At the beginning of every year, most people set goals of what they want to accomplish. This goals may revolve around career, family, relationships, business and so on.

You find yourself sitting down with a pen and paper, jotting down all that you envision you will want to happen before a particular period of time. You set a goal for your career, you set another one for your family and another one for your relationship.

During the first few days we are all motivated and ready to work towards achieving what we have set but a few weeks down the line we give up and start focusing on other things. Why? Because we do not have a proper system in place to help us achieve our goals.

Look at the below:
• If your goal is to get in shape, your system is your workout schedule and eating healthy.
• If your goal is to read one book in a month, your system is the reading schedule you follow each week.
• If your goal is to win a marathon, your system is your everyday training schedule.

Systems are your work plan. Suppose you completely ignored your goals and focused on your work plan, will you still achieve results? The answer is yes. Here is how.

1. Appreciate the Little steps

Setting your eyes on the goal makes you want to rush through so that you can get to that finish line, this may cause you anxiety and when things aren’t moving in the way you think they should you may end up giving up. Take for example someone who wants to lose weight, they’ll hit the gym for the first two weeks enthusiastically but when they step on the weighing scale and there’s no much difference then they may end up thinking losing weight is not cut out for them.

On the other hand, someone who makes workout a daily routine knowing that this is a lifestyle and not a one off thing will end up more happy because he is focusing on the process and this will in turn yield long term results. Someone who keeps things simple and keeps focusing on the daily process and sticking to a schedule will go a long way and achieve better results. Appreciating little steps will save you the anxiety of worrying about the big, life-changing goals. When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time.

2. Look at the long term results

Your goal will not keep you motivated over long term but your system will. Let’s take the example of someone who is trying to lose 15kgs of weight. This person will work hard to attain their goal. As soon as they attain their ideal weight they stop working out or maintaining a healthy diet. Their goal was to attain a specific weight and now that they have attained it there is no motivation to keep doing what they were doing. They therefore slip back into their old self and probably gain the weight back.The most rewarding game plan would be to focus on the system which is having regular workout sessions and a good diet for an entire lifetime.

Goals are important when it comes to planning your progress because they provide you with direction, but if you do not have a plan, you might not achieve your desired goal. Commit to your plan and before you know it your goal will be achieved. A goal without a plan is just a wish.