What is something you are working towards right now? What goals do you have?

It’s surprising how many people can fall into the pattern of just going through the motions without any clear goals to shoot for.

If you want to avoid a monotonous routine and spice things up, then you need a goal…but goals take work, hard work. In fact, you’d probably agree that many of the best things in life require us to dig deep. We like to say,

“Success isn’t easy, but that’s what makes it worth it.”

It's true because it's not just about the goal that you accomplish, but also who you become in the process.

But how do you achieve the best results in the shortest amount of time?

It turns out there is a fast track...

1. Get Specific

The reason most people fail when it comes to achieving their goals is a lack of clarity. If you aren’t sure where you’re headed, you’re never going to know if you got there. In order to fast track your success, it is imperative to discover the details of where it is you are going. The more detail you have, the more real it becomes, and the easier it will be to make decisions, stay focused, and course correct when necessary. Let’s face it, broad goals are simply boring and lackluster. Your mind thrives on details, and the more vividly you can picture the end result or destination, the faster you will take the actions necessary to achieve it.

2. Be Strategic

A specific goal, however, is not enough because if you know what you want but not how to get there, it’s very hard to take the first step. If you want to optimize your efforts, invest the time developing a strategy before gravitating to the elements that seem easy for fun. Without a strategy, it’s easy to get stuck in the weeds and exert a lot of time and energy without much to show for it. So, what does strategy creation look like? We like to reverse engineer the end result by researching the best processes, talking with people who have experience, and looking at other successful role models to gather input that we can then organize into a clear plan of action.

3. Harness Habits

Once you’ve developed a solid strategy to get you from your starting point to your final outcome, you just have to follow the bouncing ball. However, if you want to take things up a notch and accelerate your progress, then it’s time to tap into the power of habits. Essentially, habits enable us to put success on autopilot by turning the most effective actions and routes into our instinctive response and daily routines. In athletics, people often strive to turn the proper technique into “muscle memory” so that you don’t even have to think about how to execute properly because it’s natural. This is what habits can do for you in the pursuit of your goals. Want to try implementing four of the habits of the world’s most successful individuals? Try this free sheet and learn about them on this podcast episode.

4. Track Everything

In order to know if something is working, you must have a way to measure performance. The more data points you have, the faster you can detect a problem, and then easily adjust your course without blindly running headlong into a serious issue. When teaching our university classes, we often have our students track their progress in various aspects of their lives, and the interesting thing is, tracking keeps you honest with yourself. It’s simply the data–no subjectivity. Once you begin tracking something, there’s a certain perspective shift that happens, and you become acutely aware of this particular subject and the cause/effect relationship it has. Tracking performance also keeps you motivated and sustained when pursuing longer or more challenging goals.

5. A Question For You

Which one of these four fast track tactics are you going to focus on today?

The Fast Track