In his article "7 Pieces of Advice for Reaching Your Goals," Steve Pavlina provides 7 pieces of advice on how to achieve more. One of these pieces was to stop using the word "should" in your vocabulary, because this word is guilt-based and makes reaching your goals difficult. If you stop saying that you should do something and realize that you are a fallible human being who is only capable of doing so much, it will make it easier for you to achieve more. The rest is up to individual motivation and effort.
If you have ever struggled with achieving your goals in life, then this may be a helpful article for you to read. You, like many other people out there, might have a tendency to tell yourself that you should do this or that. You assume that, because the activity is reasonable or could be done without much effort on your part, you should do it.
Drastically reducing the number of times you use the word "should" not only makes you more conscious of your thoughts and words, but it also helps to make you aware of when you are putting yourself down and creating unnecessary pressure on yourself. Here are some examples of how "should statements" can manifest themselves in your life:
You should work harder at school Your grades are so low this semester; I don't know why you're not working harder at school.
You should be more motivated to get better grades You should try harder at school; your grades are so low this semester.
You should get better at golf You should practice more; you're not getting any better at golf.
You should actually work harder at school I don't know why you're not getting a B on every test; you should be working a little harder if you want to succeed in school.
This is just a small sample of how the word "should" is used on a daily basis, and how it can affect us in our lives. It may seem like a harmless word, but it carries a lot of weight and can significantly affect the way you achieve your goals. By eliminating "should" from your vocabulary, you reduce the amount of pressure put on yourself to do things which may not be beneficial or even appropriate for you to complete.
Consider this scenario: you are at work and your boss asks you to complete a project as soon as possible. You could tell him that you'll try to finish it as soon as possible, or he could tell you that he believes that the project should be done within the next few days. When used in this context, "should" is no longer a working word, because the boss is stating what he thinks should be done. You are no longer responsible for what you can or cannot do; the boss is responsible for giving you the tasks to do.
This concept also applies to athletics. A coach may tell a player that he should be performing better than he is right now, but that's not true. Only the player himself can play basketball or softball—there is no one else responsible for his success in the game besides himself. If you have ever played softball, then you know how much fun it is to hit a baseball hundreds of feet into the air and come down right at your teammate's head! This is possible because you are only doing what needs to be done to get that ball over home plate.
How important is the word "should" to you? If you were to eliminate it from your vocabulary, how much would you actually achieve in life? These are questions only you can answer. In order to stop using "should" and make yourself a better person, I encourage you to become aware of your thoughts and words as they relate to accomplishing goals.