3 Hacks to achieving your goals

TL;DR:

  1. Set a reminder of your goal.
  2. Write an email to yourself about your goal to be sent on a future date.
  3. Act out what the scene will look like when you achieve your goal.

Here are the juicy details and a BONUS hack at the end:

First, let’s understand the power of imagination. We see the world through the eyes of imagination and every powerful concept that we use today is because of our gift for imagining things. To list a few:

  1. Money: Money is nothing but a concept, an idea. It’s an idea so compelling that we have come to believe money is real.
  2. Companies/Governments: Companies and governments are essentially a group of people imagining and achieving a common goal. Successful companies/governments are those where the person directing this group of people has a very powerful imagination and determination to carry out her ideas. We call her the Founder, or the Leader.
  3. Clothing: Though my startup Totspot is all about the fabric we put on our bodies, clothing — how certain items will look and be worn — is actually a concept. If we really think about it, clothing is such a powerful idea that to follow the protocol of clothing or dressing up well in social settings has become a norm people are expected to follow.

Each of the above concepts is an example and the evidence of the power of imagination.

So, how does a concept take shape? And why does a certain concept evoke more power than the other?

When a seed of thought is implanted in the mind, that’s when a new concept is born. We can trace each of the concepts discussed above to a single thought. This necessitates that there is one person behind each idea, which subsequently is widely adopted and promoted by others. The more we think of an idea passionately and repeatedly, the stronger the idea becomes.

Similarly, a goal is just an idea. To make it a reality, we need to repeatedly remind ourselves about it and establish the thought firmly into our minds. So to truly achieve our goal, we need to plant the seed of thought and nourish it. Here are a few hacks that I have used to plant a thought to achieve my goals.

Whatever your goal may be, do one or all of the following:

  1. Put a reminder on your phone and set it to remind you every few hours. The reminder has to be set in the present tense and has to be definitive. For example: “I am living in my own house in 2018”. Or an even bolder goal: “I am taking my founded company to IPO in 2018”.
  2. Write an email be sent to yourself on a future date. For instance.
Hi Vikrant, here is a reminder that you have 30 more months until your are owning your house/taking your company to IPO. I know you are passionate about it and are working towards achieving it.

3. Meditate whenever you have time, and at the end of your session, when you are at your most relaxed, imagine yourself at the moment when you have achieved your goal, picturing and composing in your mind every minute detail of that moment.

I have been practising one or the other since I was in the eighth grade and each one of them has worked for me.

So go on. Set the boldest goal. Be very passionate about it — and use these hacks to achieve it.

Bonus Hack: Create a seal of approval with wordings like “The Empyrean Order of Authenticity, Credo, and Enforcement”. Go wild with the words to exhibit their power. Write down your goal on a piece of paper and stamp it with your seal. Put this piece of paper where you are likely to see it multiple times a day.