driving within the speed limit, etc. If you focus on these three activities, you are assured of reaching your goal of a smoothly running car till the end of the year.
• If we want to lose weight in the New Year,we have to focus on exercising and eating healthy. While it sounds simple, most people struggle with this goal. It is because we get overwhelmed by the distant goal and the huge task of exercising each day throughout the year; sounds excessive and unachievable, so we start looking for excuses, and our goal isn’t achieved. If we focus just on eating healthy and exercising only today; just one day, it suddenly sounds achievable. If we track our behavior for one day or one week, we are moving towards the larger goal one day at a time.
• If you want to develop a habit of reading; you get overwhelmed by looking at some avid reader who can read a book every month, and you develop a sense of awe towards him. You also want to develop that habit, but it’s too scary to think about 12 books in one go! But, if we only commit to reading 5 mins each day; if we pick up a book to read only for 5 mins, it seems easier to achieve the goal of reading every day. This can be enhanced to reading one book every month.
• In the corporate world, we all have our targets, sometimes they are sales targets, customer satisfaction number, successful product launches. The result of these isn’t in our control. What’s in our control is the activities that will lead to these results. For example – If a customer support rep focuses on calling their customer once a month (or week) to check on their experience, they are guaranteed to get a good customer satisfaction score.

2. Our mentor says, “understand the mind and go beyond it.” Our mind makes a goal look unachievable. If the result is in the distant future, we should start celebrating little things today instead of the distant goal in the future alone. 

Setting today’s goal i.e. exercising today, reading for 5 minutes today, eating leafy vegetables today, meditating today will help us achieve these immediate goals and we can have a sense of achievement. This will be good for our morale, and will help us to reinforce our efforts for the final result.

3. Enjoy the journey – A goal should be such that you enjoy the journey of achieving them. It doesn’t mean that the goals pursual will be easy and fun. The pursuit of the goal should push you, but you should feel good about pursuing them each day, and enjoying the chase to the finishing line.

4. Practice makes perfect – When asked how he handles the pressure of the expectations of a billion people, Sachin Tendulkar said that he judges his performance based on the standards he has set for himself. He loved the game of cricket, but he failed in his career several times. He suffered back injuries, toe, ankle, thigh got injured, he played 2003 world cup with a finger injury.
Is that fun? No.
Is the goal of playing for the country worth bearing that pain?
Sachin would say absolutely yes. Many of Sachin’s contemporary players were arguably more talented than him, but he had a long and successful career because of his work ethic and the way he handled his failures. Even after achieving the much-coveted title of the best batsman in the world, he would follow his strict practice regime. He retired in 2013 but still holds several world records.

Results are not in our control; efforts are. Focus on the efforts and celebrate the success of the efforts.

A WINNING ATTITUDE

A lot has been written about talent, but there is something beyond talent that separates the greats from the good. Our mentor says that having a positive attitude is far more important than talent. What we do when we are faced with adversities, definesss our attitude. Everybody faces failures in their lives.

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the most renowned scientist of India, faced several failures in his life before becoming the missile man of India, spearheading the efforts to turn India into a World Power with nuclear delivery systems. He then became the President of the Republic of India. Would you call him a failure?

It is the attitude of individuals that differentiates the long-term achievers from those who succeed purely because of their talent. This is illustrated in the chart below –

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that’s why I succeed” – Michael Jordan.

Attitude is how we deal with our failures. It’s the ability to see our successes and failures as part of a spectrum and not as an earth-shattering event. Failure is a great teacher; it brings with it a certain humility and a zeal to improve.

Our mentor teaches us that there is no time like the present. Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery; today is a gift from God; that’s why it’s called present. So, think about what can be done today to achieve the larger goal. Remember your final goal but do what needs to be done today even if it’s a small step, take it. Remember, many a little steps make a mile.

Our mentor says, “A purpose-driven life is a life worth living and most adored by God”

SUMMARY

• The types of goals we set for ourselves tell a lot about our mental makeup
• Do not stop. Failures are the stepping stones of success. Change your perspective about failures. Treat them as learning lessons
• Break the goals into small tasks and focus on doing them one step at a time
• Help others when you achieve your goal, do not be selfish
• A winning attitude is about facing adversity with humility and introspection
• A positive attitude is the key to achieving greatness