Life often seems to find a way to mess up your goals. Or at least that is what you tell yourself. By making deliberate decisions that will be comforting in the moment you are giving up on the great golden goal at the end.

Great example of how NOT do to it are almost all professional sports players around the world. Their day to day dedication to training and the ability to make sacrifice is what made them professional football player, while others became professional binge-watchers of Netflix (myself included).

But, what DO you do?

Commit

Make sure that you are committed to your goals. There will be thousands of distractions during the day, but you should always keep your eyes on the prize. Sure, you’ll stumble here and there, but don’t let distractions become your permanent road.

Good example for this is: gym training. Or any kind of training that you commit to in order to achieve 6-pack. After withstanding all the grueling work, the sweat, muscle pain and tasteless meals (if you are not a great cook), you decide to relax for a few days. Days turn to weeks and all your work is going to waste or even creating a reverse effect.

So, make sure that you are not dependent on huge leaps forward, but focus on taking small, secure steps through unbroken commitment.

Learn

Constantly learn new things in order to be better at whatever you do. Make sure you are well-read because it can save you both time and trouble. Knowledge is always a good investment, especially if you want to excel at what you do. And if you don’t want to excel, why are you even reading this?

Taking shortcuts without knowing where they will take you is a bad way to go.

Focus

The biggest problem most people are facing is lack of focus. Smartphones, social media, exclusive content, apps and games are all over us and we are all having a hard time ditching them. If tech and gadgets help you focus and make you productive, you should use them. But most of the time they create distractions that we cannot resist.

This is again something that sets successful and unsuccessful people apart. If you spend better part of the night browsing 9gag, of course you’re going to have trouble waking up in the morning. And from there things only go from bad to worse for you. How long can you keep that up?

I’m not saying that the solution is to become a robot, but don’t be a slacker. Because inability to focus will just lead to piled up stress that you caused for yourself.

Be Humble

Even if everything is going well, stay humble. You don’t want to start believing that something belongs to you. There are too many people on this planet that believe that they are predestined to be rich, famous or whatever else, that they forget to work their way towards success. This again has something to do with commitment.
If you’re already stepping up, don’t forget where you came from. Don’t turn away your back on people who helped you get there. Hold on to your manners and don’t forget that ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ will still take you further.

Don’t Overdo It

Sure you need to work hard, but sometimes too hard is not going to take you anywhere. Except hospital, maybe! If you burn out, it will also screw up all the results that you accomplished and you’ll have to start over or never start again.

Make sure that you are well-organized when it comes to private life and work. In the end, it’s all about balance and sometimes tipping the scale one way or the other. Playing only on one side may not kill your body, but it will demolish your spirit.

Take the time to relax and not think about problems, but when you do think about them – find a solution and act.