How to achieve any goal with two essential ingredients

Do you have a goal? Anything you want better than you have today?

I bet you do.

Almost all of us have desires for a better life, we all have something we wish for like a better figure, a good job, own house, a car, a great relationships, enough money to travel the world and more importantly realize our life’s potential. This is what we humans are made for, it is in our DNA that we always wish for something better than what we have. And it perfectly fine, having goals makes our lives meaningful. Without goals, it is like you are walking in a forest, all alone without any purpose. Where will it lead you? Nowhere. If you are lucky enough you might end up getting something good but it is not the case in real life.

There is no hard evidence, but some studies reveal that only 3% of people have written goals. And having written goals significantly increases your chances to achieve it. Writing goals establish some kind of neuron connection in your brain and trigger your mind for a higher accountability. If we will apply Pareto’s principle, then, only 20 percent of the people who set written goals manage to achieve it.

How? Because:

First, they know how to set a goal in a tangible way, their goals are strong enough that they never quit and face all the obstacles in their way of success.

Second thing is that, they know how to execute on their goals.

The remaining 80 percent of people quit in the half-way because they do not maintain a good strategy. Or they might have it but don’t execute on it.

After a lot of brainstorming, research and experimenting, I came to a conclusion that there are two secret and essential ingredients to achieve any goal. And those two ingredients are “Push” and “Pull”.

Two ingredients to achieve any goal: Pull (the reward) and Push (the risk)

Pull — the reward

Pull is when your goal is so desirable and strong that it pulls your interests towards it. It is itself so strong that it could divert your actions. We all fall in love at least once in our lives, remember those feelings? All your thoughts are occupied, you dream about that special person, you wish to do every possible thing in your life to get him/her.

You can consider things that attract you naturally, things you enjoy, things you find effortless and interesting, things which you like to do most of the time. So, is there anything you find attractive? The thing which makes you lose the sense of time? If there is nothing that pulls you, you have no goal at all. Find something that makes your life meaningful, if you think your goal is not pulling you like this then most likely it is not your goal, you must be doing it under some influence. Goals that are imposed by society. Ask yourself how your goal is going to affect your life and the life of people around you? Find a meaningful goal with a strong pull effect, which will answer why you need it and make you feel emotionally very excited about it.

Push — the risk

Well, now you know what pull is, however, it is not enough to overcome the habits of some lazy people and the people who quit easily. You also need to learn and apply the push effect. Pull will help you do the pleasant things, however, to achieve any goal you need to do less pleasant things as well. You need to work on things less attractive, but essential to bring your goal to life. For that, you need something that would kick your ass every morning to keep you going, if the lazy person inside you want to sleep more and do nothing. It is a strong trigger in your mind that will push you toward your goal. Quitting half-way is the most common reason for failure. One of your key priorities should not let it happen.

So, is there anything that could push you? Yes, find something valuable, something that could make you feel on fire. Imagine that your actions affect someone’s life, someone you love so much, would you apply more effort? Would you keep going, even if you are tired? Probably yes. Fortunately, that is not the case for the majority of people. This reminds me of a great movie “The pursuit of happiness”. Try to watch it, it will help you get a strong motivation to keep going.

Another thing to consider in this case is money. It is not an easy job to earn money, would you even imagine to lose the money that you earn after that hard work? Definitely No.

Let’s apply these rules

Let’s imagine that you want to gain or lose weight. You will need to have a healthy diet and a minimum of 3 times a week exercise. The pull will help you to imagine a good body shape, the shape that you want to get. You will eat healthily and do exercise, however, you will get tired in a few days as a healthy diet is not always tasty and exercise is not the act of a pleasure for the majority. A few people with good willpower will keep on and get what they want but a normal lazy person will find a million excuses to quit. Now, let’s apply the push effect. Imagine you will lose $20 each time you cheat or miss your exercise. Do you think it hurts? Do you think it is enough to push you toward your goal? If not that much, try to increase the amount until you feel that pain.

This is how I pushed myself to quit some bad eating habits, exercise and running even if it is raining outside. It helped me stop making lame excuses and achieve higher levels of life. Fear of losing something valuable is one of the strongest motivators for human beings.

Once you think you have found something pulling you, make a strategy and action plan. Set a stake on your performance to push for execution.

Life some times is a constant struggle between push and pull. But in this struggle you can find yourself and your power.