SUCCESS Illustrated 
Ability to achieve your life goals became synonymous with success and prosperity over the previous years and decades. There is a growing perception that people are either goal achievers – winners, or they are notoriously underachieving any goal they set – losers. And life’s realities confirm that.
What now defines a person’s status, well-being, and especially their happiness is the ability to reach and achieve their life goals consistently.
Emphasizing life goal achievement happens to be a worldwide trend. And due to the current accelerated global economy and information flows, it’s trending at an ever-increasing pace. You can achieve any and all of your life goals and dreams in 2024 if you just read this guide to success.
If you want to build yourself a future instead of previous defeats and under achievements, go ahead and read this guide by Success Illustrated.
You CAN Achieve Your Life Goals.
Keep reading, and we will show you how to achieve your life goals – and how NOT to fail at it, especially in the long run. You have the potential to be amazing at everything you are passionate about, so let’s get to it!
By following the simple steps outlined in the end of this article, you will have the tools necessary to achieve your life goals. You will learn how to rebuild your life once again. And you will take back control over your success once and for all!
The Definition Of Goal Setting.
Before you are to set and then achieve your life goals, you need to know what goal setting really is. “Goal setting is a process by which a person makes an aspirational statement about what they desire to achieve. It is the process of creating and specifying one’s goal and elaborating a strategy for achieving it, specific to the individual. Goal setting includes the use of SMART goals, which is the acronym for specific, meaningful, attainable, relevant and time-bound.”
Simply put, a goal is something that you want to accomplish. It’s a desired result that you alone, or you along with other people, plan and commit to achieving.
Goals can many times be just described as dreams. But it is important to actually distinguish between the two.
Dream is when you let your imagination run wild. Only when you act on your dream you make it real. And when you make a plan of these actions, and assign to it a time stamp, such plan we call a goal. In other words, goals are bullet points of the overall recipe to fulfill your dreams.
How Important Are Goals In Life?
If there is anything that qualifies as the first step to succeed in your life, it would be setting goals. People who set ambitious goals for their lives and are disciplined in going after them have the highest chance of actually get real successful.
So you see, setting well-designed and ambitious goals for your life is a key part of your overall success. Setting ambitious goals worth of who you are is not just important. It is paramount.
Why People Fail To Achieve Goals.
Most people fail to achieve their goals because they just never start with actually acting upon these goals in a disciplined and persistent manner. For them, life is always a walk in the park. They want to start making plans for their future, but never really take the first step. They are content to just sit around, browse social feeds, write statuses, and then enjoy restful evenings.
If you are to actually achieve your life goals, you have to step out of your comfort zone. In order to achieve them, you have to take things to the edge when they begin to hurt. And that pain comes from your increased effort when chasing your goals!
That is where our 7 simple tools found in the end of this article will come help and guide you. Ease the pain, and provide a roadmap. And even give you practical, concrete guides and pieces of software that will make your goal-chasing journey surprisingly manageable – or even enjoyable!
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GOAL ACHIEVEMENT:
GET HONEST WITH YOURSELF (Step 1)
We all have goals that we want to achieve in the future. It might be something as simple as pursuing your dream job, gaining financial independence, live a better life… Or making more time to do the things you always wanted.
Always bear in mind the goals you set will ultimately become the very roadmaps that you follow and live by every day. They will become the endpoints of aspiration that you actually base your whole life upon. Therefore, if you set your goals broadly or vaguely, you usually end up in frustration and failure.
Why? Because in order to set and achieve your life goals properly, you must be specific enough. And go deep enough.
FORGET ABOUT ANY LIMITATION (Step 2)
Let me show you the most effective way. To set the goals you REALLY want to achieve in life, simply pause and give yourself a few hours of time and space. When you are alone. And undistracted.
And then just forget about any limitation that usually hinders you from planning things properly in your life. Yes, that’s right… Re-connect with your inner self for an hour or two. Remember, you are worth much more than you think. Especially at times when success is yet to be reached like a destination point far in a distance.
You are a precious stone. A diamond. Engrave that into your memory.
WHAT DO YOU WANT THE MOST? (Step 3)
And then ask the inner you this simple question:
“If I only had one year to live, what would I do from tomorrow on?”
And then write down a profoundly honest answer to the question.
That’s it. Nothing else needed. “Brutally honest” answer to this single question will do. It has the potential to turn your life over, in a positive way! And put you on the path where you truly achieve your life goals. Chasing after those things that you want and need the very most.
BREAK YOUR GOAL TO 3-10 SUBS (Step 4)
OK. Now you know the over-arching master goal that your life should be guided towards. It is time to break it down to a couple of more detailed sub goals. If you are to achieve your life dream or dreams, that is.
Sub goal is simply a goal that is partial in character. If the master goal is “make a million dollars” then it’s sub goal would be “double one’s previous income, every year, for X years.” And there would be more sub goals, for instance dealing with achievements every particular year.
Oh, and my apologies for providing an example of a master goal that some would call too shallow. But you get the idea. To properly set and achieve your goals, both master and sub, write yourself better ones. Ones that are truly yours…
ASSIGN A DATE TO EACH SUB (Step 5)
Remember what we wrote earlier about a goal being a dream with a deadline? Now it’s time to practice the preaching – if you are to fulfill your dreams and if you are to achieve your goals.
Simply take a piece of paper and a pen, and right under your master goal, write 3-10 sub goals. Your subs all need to contribute to reaching and achieving your master. It’s simple – just come up with the subs and assign a deadline to each.
Oh, and don’t be limited by the one-year deadline mentioned earlier. That is provided as an example, a mind exercise to help you get to the bottom of things. For the sake of setting your life goals, let’s assume you have a nice and healthy future ahead of ‘ya!
APPS TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS (Step 6):
With the right tools and the right strategy, your goals become realistically achievable. Remember, simply setting goals alone is not enough. You must act and act in a disciplined way to actually achieve your life goals.
There might come this moment, at least for some people… When they have just written all of their deeply personalized life goals down, they somehow begin to feel they have “done the work”. And now they deserve a holiday.
Nothing can be further from the truth. In order to succeed in setting and achieving your life goals in practical, day-to-day terms, you will need dedication, hard work, discipline. Sometimes even sacrifice.
And the right tools.
When it comes to equipping you with the proper tool set, we at Success Illustrated are more than happy to be of assistance.
Here are our best picks that will help you reach any realistic goal you set for your life. We took the time to sort out all of their data so that you don’t need to. Enjoy!
A. TODOIST
Click here to download TODOIST. TODOIST is compatible with Mac/Windows/iOS/Android.
In the age of artificial intelligence, cloud data storage, and ultra-fast processing of everything, we are long past the days of paper to-do clips.
Yet still, many seek apps they use daily to at least visualize those old-fashioned tools we once loved and used so often. You want digital tools that leave you feeling less stressed, more at home. And really help you achieve your life goals as you use them.
This is exactly the point where Todoist comes to play – and shines at doing so! It digitally re-sculps the most beloved to-do tools made of paper. In addition, it also provides for a very systemic, all-encompassing approach when it comes to digitally mastering the organizational functioning and workflow. Recurring tasks, comments, JIT productivity visualizations, and calendar integrations are just a few of the great features Todoist creators rightfully boast about.
Todoist is free for everyone to use, as long as you do not need the advanced options it offers. Once you do, get ready to pay a fee – rather small, fortunately. Todoist pricing for advanced users is $3 per month for individuals, and $5 per month for teams, billed annually. With monthly billing, you’ll pay $1 extra a month with each option for convenience.
This app truly excels when it comes to natural language processing. You can easily create projects, priorities, filters, labels. You can assign categories and tags to your tasks, and also choose which projects they should belong to. Everything is visually very appealing, the UI interface is intuitive and well-designed.
Todoist is a kanban style productivity app that is recognized by many experts and influencers as the Nr1 in the category. It lets you organize your day, your week, month, etc. in all the right ways you have been craving for. It is robust enough to manage not just tasks and projects in your life and your business – but also your side projects and holidays. All that in a very straightforward, visually appealing, and intuitive way.
As for compatibility, Todoist is a cross-platform app, offering downloads for both Windows and Mac, a Chrome extension, and integrations with Gmail and Outlook. The app also fluently communicates with all Amazon Alexa devices, such as Amazon Echo.
QUICK RECAP: Todoist is one of the best – if not the best – productivity apps out there. This software is what you need, whether you want to manage your time as an individual or run a large business. There is a free plan available. Premium features, such as priority and calendar syncing, will require you to pay a small fee.
In such case, your Todoist pricing stands at $36 per year for individuals, and $60 for teams when paid annually. In case of monthly payments, you’ll pay $12 per year on top of that for each of the two options. However, if you happen to be attending school these days, there is a student account available for appr. $1.50/month.
B. AYOA
Click here to download AYOA. AYOA is compatible with Mac/Windows/iOS/Android.
Have you ever felt like you don’t know where to begin? Like your mind is so cluttered that you need a map to actually find your way around?
If you have, Ayoa can assist. By literally providing you with that map! This app was designed to do task management for you, and combines it with mind mapping. It will help you divide big tasks into smaller ones and give you a digital canvas to transform your dreams into charts. Along with a very cool, AI-powered mind map.
Ayoa will help individuals as well as teams, large and small with idea sharing, brainstorming, copywriting, deadlines, task prioritization, chat, etc.
Ayoa is yours free, but only for a week as a fully-featured trial. Paid plans are called PRO and ULTIMATE and start at $10 per user per month when billed annually. You will get discounts when you add more users.
C. TRELLO
Click here to download TRELLO. TRELLO is compatible with Mac/Windows/iOS/Android.
Super easy-to-use and very well designed, Trello is another app that can help you achieve your life goals. It has everything you search for in a digital organizing companion. It has already redefined the productivity and project management.
Trello is build around a simple architecture where each user or project gets its own “board”. Now, Trello boards consist of columns, and are nothing else but infinite planning charts. There are markers on the board that define the stages of completion for a task. And tasks are further combined into “cards”. Here again, Trello designers were inspired by the to-do tools made of paper that people used before the digital era. Their cards look very much like sticky notes!
You can put anything you imagine into your Trello board. Your columns and cards can contain texts, bullet points, images, videos, links… The beauty of Trello is that these cards then represent your goal-reaching action flow. You are being led from one column to another until all of them are complete within your board. Then your goal is achieved, and you can leave the board.
Trello offers a free plan – and what a comprehensive plan it is! At no cost you will get an impressive number of features. The scope covered in the free plan is usually more than enough for getting individuals and smaller teams organized and up-to-date. For those in need of extra functionality, and teams, paid plans start at $5/user per month with yearly charge, and $6 charged monthly.
D. SLACK
Click here to download SLACK. SLACK is compatible with Mac/Windows/iOS/Android.
The Slack app promises to help you move faster by organizing your work life. The key to productivity in Slack is that it offers organized spaces that Slack creators aptly named “channels”. There is a different channel available for everything you are working on.
The rule here is that you keep your Slack channel focused on one specific “topic”. This can be literally anything you like. In practical terms it is a good idea to reserve one channel for a specific goal, project, or venture.
Slack does a great job helping you assign and consequently organize people, messages, and files related to your channel (topic) in one place. This way, you can move forward to chase your dream and achieve your life goal much faster.
Just like Trello, Slack also has a free plan available. However, many functions will not be accessible if you choose to go down paying nothing. If you want to stay organized and in touch with even a small team, Slack starts at $6.99 per month. Price will then rise based on your choice to pay once a month or once a year.
E. ASANA
Click here to download ASANA. ASANA is compatible with Mac/Windows/iOS/Android.
Asana creators describe it as an app that will supply your work manager. Its main focus is work in teams, larger or smaller. You can still manage tasks leading to reaching your personal life goals with Asana. But the interface is not as intuitive and straightforward for individual use as with the above applications.
If you, however, happen to manage a team, Asana proves to be a solid, robust team management and productivity companion. Asana’s workflow is structured around what they call a “timeline”. Your Asana timeline is basically very similar to your channel in Slack app. Only it is designed a bit differently, and offers slightly different controls. But the principle is the same, in essence. You have many other things at your disposal with Asana, including reporting, portfolios, workload, forms, integrations, etc.
One of the greatest advantages of the app is the ability to divide your tasks into subtasks. The app offers full compatibility and control of the feature. Thumbs up!
There is a somewhat steeper learning curve to getting used to this application. Once you familiarize with it, however, you might be surprised by the flexibility and scope of functions of Asana.
Unlike with Slack, Asana offers a free service tier that comes with quite a number of well organized features.
However. To use Asana’s timeline and other integrated features like forms, rules, milestones, you must subscribe to one of the subscription plans.
The cheapest paid plan starts at $10.99 per month, per user, when billed annually. If you prefer monthly payments, this plan will cost you $13.49. There is also a business plan available, starting at $24.99 bill annually, and $30.49 billed monthly. The business plan offers more complex functions, e.g. portfolios and approvals.
F. GOOGLE TASKS
Click here to download TASKS. TASKS is compatible with Mac/Windows/iOS/Android.
You should consider Google Tasks if your management and workflow relies heavily on other Google apps like Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, etc.
The app has some of the features of the apps mentioned above, however, what it lacks is depth, complexity, and detail. Basically, Google Tasks is some sort of a simplified version of Todoist. If we are to draw comparisons…
Google Tasks boasts some features that are unique to Google, and its app infrastructure. For instance, your Google Calendar will look the best with this app. Logically… Your Tasks looks great on a mobile device. Also it’s great if you are in the rush or need to quickly capture an idea or plan that just hopped into your mind.
Google offers its Tasks app at no cost whatsoever. You should therefore consider this option if you are determined to pay nada, to nobody, for an organizer app.
G. MICROSOFT TO-DO
Click here to download MS TO-DO. MS TO-DO is compatible with Mac/Windows/iOS/Android.
Another free organizer and to-do software application. This time, designed by the Microsoft team. Similar to Google Tasks, Microsoft To-Do works best when used with other MS apps. The app will provide you with all the essential functions that you want from a tool of this kind. But it will keep you wanting for more as soon as you take achieving your goals seriously and would want a more sophisticated solution.
That said, however, there are some surprising benefits to Microsoft To-Do. Namely, it integrates reminders, calendar syncing, and file attachments. It also manages sub-tasks well, and even allows for their transformation to parent tasks. Considering this a free app, it is quite intriguing. Mostly due to the fact that all of the above competitors providing these features – want you to pay for them!
Let’s end this section with the single biggest drawback of the Microsoft To-Do app. It is: the Outlook-only calendar integration. In other words, if you want to use Google or Apple Calendar, Microsoft says they are sorry. You are not allowed to! Only a very small percentage of people outside of the corporate world uses MS Outlook nowadays. At this point, we are pretty much saying good-bye to MS To-Do.
This summarizes our review of the best software tools that you can use in 2024 to achieve your life goals. If you like any of the apps mentioned in the text, feel free to click on the links provided in this article. And subscribe to your prefered solution.
PLEASE NOTE: We receieve a small portion of each sale of any product or service initiated by you from this page. Whenever you buy or subscribe to one using the links provided here, we get a small cut in return. We use these proceeds to fund our magazine operations, and to build and enhance our business. If you feel inspired by our articles, reviews, and rankings please consider subscribing to whatever caught your eye by using the links on this page. You’ll help us publish higher quality content this way. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!
