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We hear the word “aim” more and more. What we don’t hear often are the features that an aim has to have to lead to success, without eliminating the problems. So the followings are ten characteristics that, if followed, will let you know whether you chose a good aim or not.
1. Specific, clear, measurable: we need the aim to be well identifiable. The human mind doesn’t switch on for vague expressions like “I want to make a career”, “I want to have success” and so on. Choose an aim that allow you to say at a certain point “Yes, I reached it”.
2. With a fixed deadline: choose always a time to verify if it has been realized or not. Not having a deadline means having a dream abandoned to our mind and not an aim. I quote this beautiful aphorism: “An aim is a dream with an expiry date”.
3. Positively expressed: write your aim in a positive form, forgetting about expressions that make it weaker like “I don’t want to be … anymore”. The aim represents something to reach, something that will give you a great satisfaction, and it has to be positive to give you the right charge when you will repeat it to your mind.
4. Feasible: it is right to dream about big things, but remember to choose a realistic aim. If it wasn’t so, your mind would consider it unreal and it wouldn’t give you the energy to try to reach it. Do not mislead your mind by believing to those conmen that are seen more and more on Facebook and that keep repeating “become the best expert in marketing in one day and you will gain ten million euros a year” and so on. Do not fill your mind with bullshits, please!
5. Intriguing, motivating: choose an aim that gives you the charge, something that you really want to realize and that will give you pleasure when you will reach it. Do not waste your time by looking for an aim like “gain ten euros more a month”, but learn to desire something greater!
6. Expressed in written form: as the Latin wise men said “verba volant, scripta manent”: words pass away, written things remain. In this case you can read your aim every day and concentrate on it.
7. In line with your values an your believes: choose your aims in line with what you believe true to avoid internal conflicts and to make your chosen aim weaker.
8. Imaginable: learn to enjoy the moment in which you will reach your wish. Visualize in your mind how you will be once reached the desired aim and take energy from these images. As Albert Einstein wonderfully said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.
9. Sharable with the others: get used to tell this aim to the people around you in order to receive feedbacks whereby you measure yourself and then evaluate them to find some useful points that make you reach the aim earlier and in a better way. I wish you will find other people with the same aim as you in order to do the path together, I guarantee that it’s a splendid experience!
10. Divisible in stages: in particular when the path to your aim is long, get used at once to fix intermediate stages in order to have different moments in which verify how your path is developing and if needed make some variations.
The last friendly advice: write below the aim you have fixed and comment from time to time how your path is going on. You will find for sure me and others giving you advice to enjoy the path while you are moving forward towards your personal success.
Good luck!
Luca Brambilla