How to Achieve Goals

What is the biggest goal you have right now? 

A lot of you will say to get out of jail or prison. Or to restart life and put incarceration behind you. Maybe start a business, get rich, be a good parent, or something else. Those are good goals!

There’s at least three issues with what most of us have been taught about goals:

1. Not everything we think is a goal is actually a goal.  
2. We’re told to work hard, but most of us haven’t been taught how to achieve goals, until now. 
3. Success isn’t achieving one huge goal. Success comes from achieving lots of little goals, each of which help you make progress and improve. 

The Difference Between A Desire and a Goal 

You may have heard me talk about my time in prison at Leavenworth. It seems every guy there swore they would never return, yet sadly, many did. 

Everyone DESIRES to be free. That’s logical. 

I always wondered why so many people returned to prison when they all declared they wouldn’t come back? 

The first is I think a lot of us confuse a DESIRE for a GOAL.

At first glance a goal and desire start as the same thing:  something we want. 

The difference between a goal and a desire is what comes after the WANT. Goals add one thing that desires don’t have: ACTION

Until you add action, what you think is a goal is just a dream. 

It doesn’t matter how badly you want something. Until you put action with your desire you’ll never get it, no matter what it is. 

Manage Decisions to Achieve Goals

The sad truth is without managing decisions by putting actions with them the desires and decisions are worthless and never achievable. 

I call the process of adding the right actions to desire DECISION MANAGEMENT.

Most people want a successful reentry, but they don’t know how to manage their decision to achieve success. 

Decision Management is a huge part of what makes successful people successful. If you want to be successful and achieve goals, do what successful people do.

Many people desire the fame and fortune of being a professional athlete. However, most people don’t want to pay the price to become one. 

Athletes’ practice, training, and personal discipline are the actions they use to MANAGE their decision to be, and stay, successful.

Successful entrepreneurs manage to be, and stay, successful by reinvesting in their business, and not spending all of their money. 

That’s all common sense, and not at all complicated.

So why do we think we can succeed at reentry with only a desire to be free, without managing the decision to stay free? 

How can we stay free if we continue the same actions, habits, and relationships that got us arrested to begin with?

There will be challenging times in life where you feel tempted to do something you know you shouldn’t.

You might be facing a decision where you don’t know what to do.

At those times compare your options to your Decision Management Plan. Take the path that reinforces and supports your goals and avoid the things that don’t.

You Get What You Focus On

I believe we get what we focus on, and I call that the Law of Focus. 

I believe the secret to success, in reentry and in life,  is to focus on what you should be doing, and what you shouldn’t be doing won’t be as much of a problem for you.

I believe it is easier to make progress once you make a true goal out of it. Goals keep us focused on the right things, and in the right direction. They help us track progress. 

What should I focus on? What goals should I make?

• Focus on what makes you a better person.
• Focus on how to overcome the opposition in your life.
• Focus on putting your past in the past.
• Focus on doing what you can to prepare for a new future. 

Making Your Plan: Start With The End in Mind

I’ve said a decision doesn’t become a goal until you take steps to manage it, and implement it. 

Until you do that, it’s just an idea without legs or much hope of success. SAYING you won’t return to jail or prison isn’t enough. MANAGING your decision to stay free will keep you free!

To best manage your decisions, you need a plan. 

You now know you manage decisions through actions that support your goals. They all must be fought for, sacrificed for, and regularly worked at to happen. Success isn’t achieving one huge goal. Success comes from achieving lots of little goals, each of which help you make progress and improve. 

Life isn’t easy, and most dreams and goals, or other good things, don’t come automatically. 

The only automatic thing in life is death!

In summary, dreams and goals can come, but only by managing the decision and actions to have them. This requires sacrifice, focus, and a Decision Management Plan to make them happen.