Yes, you can achieve your goals and dreams in life. We did it, and you can too. This plan will give you the motivation and tools to help you succeed.
Most of us never follow through with many of our goals and end up feeling like failures. But most of the time failing is simply a result of a lack of planning. If you make a plan, you can achieve your goals and live the life you’ve always dreamed of. We did it, you can too! You may also like 21 Ways to Get Paid to Travel
Table of Contents
How to Achieve Your Goals And Dreams
1. Intend to Commit
Whatever your life goal maybe, I have learned that there is a tried and true pattern to make it work. Whenever Dave and I have sat down and truly planned to make things happen, we have achieved success. But more importantly, we have learned that first and foremost you really have to want to make that change. Also read: Best Travel Jobs to Spark New Ideas for Your Future Career
I have thought long and hard about my frustration with my weight and fitness over the past two years and I realized that I didn’t really have any intention of committing. I had so many other things on my plate, focusing on fitness wasn’t a priority for me. In the back of my mind yes, I wanted to look and feel better. But in reality, I had no intention of doing anything about it. And deep down I knew it.
I have had friends in the past who said that they wanted to quit smoking, but when I watched them light up another cigarette after having a few beers, or after a stressful day at work, I knew they really didn’t want to quit yet.
They liked the idea, but the reality was, they weren’t committed to taking action. They kept making excuses as to why they weren’t committing. After a few years of saying they wanted to quit, they finally made the hard decision to quit and they took action. It wasn’t until they were ready that they were able to stop.
So the moral of this story is to choose a goal that you are willing to commit to.
Check out: How to Live an Unconventional Life, Tips to Getting Started
Our New Life Goals
For Dave and I, we have taken back our health. Before blogging we were uber fit. We cycled the continent of Africa for crying out loud. What happened? Our life goals changed. Cycling Africa was a means to an end. We wanted our adventure lifestyle to translate into a career in travel and it worked.
Unfortunately, we didn’t continue our workout routines once our blog started seeing success and we started to look for softer adventures that didn’t really push us beyond our limits.
Now, we’re pushing ourselves again ourselves physically again, we are seeing success in both our emotional and physical health as well as our business. Our careers are secure and finally, our health and fitness are following suit.
Want to travel the world? See our Ultimate Guide on How to Get Paid to Travel
2. Make a Plan
Now that you have a goal set that you are ready to commit, it’s time to make a plan. No life goal magically happens. When we decided to start ThePlanetD, We had a plan of where we wanted it to be in one year, two years, and five years.
Because we had a clear vision of where we wanted to be (with a timeline in place) we achieved all our goals and beyond. We knew exactly how we wanted to share our travels with our audience and we knew how much money we would have to have in the bank before we could finally leave for India seven years ago.
We knew that we could sustain our lifestyle without an income for 6 months or so, and that gave us time to really build our business plan.
When it comes to your own life goal, sit down and really plan how long you think it will take, how many hours each day you will need to set aside to make it happen and what will the financial commitment be.
Read more about achieving your goals at: In Search of Living an Enriched Life
You can’t succeed without a plan
For two years I’ve been saying that I am going to get back in shape and lose my “blogging” weight. I haven’t achieved that goal and I beat myself up every day about it. I almost actually convinced myself that as I get older and my metabolism slows down, I am just destined to continue to gain weight.
But then I stopped to think about everything I have accomplished over the years and realized that when it comes to losing weight, I haven’t planned in the same way that I planned when I achieved my other goals.
When it comes to making a life goal, there has to be a lot of thought, preparation and motivation involved. I’m not destined to keep gaining weight, I just have to start making a plan.
For more inspiration to achieving your life goals read: How to Avoid the I’ll Do That Next Year Syndrome
3. Tell the World
We have said this on more than one occasion and we will keep saying it again. The minute you decide that you are ready to commit to a goal be it changing careers, getting in shape or finding more time for travel or family, tell your everyone what you intend to do.
The more people you tell, the more you are obligated to follow through with your goals. When we decided to leave our jobs in the film industry we told everyone our plans; including our bosses.
We said, “By this time next year, you’re going to have to find a replacement for us.” It was scary and a very big commitment, but it forced us to follow through.
There was no going back once the decision was made. Believe me, many times we wanted to chicken out or give up on our training for Africa, but because we told our friends, families, and co-workers, we couldn’t give up. We would be embarrassed if we suddenly said: “Oh, sorry, we changed our minds.”
4. Draw on your Experience
That really takes me back to the first point when we said, “Intend to commit.” If you over commit to something that you know you really can’t or won’t achieve, don’t make the life goal.
It just won’t work. If we decided to start a travel blog, quit our jobs and cycle Africa without any travel experience we would have failed.
But we had spent 7 years already traveling extensively and at least 4 of those years had been actively looking for ways to have a career in travel. The foundation for our goal was already set.
An adventure travel blog made sense for us because we also had a lot of adventures under our belts. We had learned to mountain bike, rock climb, snowboard, kayak and had taken some adventure and orienteering courses. Adventure Travel was a natural progression in our lives.
5. Get Organized
Once you had made the intention to commit, told the world your plans, and have a plan…get yourself organized. What tools do you need to make things happen? It’s time to eliminate all the noise in your life and focus on what’s important.
Are you binge-watching too many TV Shows? (I know we did and that had to stop) Cut yourself off and put your time to better use. Is your life cluttered? Hire a professional organizer for a day to give you pointers on how to clear out your house.
If there is one thing we’ve learned over the years is that a little investment can pay off tenfold. You can’t do it all yourself.
6. Create a Support System
It doesn’t matter who you choose for your support system, just make sure you have people there to lean on. There are many Facebook and Clubhouse groups that are great for support.
I’ve had friends see great success joining WeightWatchers because they needed someone to motivate and encourage them to stay on track. Family and friends can be great motivators, but sometimes you need to look outside that circle and get professional help. There are many clubs and organizations that help people with different goals, problems, or challenges.
When Dave and I were training for Africa, we joined a cycling club because we could be around like-minded people. They kept us motivated more than our family or friends could and encouraged us to join rides several times a week.
I remember a few years ago I was really into fitness and I joined an online fitness program that helped track my progress. There were chat rooms and forums, it was an excellent way to look for support when I needed it.
Need Inspiration? You’ll love these travel quotes in photos for motivation
Can you Achieve your Life Goals and Dreams?
Achieving life goals and dreams is about making plans and commitments. Everyone has dreams and aspirations, but how many people actually follow through?
We’ve followed through many times and we know it is possible. We’ve achieved success beyond our wildest dreams but life is always about evolving. Each year we enjoy making new goals and taking stock of where we are today while making plans for tomorrow.
We’ve made the commitment to living a healthier and more active lifestyle, what are your going to commit to this year?
Read all about our Journey from a Dream to becoming Professional Travel Bloggers
Read More:
Wow, you guys truly made me think, like, what I have to actually figure out is whether I really want what I say a dream about…
Thank you very much theplanetd for giving me a wonderful piece of content.
thank you theplanetd for giving me wonderful information
Hi Dave And Deb,
If you want to know how you achieve goals in life, it is necessary to know ourselves first, then to start taking all necessary measures, and to know that we alone are responsible for our lives and the decisions we make.
Thanks for posting!
Great tips
This is really a great stuff for sharing. Keep it up .Thanks for sharing.
Interesting post! 🙂
You have really provided a very inspirational post. My biggest fear is sky diving and one day I am really gonna do it. I will organize myself in such a manner that I will be able to achieve this goal of my life.
What a wonderful article you have posted..Simply superb. Loved your pic which is shared under Caption “Working on our business in Sri Lanka
“.
Great article! It’s great to shift the focus from simple lists and resolutions to the actual planning of achieving goals. Thanks for sharing!
thanks Dev this very inspirational article. in life every people have goals. but having a goal is not enough , we also have to work hard to achieve it
Amazing tips! These are the same values that I applied when I set off to start my own travel lifestyle. I planned a lot, researched a lot — and of course I put everything into action! I managed to set up my own online business (not only my blog, a totally different thing!) after just a year which makes me lead a more sustainable travel lifestyle now. 😀 True enough, as long as you really commit to something, things CAN happen!
We need to have small goals in life, which gradually lead to the bigger goals. It’s natural to get depressed when we build dreams that are out of our reach. Delayed gratification works in some cases, but having a little sense of appreciation towards yourself somewhat regularly isn’t a bad thing after all.
Its all about honing in on what will make the most difference in the least amount of time. When people see progress within a relatively short period of time, they get hooked on staying on the path towards their goals.