Many of us walk around with a lot of plans, goals, day dreams and visions. Unfortunately, not many achieve their goals, implement their plans or take the first steps toward their visions. Why is it like that and how can we make sure we achieve what we put our minds to?

Many people tried to answer this question. Some succeed to pinpoint a way or another while others fail. In this article I am trying to give you the blue recipe I am using all the time to make things happen.

I believe that goal setting and goal achievement are different sciences. Calling these topics science should not scare you, but tell you that there is a recipe that can be repeated and implemented. If you follow the recipe you will be guaranteed success in the science you are implementing. 2 + 1 = 3 this is a fact. The science involved in mathematics, the ingredients are 1 and 2. It is like making a cake. You can chose to either try yourself or follow a proven path. Both can lead to success. One choice is more trustworthy than the other. So, what are the five ingredients that let us achieve our goals?

Ingredient 1: Determine your destination

You need to know where you are heading. If you do not know your destination, you will never get there. Exercise goal setting and chose among all things that matter for you. Goals should be end goals and not means goals. After setting up a list of goals, one or more, you need to prioritize these goals. One common error is that we look at everything as important and cannot let go with things that matter less. Remember that it is impossible to do all and you have to make choices. Things that give you most value and brings you faster to your destination should be your first priority. I will cover the «science of prioritization» in a alter article.

Ingredient 2: Communicate the goal

Once you have made up your mind and decided on your goals, it is time to make sure, you and all involved remember what is the goal. Often things happen and distract us from going the path we intended to go. It is not wrong to change the path, but it is wrong to forget about where you are heading. All things you do should be evaluated against the goals you want to achieve. Forgetting about such evaluations is the recipe for failure. I do repeat my goals to both myself and people involved in achieving them on daily, weekly and monthly basis. This ingredient may be the most important in making sure we are dragging the wagon in the same and right direction.

Ingredient 3: Make a plan

Now you know where your goal is and you have communicated it to either yourself or the team that will follow you. You know the WHAT. It is time now to look at the HOW. This is the plan. To start planning the way, you need first to be sure you understand where you are at this moment and then based on your knowledge and means, settle down on a plan for what new skills you need to acquire, in what order and what types of actions and milestones you need to achieve. I believe in having a lot of smaller milestones that are easy to achieve instead of having bigger milestones that are harder to both scope and achieve. Breaking down tasks into smaller sub tasks makes them much easier to achieve. While doing that, you need to remember that you must not do it perfectly, but good enough according to a quality measurement you decide on. The thing that is perfect today might be horrible in some days. Meet your quality goals and move on. Progress is an important feeling.

Ingredient 4: Schedule the time and resources needed

After knowing the WHAT and the HOW, we need to decide on WHEN. All your milestones from Ingredient 3 must be scheduled on a timeline, resources must be assigned with frequent follow up. The time slots you have must be filled with what matters all the time. You should commit toward the goals and the deadlines you set up. Of course things can go wrong and deadlines may not be met. You need to reevaluate the plan, adjust it and make sure you get the learning from what you did wrong and not at least what you did in a good way. You should improve on things you fail on and focus more on things you do well so they become even better and easier to implement next time. This way you make bigger time slots available for things you are less experienced in.

Ingredient 5: Keep on going

The fifth ingredient is where a lot of people and organizations fail. Many start things, well planned and scoped, but lack of patience and «stay on» power. They expect fruits to show up before the seeds even have been given time to grow into a tree. A seed needs the right soil, environment and care to grow. You need to keep nurturing and watering until you convert the seed into desired fruit, RESULTS. This is what we call Iterations.

The path to success in whatever you do is with other words by taking small steps toward your goals and iterate on a plan. The plan should be evaluated and adjusted accordingly.