These quips and tips for achieving your goals are practical, brief, effective - and they apply to everything from career goals to weight loss goals to relationship goals! 

Before the tips, a quip from Malcolm Gladwell: 

“What surprised me most were the ordinary methods successful people use to achieve all they achieve,” he said. 

To achieve your goals, you don’t need to be brilliant, talented, or rich. You just need to persevere, hope for the right timing, and focus on taking one small step at a time in the direction of your dreams. Click Outliers for more info on how people succeed. And, read on for seven quips and tips for achieving your goals…

• Tip: If your goal is to earn a living as a writer, novelist or poet…but the job market seems to favor novelists and freelance writers. Ride that horse, my friend – instead of bucking the trend. Don’t give up your goal of earning a living as a writer, but make it more achievable by going with the flow.

 Quip: “Change means movement. Movement means friction.” – Saul Alinsky.

• Tip: To achieve your life goals, you’ll have to change your habits, your thoughts, your actions…and that will create friction. Your family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors (and even you yourself!) will feel weird and perhaps even annoyed or afraid of your new patterns and changes. Learn to be comfortable with change, and people’s fear of it.

Quip: “Michelangelo struggled with doubt and uncertainty while painting the Sistine Chapel.” – audioguide at the chapel, heard by me!

• Tip: As one of the greatest painters ever, Michelangelo achieved his goals (if his goals included fame, respect, adulation, and a little money) — but he thought he wasn’t good enough. This insecurity and self-doubt is normal and maybe even healthy! Don’t let your lack of confidence stop you from taking risks and moving in the direction of your dreams. If you struggle with self-criticism, read 5 Tips for Taming Your Inner Critic.

Quip: “What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in awhile.” – Gretchen Rubin.

• Tip: Every day, ask yourself if what you are doing each moment is taking you in the direction of achieving your goals…or away from your dreams.

Quip: “Teach yourself to work in uncertainty.” – Bernard Malamud.

• Tip: Achieving your goals requires focus, determination and dedication – and the acceptance that you don’t know for sure where your journey will take you. Accept uncertainty. Nay, embrace it. Sometimes things work out better than you’d hoped.

Quip: “The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people fail more.” – Martha Beck.

• Tip: Oh, you gotta fail sometimes. You have to, or you won’t learn anything. Someone recently told me that she’s dealing with the death of her son, but her life was perfect before he died – for the last 40 years. So, she never learned courage, resilience, determination, or strength. Accept failure. Nay, embrace it!

Quip: “There is no such thing as a ‘natural.’ A natural dancer has to practice hard. A natural painter has to paint all the time…” – Joe Louis.

• Tip: Malcolm Gladwell – author of Outliers – said that most successful people practiced for 10,000 hours before they achieved their goals. If you want to succeed, you have to put in the time.

If you have any questions or thoughts on these quips and tips for achieving your goals, please share below…

~ Resources for Achieving Your Goals ~

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Are your fears about work, family, relationships, or money holding you back from achieving your goals? Try this natural way to end feelings of anxiety and panic.

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