Believe you can get there.

It all starts with your mind and what you truly believe you are capable of. You can absolutely do this, and you should remind yourself of this EVERY SINGLE DAY. It doesn’t matter if everyone around you believes in you if you don’t believe in yourself, it’s you who has to make it happen and your mind will influence every step you take.

Self-belief is such a powerful thing when you set out to achieve something big. It’s learning to not to feed self-doubt and being courageous with your ambitions, instead feed the little seeds inside of you that value your worth and your capabilities, feed them with positive energy and allow them to grow.

Sometimes it requires us to take stock of what we have already achieved or overcome in our lives, we have all accomplished things that we should be proud of and you should use these to remind yourself that you have what it takes to achieve greatness. Remember that you can’t achieve if you don’t believe and if you want to achieve to your full potential in whatever you’ve set your sights on then you have to truly believe in yourself.

Be prepared to work hard without the expectation of instant results.

We can’t fully appreciate anything that we don’t have to work hard for, so you should know that all this work you’re putting in now is going to matter in the long run. The trouble is we’re so used to getting what we want instantly that we don’t appreciate the amount of hard work that is required when reaching a big goal.

Hard work requires us to be dedicated and make sacrifices and it’s going to leave you exhausted at times. But it all comes down to where you see yourself in 6 months’ time, you can be in the same place you’re at right now or someplace better, wiser from what you’ve learnt and more knowledgeable from all the work you’ve put in, ultimately though, it’s up to you to decide where you’re heading.

You’re going to have late nights, early mornings, times where you want to throw in the towel and times where you question all that you’re trying to achieve, it’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not by any means going to be easy, but it will be something you’re proud of in years to come.

Recognise the power of your personal growth – this is going to take some time.

The weeks, months or years between setting a goal and achieving it is a vital period of growth that you must experience, and you’ll soon realise that there are rarely shortcuts when you set out to achieve something big in your life.

I’m a firm believer in the saying ‘great things have small beginnings’ it doesn’t matter how long it takes for you to accomplish your goal or how small the steps are that you take to get there as long as you keep moving forward.

Think of this as a long journey that you’re on where there are miles between where you’re at now and where you’ll be when you reach your destination. It’s easy to understand this concept when we set off on a car journey or board a plane, but we often forget this in the context of reaching long-term goals, journeys are inevitable to get from one place to another in our lives and they take time so try not to rush, just relax and enjoy it.

Understand the importance of setbacks.

If you’re willing to give up after encountering a setback then you need to ask yourself how much you want this. Reaching goals takes determination, you’re going to come up against brick walls and detours so be prepared for them and know that these are essential because it’s the only way that you’re going to build your resilience for the future.

You’ve got to be a bit feisty if you really want something, don’t let setbacks conjure up a fear of failure because that’s often the consequence of setbacks and it’s why we give up on our dreams way too easily. Your shortcomings are going to make you into a more grounded person and they’ll also teach you to appreciate each bit of progression you make too.

You’ll probably find that sometimes you’ll take two steps forward and end up three steps back but that’s ok too, although it can be really frustrating try to have an open mind when it comes to facing difficulties along the way because you never know what you might learn from them.