I must first start this article by making it clear that I am not a man who knows all the answers. In spite of the fact that I happen to be a professor, I would much rather be the student than the teacher. One of the things I've noticed over time is that there are quite a few of us who end up in the "woulda shoulda coulda" category of life. Rather than achieving our goals, we talk about how we "woulda done this if it hadn't been for that," or we "shoulda did this when we were younger." Most of us "coulda" done quite a few things, but what matters at the end of the day is what you actually do. In fact, I would rather have someone actually give me a dollar than to promise me a million dollars that were never delivered.

Life is incredibly short. You've got 8,760 hours in every year, and about 1/3 of those hours will be spent sleeping. By sitting still, wasting time or engaging in meaningless activity, you are slowly drifting toward a safe arrival to your death bed. Most of us have a few dreams we'd like to fulfill while we wait for the next life to arrive, and what usually stands between us and our dreams is a little thing called "execution."

Here are some steps that I believe in with all my heart when it comes to finding a way to fulfill your personal objectives in life:

1) Always have a goal: If you don't know where you're going, you're surely not going to get there. One thing I've always felt is that I don't want my life to happen by accident. Even at the age of 20, I didn't want to wake up as a 35-year old man wondering how I ended up in my career or why I was with the woman lying next to me. Life should have direction, meaning and purpose. In fact, every single day should have meaning and purpose on some level. Keeping a list of one, three and five year goals is a great way to create fulfillment in your life. Actually, your life one year from today should not be the same as it is right now: You should have more education, reached a few fitness goals, achieved an objective in your personal life, or anything that reminds you that you're not standing still. A boring life that doesn't change is actually just a rutt- but the truth is that most meaning in life is decided upon internally.

2) Never waste time: They say that time is money, but that's really not true. Time is actually far more valuable than money, because you can replace money, but you can never replace time. Any free time you have can be used to help you hustle toward your goals, and to inch a little further in life. The free time we have is a blessing of valuable resources that can be invested into improving the quality of our own life or the lives of those around us.

3) Always have a realistic strategy to reach your goals: A lot of people have dreams, but very few people have a strategy for the fulfillment of those dreams. The tricky part of achieving big objectives is that big pictures are created with tiny strokes of a brush. That means that what you do every day effectively builds and formulates what you are creating for a lifetime. So, your strategy to reach long-term goals will usually involve some kind of day-to-day regimen which compiles into long-term goal achievement. You cannot connect what you are doing right now with what you are doing for your entire life. Even beyond that, most people who have dreams and strategy don't actually execute that strategy. Lay out your plan to get to the finish line; a day-to-day agenda that will move you closer to the final objective. A life is made up of a series of days and hours, so if you are pushing for greatness each day, then you are living an extraordinary life.

4) Hold yourself accountable with consistent feedback: As you set your goals and execute strategy, you must also give yourself honest and critically supportive evaluation. Each week, you should compare what you say you're doing to what you're actually doing. If the two things are not consistent, then keep tweaking until the real you matches the imaginary you. Most of us lie to ourselves when it comes to how hard we are actually working to achieve our objectives. You don't want to end up living a lie.

5) Forgive yourself when you screw up: The road to success is paved with failure. The only way I can tell that I'm living a successful life is when I am failing on a regular basis. When you are trying new things, pushing for new heights and striving to be a better person, you are going to fall on your face multiple times. Success is not pretty; it's grimy, rough, painful and uncomfortable. But by enduring this discomfort you emerge a stronger human being. Struggle breeds progress, so you must embrace one if you want to achieve the other. Get out there and struggle, and you'll find yourself better for it in the end.





Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.