How to Generate Hunger and Drive to Achieve Any Goal

It doesn't matter if you are the ONLY one

You’ve gotta be hungry for something if you’re going to get it. you’ve gotta want it as bad as you want to breathe. ­– Les Brown

It is a one thing to have a dream, a completely different thing to have the hunger and drive to achieve it no matter the stakes. I have set countless goals which I was certain (at the time of setting) that I had all it may take to achieve them only to fall short of hunger and drive the next morning. Sometimes I wonder what motivated me in the first place.

          Hunger and drive are two different pals always travelling together. Hunger is the pain within that will not leave you comfortable until a goal is accomplished while drive is what pushes you, your motivation to get going towards the goal. Hunger and drive are differ for different goals but the principles behind generating them are the same.

1. Ensure your goal is within the boundaries of your burdens. Goals outside burdens may never be achieved. The burden keeps you in it when the chips are down.

2. Do not exaggerate the problem. Problems have a special way of looking bigger than they actually are. Don’t join in exaggerating the problems confronting you.

3. Clearly understand the gains of victory and fix your attention on them. Victory will motivate you. Keep your gaze fixed on it. It is a common idea for military commanders to ensure their soldiers have their eyes fixed on victory, its profits, and nothing else if they would stand a chance.

4. Recall past victories and the feelings you had. You have succeeded before. Everyone has. Recall your past victories. None is too small. If it happened before it will happen again!

5. Count God in; He has your back. Don’t rely solely on your strength or what you know – they will fail you. God is able and willing to ensure you succeed.

       {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

If you would align yourself with these five principles you will find that you have the hunger and drive to accomplish every goal you set.

How to Set Simple, Direct, and Exciting Goals

A year from now you may wish you had started today. ­– Karen Lamb

I have been thinking through complex goal setting teachings and considering how to make goal setting simple to understand and follow through. An idea came to my mind consistent with the “S.M.A.R.T” (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time bound) principle. In this we have four quadrants with labels:

	UNREALISTIC	REALISTIC
POORLY DEFINED	Quadrant A	Quadrant B
CLEARLY DEFINED	Quadrant C	Quadrant D

Quadrant A: Poorly defined and Unrealistic

Quadrant B: Poorly defined but Realistic

Quadrant C: Clearly defined but Unrealistic

Quadrant D: Clearly defined and Realistic

Of all these you only want to find your goals in Quadrant D. It is the only quadrant that provides your mind with the impetus to pursue and achieve your goals, not only because it believes it can, but also because it clearly understands what needs to be done.

Here is an example of all the quadrants with an akara seller that had just attended a seminar on goal setting and wants to get right into it. This is how her goals may look like and the quadrants they will fall into:

·  I will be a millionaire: this is a Quadrant A goal. It is poorly defined and unrealistic putting into view her present profession. She will not achieve this goal. This type of goal isn’t beyond wishing and has the least hope of coming to pass.

·  I will become a millionaire in ten years’ time: this is a Quadrant B goal. Everybody knows that you can start wherever you may be and become a millionaire in a decade but what she failed to do it tell us how this will happen in a decade. It is poorly defined so she will abandon it,

·    I will expand my business and make sufficient profits to become a millionaire this year: this is a Quadrant C goal. Clearly defined but unrealistic. Although the picture of how it may be achieved is clear, the profits from her present profession will take her decades of unfailing savings to hit N1,000,000.00. This goal will not happen.

·     I will become a millionaire in ten years by first expanding my business, saving a percentage of my profits and investing in wholesale and distribution of grains: this is a Quadrant D goal. With planning, focus and discipline she stands a good chance of earning her first million before the decade runs out.

           {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

Examine each goal you have and sincerely allocate its right quadrant. Having done this, is it still a goal or merely something you wish you could achieve? 

When Dreams Turn to Nightmares

Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way. ­– The Psalmist

I had a dream some nights ago that began on a sweet plane. I enjoyed every twist and turn of that dream and did not want to wake up. I wanted to see the end of it. Suddenly – as it so often happens in dreams – my sweet dream turned to a nightmare. I found myself running helplessly from something that scared me so much. I immediately wanted a way out of this dream.

As it happened to my sweet dream, so it often happens to our visions and goals. Teenage Joseph dreamed of glory but found himself in a dry well abandoned for dead. Just when he thought he was to be saved from his ordeal he was sold into slavery and subsequently went into jail, all for crimes he did not commit. His dream turned into a nightmare so much so that he forgot the initial dream. Similarly young and vibrant Moses wanted to live his dream and took steps in line with it. He soon discovered that his dream would turn into a forty-year nightmare in the odd part of a desert.

When your dream turns to a nightmare you will be tempted again and again to abandon ship. It will occur to you that you do not need to carry out the work after all. The following may become friendly phrases to you: “I have done my best,” “There is no way out of this,” “Oh, God, Please send somebody else!” “O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me …”

        Now, let’s be frank, the world will not end if you give up. So to be honest giving up is an option – but not your only option. If you consider that your goals cannot be achieved only by your own abilities you will realize that all you may need to do is keep walking on. It does not matter how fast you are going at such times. What matters is that you stay true to the journey. Your success journey is a long journey and if you stick to it you will slowly but surely walk through the valley of the shadow of death and emerge victorious. 

Are You Making Progress in a Rat Race?

“You are the part of rat race because you are letting them treat you like a rat. This is the modern definition of a slave.” – Saurabh Sharma (Author)

Have you been in a situation where you get tired every other day and yet wonder if the energy you exert daily is worth the effort? Does it seem to you sometimes that you are taking two steps forward and three backward? Wake up! You may be in a rat race.

I remember once watching a film that had a scene in a science laboratory. It had in it a rat that continually ran earnestly in a spinning circle. It was obvious that the rat was exerting a lot of energy and was “thinking” that by running fast enough it was making progress in getting away from his captors. Little did it know that it was caught up in a vicious cycle.

Many of us are like that rat (no insult intended). We are caught up in a race and we have been exerting all our energies, creative abilities, finances, and intent in winning. Little do we know that the fact that we are running does not mean we are progressing.

A rat race is put upon us by a system. In this system things have a pattern in which they must operate. We are simply a part of this pattern and nothing more. We are expected to do the same things over and over until “expertise” is attained. At this point we are either promoted or paid higher for our “contributions”. Little do we know that the promotion or pay increase is not different from a bigger spinning circle given to a laboratory rat.

To make progress you must be on your own unique path. You must be pursuing a predetermined goal and taking premeditated actions toward it. Progress is intentional. It does not come on you but you work and walk toward it.

Rat races cut across education, occupation and career, religion, and relationships. I have been in them, in fact, I still know some that I am in at the moment. But I do not desire to remain in them. I often evaluate my actions and ask myself in every aspect of my life if I am caught up in a rat race. What I want to see is progress in every area – all cylinders firing.

I suggest you ask yourself if you are in a rat race or a progress race. 

Parable of the Blessing: FALCON EYES

Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose], and let your gaze be straight before you. Know where you are headed and you will stay on solid ground. Don’t make a mistake by turning to the right or the left. – The Bible: Proverbs 4

 In the proverbial “final stroke of the pen” (in this case keyboard), I would like to draw your attention to the ability of my favorite bird – the falcon – to focus on its prey until it hits it. The falcon can see its prey from over a kilometer. Its takes a dive at it – travelling at speeds of over 300 kph – all the while keeping its focus firmly on its target. In a short while the prey would not know what hit it.

For potential blessing to become productive blessing you must keep firm focus on the purpose to which you began. It is the purpose to which you are acting that will determine if you will succeed or fail. Young David asked his elder brother, “Is there not a cause?” He knew that the cause will keep him focused on the goal of fighting Goliath the giant.

Many countries do not focus on any serious cause. It is this that creates several discontinuities in leadership and in effect limited progress. One government comes into office and creates an agenda only for another to replace it with another completely different one. This is more worrying when it comes from different administrations of the same political alliance. Just the way the falcon won’t hit its prey if it tries to focus on more than one, people don’t achieve much when they have to continually change their focus.

Are you a focused person? If you would succeed you must have falcon eyes. You must learn to set your sights on your goal and focus on the purpose to which you began in the first place. Remember that the purpose will keep you. 

Parable of the Blessing: THE EXTRAORDINARY STRATEGIST

When the philistines got word that David had been made king over all Israel, they made war against him. David inquired of God: “Shall I go up and fight the philistines?” … “Don’t attack them head-on. Instead, circle around behind them and ambush them from the grove of sacred trees. When you hear the sound of shuffling in the trees, get ready to move out. It’s a signal that God is going ahead of you to smash the Philistine camp.” – The Bible: 2 Samuel 5

You may have gotten hold of a great vision and set your eyes on goals that will bring your vision to pass. This would give you some sense of accomplishment, which you deserve indeed. You still need a strategy as to how you will achieve your goals.

A strategy is a careful method for achieving a particular goal that usually spans a long period of time. To work out a successful strategy you need to think it through, plan sufficiently and manage it until it is fulfilled. Nonetheless, my focus in this write-up is to introduce you to an extraordinary strategist.

Elihu (Job’s young friend) opined: “I kept thinking, ‘Experience will tell. The longer you live, the wiser you become.’ But I see I was wrong – it’s God’s Spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty One, that makes wise human insight possible.” Did you see it? Here it is again, “God’s Spirit in a person, … makes wise human insight possible.” If you want to experience extraordinary strategy, you need the Spirit of God.

He inspired Noah to build a floating shelter to protect humanity from rains they had never seen. He gave Moses the logically “foolish” idea of walking through a split sea. He motivated Joshua to march round the walls of Jericho for seven days without saying a word. He told Gideon to reduce his 32,000-man strong army to 300 feeble men.

This extraordinary strategist will give you ideas. He will guide you to accomplish them. He will protect you through unexpected turn of events and eventually he will expect the glory while you take the victory.

        Don’t you want this extraordinary strategist? 

Parable of the Blessing: THE GOALSETTER

I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward – to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. So let’s keep focused on the goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. - Paul (the apostle)

Peter J. Daniels once wrote:

If you are uncertain, timid or vague,

If you are not sure which is the way,

If you are concerned what the future will bring,

If you are dissatisfied with any old thing.

Then you need to take hold of your life from this day,

And you must plan a far better way.

Its goals that you need to straighten you out,

To smooth out the paths and to get you about.

For goals set a sight that is clear and is bright,

And goals give you purpose to strive and to fight.

Your life is of value and the world is your home,

So stop now and think of where you should roam.

Just make a new start, to win and to claim,

A fresh firm new goal with a definite aim.

Then chase after your goal with desperate desire,

With passion and excellence, as if you were on fire.

Do not be timid or reluctant or slow,

Just move into top gear and let all systems go.

Goals direct a person’s life. Goals guide you and move you forward. To live without goals is to live aimlessly. All high achievers set goals again and again. Your goals should be believable to you, have a time frame, consistent to other aspects of your life, and easily broken down into smaller parts. 

If they can't kill your dream, they can't kill you

“Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.” – Story of Joseph

 

All dreamers have haters. A young Joseph had his brothers, MLK (Jnr.) had Jim Crow, and Mandela had the entire apartheid system. Who is yours?

 

Before you go looking for enemies, hold on a bit. Chances are that they are not really after you. It is the dream in you they are after! They hate you because you dream! Imagine that MLK's speeches were titled, "I have no dreams!" He might have lived longer that way.

 

They want to kill your dream because they cannot imagine a world where a small you can achieve such extravagant dreams. They cannot imagine that you deserve to attain so much that your accomplishments alter the fabric of the world they know. Why should you be allowed to shake them out of their mediocre comfort zone and redefine the meanings of things around them? Why should they let you reconstruct what business as usual means to them?

 

My thoughts: If they cannot kill your dream, they cannot kill you! Well, technically. The point is that you are more than just your breath and physical existence. You can live beyond your time on earth because your very essence lives in your dreams. Be firmly rooted and founded in your dreams so that when (not if) opposition comes, you and your dream will survive it. Here are 5 tips on surviving dream attacks:

 

1.  Keep your focus on your goal
2. Allow like-minds to help you
3. Refuse to be distracted
4. Review and restructure your goals at intervals
5. Adopt a defense mechanism

The Wandering Plane

A man found Joseph wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

Often in my success journey I feel like a non-progressive wanderer. I have you been in situations where I wondered what in heaven’s name I was actually doing. Such times don’t come because I have missed the mark. More often than not they come at times I am a hundred percent sure of your stand.

It is Joseph in the fields searching for his brothers, David in the cave of Adullam, Jacob in the house of Laban, and Moses in the desert wandering around with sheep. The wandering plane is the failing businessman with the most worked-out business plan, or the singer with a hundred songs in a songbook but with no song in a CD, or me with a hundred articles in a hundred and ten days and yet wondering if my writings are relevant in the first place.

Although the wandering plane is not the most fulfilling place to be, it, also, is not the place to give up. It is part of your making process. To refuse the wandering plane is to refuse success. Hang in there and stick to what you are doing. In a while you will walk past it.

Ensure you are guided by your goals. If you have clearly defined goals you will keep your focus on the end rather than the temporary wandering plane. Goals will help you know that what you are experiencing in the wandering plane is not what you envisioned or hoped for. And as long as what your heart sees isn’t what your eyes are seeing you need to keep moving. Compose another song. Write another article. Plan another plan. Dream another dream. No matter what you do, do not stop for any reason!

Goal Formulation Stage: ALLOCATE MILESTONES

I love the scenery while travelling but when there is nothing else to see I put my thoughts on the milestones next to the highway.

So let’s say I am on a journey to Lagos from Kaduna – a distance of about 1000 kilometers. The first milestone I see is, “ABJ (Abuja) 200 kms”, then “ABJ 199 kms”, and counting down as the journey progresses. When I get to Abuja, I see, “LKJ (Lokoja) 300 kms”, and counting down. I don’t see, “LAG (Lagos)” until I get to Ibadan, which is the last major city before Lagos – and I am glad about that because imagine how discouraging it would be if I saw, “LAG 1000 kms”.

Milestones help us know where the road we are on leads to and the distance we still have to cover to get to that destination. Now, the fact that I am travelling to Lagos but see a milestone that says, “ABJ 170 kms” does not mean I am on the wrong road. This is so because Abuja lies on the way that leads to Lagos from Kaduna. If, on the other hand, I see “KN (Kano) 180 kms”, I am certain that something is wrong because Kano does not lie on the road that leads to Lagos from Kaduna. Milestones are then the same journey broken into sub-journeys, and for them to be of any relevance you must have an idea of the cities that lead to your destination.

As it is with milestones on the highway so it is with milestones in our success journeys. A person that has the goal of being a doctor knows that he must have good secondary education, university education in human medicine, internship in a good hospital, and employment. These are the major milestones that must be on the road that leads him to becoming a doctor. So, when a secondary school student with the dream of being a doctor wakes up in the morning, his focus is on getting all the credits required to get into medical school rather than on medical  practice. If he thinks only of the practice and not on his first milestone he will be discouraged and will eventually fail or give up. Also, if he gets admission into the university to study Geology, he would know that he is certainly on the wrong road.

For a goal to succeed it must have clearly identified and allocated milestones. This simply means that it must be broken down into smaller parts. The whole will be too big to handle. When it is broken down it becomes more achievable. 

Goal Formulation: DEFINING PURPOSE

What have I done now? Is there not a cause? - David (In the battle with Goliath)

In the pursuit of any goal it is of utmost importance that you define clearly to yourself what the purpose of your goal is. Why do you want to achieve the goal? Is it to gain more relevance, or more money, or more skill? Is it to be the best in your field and leave a name for yourself or to push the work of God’s kingdom one mile further? I am not here to tell you if your purpose is right or wrong (when you define it you will tell that to yourself). What matters to me is that you define the purpose no matter what else you do.

Definition of purpose is one of the most important steps in goal achievement, the lack of which leads a thousand goals to the drains. This is so because you will be confronted with the question, “Why?” a thousand times over, and in different forms.

The young man David was confronted and rebuked by his brother while considering the unrealistic duel with the giant Goliath. Ordinarily this opposition should make David stop his enquiry but he asked: “What have I done now? Is there not a cause?” This was David’s energy source. It was his greatest motivating factor. He did not just feel like fighting a giant man-killing machine, he was acting based on the purpose that won’t leave him no matter how hard he tries.

People will confront you and show you splendid reasons why you should abandon ship. Situations will compel you and place your finger next to the “Abort Mission” button. Your parents, siblings, or even I may not believe in your cause. But if that goal is borne out of burden and you have sought God for direction, all you need to keep you on track is defining – in very clear terms – why you are doing  what you are doing and the sky will be but a starting point for you.

Goal Initiation Stage: SOLIDIFYING

It gives great fulfillment to see a goal come to pass. Humans are goals-seeking creatures. This is so because fulfilling goals gives us hope and leaves us with a sense of significance. The most difficult lives to live are those not motivated and directed by goals. The psychologist, Ernest Becker notes that, “What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance.”

In this article I shall continue on the goal initiation stage.

COMMIT YOUR BURDENS TO GOD: When you identify areas that lay burdens upon your heart, do not make the mistake of running off into achieving goals. Goals are not simply to make people famous. They are primarily to correct things that have gone wrong. You need direction on how to carry this out. Pray to God to clarify what exactly you can do and to direct you on how to get going. In addition, you will easily notice that your goal expands beyond your logical ability. This means you can pray that God increases your strength and enlarges your capacity to accommodate your goal. “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart,” remains true. If you acknowledge the Lord in all your ways he will “Direct your path.”

In addition, it is God that makes people. You cannot make yourself achieve a worthy goal. Peter learned this early on when Jesus told him, “Follow me and I will make you …” You need to be made. Fabricated. Branded.

KEEP YOUR GOAL TO YOURSELF: Many folks (yours sincerely once included) have the tendency to go raving about announcing their goals to just about anybody that gives an ear. We think doing this will make us get closer to it or commit us to accomplishing the goal but the opposite is true. When you go sharing your goal to just about everybody you stand a much higher chance of failing as opposed to when nobody knew about it. This is because many folks will show you reasons why your goal is ill-thought of and on the path of certain failure. In a bid to help, they help you abandon ship.

Also, when you indiscriminately tell people your goals and they wow at your ingenuity, your brain registers a feeling of accomplishment – the same as it would have if you in reality accomplish it. This way it rewards itself and you end up with a deflated momentum. Cake eaten (and what do they say about eating your cake?), pleasure gained, goal untouched. Preserve your precious goal by shutting your mouth.

The Process of Achieving Goals

This one thing I do ... I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Paul (the apostle)

The degree of failure among young people is mind-blowing. Today, it is a normal occurrence to hear of high percentages of failure in examinations. In many parts of the world – mine especially – standard of education is at a record low and mediocrity is triumphantly celebrated.

Failure is almost a synonym of human relationships. Parents and children, intended marriages, existing marriages, workplace and business relationships, and plain old friendships have lost their meanings as the social fabric of society is shredded in a thousand pieces.

Indeed, everywhere you turn it seems the same problem exists. I believe this is so because people do not set goals. Goals are to the human mind what heat is to a heat-seeking missile. It remains lame as long as there is no heat for it to pursue. If on the other hand there is heat for it to chase it becomes a potent weapon that accomplishes the bid of the person that sends it. The higher the degree of heat the higher it’s precision.

In the next few articles – I hope – I will break down the process of achieving any goal. For the benefit of understanding it I will break down goal achievement into three stages, namely, the INITIATION stage, the FORMULATION stage, and the ACTION stage.

In the initiation stage I will write on, Being sensitive and building on a burden, seeking God’s guidance, and keeping your goal to yourself.

In the formulation stage I will write on, Taking your opportunities promptly, defining the purpose of your goal, Having a definite time-frame, and breaking down the process.

Finally, in the action stage I will write on, Doing a quick feasibility study – analyzing the task – before you act, Sharing your goal with like-minded people, Delegating responsibilities, and Ignoring distractions.

These short teachings will open your mind to accomplishing every goal you set.