How To Get What You Want In Life

I thought carefully about posting an article with a title like this. Is it really that easy? Can you really sum up how to get what you want in life in a blog post? Surely it’s way more complex than that?

But the more I thought about it the more I realised that it really is this simple. The reason it seems difficult is because we are all so hopeless at following through on things. We want everything but aren’t prepared to really get stuck in and get our hands dirty trying to get it. We don’t have the self-discipline to do what needs to be done (at least that’s how it is from my end!). So here is how to get what you want as I see it:

Know what it is that you want
Set goals. Actually writing down your goals can seem like a chore (even ants are better at it than us). But unless you know what you want in life, how can you aim for it? It really helps to put it down on paper, it kind of firms it up in your mind. It can help to break your life up into different areas. What do you want in terms of your family, friends, work, spirituality, finances?

Prioritize
Work out your priorities. Which goals are you going to really go for? Make those things your priorities in your daily life. Look at how you spend your time. Do you want to run a marathon but spend every evening watching TV? It’s not going to happen until you make the training run a higher priority than the TV.

Talk about it with everyone you know
If you tell someone about a goal, the next time you see them they’re probably going to ask you how you’re getting on with it. It helps you keep the goals in the picture so they don’t get forgotten about. They may also be able to offer you some advice or help you work towards your goal in some way.

Do something to work towards it everyday
Even if it’s just a little thing, it helps keep them momentum going. A lot of little things done everyday will add up. If you did a little thing towards your goal everyday then you’ve done 365 little things by the end of a year and that’s a lot. The girls in the movie ‘Rabbit Proof Fence‘ actually did walk 1500 miles to get home which is a great illustration of what Lao Tzu said a couple of thousand years ago.

Work hard and pay the price
This is the hard part. Everyone would prefer a quick fix but that’s just not the reality of it. Nothing in life is free. Anything that you want has a price tag and you will have to pay for it in one way or another. It may not be a financial one, it may be that you have to invest time and effort to get where you want, but nothing worthwhile in life comes without a price. When you ask people who have become successful how they did it, they will tell it was the result of hard work. You might get a lucky break along the way but plan on working hard to get what you want, its the best way to get it.

Help other people achieve their goals

You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar

The Golden Rule is found in all cultures and religions and is summed up nicely in Zig’s statement. It’s basically as the old saying goes – what goes around comes around.

So get started!

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