10 Tips for Setting Achievable Goals

Deciding to set goals is one of the most important things you can do to improve your life. Nearly 98% of people don’t take the time to set clear goals for themselves. It is essential for you to think about where you want to be, whether it’s in one month, one year, or five years.

Below are ten tips to help you to set better goals. These tips provide the necessary foundation to inspire you to pursue your goals with a greater sense of purpose and clarity.

If you would like a FREE checklist of all 10 tips, click here

Write Your Goals Down

Writing down your goals is one of the most valuable tips to help achieve them. You will see where you want to go and be able to visualize yourself achieving the goals. The possibility of you completing your goals increases when you write them down because writing makes them feel more realistic.

Also, by making a step-by-step list of your goals and keeping it plainly visible, you can review it every day. You will always see where you want to go. You will be able to visualize the roadmap to achieving your goals more clearly. Writing down your goals gives you an idea of what you need to do, as well as what to avoid doing to make them a reality. It is an efficient way of keeping them at the forefront of your mind all the time.

You will also gain new insights and understanding on how to go about achieving your goal faster. You will see where you can tweak your list to keep you focused on your highest priorities. Doing so will help you identify what goals might be relevant to your life’s purpose, so you can cross out those that are not.

Your Goals Must Mean Something to YOU

Don’t set goals for things you don’t want. Although this sounds like common sense, many of us set goals based on what they think others want for us. You must make sure that each goal you set, no matter how little, is important to you and will benefit your overall purpose in life.

Reaching a goal is going to take work, so it needs to be something that you’re passionate about, and something you need to accomplish. Ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being zero commitment and 10 being total commitment, how committed are you to the goal? If you fall anywhere below 7 or 8, you should reconsider your goal or rewrite it.

If you are trying to achieve goals set by other people, you must realize you may never attain your maximum potential. You’ll never be motivated enough unless you become responsible for your goals and align them for your benefit in the long run.

Your Goals Should Excite You

You should be passionate about the goals you set for yourself. They should be things that give you a burning desire to fulfill. Thinking about them and pursuing them should fill you with vigor and passion. If you’re not excited by your goals, you will find an excuse not to follow through.

If you’re not excited by your goals, spend some time redefining them. What would make them exciting? It’s all about you and what you want your life to be. Be honest with yourself; it’s ok to change your goals.

Without having a burning desire to accomplish your goals, you will struggle to find the motivation you need to overcome all the obstacles, problems, and adversities that you’ll inevitably encounter along your journey.

Your Goals Must Be Specific and Measurable

When you have a goal in mind that you want to accomplish, make sure it is as specific as possible. If your goals aren’t specific enough, they won’t give you enough direction to follow through. By giving more detail to your goals, you accomplish two things. First, it lets you know exactly what you’re working toward. Second, it makes the goal seem more real.

Your goals should also be measurable. Give yourself a realistic timeline for accomplishing each of them. Make sure that you add specific dates, amounts, and so on. The parameters you use to measure your goals make your progress quantifiable.

For example, when measuring your goal, instead of saying “I want to lose weight” you can say something like “I want to lose ten pounds in the next five weeks.” Setting a measurable timeline in this manner gives you a way to create checkpoints along the way to ensure you stay on track. It also gives you a chance to celebrate a win at each milestone, which psychologists have found to be important to success.

Your Goals Must Have a Deadline

Vague timelines for a goal make it easy to yield to procrastination. By setting a realistic timeframe for achieving a goal, you give yourself a deadline that will constantly remind you to keep working toward your goal. A deadline gives you a sense of urgency that something is at stake, a state of mind that is lacking when goals are open-ended.

Also, by attaching a timeframe to your goals, you will get to celebrate your milestone victories, and anticipate a big celebration for when you accomplish your big goal. Never underestimate the motivation of the reward system.

Want the FREE checklist? Click here

Create Accountability for Your Goals

Creating accountability for your goals is another important tip that helps many people not only set better goals but also makes it easier to achieve them. If you are working on your goals in secret and there are some tasks you aren’t looking forward to, it’s easy to let them slide. Having even one person who you are accountable to can help you stay motivated.

It is important that you find an accountability partner that regularly checks up on you to see how you are progressing. It could be your friend, a family member, or a trusted colleague. Explain to them what your goal is and why accomplishing it is so important to you. Remember to include the timeframe so that they can help you with it.

An accountability partner will regularly ask you how your goals are coming along and offer help or advice if you need encouragement. Plan to meet and speak with them at least one day each week. Provide them with an update on your activities and the progress toward your goal. Once that is done, you can let them know about the next tasks or projects coming up.

Don’t Be Afraid to Think BIG

Your goals must be challenging. If they are not challenging to you, then you will grow bored fast.

When you want something, really want it, you can feel yourself longing for it in every bone of your body. That drive and that hunger will push you to achieve it. You won’t need anyone to tell you to pursue it because the willingness to do so will come naturally to you.

If you don’t feel this way about a particular goal, maybe it isn’t big enough. Your goal should be just enough out of your comfort zone to excite you and guide you to try new things.

The goal setting process requires that you create an action plan to achieve your goals. You must have a step-by-step system in place that indicates how you intend to accomplish your goals. It can be a simple list of all the resources you need to acquire, skills you need to master, support you need, etc.

Start by writing down the individual steps you need to achieve your goal, then go back and put them in a logical order. Then, follow these steps religiously as they are the roadmap you will use to execute your plan as flawlessly as possible.

Create small, consistent daily actions and tasks that will continually drive you toward your goal. Also, make sure to remain flexible in case of unexpected circumstances or obstacles that cross your path. This is a very simple, yet effective way to overcome procrastination.

When you have a plan in place, it makes you accountable, and working the plan makes you successful. Devote enough time to the planning of your goal. Don’t forget to revisit the plan on a regular basis to see if it needs to be modified. It’s common for a big goal to change as you go along.

Reward Yourself for Each Goal and Mini-Goal You Reach

Make it a habit to celebrate the big and small wins! You don’t have to be hard on yourself to meet a goal. In fact, being kind to yourself while staying focused and committed is a better way to ensure success. So, put a little fun back into the process of self-discipline and self-control by building in a reward system along the milestones of your goal. Treat yourself for your hard work and dedication!

When you accomplish your big goal, take the time to treat yourself in style. Arrange a special outing or buy something special you’ve wanted for a long time. Having such rewards in mind when struggling to pursue your goals will keep you motivated.

If You Stumble, Adjust and Start Again

You need a “never-say-die” attitude when working toward your goals. You will face challenging situations that could knock you off your course and halt your progress. Just knowing this happens to even the greatest goal-setters can go a long way in helping you regroup when it happens to you.

When you find yourself in a difficult situation, you may see it as a failure. However, it is important to understand that surrendering to difficulties isn’t a failure. It’s a chance to reevaluate your goal and the strategies and action steps to see if there’s a flaw in them. After all, you can’t be expected to foresee all issues that might come up in the future. You may find that gaining more clarity, redefining your action steps or lengthening your timeframe is all that’s needed to boost your spirits back up so that you can get back to your goal.

So, if you fail while trying to achieve your goal, pick yourself up, adjust, and start again. Most people fail once, and that is it for them – they don’t dare stand back up again. They choose to be defeated by the results they got and decide to play it safe and stay where they are in life, just to ensure never “failing” again. Don’t let this be you! Play big. And play to win.

Conclusion

Goal setting is, without a doubt, an integral and fundamentally important part of our lives, whether we acknowledge it or not. When you set goals, you automatically take charge of the next chapter of your life. All that is needed is for you to decide on your intended destination.

The next time you want to set a goal, use these ten tips as your guide to help make success easier to reach. By consciously using them, you will be firmly established to withstand the unpredictable seas and the winds of change that may have hindered you from achieving your goals in the past.

Happy Goal Setting!

To get the FREE checklist of all 10 tips, click here

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