The Secret To Achieving Any Goal

Simple but critical.

Not all the goals you hope to achieve in life are necessarily possible. But the ones that are, fundamentally require only one thing, one concept in order for them to be realized.

Putting this concept into practice allows you to achieve pretty much anything you put your mind to.

So what is it?

I find this quote from Baha’u’llah sums it up nicely:

“Let each morn be better than its eve and each morrow richer than its yesterday.”

So what does this mean, and why does this guarantee success?

To achieve most things in life, you are told to work hard. To persevere. To keep going even in the face of adversity. You don’t have to be talented. You don’t have to be brilliant. As long as you keep grinding, you’ll get there.

All that is true. But what makes it so hard? Why do we tend to give up soon after we begin? Why do we only get so far before feeling like we have reached our limit? Why do so few of us stick with something long enough to see the fruits of our effort?

It could be the need for instant gratification. For some visible or tangible result of our efforts.

It could be a lack of patience. Patience to see through each obstacle and stay motivated when things get tough.

It could be fear. Wanting to know that we will definitely achieve what we set out to. Otherwise, why waste the effort when it can be spent on something that has a higher chance of succeeding?

It could be a lack of self-belief. The thought of not being good enough that prevents us from ever realizing our true capabilities.

It could be anything really.

The above quotation encapsulates the idea that all we have to do to ultimately reach our full potential is to make sure each day is better than the previous one. That’s it.

Truly internalizing this enables you to rid yourself of all feelings of pressure, guilt, and fear. Understanding that building your skills, knowledge, virtues and other assets simply require a consistent and gradual increment, relieves you of the mental stress that may sometimes paralyze you from acting.

Your pursuit of excellence should not be burdened by unrealistic expectations. These may hamper you from seeing the progress you are actually making and thus cause the road ahead to appear a lot longer than it is.

Focusing too much on the end result also takes away from the beauty of the journey towards it. Without loving the process, without appreciating the major or minor growth each day, you may lose sight of your goal and the motivation to pursue it.

Improvement does not necessarily mean winning every day. You may fail. You may make mistakes. But taking each one as an opportunity to learn leaves you with further knowledge and insight, key components to long term growth.

Letting each morn be better than its eve implies a fundamental understanding of progress. The goals and standards we hope to achieve may seem out of reach. But focusing on growth, no matter how small, little by little, day by day means we are always one step closer to ultimately achieving whatever we put our minds to.

“Small steps, if they are regular and rapid, add up to a great distance traveled.” — The Universal House of Justice