Are you setting goals for yourself in life? If not, you definitely need to! It is crazy how much you can accomplish if you just put your mind to it.
So I am a huge fan of goal setting! I absolutely love to set goals for my future and even more, I love achieving those goals. It is in my bones to make sure that every day I work to improve and challenge myself. The best way to make sure I am accomplishing what I want in life is through goal setting.
I believe setting goals helps to provide motivation and gives you a clear direction of how and where you want to go in life. Whether you set goals for your health, your career, your finances, or whatever you choose, goals are a great way to help get you on the right path to achieving those milestones.
So what goals have you set for yourself? Want to be CEO? Want to be super fit? How about just wanting to be at peace with your life? These are great goals and I am rooting for you to crush them all!
So why am I ranting about goals anyway? Well, when determining your goals it is super important to make sure you set intentional goals. This means that you are setting practical targets that can be obtained through hard work and with clear direction, not just shooting in the dark. Below are my tips on how to set those goals!
4 Tips for Goal-Setting
Get Real!
When setting goals it’s important to remember to keep the goals realistic and reachable.
This way you are not setting targets that you may never reach or have goals that are so absurd you spend your entire life trying to reach a goal that is unrealistic. Now I am not saying you can’t make your wildest dreams come true, but you do have to be real with yourself and your situation. You need to understand that no matter what goal you choose, it will take some work.
Make an Action Plan
With your goals it is important to make an action plan to help achieve your goals. By this I mean you need to figure out the steps you should focus on achieving first in order to accomplish your long term goal.
For example, say I want to get a degree. The steps I would need to reach first would be to apply to the school, enroll in the courses, pass all of the required classes, then apply to graduate!
All these steps lead to reaching my ultimate goal of obtaining a degree, but since I have broken down the goal into smaller super obtainable steps; I now have a clear direction on where to start and what direction I need to head.
Try breaking down your goal into smaller steps. By doing so you won’t feel so overwhelmed when thinking about accomplishing your goal as you understand the smaller steps that need to come first.
Pick the Right Timeline
Creating the right timeline for your goals is important for the accomplishment of the goals. You do not want to set a month timeline for something that will more likely take 3-6 months. So keep in mind a realistic duration for your goals that allows you enough time to effectively accomplish your goal. This will help to not let yourself get defeated when you don’t meet your schedule.
Write it Down
Lastly, remember to write your goals down to help reinforce what you want. By writing down your goals you are more likely to reach them as putting them to paper helps to manifest the idea. Also try writing your goals in a journal as often as possible to help the put these goals at the forefront of your mind and daily activities.
The key points to take away when setting your goals is to make sure the goals are realistic and reachable, an action plan is in place, the schedule is ideal, and you write it all down. Keeping these in mind when creating your goals will help you to find success!
Tools for Goal-Setting
Apps
I found a few apps that help you focus and track your goals and habits. The first app is Strides that has a 4.8 rating on iTunes. Strides can help you track both good and bad habits as well as goals. Second, is the Coach.Me Habbit Tracker that has a 4.3 rating on iTunes. This app provides free tracking tools and gives access to a community to help you stay motivated on reaching your goals.
Books
A few books to check out to not only help you set your goals, but to help change your mindset about achieving your goals and growing yourself. Everything is Figureoutable, Better than Before, Awaken the Giant Within, and The Compound Effect.
Worksheet
To help you start to figure out your goals, I created a quick goal setting worksheet to help you set your goals, deadlines, and action steps.
Here’s to you going after your goals! Let me know in the comments what goals you are working towards or goals you have already achieved.
