How to achieve your goals in five steps

When you have goals, you have a purpose in life that drives you. It gives you something to strive for every day. When you have goals, you want to succeed. You want to be better than who you were yesterday. If you have goals, but you don’t know how you’ll achieve them, don’t fret. Having goals alone is enough to get you started on the track to greatness. Succeed in accomplishing your goals, and you’ll have lived a fulfilled life. To help you start achieving those goals, follow these steps:

1. Get Healthy

Before you can start achieving your goals, you first must be well enough. While you can work when you aren’t at your best, the work you will do during this time won’t be as good, or as productive, as it could be if you were healthy and fit. Follow this rundown to start leading a healthy life today:

• Eat More Nutrient-Filled Foods
While supplementing your diet with vitamin pills is great to ensure that you don’t miss the vitamins that you need, updating your meals is a better solution. There are many ways you can cook superfoods so that they are delicious and healthy. In many cases, simply opting to cook and bring in food from home will help your budget and your health, as opposed to eating out for lunch. The healthier the foods you eat, the better you’ll feel all around.

As a bonus, the more practiced you are at cooking, the better you will be. Invite your friends around for a delicious meal!

• Cut Out Foods High in Fat, Salt, and Sugar
Just as you should improve what you put into your body, you should also aim to reduce the bad foods that you ingest. Foods that are high in fat, salt, and even sugar, cause a myriad of health problems from heart disease to acne. To be healthy and beautiful, reduce these foods as much as possible.

• Drink Enough Water
Water flushes out toxins in your body, and drinking enough of it can help you feel more awake, energized, and better all-around. Drink water to stop headaches, clear your skin, and live a long and healthy life.

• Reduce or Eliminate Vices
Alcohol, smoking, and other drugs when consumed as a habit are terrible for your health. Reduce or eliminate these vices entirely to fully feel the positive effects. These vices cause disease, cancer, a weakened immune system, body rot, and premature aging.

• Get Enough Sleep
Make a sleep ritual and stick to it. A good night’s rest is key to being able to take on the day and succeed. A few hours before bed, turn off all electronic devices. The blue light from these devices will disrupt your circadian rhythms, meaning your body will wake up, even as you try to sleep. For a deeper, better sleep, make a routine, sleep at the same time, and stay away from electronics beforehand.

• Exercise Regularly
While you don’t need to go to the gym for a strength workout to benefit from daily exercise, you should start a routine. Exercise is particularly crucial if you work in an office and are sitting every day. If you don’t have time or the inclination to do a workout routine, try walking in the morning, even walking to work, up the stairs, or other simple cardio workouts to keep your body moving.

• De-Stress
If you eat right, drink enough water, sleep better, and exercise, you’ll feel better, stronger, and more able to tackle the tasks at hand. That doesn’t, however, mean that you’re incapable of being stressed. Try to separate work time and home time as much as possible to give yourself a chance to unwind and relax. Find the tactics that work for you and stick to them.

• Live a Balanced Life
Being purely career-driven means that other areas of your life will suffer. Strike a balance in your life so that you feel fulfilled, you progress, and you enjoy your life. If you aren’t enjoying yourself, there is no point continuing as you are – make big changes until you find the perfect balance between your work, your passions, and your loved ones.

2. Break it Down to Smaller Steps

Having one big goal isn’t going to help you unless you have a path. Research how others have succeeding before you, and break down your goal into smaller, more manageable steps. The smaller the steps, the easier it will be for you to complete them and move forward.

Breaking down your dream into smaller steps is particularly useful when you’re just starting out. It’s a good idea for individuals, teams, and even for companies. To truly be on track, set realistic dates for when each step should be completed. It’s okay to estimate when you first start out, but as you start to complete your steps you should be able to more accurately determine how long each goal should take.

3. Be Committed

Stopping and starting won’t get you anywhere. When you want to fulfill a dream, you must remain committed to it. You cannot focus on achieving your dream whenever the mood strikes. Whether your dream is a passion project on the side or a goal for your current career path, you need to be committed to achieving your goals.

4. Have Routine

Being committed means having a regular routine where, for a certain amount of time per day, you work towards your goals. If you were a rower, for instance, you should have a rowing machine from PerfectRower so that you can train for a certain amount of time per day. It doesn’t matter if your rowing is a hobby or your job – consistent training needs to be achieved through routine. The stricter your routine, the more prepared your body will be for it. Here are several types of routines that every person should have:

• A Morning Routine
Morning routines are a great way to help you wake up. They should consist of waking up at the same time, and fulfilling the same actions in order. For instance, wake up, drink a glass of water, go to the bathroom, wash your face, moisturize, eat a healthy breakfast, and then brush your teeth. If you do this every day, without fail, the process will help you wake up and get you ready for the day ahead. It’s also a great routine to help you keep your skin clear and supple, your teeth and gums healthy, and it will keep your body hydrated and healthy.

• A Working Routine
When you’re at work, try to have a set routine as much as you can. This includes working time and break times. Expand your routine beyond when you work and when you break for a coffee by having specific time slots that you complete certain tasks. The more routine your work schedule, the better you’ll be able to do the work at hand. This is because your body and mind will know how much energy it takes and is accustomed to it. The better your work routine, the more you will get done with less stress.

• An Exercise Routine
If you want to exercise just to keep your body active, try to incorporate it into your routines. You can always take the stairs, for instance. If you want to stay healthy and be fit, however, you should take up a sport. Rowing is a great sport because you can train for it at home and then take that training and have some great experiences. Rowing is a relaxing, methodological sport that can help you benefit from the energy and mood boosts you get from exercise, and help you to de-stress and live longer.

• A Bedtime Routine
Bedtime routines are just as important as morning routines. The more specific your bedtime routine, the better you’ll sleep at night.

Remember that building your life entirely around routines can have its setbacks as well. Keep routines for “unpleasant” habits so that you can be more productive and consistent with them. These unpleasant habits are ones that people find hard doing, like exercise. For the rest of your life, leave it open for new experiences and spontaneity. You don’t want to schedule every second of your life, just the parts you want to go by faster.

5. Allow Your Dreams to Change

A big mistake that a lot of people make is not allowing their dreams to change with them. You’re more than welcome to have a new dream as your life, priorities, and situations change. You can find something you love even more, you might have to accommodate a family into your dream, or otherwise. Allow your dream to change and adapt so that when you work towards your goals, you’re fulfilling your life.

Achieving your goal should not be considered a career move, but a life move. Your goal should be something you strive for because the path to it and making it will bring you happiness. Be healthy, committed, and realistic and one day you, too, will achieve your dreams.