Need help with your personal or professional goal setting?
Here are a couple of tips to get you started. The most important aspect of goal setting is to define what you want and always, always have a plan. As they say, “Any road can take you there if you don’t know where you’re going”.
TIP #1 for Achieving Your Goal
Define what you want. We often lack clarity about what we really want. The first step is to sit down and define what you want and what is your plan for the year. Specifically, I focus on three areas. The first is financial. What will my business or home budget look like? Relationships and family are second. What are your goals concerning your relationship with your spouse or children? How much time do you want to spend with the people you care about? Finally, your health, which typically involves diet and exercise, both of which can be challenging. But remember if you don’t have a healthy body, you can’t have a healthy mind. Without your health, nothing else really matters.
TIP #2 for Achieving Your Goal
Create a plan to achieve your goals. I start by looking into the future and imagining I’m at the end of my life. If I looked back, what would I see? What would my perfect life look like? Once you have a vision for your life and the type of legacy you want to leave, then you can work backwards by making some long-term goals, such as 10-year goals. And keep working backwards to your 5-year goals and then 1-year goals. Once you have your long-term goals set, you can begin breaking up your one-year goals into 90-day goals and then breaking those up into 30-day goals, one-week goals, and then your daily-to-do list. And remember, the success you have with your short-term goals will dictate the success you have with your long-term goals. However, as the author James Clear writes, “Goals are great for planning, but systems are better for getting results”. Setting a goal is a start, but putting systems in place to help you achieve your goal will better enable you to succeed.
TIP #3 to Achieving Your Goal
Be specific and write it down. Ambiguity leads to failure. We often say, “I want to lose weight”, but we don’t specify how much weight we want to lose or by when. Make sure your goals are written down, specific, and that they have a deadline. In a study done by Dr. Gail Matthews of the Dominican University of California, a written goal is 42% more likely to be achieved. There is no better invention for reaching your goals than the all-mighty pen and paper. So write your goal down and be specific. You can start by writing, “I will accomplish [blank] goal by [blank] deadline.” You now have a goal you can work towards with a deadline. Find an accountability partner for even better results.
FINALLY!
Don’t forget to review your goals frequently, measure your success, and always celebrate your wins!
