How to Achieve Your Goals 🎯

Hey y’all,

This week, I want to speak to you from the heart. Over the past few weeks, I feel I’ve been playing it safe with my advice, providing straightforward tips.

But today, I want to provide you with an authentic glimpse into my mind and the frameworks and concepts I use to achieve my goals.

And chances are you also have a handful of goals—whether short-term goals for the summer or long-term goals you hope to achieve over the coming years. But setting goals is one thing, and going out to achieve them is another.

Let’s dive into my tips for how you can make your goals (and your dreams) a reality.

Embrace Discomfort

I often tell my younger brother that in order to succeed, you often have to do the things you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do them.

Motivation is fickle, and while it’s a great impetus for action, it alone cannot propel you towards your goals. You need to find inside you the discipline to take incremental, consistent action.

For example, if you’re trying to gain muscle, that entails going to the gym several times a week, even when you don’t feel like doing so. In fact, I just came back from the gym a few hours ago. Did I want to go today? No. It’s pouring outside. But instead of waiting for a spark of motivation to transpire out of nowhere, I lugged myself off my couch, hopped into my car, and made my way to the gym.

Now here’s the interesting part. As soon as I got to the gym, that feeling of reluctance vanished. And I’ve noticed this is the case with any sort of task. If I can find the discipline to begin something, doing the actual task is much easier, sometimes even fun.

In other words, motivation is a byproduct of action.

The hardest part, as you’re probably well aware, is starting. If you can embrace that discomfort, you are well on your way to crushing your goals.

Beware of Shiny Object Syndrome

If you’ve never heard of shiny object syndrome (SOS), here’s a beautiful definition from ProductPlan:

In other words, it’s when you set a goal but abandon it partway through to pursue a shiner, more alluring objective. Let me give you a personal example.

About a year and a half ago, I started developing a new service for Next Admit. I spent two moths creating a product roadmap, designing graphics, and even writing some code. But right around that time, ChatGPT came out, spurring an influx of AI tools.

I felt a strong sense of shiny object syndrome. I abandoned my project to start playing around with ChatGPT and its APIs, and I started brainstorming new products without finishing my original one.

The point here is to have an unrelenting sense of focus, even as other opportunities come your way. Because if you find yourself chasing trends, or chasing whatever seems most fun in the moment, you’ll never give yourself the prolonged period of time you need to achieve your goals.

Avoid Zero Days

This is a concept I’ve started embracing recently. A zero day is a day when you make no progress whatsoever towards your goals.

A non-zero day is when you make even the tiniest amount of progress: writing a single line of code, reading a single page of a book, doing a single pushup.

Do everything you can to avoid zero days. If you let a couple stack up, it becomes infinitely easier to give up on your goal entirely.

What I love about this concept is that it leaves no room for excuses. For example, even if it’s 2:00 AM and you’re feeling tired, you still have enough time to crank out a single sentence. Even if you’re not at home or away from your desk, you can write something in your notes app.

Even a tiny amount of progress is better than no progress at all.

I wrote this newsletter in a slightly different style (and for a slightly older audience). If you enjoy this style of writing, please DM me on Instagram (@goharsguide) to let me know!

If you want study help, come join my Discord! We have a global community of students helping each other succeed in school. I’d love to see you there.

And if you need help with college applications, check out Next Admit! We have a team of Ivy League consultants eager to help you navigate the admissions process.

I’ll see you next week!

Best,
Gohar