The first step to achievement of goals and ambitions is to make a plan. Setting a goal comes first. Goals can be short, intermediate and longer term in the amount of time needed to accomplish them. In fact, you should consider setting goals for different time frames. Goals should be set that inspire you, that take your life in the direction that you think and feel strongly about, and will challenge you to put daily, habitual effort into tasks and actions that move you ever closer to their achievement. They should be realistically achievable, especially short term goals, and yet be exciting and challenging enough to change your behavior consistently in order to accomplish them. Longer term goals can be much more challenging as you have more time to grow, learn, and build the skills necessary for mastery. Again, goals must be powerful and important enough for you to keep them as a daily priority and consistently behave and act in the ways that get the results you want.
Once your goals are set, you should map out the steps and actions you need to take to get there. You can start by writing down all of the steps you can think of, then condense and simplify the list into the most important behaviors and actions that you can do on a daily basis. It is these small actions, done repeatedly, consistently over time that lead to big changes and accomplishments later. Lastly, review the reason for your goal. Understand what makes it important for you to have it. Determine the emotional significance of the goal to your life and the underlying need it may fulfill. It is this emotional context that will most powerfully drive your behavior and allow you to maintain prioritization and resist derailment and distraction. If you find through this exercise that the goal is really not that important to you, change it. Discover the things that are most important to you. Prioritize these things and design your goals to reach the limits that you set. By understanding what you truly want and need and aligning your goals with these things, you are much more likely to focus your energy and your time on doing the things you need to do to reach the result you most want.
While it is helpful to have defined your purpose and understand your values, it is not necessary for setting goals and making plans to achieve them. Sometimes the process of planning and pursuit of goals can help you better understand yourself, and help clarify your purpose and values as you discover the things that motivate and inspire you. Do not hesitate to start taking control of your life and the direction it takes. We all have limited time and energy. By directing our best effort and time to our most important priorities, we become more effective. It is easy to get distracted by other things. Because our interests, moods, and energy change, we are not able to maintain constant focus or effort in a single direction or on only one task. Life is also complex, with various needs, obligations and expectations of others we need to meet. Understand that we need time to do other non-goal related things. We need to rest and recover. We need entertainment and time for relationships. Giving ourselves permission to live spontaneously is important, but to live without direction or planning will put you at the mercy of whim and transient emotional state, or to be directed by others around you. We have a certain amount of energy for focused attention in a day. By planning to use this optimal state on tasks that move you in the direction of your goals you will save tremendous time and accomplish more. This will give you the ability to say no to distractions which will inevitably occur. These distractions are what derail us from goal achievement.