3 Tactics for Systematically Achieving What You Want

Look, do you want to or not?

Photo by Eilis Garvey on Unsplash

You don’t need new information to achieve whatever you want — you already know how to do it. So I’m not going to bring you quick fixes that you haven’t heard of, magic steps that you didn’t realise you had to take or tips that the rest of the internet hasn’t told you. That your parents didn’t already tell you when you were five.

You know this shit already.

But I understand that sometimes it’s how somebody words something that is the turning point for a life. It’s happened to me a few times, where I knew the information but it wasn’t until someone said something about it in a particular way that it became real for me, made it finally actionable.

Let’s get down to it. Here’s how you go about achieving anything you want.

1. Stop thinking, start doing

Chances are, you’ve thought enough about what you want already. Maybe you don’t have the whole thing mapped out, maybe it’s only a vague end point in your mind, perhaps you haven’t gotten strategic about it yet. That’s fine. But I bet you could tell me one thing you could do today that would be a forward step toward that thing.

That’s what you need to do now. Stop thinking, start doing.

Thinking about things makes us feel like we’re making progress when we’re not. Thinking about ‘getting back into yoga’ won’t make you more flexible or connected to your body. Thinking about moving companies to a place that’ll challenge you (and pay you more) won’t get you an interview or a bigger savings pot.

The things you want aren’t going to happen to you, you need to happen to them. You don’t need to think anymore. You’re a smart person, you know what to do, you just have to start.

2. Build it into your life

The most common context I see this talked about is with saving money. Most people try to save the money they have left over at the end of the month, which is generally a terrible idea because when you do that, you might not have any left over.

Instead, the advice is to ‘pay yourself first’ — when you get paid (whether it’s a monthly salary or…