I have failed quite a lot in my life. A lot of people say that failure is a stepping stone to success. It is true, but life is short and there cannot be too many stepping stones to reach success 😉 Going through all my failures, and a few successes, I identified a method that helped me reach my goals. And I hope it will help you too.
The method is based on three steps.
- Value-based goal: A goal that aligns with your value system
- Know yourself: Your strengths and gaps to achieve the goal
- Find help: People that can help you with the gaps
Let’s dive deeper into each of these steps.
[Step 1] Value-based goal
The first step is to have a clearly defined goal. There are many articles emphasizing the need to define time-bound metric based goals. But, I think the most important thing is to check if the goal aligns with your values.
Some people value money, some value fame, and some others value power. There is no right and wrong here, it is just a way of answering why you want to achieve the goal. Having a value-based goal is important for two reasons, [1] You will persevere through the ups and downs as you are deeply connected with the goal [2] It helps you find the right kind of help. At the end of this step, you should have a well-defined goal and the value behind it.
[Step 2] Know yourself
The second step is to know your strengths and gaps in achieving the goal. It is important to be brutally honest about your capabilities. You can lie to others, but be intellectually honest with yourself 😉 If you do not know what is needed to achieve the goal, talk to your friends, family or colleagues, and get their feedback on your capabilities to achieve the goal. At the end of this step, you should have a list of strengths and gaps.
[Step 3] Find help
The final step is to ask for help to achieve the goal. I have found that people willingly help other people if, [1] You expose your vulnerabilities or gaps, [2] They connect with your values behind the goal. There are two things that I have learned when asking for help [1] Become thick-skinned to rejection, there will be people that say no [2] Be kind, and help other people. At the end of this step, you should have people that are willing to help.
Now, as an example of how you can use this method, let’s walk through a goal I currently have. I want to get better at writing. I will now shamelessly expose my vulnerabilities, and seek help from all of you 😬
[Step 1] Value-based goal
- Goal: Get positive feedback from 95% of readers of my articles
- Value: Delivering great content to people is worthwhile
[Step 2] Know yourself
- Strengths
- Hard skills
- Knowledge about personal growth and startups, multi-lingual, and decent command over the English language
- Soft skills
- Open minded, action-oriented, and perseverance
- Hard skills
- Gaps
- Word choice, sentence structure, grammar, engaging narrative, connecting with emotions, connecting with readers, and other unknown gaps
[Step 3] Find help
- Need to know about mentoring platforms where I can connect with experienced writers
- Need to know about other platforms for publishing my articles and getting feedback
- Need help from experienced writers to give me feedback on my writing gaps
- Need to learn about the best methods to connect with the audience
There it is. Please post your feedback in comments. Also, I would love to hear about your goals, strengths, gaps and help you need from other people. Who knows, maybe you will find help right here at steemit 😁