4 Ways to Enjoy Your Achievement

If you actually enjoy achieving guess what? You’ll achieve more. A lot more.

I’ll bet you’ve done this, I know I have. More times than I can count.

You set a goal and then drive yourself to the point of jumping off a building to achieve it. By the time you’re done you’re physically and mentally beaten, sometimes to the point of just giving up on the darn goal. Achievement isn’t even on the agenda anymore you’re down to just trying to survive another day.

Today I’m going to give you four pointers on how to survive working on your goals. Not just survive but enjoy the achievement, and how to look forward to achieving even more.

#1. Make it fun.

You’ve broken your goal down into definable tasks. Or at least you should have. Step back from the big picture for a moment and think of a way to make those tasks enjoyable. As in fun.

If the task involves others maybe you make it a competition with a small prize when it’s done. If it’s yours alone think of a way to reward yourself when it’s done on time. Maybe you find a way to slip some humor into working through your goal. Do an image search on the subject and find some funny graphics that relate to your goal, make them into a screensaver while you’re working on the task.

You get the idea, think outside the box! Way outside the box.

#2. Know your purpose.

Don’t take your eye off the big picture. WHY are you doing this?

By keeping your eye on the prize you have several advantages. First of all, it keeps you focused when you get fed up, and you know you will. We all do. It’s easy to sink into the mire when all we really wanted to do was drain the swamp.

The second benefit of keeping your eye on the big picture is that it gives you the ability to be able to modify the plan in the midst of a task if results aren’t going in the right direction. Being able to quickly realize you’re going off-course and make a correction is a real day-saver.

The most effective way I’ve found to make this happen is really simple. When I’m defining my goals I write down the goal and then I write down the impact accomplishing the goal will have on me, and on those around me who are going to be impacted by my achievement. Then I sit back, close my eyes, do some deep breathing, and paint a picture of what that achievement looks like. Sometimes it’s just a picture and sometimes it’s a mental movie.

When I find myself seemingly stuck in the muck and mire of real life I open up my mental dream closet and pull out the picture. Focusing on that picture, and sometimes adding a few brush strokes, renews my excitement and my commitment to achieve the goal.

#3. Recognize your progress.

I’m not talking about “tracking” your progress although you should do that too. I’m talking about recognizing it.

As you reach a milestone step back and look at how far you’ve come toward your goal. Look at where you’ve got to go to complete it. Take a moment to think about whether the next steps are still appropriate or do they need to be modified?

If you’ve got a team working on the goal take a moment to celebrate the milestone together.

Then take a deep breath and enjoy the moment. Before you move on recognize the moment and reward yourself and your team.

#4. Reward yourself!

As you complete your goal it’s time for a reward.

Not just a “pat yourself on the back” kind of reward, but something that is appropriately extravagant. If it’s a team goal make it a team reward. If it’s an individual goal make it something that is unique to you and that is meaningful. It doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, but it needs to be meaningful.

The point to having rewards is that you don’t want your “milestones” to become “millstones.”

Build in the reward when you develop your goal and the attack plan to achieve it. That way you’ve got something else to help keep you on track. And we all know we need all the help we can get.

If you’ve got goals that you’re working on now take a few minutes and look at them in respect to our four accomplishment keys. If you use this simple tool you’ll find that you’re having more fun and less stress and I’m betting that you’ll be accomplishing a whole lot more.

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