Goals to take you to the next level

Weekender

By THOMAS HUKAHU

IF they have not done it yet, many people will be setting new goals for the year (2018).
For those who want to see progress in their lives, that is the way to go – set targets and work towards achieving them. They may be young, still in school, working and in their mid 20s or 30s, or even those who are about to exit the workforce.
When you think about it, most achievers in life are goal-setters. They set goals and put in the time and effort to get to where they want to go.
It does not matter whether the achievers are into academies, sports, or business, the secret to their success depends on a starting point.

Champion athletes do it
The Pacific Mini Games in Port Vila, Vanuatu, ended recently where Papua New Guinea came second to New Caledonia. Team PNG managed to haul 33 gold medals, 30 silver and 22 bronze. The French territory team won the competition with a total of 47 gold medals, 15 silver and 18 bronze.
It was interesting to read that some of PNG’s top athletes put up remarkable performances, and that included two 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalists – Dika Toua and Steven Kari, who are PNG’s elite weightlifters.
As a former Team PNG press attaché, I had the privilege to speak to both of them after they won their medals in the Glasgow games and was thrilled to note how differently they – as champions – thought and planned to achieve their goals.
They set goals and with the help of their coach worked towards achieving them. Their goals usually extended, not over a number of days or weeks, but over years. As a matter of fact, as you are reading this, it is very likely that Toua, Kari and our most successful and recent Olympian, Morea Baru, another lifter, are already in the gym and working on their plans for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which will be staged in Gold Coast, Australia.
On the evening when Kari won gold in 2014, I sat with him at the dinner table in the Games Village in Glasgow. He told of how, in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, he was placed fourth and decided then that at the next edition of the games, he wanted to be sure of a medal. Four years later, in Glasgow, that dream was realised. It was not easy but for four, long years Kari worked with his coach, and with the support of his family, and achieved that dream.
We can use the same principles as our local champions in setting our personal goals and working committedly towards achieving them.

Setting goals in different areas
Goals can be set in different areas in our lives. If the student in high school wants to improve his or her marks in mathematics or English, s/he must consult an English teacher or a relative who has done well in English and get some tips from them and then start on the plan right away. They must not delay. The earlier, the better.
The same could be said of a student’s wish to improve his or her marks in maths.
The simple businessman, also, may want to make K50,000 this year. If that is so, he must make the necessary plans to achieve that target.
That may include cutting down on unnecessary expenses and pumping money into areas that promise best returns for his business. Throughout the year, he and his staff must be giving their best to deliver goods and services and attract more customers. There might also be some of you out there who might need to set health goals because, at the rate you’re going, you’re not sure whether you’ll last another year or two.
This might sound grim and untactful, but this is true for many who might be reading this and who keep continuing their use of ‘poison.’
Not only are these habits a detriment to one’s health, they also make sure you’re out of pocket and deprive you of more worthwhile things in life. Lifestyle diseases such as diabetes could be creeping up on you and it is time to seriously look at the type of food you eat and maybe start going out of the home or office for a short walk each day.

The basics in setting and achieving goals
It does not matter which goal you set, just be serious about it and work to achieve it. You have 12 months ahead of you. Some plans may be accomplished within three months, others may take the whole year – but strategise and re-strategise as you go along.
I was first made aware of a simple easy-to-remember plan many years ago by our former Governor-General and prolific author, Sir Paulias Matane. The simple three-point plan to becoming successful is:

  1. Set your goals;
  2. Plan how you will achieve your goals; and
  3. Be committed and give your best shot, day in day out, in implementing your plan to get from where you are to where you want to go.

My year of hobbies
I planned midway in 2017 that my goals in 2018 would include me developing my interests in playing the keyboard (piano), foreign language learning, and learning to produce animated movies, among a few other things.
At the end of last year, I polished up on my skills in the first two. My second hobby is a completely new set of skills I’m learning. For that, I purchased a simple electronic keyboard last month to download language videos and learned how to produce 3D animations using free online software.
Still on the subject of hobbies, they hold many advantages. They may increase your knowledge in a field or enrich your life and help you relax. Or, you could actually make money from them, or they can become useful to you at a later time in life.
To end this article, let me point you to a quote by one of the most successful entrepreneurs today, Dr Eric Schmidt. Schmidt is the Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc, the parent of Google.
His advice in response to a question in his talk in a Stanford Graduate School of Business session (which is available on YouTube) caught my attention.
A question was asked him regarding who are the best people to employ and possibly befriend. Schmidt responded, saying: “What I learned was when you interview people, find out what they do that’s not work-related and see if it is compelling, if it’s insightful. Tell me something I don’t know already. That usually produces a very good candidate.”

 

  • Next week: Learning to produce animation. The writer is a regular correspondent.