Step 1 The End Vision

‘The best decision you can make is the right decision, the second decision you can make is the wrong decision. The worst decision you can make is no decision. Take control of your own life.’

Pat Divilly

Most people never take the time to establish a clear vision of exactly what they want. They work and they work, but they don't know what they are working towards. If you fail to clarify EXACTLY what you want from your life, then you will just end up with the scraps of what everyone else didn't want. You are the most important person in the world, why would you settle for scraps? That's not a selfish way of thinking. If anything, it's vital you think this way because the reality is that no one else is going to look after you or come and save you.

Step one of achieving any goal is to get as specific as possible on what the goal is. You must also set the date you want to have it achieved by. When I decided I was going to raise €100K for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, I immediately decided on a date it would be raised by: 5 October 2014. Not only did we reach the deadline we had set ourselves, we also ended up raising €165,000.

Most people are inclined to obsess over every little detail before committing to an end date, but this is also the reason why most goals are never seen through to fruition. You have to pick the vision, and not ‘pick it apart’, before you fully understand how you're going to get there. I had no idea how I was going to raise €100K. I just knew I was going to do it. Once I put it out there and made myself accountable, things started to happen for me. When you decide on something, everything else starts to align.

Here's how the art of goal setting works. If you decide roughly what you want, you might get somewhere close, but if you get real specific, then you have the best chance of getting there fast. The analogy I give to those who attend my seminars is that if they are travelling from the other side of the world to visit me, they will need a map. If they have a map of Ireland, they have some hope of finding me but probably wouldn't. If they have a map of Galway, then they have a better chance of finding me. If they have a map of the village where I live, then they're definitely going to find me. That's how goal setting operates. The more specific you are about what you want, the more likely you are to achieve it.

‘You can't hit a target you don't see.’

Damon John, FUBU entrepreneur

I want you to envision yourself 12 months from now. Don't just think about the material possessions you have collected. Think about how you are feeling. Are you happy and full of energy? Has your health improved? Are you content? Are you proud of the progress you made during the previous 12 months? Are you excited about the goals and plans mapped out ahead of you? OR, are you still working the same job and dreading each day? Are you still feeling unfulfilled? Do you wake each morning feeling like you haven't enjoyed a decent sleep? Do you feel like you have coasted by throughout the past 12 months? Are you still feeling sick and tired of where you are in life?

Obviously no one wants the latter, but what are you doing to ensure that won't be your situation in 12 months' time? For this next exercise, I want you to pick a goal related to any one of the key areas in your life, such as health, relationships, family, career, finances, etc and set the date you want to have it completed by.

You are going to need more space to think creatively as you make your way further into this book, so if you haven't already done so by now, get yourself a separate notebook. Ideally you should have a notebook specifically for goal setting. When I visit successful friends and acquaintances of mine I always laugh when I see their impressive stationery collections and the pride they take in all their notebooks and journals. Keeping notebooks specifically for goals is a common trend among successful people and one you should adopt.

Step 2 The Why

Once you have set the goal, the next step is to establish the reason why this goal is important to you. I call this process, ‘peeling the onion’, because it involves you uncovering the layers to find out the real reason behind a particular goal. In my experience, the bigger the goal, the bigger the vision, the stronger the why. Initially, my ‘why’ for wanting to be successful stemmed from the experience of being unable to buy Christmas gifts for my family. That's a strong motivator never to be in that position again.

The underlying ‘why’ behind your goal is hugely important because it's going to be your core motivation. To establish your ‘why’, you have to ask the question three times so that you peel back the layers and uncover the real motivation that's lying underneath.

1. Example 1: I want to make one million pounds this year.
2. Why do you want to make one million pounds? I want to have financial security.
3. Why does that matter? Because I don't want to have to worry about bills or be unable to afford nice things.
4. Why does that matter? Because when I was growing up, my parents were always stressed about money and I don't want my kids to grow up in that kind of environment.
5. Example 2: I want to lose weight for a wedding.
6. Why do you want to lose weight for a wedding? Because I want to look good.
7. Why does that matter? Because I want to be confident.
8. Why does that matter? Because I don't like how I feel in myself especially ever since I was bullied at school as a teenager.

They say your ‘why’ should make you cry. That's when you know you have uncovered the real motivation behind your goal. A young teenager I met during a trip to Nepal told me she wanted to build schools in areas that had been affected by the earthquake. As she was telling me about her dream, she started crying. Her ‘why’ had made her so passionate that she couldn't help but cry as she talked about it. That's true motivation right there. I was so impressed by her determination, not to mention convinced of her ability to make the goal happen, that I have personally committed to helping her.

Another example I often give involves a lady I worked with on one of my retreats. One day she shared with me her aspirations to obtain an MBA. When we peeled back the layers, we discovered her main motivation was to vex her father who always told her she wasn't good enough academically. Her breakthrough moment occurred when she realized that even if she went ahead and invested her time, energy, and money into obtaining this qualification, she still wouldn't feel fulfilled because an MBA wasn't something she genuinely wanted. It meant nothing to her. She was only embarking on the journey to try to prove someone else wrong. Your ‘why’ needs to mean something to you.

Initially my own ‘why’ stemmed from being unable to buy Christmas gifts for my family. In my seminars, I always like to share the example of a female client of mine who wanted to give up smoking but could never do it. As soon as she fell pregnant, however, she immediately quit smoking because her ‘why’ was now so strong. This was her leverage point. Now carry this across to your goal. What is your why? More importantly, is it strong enough?

Step 3 The Brakes

Most people in business and life have their foot on the accelerator but their other foot is on the brake, and this is exactly what is holding them back. Once you take your foot off the brake, however, you can move towards your goal. The best way to do this is to identify the things that have stopped you from progressing in the past.

Whenever people set out to do something they previously failed at, such as giving up smoking or going to the gym, they have two choices. They can either ignore everything that went wrong before or look at what went wrong and figure out what their response will be if things start to go awry this time around.

If you are running a business but feel your lack of organizational skills may be holding you back, then don't assume that this will ever change. If you can identify it as a ‘brake’ and hire someone who is organized and can help you get things in order, then you are effectively taking your foot off the brake and accelerating forward.

For most people, 31 December is the day they make the same personal and professional New Year's resolutions. The zeal of the newly reformed kicks in and plans are plentiful, but come 31 January, those good intentions are long forgotten and instead old habits are reinstated. Remarkably, few people ever consider why their resolutions didn't work. They don't identify the brake. If you reflect on what went wrong the previous time you attempted to make a drastic change to your life, then you can adequately decide on how to prevent history from repeating itself.

Maybe when you last tried that diet, you didn't have time to meal prep? Maybe you didn't have the motivation to stick with giving up the cigarettes because you hadn't uncovered your ‘why’? Unless you know what went wrong, why would you assume it's going to be any different this time around?

Again, it comes down to being honest with yourself and taking responsibility for why things went wrong before. One of my favourite pieces of advice is to prepare for the worst but to hope for the best. If you're late for a business meeting, you can promise yourself it will never happen again, or you can put a plan in place in case it does happen again. Most people react to things because they have no response. They will say they didn't see it coming. If you consider the fact that it might happen, however, then you can plan accordingly.

‘It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much.…The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.’

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher

For a lot of people, a major brake is their lack of time management.

Here's the secret to productive time management – it can only happen once you become completely aware of how you are spending and wasting it.

When my business was growing, I felt a little overwhelmed by the workload and consequently strapped for time. I was always busy and constantly working but yet I could never seem to get on top of the workload. When I reached out to a mentor for guidance, he had me complete a task. This was actually the first task he made me carry out. On an Excel spreadsheet I had to section the following 24 hours into slots of 30 minutes. The idea of this was that after every half hour, I would write in exactly what I did during that timeframe. I had been telling myself how busy I was but when I carried out this task, I realized that I was not as busy as I thought, I just wasn't utilizing my time effectively. This exercise makes you so much more aware of how you are spending your time. This is a particularly good exercise for a small business owner who might be struggling to get a handle on their day.

When I carried out the exercise, I realized I was spending around six hours a day on social media! Yes, social media is a huge part of my business but that exercise made me realize that I needed to be more efficient when on social media. It's so easy to get distracted by your newsfeed, but this distraction is where all those ‘scrolling’ minutes throughout the day turn into hours when combined! Realizing that I was spending six hours on social media made me ask myself if everything I did online during that timeframe was bringing in money, moving me forward in some way, or if it could be better spent?

I would recommend carrying out this exercise for two to three days if possible. Go about your day as normal so that you have a brutally honest reflection of where your time is being wasted. Don't change your routine just to make it look good on paper!

Once you have finished the exercise, you can look at the priority tasks that need to be carried out by you and the tasks that can be delegated or eliminated. Say, for instance, you spend five hours a week cleaning your house. This is a chore that can be delegated, so if you can afford it, consider the option of employing a cleaner. Straight away you have freed up five hours.

Once you have delegated certain tasks, eliminated the time wasters and freed up your time, I want you to keep on track by managing your time more carefully. To-do lists are all well and good but I want you instead to start making ‘outcome lists’. What is the outcome you hope to have achieved by the end of the day or month? Don't get absorbed in your to-do list. Our to-do lists are often filled with menial tasks, but when you ask yourself what outcome you are trying to achieve, it brings you back to the core purpose of what you are doing, thus keeping you on track.

Of course, if a to-do list is how you like to keep on top of things, then by all means continue it, but I would recommend that you look at utilizing a very effective website such as www.todoist.com. This site allows you to make lists for each day as well as plan ahead. It will also remind you via email each morning what you have set out to do that day. As you complete each task, you simply tick it off the list. A great thing about this site is that it will even show you the stats on your productivity based on your site activity and how many tasks you tick off each day.

Step 4 Your Team and Resources

Regardless of how big your vision may be, there's a 99% chance someone has already done it. The only exception I can think of is Elon Musk's aforementioned endeavour to build a community on Mars. Apart from that though, there's pretty much a template for everything!

Once you have identified your vision, you have to figure out who or what will help you fast track your way towards achieving that goal. Their journey becomes your template. Let's bring it down a notch and say your goal is something like learning a new language. You probably already know of someone who has done this, and you will definitely be able to find books authored by people who have mastered a new language in what seems to be an impossibly short length of time. All of these people are potential mentors. I'm sure there's no shortage of groups on Facebook either. Maybe you could join one and find a mentor there?

Mentors and coaches are wonderful, but so too are books, audio books, DVDs, podcasts, online courses, and training programmes. If money is tight, check your local library for books that may be of benefit. There are all sorts of training materials and resources out there to help fast track the learning curve.

When I was starting out in the fitness industry, I was 22 years of age and fresh out of college. My vision was to be a personal trainer who could give clients all the information they needed. Unfortunately, my knowledge of nutrition was limited, and my finances even more so, which meant that undertaking additional courses was not an option at that point. However, I figured that if I read books by all the top personal trainers, then I would effectively ‘download’ some of that knowledge into my own brain and be able to use it in my career. It's about starting where you are, and working with what you've got, and that's exactly what I did, and still do. I really believe there are no excuses these days. After all, the internet alone enables you to link up with people from all over the world who have already done whatever it is you want to do.

‘If you're prepared, and you know what it takes, it's not a risk. You just have to figure out how to get there. There is always a way to get there.’

Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman

You will often hear people in business talk about the importance of having mentors. I have had mentors in the past and found them to be an amazing source of advice and information. Even just taking someone to lunch and picking their brain for half an hour is a great way to fast track everything else.

When I set out to do my TEDx talk, I started thinking about who I could turn to for advice. Who had the template I could follow? I contacted both Gerry Duffy and Jack Kavanagh, two friends of mine who had graced the TEDx stage in the past. Both gave me valuable advice on how to structure my talk and in doing so completely changed my outlook and helped me feel far more prepared.

While mentors will tell you how they reached their goal, coaches on the other hand will guide you towards your goal and keep you on the right path until you get there. My friend Dax always likens mentors to bus drivers and coaches to taxi drivers. A bus driver, he says, is like a mentor. They decide the route you'll be travelling to get to your destination as they have already travelled that route themselves and know it's one that works. Taxi drivers, on the other hand, are like coaches. They will take you to where you want to go but you are the one calling the shots on how you want to get there.

‘Think back 5 years ago. Think of where you're at today. Think ahead 5 years and what you want to accomplish. Be unstoppable.’

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, actor, producer, and semi-retired professional wrestler

My goal at the moment is to become a strong swimmer, so I decided to employ the services of a swimming coach. She has helped me progress fast; much faster than I would have managed on my own. I train with a friend and we have become each other's accountability partners. If discipline is your weak point, then it really helps to have an accountability partner in whatever you do. This is a person that will help keep you motivated and refuse to listen to any excuses you come up with. The accountability partner I have for my swimming lessons keeps me right on track.

Step 5 Break Down the Goal

If your goal is a quite a big one, then it's crucial that you break it down as much as possible. This diminishes the daunting nature of the goal, thus suddenly making it more achievable. Trust me, even the biggest goal in the world becomes less overwhelming once broken down.

Maybe you want to make a million pounds in a year? Break it down into targets. To earn a million in a year, you would need to be earning £83,333 in a month, £19,230 in a week, or £2,739 in a day.

Want a top of the range sports car or a new house? Find out the price of the exact model you want. Let's say it's £200,000. To afford one in a year, you would need to be making £16,000 each month, £3,846 each week, or £548 each day.

Once you have broken it down, what next? Take it a step further, of course! Work out what you would need to do in order to earn the daily amount.

Let's take the goal of buying a £200K car/house. In order to make the daily goal of £548, you would need to be selling a product worth £25 to 22 people.

See what I mean when I say break it down as much as possible? Earning £16,000 in a month doesn't appear quite achievable. On the other hand, selling a £25 product to 22 people each day seems far more realistic.

Whether you have a shop, a website, or a seller's account on eBay or Depop, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from starting right now and making that dream happen. Another example of breaking down a goal comes from those who dare to battle the heights of Mount Everest. Climbing Everest is an enormous undertaking, both physically and mentally, but those who do it don't just set off aiming for the top. They aim for base camp, then their next goal is to reach camp 1, followed by camp 2 and camp 3. It's only when they have reached camp 4 that they then aim for the summit. The key to tackling any big goal is simple…just focus on the next target.

‘I've learned that it doesn't matter how many times you have failed. You only have to be right once. I tried to sell powdered milk. I was an idiot lots of times, and I learned from them all.’

Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman

Weight loss is a goal that people often find difficult to break down. I had a personal training client who wanted me to help her lose 10 stone over the coming year so she could look her absolute best in time for a family wedding.

This particular client had struggled with her weight all throughout her life, so in her eyes the 10-stone goal seemed like an intimidating target. On her very first day, we set manageable targets and in doing so changed her perspective on the journey she was about to undertake. We decided we would start by aiming for mini milestones, before progressing to slightly bigger milestones such as a two-stone loss, then four stone, and so on. She hit the goal through consistency, and because we had broken it down so much, at no point did she become overwhelmed.

A lot of people want to jump from A to Z. Rather than trying to go from couch potato to fitness model overnight, think of it as going from A to B, then C, and so on. Maybe each step could bring with it a new habit? In keeping with the subject of weight loss and fitness, some new habits could include drinking an extra litre of water a day, or hiking an extra mile. Adding productive new habits along the way will always help speed up the process.

I always say the journey towards a big goal is no different to that of climbing a mountain. It's tough and enduring but if you want to get to the top then you have to plan for a number of stops along the way where you can take a break and reflect on the progress you have made. Look at your goal and work out where along the journey the stop-off points should be. Set those targets but make them manageable.

Don't Attach all Your Happiness to Your Goal

I'm going to end this chapter on what I believe to be a hugely important, but-all-too-often-forgotten, piece of advice: don't attach all your happiness to your goal. As an entrepreneur, I know what it's like to be so focused on a goal that it borders on obsession. With this level of focus often comes a lack of balance. It's so important to maintain a balance between having a big goal for the future, and being happy, content, and grateful in the present. When in the pursuit of big ambitions, it's all too easy to attach your happiness to whatever dream you're chasing. This is something we're all guilty of, but it's a habit that needs to be broken. Don't postpone your happiness to some far off point in the future and don't let your work dictate your mood. Your goal should be a compass that is guiding you towards personal growth, and not a barometer of happiness in the present. I have often seen this with weight loss clients. They sign up for a 90-day weight loss plan and expect to feel happier/sexier/more confident on day 91 when the weight has been shed. Rather than wait until day 91, however, I always say you should try to figure out ways in which you can immediately start to feel happier/sexier/more confident. That way, you can start to enjoy the journey towards your goal.