Ready Aim Fire!

Imagine you’ve got a gun and you’re doing some target practice. How do you make sure you hit the bullseye? 

Well, you don’t just whip out your weapon, blast off a bullet, and hope for the best. First, you get ready – pointing the gun in the right direction. Then, you aim – zeroing in on your target. Finally, you fire – pulling the trigger and accomplishing the deed. It’s a three-step process with a beginning, middle, and end. 

Now, maybe you don’t have any interest in becoming a sharpshooter – but the same three steps apply to just about anything you want to do in life. 

The key message here is: To set and achieve a goal, you have to get yourself ready, aim at a target, and fire at it. 

Of course, life is usually more complicated than firing a gun at a shooting range. Generally speaking, you don’t have a single, predefined target with a big, red bullseye directly in front of you. Instead, you’ve got many different areas of life calling out from multiple directions at the same time: family, friends, career, health, and so on. 

All of these areas are important, but you can’t aim and fire everywhere at once. If you want to get ready to set a goal, you’ve got to pick one area to start with. 

Let’s say you settle on your health. Well, that narrows things down, but it’s still pretty broad – encompassing everything from your weight to the quality of your sleep. Now you’ve got to zoom in on just one thing, select it as your target, and take aim at it. That means finding a concrete objective and coming up with a sensible plan for achieving it. 

For example, maybe you decide to get into shape by going to the gym. Now you’ve got a target to aim at – finally, it’s time to fire! How? By putting your plan into action, sticking to it, and seeing it through to the end. To go back to our target-practice metaphor, you’ve got to “pull the trigger” by committing yourself to the task at hand – actually going to the gym and working out on a regular basis. 

Of course, all of that’s easier said than done – but don’t worry. We’re about to break the whole process down, step-by-step.