Unsplash/Andy Beales

If you’ve set some goals but aren’t seeing any progress, you need to do something about it.

It’s usually because of a few mistakes we all tend to make that prevent us from getting farther. In this case, it’s better to change your approach.

Here’s why you’re not getting any closer to your goals and what to do about it:

1. It’s not what you really want.

Many people set a goal because everyone else seems to be going after the same thing. Such an objective usually sounds amazing and just talking about it makes other jealous.

But if it’s not the right thing for you, achieving it won’t make you any happier.

Reaching the top of any career won’t matter if it’s not something you’re passionate about and can do for hours, for instance.

That’s why you need to be honest with yourself and conduct a self-analysis. Imagine your ideal lifestyle, get to your deepest desires and the things you don’t want to have in your future. Write all these down.

Once you get clear about what it is that you want, you can set goals that resonate with it, and can be sure that reaching them will make you successful and satisfied.

2. They’re not specific enough.

Vague wishes won’t help you see progress. You not only need to know what you want, but also must be specific about the details.

Have a picture in your mind so that you can attract that exact lifestyle. After all, if you don’t know what you’re focusing on, you won’t get it.

Whatever your big goal is, niche down. Break it down into smaller goals, then turn these into more manageable and easier action steps.

This way, the whole thing won’t seem scary at all, since you’ll have simple actions to take and each will get you closer to where you want to be. You won’t need to wonder where to start, and will feel accomplished after taking each tiny step.

That’s a great way to achieve all your goals in life.

3. You don’t have a deadline.

Our mind works much more effectively if it has a deadline. Goals are something you’ve set and other people have nothing to do with it. So it’s you who needs to set a deadline too.

Do it right away. Give your goal an end day, divide it into milestones.

That will also help you track things and decide when to improve your approach.

4. Too many distractions.

Getting closer to a goal requires being focused on it long enough so that it can become a reality. That’s quite difficult with the countless distractions in everyday life. So let’s do something about them.

If you want to start a digital business on the side, for example, you’ll need to dedicate some time to that daily and work without any interruptions. What you can do is wake up a bit earlier and use the quiet morning to do that. Let people know not to come in the room while you’re working and schedule meetings and less important stuff for later in the day.

5. Not being consistent.

Going after a goal is similar to building a new habit — you need to do one thing daily to stay on track and keep moving forward.

Without consistency, there won’t be any progress. So find easy ways to make sure you won’t miss a day, or a few, and then eventually leave your dream behind.

You can use reminders, organize your day around your goals and the activities connected to them, find like-minded people that can give you advice and inspire you to keep going, and so on.

Get creative here. All this will also keep you motivated.

Short-term motivation goes together with consistency to produce amazing results.

6. You listen to the naysayers.

The people in your surroundings won’t have the same goals as you do, but that shouldn’t stop you from going after what you want.

However, there’s a chance that these people also won’t understand you, may try to talk you out of doing this, and may make you think it’s impossible to achieve, or stupid in general.

Don’t let that happen. Be ruthless with your goals and stick to them. Keep your vision alive and move forward slowly, but steadily.

Soon these same people will be asking you about your secret.

7. Keep your ‘why’ in mind.

You’re going after your biggest transformation in life, you’ve decided what you want, and want to make it a reality. That can only happen if you constantly remind yourself of your why —that’s the reason you started doing this in the first place.

So ask yourself why you want to achieve this goal, know the good things that will happen once you reach it, imagine how you’ll feel and what new opportunities will open up.

These are the main reasons why people aren’t getting closer to their goals. There’s something you can do about each to make sure you do see progress all the time.

The post 7 Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Closer To Your Goals appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.

Unsplash/Olu Eletu

One of the best ways to get closer to your goals in life, expand your vision, and improve yourself is to learn from others who’ve already succeeded.

You can do that by reading about the greatest men in history and the leaders of today, to check out their biographies and study the doubts and fears they had when they once started, or the techniques they used to grow their revenue, or how they found balance between work and life, and between success and staying true to themselves.

But you can also take a look at the things successful startup founders do, the passionate business owners, productive creatives, and those who break from conventional wisdom and go after what they want in life.

These are the entrepreneurs of today and they are the real face of success. It’s worth getting to know their daily routines and habits so that you can see what makes them stay on top of their game every single day, how they manage to handle all the work and still have passion in their eyes and energy in the evening.

So here’s what behaviors and mindsets they develop early on that help them achieve massive success later in life:

1. They fail a lot.

We hear about famous entrepreneurs’ wins and achievements all the time, but people rarely talk about their failures. Which, in fact, were much more plentiful than the successes.
That’s because failing means you’re trying. And because you can’t know what works at the beginning, you need to try what doesn’t work first, do it wrong, learn from that and never make the same mistake again.

Failure is inevitable and the earlier you accept it as a part of the journey, the better.

2. They wake up early and get to work.

If you start reading about how successful people spend their day, you’ll see one simple tendency first — they start it quite early. What’s more, they start working on their most important tasks right away, often after a productive morning ritual.

Such a morning can help you kick-start your day and be energetic and action-oriented till the end of it.

Waking up earlier means you’ll add extra time to your day, but it also leads to making the most of your morning. It’s often the only period of the day without any distractions, so you can use it for focused work, or just enjoy the peace and silence and drink your coffee and read something inspirational. Both will help you a lot later on.

3. They say yes to less.

Average people — although rarely doing something about their life — like to mention the many opportunities around and how grabbing them is important.

Truth is, these days most opportunities are either distractions or temptations. People and notifications are fighting for our attention, and there’s so much to be done at any moment that we indulge in unproductive, unhealthy behaviors and so on.

All that leads to a lot of time wasted and no progress.

That’s why it’s time to start saying “no” more often.

Every successful entrepreneur knows how valuable time is and that he needs to be selective. So he prioritizes, he eliminates anything that won’t get him closer to his goals and which isn’t essential. You can do the same.

Soon, you’ll start taking decisions faster and more deliberately, as you’ll always choose the option connected to your priorities in life. You’ll also never wonder what to do first again —there will always be items on top of your to-do list.

You’ll be more determined, decisive and will see results sooner, if you say “yes” to less and focus on the essentials.

4. They care about the work they do.

Finding and following your passion is one of the most common pieces of advice you can hear, but it still appears to be one of the best things you can do with your life.

Mark Zuckerberg wouldn’t have been working for weeks in his dorm room on creating Facebook if he wasn’t passionate about coding, or if he didn’t care about helping people connect with each other more easily.

These same urges are what helped him grow the social network beyond imagination. To this day, he’s as passionate about it as he was back then.

5. They put in more effort than is expected.

It’s true that entrepreneurs often quit working 40 hours a week just to start working 80 hours — for themselves. You can’t go without hard work here.

But what you get in return is priceless – freedom, independence, satisfaction, challenges, living on your own terms, the ability to scale and work on any new project whenever you like, and much more.

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and founder of Square, works an 8-hour shift in the first company, followed by 8 hours in the second one. And he doesn’t seem tired at all.
If you truly find the work you’re good at, are passionate about and for which people are willing to pay, you won’t feel overwhelmed and will have the chance to contribute to the world by doing it.

6. They are lifelong learners.

Last but not least, every successful entrepreneur is a learner from the moment he realizes there’s more to life.

You need to be willing to make many mistakes and learn from them, to meet people and listen to their advice, to read and consume the right information all the time, to travel and learn from experience.

Most importantly, you need to accept that life is a learning process and find a way to enjoy it. Then it will feel less like a struggle, and more like one big adventure.

That’s what successful people start doing early on so they can achieve a lot later in life.

The post 6 Habits Every Successful Entrepreneur Has Developed Early On appeared first on Wall Street Insanity.