Once, a few years back, I decided that I wanted to travel to another continent and remain there for about a month. What ended up happening is that I didn’t manage to achieve my goal – I have stayed in my home country ever since.

I was so frustrated for not getting where I wanted to, I kept looking for reasons and people to blame. It was impossible, I couldn’t believe I wasn’t able to achieve my goal, but then a sudden revelation appeared before my eyes: “you actually did nothing for it to happen”.

I realized that I was waiting for the stars to align so somebody would come and deliver me my goal on a silver plate. Childish? Totally, but I actually don’t feel alone in that matter, according to an article by Wealth Research Group 98% of people don’t fulfill their objectives.

Not achieving a goal can be hard, but realizing why you did not achieve it can be more brutal. When you become aware that it was only your fault, it can demoralize you and get you down to your knees.

But fear not, we’ve been doing research so we can provide you with some tips to help you achieve your goal.

Become the owner of your goal

It might sound a little redundant since you know it is your goal, but it actually doesn’t happen very often. Taking ownership of one’s actions can be quite frightening for most of us – it’s easier to blame others for things not happening in our life. As Jocko Willink explains in his TED talk, the only way to live life your way is to take extreme ownership of it.

Create a system of accountability

Telling everyone what your goal is is one thing, but reporting to someone (including yourself) how close or far are you in achieving it is something entirely different. Why, you might ask – after all it’s nobody’s business but yours. However, a support system, like the person you are reporting to, can have very useful insights on how to get there. Lastly, it’s self motivating to have a scoreboard that’s always visible to let you know well you’re doing. If you visualize it’s not going okay, it will help you build up your determination to achieve the goal.

Reduce the number of goals

This shouldn’t translate into aiming lower – you can have a limited number of high level goals and discard those that only distract you. All you need is to focus on what you actually want and then work on it.

Jamsetji Tata, founder of Tata Group, realized this in the 19th century and set four goals for himself: to establish a steel and iron plant, a learning institution, a world class hotel, and a hydroelectric plant. All his time was then devoted to achieving it – although in his lifetime he could only realize the hotel, later on his other goals did materialize.

We hope these tips can help you get better at achieving your goals; just don’t forget that the only one who can get it done is you. However, if you leave in the comments what your goal is, we can help you with the accountability system.

Good luck on transforming your goals into reality!