Setting Yourself Achievable Goals: 7 Step Plan

13th March 2018

Setting goals is an important factor in both personal and professional development. Psychologically, the boost you receive from successfully completing a goal you’ve worked hard towards is second-to-none. Goal setting provides focus, and gives you the ability to achieve what you want from life. Whilst achieving a goal is great, a major aspect of them is to help you grow as a person. There are numerous ways to ensure you get the most out of your journey, whilst helping you to achieve.

Setting Yourself Achievable Goals

1. Write Them Down

Writing your goals down is an important first step in the process. You’re more likely to achieve them if you write them down, as it gives you focus straight away and makes them feel real. With your goals written down and handy, you can refer to them daily and keep them at the forefront of your thoughts. This will help you to always look at things with an open perspective, as you focus on the bigger picture. Many studies have shown the positive effects of writing down your goals, such as this one from the Dominican University of California.

2. Make Them Specific

If your goals aren’t yet specific enough, you need to revisit them and hone in on what it actually is that you’re looking to achieve. Once you’ve made them more specific, see if you can go even further. The more detailed, the better. For example, your goal to ‘save money’ could be changed to ‘save £250 for home renovations’. This could then be taken further: ‘save £250 within 2 months to buy new hardwood flooring’. You can instantly see the difference, and how the added detail can give you a better focus.

3. Make Them Realistic

A key element to goal setting is making them attainable. This isn’t to be mistaken with going too conservative – you do need to push yourself – but how are you supposed to grow as a person if you continue to be knocked back by not achieving your goals? If your overall goal is ambitious, break this down into smaller chunks. This is all about the psychology of getting started. If a goal is too big, it can become too daunting to even get started. By breaking this up into minute steps, you’ll get started and get closer to your end goal.

4. Measure Your Progress

This is key for a number of reasons. Firstly, you want to stay on track. If your goal is to lose one stone of weight in 4 weeks, are you going to not weigh yourself until the 4 weeks are up? No, you’ll continue to weigh yourself to track your progress and see whether you need to work harder to achieve your desired weight loss. This needs to be the same for every goal you set yourself. Measuring your progress also helps you to stay focused, and prevents you from shying away from putting the work in. It would be easy to set goals and then forget about them (either consciously or subconsciously), but then it’s unlikely you’ll ever reach them. Keep track of how you’re doing, and make sure to be proud of yourself for any positive progress you’ve made.

5. Give Yourself a Timeframe

This relates to making your goals specific. By giving yourself a timeframe, you prevent yourself from letting hard work slip. Have you ever seen received a marketing email that includes a ‘flash sale’ that’s only available for the next 8 or so hours? This is a similar concept to setting yourself goals and a timescale to achieve it in. The timescale is there to encourage action, which is exactly why you should give yourself an allotted amount of time as well. If you know you only have a week to complete your objectives, you’ll work harder to make it happen. It also prevents you from letting your goals fall by the wayside and keeps you focused.

Setting Yourself Achievable Goals

6. Prioritise Progress

No more “I’ll start next week” or “I’ve been too busy” – this is simply prioritising other things over your objectives. If you truly want to achieve your goals, you need to make time for them. Some would argue that if you’re unable to make time, then you don’t truly want to achieve your goals, and you might need to re-evaluate them. By breaking them up into short-term milestones (see point three), you’re more likely to make progress. Keep focused on growing and the rest will follow.

7. Hold Yourself Accountable

Whether you achieve your desired goals or not, there’s only one person you can hold accountable: yourself. There might be other who provide stumbling blocks, but in the long-term you are responsible for making progress. You are the only one who can achieve your goals, and you’re the only one who can truly stop yourself from achieving them. Be accountable, but be proud of any and all progress or steps forward.

This is a guest post.

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