Can You Reach Your Goals?

All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney

Most children have big dreams about what they want to be when they grow up. A survey was conducted on 4,000 kids, aged 10 and under, to find out what they wished to become when they got older.

The results can’t help but bring a smile to your face. Thirty-seven percent of those polled said they want to be a superhero when they grow up. After that, the most popular choices were celebrity, doctor, and President of the United States.

When you are a kid, these dreams seem entirely possible, and the freedom of adulthood can’t come soon enough. But as soon as we get there, reality sets in.

A recent survey of millennials found their goals to be much more grounded and realistic. The most popular goals from the poll were to travel the world, have zero debt, retire early, have a successful career, live a healthy life, find purpose, and be part of a lifelong “clique.”

We put together five tips to help you achieve your dreams and to show you how mentorship can drastically increase the chances of success.

One - Make the Goal Concrete

Goal setting can often become abstract, such as: “I want financial freedom.” There is nothing wrong with a goal like that, but there are a million ways to achieve it. The first step in achieving a goal should be to clearly define it.

When the goal is concrete and defined in simple language, action steps can be worked out to achieve it.

For example, a more concrete goal could be: “I want financial freedom by the time I am 40. I want to achieve this by building my own business and leaving my 9-5.”

With this goal clearly stated, a realistic action plan, schedule, and pathway to achieving it can be worked out. The idea here is to take abstract goals such and move them into tactical plans to make dreams a reality.

When goals are concretely phrased, real action can occur, and real dreams can be achieved. The more specific the framing can be, the higher the odds of achieving the goal.

Two - Identify Specific Requirements

There are different types of goals. There are big ones such as: “build a viable business from scratch to replace my job,” and small ones like: “cut down on caffeine and sugar.”

I like to put goals into one of two categories: goals that add something, such as finance or improved health, and goals that subtract something, such as bad habits or foods.

It can help to identify what you are trying to do with a goal, whether it is to add or subtract something from your life. Once that is defined, the exact requirements can be worked out to make the goal a reality.

Some goals are easy to figure out how to achieve. It doesn’t take a lot of research to take sugar out of your diet. But lofty career or finance goals can be trickier.

This is where a mentor can really help out. Finding a mentor who has already achieved the goals you are setting for yourself can be invaluable. A mentor can help you reverse engineer your lofty goals into precise action steps, define requirements, and map out a plan.

Three - Set Aside the Time

Goals don’t get met just because you wrote them down. Even if you wrote them down, consulted a mentor, and worked out the exact action steps, the goal still won’t occur without taking the time to work on them. This can be a lot harder than it sounds.

I’m not only talking about time management strategy (though it is a key factor in success). I’m referring to arranging priorities and having the correct estimation of effort to get action steps completed.

It takes two minutes to write down the action step of “build a website for my new business” or “work out a budget to start setting aside money for early retirement.” It can take a lot longer to do the action step.

Again, this is where a mentor can really help you. You can pull from a mentor’s experience and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. A mentor can tell you exactly how much work and how long a step on the plan to achieving a goal can take.

With the advantage of a mentor, scheduling becomes simple as you know how long steps will take. You will find yourself falling behind less and less and actually getting ahead in your quest to achieve your goals.

Four - Make it Personal

Not all paths to success are the same. In fact, very few are.

The journey towards a goal is different for each person. Embrace the unique and personal circumstances of your personality, resources, interests, and life and make them part of your approach.

Don’t treat everything a mentor tells you as if it were the “Word of God.” Sure, they may have been successful, but you are different from them. Take the advice that works and don’t hesitate to throw out guidance if it doesn’t seem to fit.

The journey will be a lot more fulfilling if you somehow make it your own.

Five - Seek Motivation

"Complacency is the enemy of progress. He who is satisfied with his present gains forsakes the potential of future greatness." - Inspired by Seneca

Chasing goals requires you to step out of your comfort zone. You can’t wake up every day without looking towards a potentially brighter future and hope to progress. A forward outlook is an absolute necessity for achieving new goals.

It can be easy to set goals and action plans aside while you live your life, only to pull the plans out months or even years later to find no progress has been made. It’s vital to make the time. But the time only gets made if there is motivation to make it.

Everyone is motivated in different ways. Having a mentor can hold you accountable and can continuously push you to stay on the timeline to achieve your goals.

Wisdom Share Mentoring Software

Our powerful software seamlessly integrates mentoring into any organization. It can be tailored to handle any unique challenge. It offers a range of key features and benefits designed to drive measurable results.

• Customizable Matching Algorithms: Wisdom Share employs cutting-edge matching algorithms that efficiently pair mentors and mentees based on shared goals, interests, and expertise. This ensures optimal mentor-mentee matches, facilitating productive and impactful relationships right from the start.

• Seamless Communication and Collaboration: Our software provides user-friendly communication tools, including chat, video conferencing, and virtual meeting spaces, enabling mentees and mentors to connect and collaborate effortlessly. This seamless communication fosters a sense of belonging and support, facilitating valuable knowledge transfer and growth.

• Goal Tracking and Progress Measurement: With Wisdom Share, mentees can set clear objectives, track their progress, and receive feedback from their mentors. This feature enhances accountability, motivates mentees to strive for their goals, and enables mentors to provide valuable guidance and support along the way.

• Resource Library and Knowledge Sharing: Our software offers a comprehensive resource library, housing a vast array of valuable materials, articles, and best practices. Mentees can access this centralized repository to expand their knowledge, gain insights, and continuously develop their skills, promoting ongoing learning and growth.

• Data-driven Insights and Analytics: Wisdom Share provides data-driven insights and analytics that offer a deep understanding of mentoring relationships, program effectiveness, and the impact on key metrics. These actionable insights empower organizations to make informed decisions, optimize their mentoring programs, and measure the tangible benefits they bring to employee engagement, retention, and overall company performance.

Mentor Resources can help any company or government agency leverage technology to create tailored career development programs that are cost-effective. Our mentoring software, Wisdom Share, is a cloud-based program that is simple and comes with guided workflows. Included are tools for administrators to attract, enroll, connect, and guide participants. We also provide analytics to ensure you can monitor your employee development program and easily see ROI metrics.

Reach out to us today for a free demonstration of our software.