The Myth of ‘Wishing Upon a Star’: 5 Real Ways to Get Things Done

Written by Daniel Wood - 25 Comments
Categories: self improvement

All of us have dreams. All of us wish we could be someone we aren’t today.

Just like poor little Pinocchio, wishing he was a “real boy”.

The question is; will a star grant our dreams?

From what I have learned I think that if you wait for your dreams to come true on their own, it will be a long wait.

On the other hand if you take charge and make things happen for yourself, it can go very quickly.

5 Steps to Accomplishing Your Goals:

  1. Clarify your goals
    Write down your goals on a piece of paper; make sure they are goals you can measure. You want to know when you have completed them.

    For example, don’t set the goal; “I want to lose weight”.

Instead, set a target, a deadline and right it in the positive present tense, as if you already completed it e.g.; “I weigh 150 lbs. by the 31 of December 2010”.

This method activates the subconscious mind to start pulling these goals into your reality.

2. Make Plans

“Failing to plan means planning to fail” is a popular quote and it is very true.

When just starting out on the path to your goals, it will feel like making a plan is impossible, you often don’t really know how you are going to complete the task so you just start throwing ideas against the wall to see what sticks.

This is good, the more you try the better your chance of success is, but you should still plan.

Each time you have an idea and want to try it out, spend some time making plans for how you will make it as successful as possible.

Ask the four questions:

- What is the goal of the project?

- What needs to happen in order for that to happen?

- What needs to be done?

- In what order?

When you have the answer to all four questions it is time to start the project.

3. Focus on your goal

Make sure you focus on your goal. Don’t let yourself be distracted by opportunities that pull you away from your dream, even if it seems too good to say no to, if it isn’t your dream it is not worth doing. Unless of course the offer is of the magnitude that it completely changes your dreams!

4. Be ready to change your plans

Things will not go as you hope, you will have setbacks and you might even notice that what you want now isn’t the same as what you wanted only a few months ago.

That is okay!

Be ready to change, adapt and grow as a person and let your dreams grow as well.

5.  Take Action

Whatever you do, take action.

It doesn’t matter if you skip all the other steps, taking action is the most important.

It is the only thing that can make you succeed.

Even if you do all the other 4 steps, if you don’t take action on it, nothing will happen.

Discipline yourself to go through with your decisions and make your dreams come true.

All of a sudden you are living the dream

Completing your goals doesn’t have to be harder than this.

Follow these 5 steps and before you know it, you will be living your dream.

Just remember, don’t wait for someone else to give it to you. Get it for yourself!
Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

This was a guest post by Daniel M. Wood of the popular blog Looking To Business he writes about Sales, Motivation and Success.

I suggest that you start with these articles as they are a collection of his best work and can help you find additional techniques and motivation.

Good luck!

Don’t Forget To Follow PickTheBrain of Twitter!

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  • http://www.3smartcubes.com/ Tasneem R

    Thanks for the motivation . Well I believe that once a goal is set , only the beginning is the most difficult part in the journey towards fulfilling your goal .
    How motivated are you? – The test finds out how inspired you really are.
    http://www.3smartcubes.com/pages/tests/motivation/motivation_instructions.asp

  • http://satisfyingretirement,blogspot.com Retirementlover

    Coming up with goals seems to rather easy for most people. As you noted, it is taking the action steps that keep most goals from becoming reality. Fear of failure and inertia are two stumbling blocks that successful people overcome to achieve goal after goal.

  • Jen

    This article borrowed heavily from Brian Tracy, I would say.

  • http://theDoOverGuy.com Do Over Guy

    I encounter so many people searching for the silver bullet of getting things done, but there isn’t one. Well, let me correct myself, yes there is a silver bullet. It’s the five steps you listed above. The basics are timeless and always work, especially Step #5. Like you said, Steps 1-4 are pointless without Step 5. Nice work!

  • http://hookedonscents.com Scentsy Consultant

    As a business owner working from home, this article was important to me. I always appreciate tips on getting more accomplished in the midst of family! Thanks.

  • http://mysomeday.com Joseph Satto

    I’m the founder of mySomeday.com. Its a site specifically designed to help people achieve all of those goals they want to get to ‘Someday’. Setting goals is usually the easy part, after that comes the hard part. We enable people to either build or copy interactive and detailed step-by-step action Plans so they can actually track their progress. We also match like-minded users together. We believe that this combination of planning tools, partners to motivate one another and a community of supporters gives people a much better chance of actually crossing the finish line.

  • http://www.chrislibrary.com Chris

    I have set a lot of goals, honestly i did not achieve many of them. But at least i had made some progresses.

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    What I liked about this post is its simplicity and of course success is simple if simple things are done at right time. Its all about timing.

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  • http://enlightr.com Craig Thomas

    Nice post. I agree – taking action is definitely the key here. Always move forward! :)

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  • murray hobbs

    there’s an interesting post about wishing on a star here

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    m