Have you ever set a goal or participated in the famous New Year resolutions crap? How did you do? Did you accomplish the goal or did the time pass by and you fell off track? Don’t feel bad, it happens to all of us. It’s happened to me plenty of times in my life, until I started approaching my goals with these tactics I’m about to share with you.

Why does this happen to so many of us? We see people around us set goals, like losing weight or maybe getting a better job, starting their own business, going on a dream vacation, whatever the case, the point is you’ve seen others accomplish their goals. And a lot of the times we get left wondering, well how come they did it and I’m still over here struggling to reach mine.

The truth is you don’t want it as bad as they do. You may say you wanna lose weight, get that better job, or start your own business, but are you really willing to do all of the hard things necessary to make it happen?

When I started working in retail for a tech company almost a decade ago, I knew I didn’t wanna stay in entry level position part time. I wanted to get a higher paid full time position doing something I actually enjoyed. At the time there were 3 options available. An elevated Sales position, a tech or a Trainer. Each position paid more and was full time. The easiest one to get was the Sales job and it also gave me least increase in income. The tech position was harder to get, paid the most, but was the least enjoyable job of the 3. So my eyes were set on the Trainer position, it paid more than the sales role and was more within my realm of expertise which was teaching, but this was the hardest role to get. Positions rarely open up and when they do, it’s usually one of the tech people that get first dibs because they already know a lot about the software.

Everyone told me that getting that Trainer position was a lost cause. Even my friend who referred me to get that retail job in the first place told me I didn’t have a shot.

I was stubborn as hell though, so I trained myself for that position. Started teaching workshops and even filling in for some of the trainers when they called out, even though I wasn’t making their salary or had the official title yet. I made friends with the trainers already there and became known among their group as someone capable of doing what they do. I definitely didn’t know as much as they did and I wasn’t certified in any of the programs that they taught, but the little that I did know, I would share and use to my advantage.

A position opened up and with minimal on paper credentials, I applied for it. I knew that they would at least give me the interview and that’s all I wanted was a shot at proving myself. I’m sitting in front of the 2 interviewers and I get asked a question, they said, “look G, I know you already have experience with teaching, but you do know that for this position the normal path is to become a tech first so you can get your certifications and then apply to be a trainer, why should we choose you over other techs that are applying and already have their certifications?”

I replied with, “you’re right, on paper, I probably don’t look like the most ideal candidate, but it depends on what you’re actually looking for in the person that fills this position. The techs at our business are currently measured by the amount of tech appointments they take within a given hour, how does that make them a better trainer? With me, you’re getting a person that’s going to fulfill the role by actually teaching the customer how to use the software effectively and provide them with a great experience. Is the customer gonna care about my credentials, the amount of time I take, or are they going to be more concerned the experience I provide. Why not give me a shot and deviate from the norm?”

And sure enough, I got the position and ended up being in that position for the next 8 years, but that’s a story for another time. My point is, I set a goal and I accomplished it.

Now I want to show you a 5 step method that you can use to accomplish your goals too.

Step 1: Set A Specific Goal

The first step and this may seem kind of obvious is to Set A Specific Goal. What do I mean by that? I mean that you have to figure out what it is that you want in a particular area of your life and write down the specific goal you want to meet. For example, If your goal is to lose weight, don’t just write down my goal is to lose weight. Write down that you want to lose 30 lbs and be at this ideal weight by this date. The more detailed you are about your goal the better.

If your goal is to get a better job or start your own business, then write down the specifics of that goal. What type of job or business? When’s your deadline?

I hear a lot of dads tell me, watch by this time next year I’m gonna have this or that, but that time comes around and they’re stuck in the exact same spot. They never got moving on that goal. So do yourself a favor, write it down and be specific.

Step 2: Commit To It

One of the biggest things that plagues people not achieving their goals is that they are only interested in achieving them, but they are not committed.

There’s a huge difference between being interested in something versus being committed to something. Take for example a marriage, a lot of couples are interested in having a great marriage, but when things get hard and they don’t know what to do to make it better, they look for ways out. This is why married men and women have affairs and take the easy way out by getting a divorce. When you’re interested in something, you look for excuses to not follow through when things get hard.

But when you’re committed, it doesn’t matter how hard things get, you find a way to push through. You figure out how to get the help you need to make sure you keep your commitment. You don’t put up excuses to get out of your commitment, instead you inject reasons to follow through on your commitment. This is the way you need to look at that goal you wrote down. Commit to it, otherwise if you’re just interested in achieving it, you won’t get it done.

Step 3: Schedule It

Every one says that they don’t have enough time. That they’re too busy with work, the wife, the kids, whatever excuse you wanna throw out. But the truth is we all have the same amount of time. 24 hours in a day that can be tracked, monitored and controlled by you if you consider your time to be valuable.

You see a lot of us say we consider our time to be valuable, but the truth is, we fall into the trap of playing that video game, jumping on social media, binge watching that show, watching every sports game on tv, or even worse, watching the news. We make time every day for these things that really don’t add any value to our life, they just make us feel good in the moment.

Why not decide to make time for your goal? Schedule it out as part of your day, pick a time slot that makes sense, even if it’s just 30 min. That will add up over time. In that allotted time, do the things necessary to get you closer to that goal.

Step 4: The 2-Min Rule

Do the thing that gets you closer to your goal for 2 min. If your goal is to lose weight and get in shape, then workout hard for 2 min. Chances are once you start, you’ll end up going past the 2 min mark and actually eat up your whole 30 min time slot.

If you’re aiming for starting a business, read a business book. Don’t like reading, it’s ok just do it for 2 min and see what happens. You’ll more than likely wanna keep going past those 2 min.

Whatever the goal is, push through those first 2 min even on days when it’s the last thing you wanna do, and what you’ll come to find is that after you start your brain will go, “well I’m already here, so might as well just keep going.”

Step 5: Do It Every Day

Lastly do it every day. Pretty simple, but very pivotal to your success. This will move the needle forward closer and closer to that goal every day. It’s how you will form the habit.

Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

There’s power in repetition and all of the little actions you take every day towards that goal will get you to actually achieve it.

When I started tackling my goals using these 5 steps, it started changing my outlook on goal setting. And I started becoming a man that actually follows through on what he’s says he’s gonna do.

I wanna challenge you to give this a shot for whatever goals you want to achieve in your life.

So that’s gonna wrap it up for this post.

Until next time my fellow Alpha Dad,

• G. Vidal