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How many times have you set major or even minor goals for yourself and you only remember your goal when someone else has accomplished it? I often hear people say that we have the same 24 hours in a day as any wealthy celebrity (hi Beyonce) and we can accomplish just as much within that time, but is that really true? I personally believe that our expectations of HOW we will achieve our goals is slightly distorted because of one thing - gratification.

Before we have goals, we first need to understand that Idea+Planning+Trial/Error+Re-evaluation+Trial=GOALS, its not ever ever ever  Idea = GOALS. Wanting instant gratification has always been a "thing" for our generation, but with the popularity of social media, and the consistency of its growth and following, instant gratification has become almost like second nature. I want to get rich - now, I want to get promoted - now, I want a new house - now. This mentality is highly promoted but is very ineffective when accomplishing goals, not because you shouldn't want these things, but because accomplishing any real goal takes planning and time.

Planning is the super secret weapon of goal crushing for example if you were Batman, "planning" would be Alfred and as you know teamwork makes the dream work. Planning your goals and ideas help to bring life to them, and in order to give life to them, you must have your tools prepared. Your tools will assist you to organize your goals, now that you have pulled them out of your mind, you have to relocate them to a safe space. In walks the Planner, the notepad or the Journal. Another example, if you were Batman (again) your planner would be like the bat-suit, his suit shows that he is ready for action, he could never show up to fight any crime as Bruce, and do you know why?  This is because Bruce is a regular dude, and Batman is a hero, and his "ready for heroism" indicator is his suit. Your planner will help you to get prepared for action.

here are a few affordable planners from Amazon to help you get a head start on the planning phase.

Write down your ideas in a way that makes sense to you. I use bullet points so that things look clear and easy to read, you can try this as well or do what works best for you. Your heading should be short but declare your idea as real and important.

For example - Getting my drivers license, losing 10lbs, applying to college, creating my career path, crushing this job interview, buying a car, buying a home, getting a promotion. Just know that your ideas are never too big or too small to write down. Often we are afraid to write or goals out of fear that the goal is too big or that someone will come along and read our plans. (like a villain) but honestly none of those two things matter and in reality and you should not let that stop you from completing this step. 

Time is important to your goals,  but not in the way that you think, all goals need to be assigned a time frame, but its ok for that time-frame to be shorter or longer than initially estimated but assign the time nevertheless and try to stay as close to it as possible. Once your goals have been listed and the proper time allotted - get to work!

The part most people leave out of this whole process is the re-evaluation. Re-evaluation represents growth in planning. Once you have begun working on your goals make sure you check in on the status from time to time. When you check in on your goals you will be evaluating your progress as well as your timeline. Don't be afraid to add more time to goals that are more tedious or shorten the timeline of the goals that are comfortably within reach. Feel free to also change your strategy regarding how a goal is being accomplished if the original plan does not work.

Don't forget to show appreciation to yourself every step of the way, celebrate even the smallest of wins on the road to accomplishment.

Last but not least remember that no matter what happens just remember one thing, giving up is not an option.