How to achieve the goals you set?
Goals
“I’m losing weight, starting gym, living healthier, cutting down on junk food, saving money and getting rid of my debt”. Do you find this is how you start the 1st of January each year? Do you start each new year with resolutions and goals? Are you a goal setter?
Research shows us that only 8% of people, who set new year’s resolutions, actually achieve them. Do you have long term goals which you have kept? How to achieve the goals you set?
Why set goals?
Goals are more important than we may realise. In essence, goals give us focus and vision. Giving your life motivation, drive and most importantly- purpose. Not only are goals important for our purpose, they are important to our mental health and overall life satisfaction. Therefore, whether you are setting short or long-term goals, the key is to have goals for your life.
By having goals and wanting to see yourself achieving them, you are not spending your days aimlessly wandering around. Therefore, by nature, we have inherent survival goals; such as, having a job, earning money, providing a home, food, education and more. It is from here that we have more personalized, ambitious goals which give each of us an individual purpose: providing us with meaning for our lives.
But having goals and achieving goals are 2 different things. As we know, words can be cheap. It’s easy to say you want to do something; the big difference is turning your goal into a reality. Therefore, you need to determine, are you a talker or are you an achiever? We want the latter; we want to be an achiever. Setting a goal without a plan often leads people to quit, therefore making people believe they are quitters, when -in-fact- it is only because they didn’t have roadmap in the first place.
The roadmap to achieving the goals you set.
Imagine telling someone to come to a dinner, but never giving them your address. They would drive around aimlessly and never arrive. Our goals need an action plan roadmap.
How often do we think about the plan? We set the goal in 5 seconds and forget about the plan and process of how we are going to achieve our goals. It is one thing saying, “I am going to be a millionaire” and having no idea of how you are going to get there. It is another thing actually having a mapped-out action plan of how you are going to become that millionaire. Along with goal-setting, you need to have the strategic plan, willpower and mindset of how your plan is going to turn into a reality. Taking if from just a thought and into a lived-out reality. Regardless of the goal you set, the most important aspect is the plan and process of how you are going to achieve your goal.
The KEY to achieving the goals you set is not a simple one-liner, it is a planned process.
- Write it out, map it out or create a vision board.
There is power in putting your thoughts onto paper and turning that ‘lofty wish’ into an action-plan goal.
- Be specific and clear about what your goal is.
- Ask yourself Why? Why do you want to achieve this goal?
- How are you going to achieve this goal?
- When do you want it by?
Try give yourself a timeline.
5, 10 and 15-year plans, are a good way to structure your goals, plans and the procedure of how they might go.
- Remember life happens and sometimes we can get side-tracked.
That is okay
We do not have a magic 8 ball telling us the speed bumps in the road of life ahead. Don’t be too hard on yourself when life events slow down your goal process. There are so many unexpected life events that may get in your way. Living through Covid-19 has taught all of us that.
- It’s one-step at a time.
Goals are often massive challenges and therefore it’s important to take it slow and steady.
- Every few months evaluate your process and progress.
Is it working for you? What can you do differently? Make the changes that need to be made.
- Celebrate the wins.
Any victory is worth a celebration, no matter the size. It is proven that by acknowledging the small wins you stay motivated for longer and improve your mental health. Celebrating the wins helps release dopamine into your brain giving you added incentive to stay on course.
- Become accountable.
Research shows us that when we tell others about our goals, we become more serious about achieving them. An excellent way is through doing this with a coach; a Life Coach, Wellness Coach, Business Coach etc. Having an external, outside perspective is critically valuable. A paid professional is going to be honest with you. It’s their power, use it for your good. They will keep you focused when you are wanting to quit.
- Don’t quit, stay focused.
It’s hard and that is okay: be honest with yourself, have a cry, a shout or a rant. Then get back on the horse and carry on.
- Have an expectant winners mindset
Your mindset is key to whether you are going to win or lose.
Whether you have set New Year’s resolutions, goals for 5 years, 10 years and 15 years, know that you have the power to achieve them, you do not have to give up. You do not need to be in the 92% of people who give up on their goals. Not only is setting realistic, action-planned goals important for you to achieve, but they also help build and strengthen your mental health. Instead of “How to achieve the goals you set?”, you’ll be saying, “I have set my goals and working towards achieving them.”
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1 Comment
Great blog!