I’ve noticed one thing that separates the people who achieve their goals and those that don’t, are the habits they build around the goals they set. If you want to achieve more this you need to build the right habits.

Aristotle said, “We are destined by our habits.”

After you’ve written down your goals you need to create the habits that will end in you achieving your goal.

Habits don’t form overnight. In fact, the old 21 day adage that it takes 21 days to build a habit may not even be true. But no matter the length of time it takes you to build a habit one thing is for sure, if you don’t build the right habits you may never achieve your goals.

I believe habits form the groundwork for you to succeed at your goal. Goals can be accomplished as a direct result of your habits.

For instance, one of my goals last year was to complete a century bike ride. For those of you how aren’t cyclist, that’s a 100 mile bike ride. This goal was going to be a stretch for me. My longest ride up until then was 70 miles and I hadn’t ridden that far in a few years.

I set out using the SMART goals process and I identified all the aspects to make this a smart goal. Then the real challenge set in. I needed to train for the race.

In order to achieve this goal I had to train for the ride. There was no way around it, if I didn’t train for the ride, I wouldn’t even try doing it. My training plan called for 3 months of training.

The single biggest reason I was successful was the fact that I developed a strict routine and habit around my training. I set out a specific plan for how each training session was to be conducted.

I thought in great detail about what I needed to do every single time I did a training session. I created a checklist. Remember for me, the single biggest obstacle to achieving this goal was failure to train. When I had a session I wanted to make the most it of it.

Once you have your goal defined think to yourself what habits do you have to create to help you achieve your goals.

Ask yourself these questions: 

• What habit – It may not be obvious to you right away, what habit you need to develop or change to reach this goal. However, if you  give it some thought, I bet you will figure it out. Lets say you are freelance graphic artist and want to increase your revenue from last year. What habits do you need to form to do this. Do you need to make more calls to bring in work? Then the habit you need to develop is making a sales calls everyday. Maybe your issue is that you have plenty of work but you are not very efficient. Then you need to work on work on getting efficient. It may mean taking 15 minutes in the morning to schedule your day.

• Where do you do this habit – This is very similar to a context when we are talking about a task. The where, in this case, is where do you need to establish this habit in order for you to achieve your goal. It could be multiple places or just one. If your goal is to “exercise more” (which is not a SMART goal by the way) then ask yourself if this is only to be done at home. If it is only a home related goal than you don’t need to worry so much about changing your habits at work.
• When to do this habit – Think about when you are going to work on your goals. Let’s say your goal is to meditate for 20 minutes a day. Are you going to do it in the morning or at night. If it’s morning then do you need to get up early? Well that a pretty big habit change right there.

Focus on your habits and your goals your goals will follow. Most goals require a new habits to be formed. With most goals you are reaching for something and stretching yourself to do it. If you find you are not making changes in your life then maybe your goals aren’t stretching you enough.

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