How to Set Your Goals for Success?

Deepak Machado 0:13

Hello and welcome to success 10X Podcast. My name is Deepak and I am a writer and a dreamer. I'm also this management professional, and a Bitcoin enthusiast. In each episode of this podcast, we bring you an inspiring person, or topic to help you amplify your success, then x. This podcast is dedicated to those who are serious about their personal growth, career growth, financial growth and business growth. I hope this podcast will create a spark and ignite your desires to achieve higher success. Thank you for being with us today. And let the journey to the success 10X begin. Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists was lived on this earth says "the danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short. But in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark." With that thought, let us get into the podcast episode. In the previous episode we spoke about purpose and how to identify a create your purpose, which was a part of something we called as the Lead Series. By lead series we mean leading by self, leading by brand and leading by career. If you've not listen to the previous episode, I request you to go to success10x.co/1. I have Avil with me for this podcast. Welcome Avil to this podcast. How are you doing today?

Avil Pinto 1:56

Thank you Deepak. Good morning. I'm doing really well. Looking forward to the episode number two today.

Deepak Machado 2:03

We spoke about how to find your purpose in the previous episode. And the lead series. And in this episode, we decided we will talk about goal setting. One of the most important aspects of personal growth is to know where you want to go. And that is where the goal setting comes into picture. Can you elaborate your thoughts prior to that? Why don't you give an introduction about yourself?

Avil Pinto 2:34

Thank you Deepak. I'm Avil Pinto. And I've been a careerpreneur. I do a motivational series. And I help job seekers I counsel I'm a life and career coach. And with over a period of time with my passion to share my knowledge and wisdom through videos, there have been more than 200 videos on Dubai Jobs Hunt. It's a community which was established two years back. And it's been growing there are 17,000 members now. So we've been adding a lot of value through a lot of educational content, which is empowering them and enriching them. So that's predominantly been my side of passion. But alongside I have a profession, which is being HR being HR and supply chain professionals. So currently I am doing am a Logistics account manager for Rainbow Milk managed Saudi operations. Yeah, that's pretty much about me. Yeah, looking forward for this session today goal setting and we will deep dive very excited about this session.

Deepak Machado 3:33

Okay, so my first question to you is why should anyone have goal? Why can't we just go about with with our life as it comes?

Avil Pinto 3:39

It's a very interesting question. it just imagine a football field without a goalpost. So life without a goal is a football field without a goalpost. You may have the best of the team's best of the players getting into the field. But then when they start, and they don't have the goalpost, then there's no fun, there's no excitement, why they are playing for No. And is precisely for me being that example, to set goals. So in the earlier episode, we spoke about purpose, we at least have the dimension of which way do you want to? What do you want to do in life? Or what is your final destination. And in order to get there, you have to keep small milestones. And those milestones are the goals. And that's very important. Whether it is a person who plays cricket or football, they have a milestone. And every every game they upped their game and and behind the scenes they do a lot of things. So let's deep dive on. What are those milestones that we could look at and, and how we can set the goals and achieve and while we achieve each step that you move towards self mastery or going towards your bigger vision and purpose.

Deepak Machado 4:59

So Where should I start? If I have no goals in my life? I'm just a normal person, I have no idea about what a goal is. Where should one start with setting their goals? And how to get clarity or how to find clarity in the goals?

Avil Pinto 5:05

Lovely, good question. This is the question which many people have in their mind. And I think it's a good thing that you asked. Even I was thinking, what is this goal, and for me, setting a goal is like a commitment, okay, if I do set it, and then it becomes a bigger, something that I have to be accountable, and because of that, thought itself, I was lacking or committing myself to, to set that goal. But later, one of my mentors said, goes have to be excited, you got to have fun. And that's where I realized that break down the bigger goals into smaller goals. So then a clear indication of goal setting process was set for me. So we looked at the long term, midterm and short term goals, right. And particularly coming to that point, where if a person phenomenal person is thinking that, oh, I don't have any goats, okay. So for example, if you're living a day, I'm sure that you would like to do something in that day, it's not that old, 24 hours you will be sleeping, or you're not doing anything, you're doing something, you're doing something because you have to bring bite on the bread on the table. Or you have to fulfill basic necessities. And in order to do that, you're doing some things, some activity, some money generating activity that you're doing. Okay, besides that you're learning besides that you're doing, for example, life is circled around health, wellness, finance, career, relationships, okay? So all of these things are, it's like wheel of life. And now in the wheel of life, when you're moving, you have to balance it, or you have to move in a good direction, then you have to look at Okay, am I do I have great relationships with people. Now, if you are not having great relationships with people, there's something which is missing the gap that you have to identify, and that probably becomes a goal for you to work on. Okay? Let's say my interpersonal interpersonal skills are not really good, okay, then I have to work on it, from where do I work, I might read about it, I might watch videos, or I might get trained by somebody who's good at it. So that becomes my goal. So let's say now, my goal is for the midterm. So short term is basically one to six months, and midterm is six months to one year and long term is anything beyond one year, right? Now, I want to be good at interpersonal skills, that becomes probably a short term or midterm goal, because something you cannot change immediately, but it might require you to work on three months, six months, and then you have to keep implementing or practicing on it. So this precisely then would be your goal. Right. And, and some people have this is about probably in relationships or in terms of your personal development. And then comes your financial goals, okay, I have I am learning so much of money, X amount, I have to keep saving, and by the end of this year, I would like to see this saving in my bank account, or as investment. And then that becomes my goal. So that will be divided into weekly or daily, monthly, quarterly, and then you track on that goal. So for example, you want to have 10,000 dirhams in your bank account, then, too, in order to achieve that 10,000 by the end of the year, split it 52 weeks, per week, how much I should have, or by month, how much I should have, okay, then accordingly, then you will achieve it. So these are the things which I believe that every individual should have. If they don't have, then it is as good as gold without life without a goalpost. So this is why I don't know resonated with that exam.

Deepak Machado 9:15

So you're saying have bigger goals or larger goals and then break them down into smaller chunks?

Avil Pinto 9:20

Yes, yes. Absolutely. And when you look at the smaller chunks, that's where life excites, okay, I can do that. I can, I can do that. But when you look at that bigger chunk, it looks too big. It's overwhelming. And when you look at it, only you get scared. Okay, I don't think I can do it. So check it. I don't want to do so you wake up every morning thinking about that big chunk, and then you feel like, man, I don't think it's possible. Then the whole purpose of you setting that big chunk is, you know, doesn't serve any purpose, but instead, take it a small chunk. And thanks for picking up on that. Take a small step. Small daily step, what you can do. And when you keep doing every day, you will let you to the you will obviously achieve your bigger chunk. In Hindi there is a very good thing boom, boom, seven tire saga, every droplet of water makes an ocean. And this is what we are talking about every small droplet is your smaller chunk of your end goal.

Deepak Machado 10:23

I remember reading this somewhere in a book or some blog post, that if your goals don't scare you, then those are not your goals. Is it true? Do you believe in that out?

Avil Pinto 10:37

Yes, I do believe dreams are not those when you sleep those dreams, which you are while you're awake, it's case and that is what, for me, the way I look at life, okay? When there is something that I set such big bar for myself, raise the bar higher. And, and then when I look at it, when I backtrack, when I look at what, what I should do today, in order to get there. And when I do that bit, that particular day, I get super excited. Okay, I'll give you a simple example. Two months back, I did the whole wheel of life cycle. So we are a group of 12 mastermind people in in one of the groups called masterminds. And we did this exercise of setting ourselves knowing evaluating where we are in our way of life. So we had answers we at courier, so Wheel of Life is a very interesting exercise to do, I encourage everyone who is listening to this podcast to do this to take out some time, there is this feeling that are available online, wherein you can do wheel of life, and identify within that wheel of life, how you're balanced, okay. So it's like a spoke of the wheel. If any single thing anything, two or three spokes are broken, the wheel is not in balance. So somewhere you will have the it will obstruct you in your journey of life. So when we identified I was quite disturbed myself that, Okay, I need to fix a lot of things. And some of the gray areas that I identified is health. And I'm a person that I give time dedicate time to kind of maintain health and fitness. But yet, I was not there. So it is like scoring from one to 10. Right? And you have to give yourself the scoring where you are, where do you see yourself right now? So I scored myself between six to seven. Precisely, I said six. Now, what is my ideal thing in the next one year? To get to, I would say eight. So I have to get to two more points. Okay. So by the end of 31st, December 2020. If I have to get to eight, okay, then there are two points, two scores that I have to do to increase. Now what are those two points, so I put myself the goal, okay, I have to be 70 kgs, slim trim and fit, good metabolic ism. And that is for me represents true health. And in order to get there what I should do, so I have to lose three kilos. So lose three kilos in one month, two months, three months, how many months or a period of time I have to get to that weight. Now for that what I should do every day, 30 minutes, I dedicate myself either cycling or swimming, or going for a jog or doing exercise at home. So every day I choose to do different exercises. Okay, and that becomes my smaller chunk. So 30 minutes every day dedicated for my health. So I have a goal to get to 70 cages, slim trim and lean body with good metabolism. And this is what I chose to do on a daily basis. And that was so exciting. And I have an I have a tracker now it's called success habits tracker. So, we designed a nice excel sheet wherein we listed all the habits so we call it success habits and then against that we have per day, first day second 30 and against each that habit we take whether we lived that day making sure or committing to what we have taken on and in front of my desk today if I show you that there is a list and then I keep taking and at the end of the day, it kind of fulfills you that okay, whatever I did within that 24 hours was towards my mastery, okay towards of my bigger bigger goal or the purpose that I would like to achieve. So similarly, you can also set your goals for career you can set your goals for finances. Like I said earlier. And relationships and friends and family, there's so many areas that that you could identify and work towards. So but important thing is to do this wheel of life, exercise and then identify.

Deepak Machado 15:13

thank you Avil for that. For me, from my experience, I have four main areas that I work on my bigger goals, like finances, relationships, fitness, and spirituality. So these four areas I worked really, I consciously decided that I should work on these for my larger goals. So among, like I said, below those four sections, I have different kind of small chunks of you know goals that I achieve, even on a daily basis, it could be reading or meditation or working on my finances, investments, career, relationships. So at the end of the day, when you go before sleep, you evaluate your day, you know, you have achieved some kind of progress. So the day by day, like you said, drop by drop, every day you work towards your goals, it's it becomes a fulfilling journey. So my next question is, do we need to write down these goals? Or can we just remember in our minds, is it is it beneficial to write it down? Or, because some people say I, I would just keep it in my mind and the top of my mind?

Avil Pinto 16:29

Oh, lovely. In fact, writing has the science behind it, okay. From the ancient history, if you've seen many of the things are written, and written, things always happen today or tomorrow, it's bound to happen. And so when you write, okay, you're actually using three senses. One is your one is visual one is your thinking, and when you're writing, so that becomes too strong for mind to remember. And whatever that you have written, it somewhere reminds you, okay, and attract, it attracts faster. So as we speak, this morning, I woke up, this is the journal that I have, and keep journaling every day, I kind of write two pages. And, and, and like this, I have probably more than 10 journals that I have written and can put whatever that I've written. Okay, it works. So beginning of this year, I took 90 Days Challenge to write my goals every single day for 90 days. And marvelous things happen since then. So I had a dream of doing podcast, dream, which I wrote. And today, it's happening. It is amazing, isn't it? And that's what I say writing has its own its own ways, it creates miracles within you, but you got to believe in what you're writing, you cannot, you cannot write and say, Okay, I'm writing but I doubt it will happen, then it will never happen. Doubt is a major cause of things not happening for you doubt, okay, the people who live in doubt, it is it's like state of denial. So you it will not attract. Right. So it you have to believe I'm meant to do this, it I deserve. I deserve this to happen in my life. And when you believe it strongly, and when you visualize it, the way it is the way you want to see it, then you will attract it. So this is I think, for me, that is the way it is working. So I strongly recommend even though we have these technology where it says goal setting and everything habit tracker, all of the technologies available today, but I'm a bit traditional I believe in writing and that that gives me clarity as well when you write and and that's exciting and all the books that have have read from secret to Think and Grow Rich to power of subconscious mind. Right now I'm reading something called a squared okay from Pam grout It is unbelievable book ask and it is given and all of these books are fundamentally bring you that notion to believe that writing works wonders. And while you write you visualize, and so you can think of the end in mind, which is also set by Stephen Covey in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People before you do anything think end in mind and when you write it, you're actually visualizing the end in mind and that is how you okay trial.

Deepak Machado 19:39

So I also heard about you know, this SMART kind of goals like, specific measurable, yes. Can you briefly maybe go through this and how to, how can I use those in order to you know, be, be more, you know, potent or be more what you call practical and I set my goals.

Avil Pinto 20:01

Good, good, you're bringing your labor of the corporate side which is going to develop for us as individuals, professionals who are in corporate, we are given SMART objectives. Okay? Now when you when when he started off with goal setting people think that okay we don't have goals but when they go to work, okay they are given deadlines, they have objectives, they had KPIs and nothing but the goals. Again organization or top level they want to achieve 10% up to compared to last year, which is nothing but organization goal, which is then divided, and then split across to the different hierarchy, different functions. Now, if we were to look at smart, and thanks for being sub smart is nothing but it's a way to define your objectives. It's an abbreviation S stands for specific M is measurable, a for actionable achievable are for realistic, T for time specific, which is there is a time for it. So, now when I give an example of health, okay, I was very specific that I would like to have 70 gauges, slim trim and fit body. Okay, with good metabolic ism. Now, is it measurable? Yes, indeed. Okay, and what is the time bond in the next three months? I would like to reduce three kilos. Good. So I'm very clear about my goal. Is it achievable? Yes, definitely, it is achievable. So I cannot keep a goal, which is something beyond my control. Right? I want to land in the moon, which is achievable today, because of the past history or now, things are done. But is it specifically achievable in terms of the resources given you have, right? So you have to be realistic when you're setting up those small chunks. So that's why SMART goal will help you to have clear clarity, and then working on smaller chunks, and to achieve the bigger chunk.

Deepak Machado 22:05

Thank you so much Avil. For this insight. And do you have any on goal setting specifically do have you read any books? Or have you? Do you read any websites? Do you have anything specific?

For me, I've not come across anything specific about goal setting, okay. But there is a book by Simon Sinek, which is called Start With WHY, okay, our life, when you start with asking why, then you will have more clarity to do what you're doing. Right. So, again, going back to to my health goal, why do I want to have 70 cages? Why not? 75? Why not? 65? Why 70? Okay, so why 70 for me is seven and zero, it excites me. Okay, seven is a James Bond number, right, and then add seven, and then zero, it's something which kind of relates, I said, 70 is a good for my height. And for my height, ideally, I should have 69 kilos, but 69 No, 70 is good. 70 for me, is is something that excited? Why and then that that clarity, then excited me to pursue that goal strongly. Right. So in everything that we do, we should ask why? Why is a very important question. So if somebody would like to go deep dive into goal setting and understand clarity about their life also. So Start With Why is a very nice book.

Deepak Machado 23:50

Okay. I believe this has been a good educational session, and a podcast. Finally, I will do you follow or any personality that you notice in front of your eyes, that they have achieved their goals? You have some somebody in mind or?

Avil Pinto 24:03

Absolutely, absolutely. For example, as we speak, since I've known you, you are one example wherein how you've been consistently writing blogs and articles, okay, for media and also you have your personal blogs and when when I see this, why you're doing that and how consistent you are doing. So which means you split that number of blogs into weekly and monthly and this is how you split and my coach my mentors. My mentor is I have many mentors. It depends on like, for example my mentor for for public speaking, okay? Which is in Toastmasters. I have I have somebody who seen progressed with an amazing way, delivering speeches. Right? And he's one ideal guru for me to help me develop my public speaking ability, which I work in progress. At work, I have the managing director of frieslandcampina Rainbow Milk, his name is Sumit Matur. I look at him how he sets goals and he's achieving amazing the way he's built his career for me that is a ideal guru, okay that I see setting goals and achieving it. And I have my coach Cheryl Pinto, who lives now in Canada, and the way she is aligning her day and making sure her 24 hours she lives the best day of her life. She says I will we have one life. If God is gifted that day for you, you got to make it happen. And she takes three hours every morning, she wakes up at like 4am and three hours she dedicates meditation, goal setting, visualization, reading, listening to music, she is at another level and she inspires me. commendable. And for me, these are the people around me, who were extraordinary.

Deepak Machado 26:05

I believe. I've also heard somebody say this that you know, you are the average of the five people you spend your time with, I believe that is very much true. You become what you surround yourself with. May be books, it may be people it may be you know, podcasts, it may be, you know, what do you what do you watch? You know, we have any thoughts on this?

Avil Pinto 26:30

Yeah, absolutely. Swami Vivekananda his favorite quote, okay, you become an average of the five people you surround with. And it is so true. Now, if you surround with someone who is always talking about lack, always talking about fears, always talking about rate that is difficult to achieve. Okay? Then you also kind of tend to think and believe, which is not the reality, you are tuned and you have a life, probably the way you were you designed to work. But then unless, if you get controlled by somebody else's opinions and circumstances and experiences and situations, then you're not helping yourself towards progress. So it is very true. And that's the reason I choose people to be around who either empower me who either a positive, or he though, who teach me some great life lessons. So I may not be surrounded with people on a daily basis, but I choose to surround around books, the YouTube videos who are motivational speakers or gurus or Danny's or say, spiritual leaders, I mean, these are the people you surround on a daily basis. And that is what is important. Thank you for bringing this up. And I think this is one of my favorite thing that I keep talking to people in my videos also for the why jobs and community wherein people who are job seekers when they come in or when they lose jobs, you know, your next dialog we hear from your immediate circle of family is a cup whatever comes okay market is challenging. And when you when somebody sees market is selling, you tend to build your markets and it's very difficult to get a job. But I strongly believe that if you put if you really put your strategy, okay for the job and work on what you should do on a daily basis to get there. market will never be challenging for you, nor you might end up taking anything you will get what you really want for sure.

Deepak Machado 28:34

Thank you. I will thank you for for that tidbit of knowledge. Will we have any parting words?

Avil Pinto 28:41

Yes, indeed. Thank you so much Deepak for this great initiative. I'm as much excited as you are. And I'm sure the speak the audience who are listening to this they would also get benefit from how the we have progressed with our life and I'm here to share the journey at leading self which is self mastery. And I think if you announced now in the next episode, we are going to come with time management which is how do you prioritize your day to achieve your goals of purpose? Okay, so that's the next step. So we are going in series and I think there will be more happy to talk about

Deepak Machado 29:18

I'm sure the listeners are as inspired as I am to grow and to learn. Our intention is to help you and inspire you to achieve higher success. Join us in this journey to success and to success 10x please subscribe to our podcast success 10X on Apple podcasts and Google podcasts. Also, I would like you to rate us five stars. For this helps a lot with spreading of the knowledge and will help others also to achieve success who are in your similar situation and will also help us grow. I will leave you with this thought from Henry Ford. Obstacles are those frightful things you see, when you take your eyes off your goal. Obstacles are those frightful things you see, when you take your eyes off your goals. May be well, may be happy and when you find success, thank you. This is Deepak.