Simple Steps for How To Set Goals and Achieve Them

It’s that time of year again, everyone is talking about setting new goals and resolutions. On average 50% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions and most of them center around improved health. Unfortunately, most of those resolutions will never be met. (see more information here). 85% of people will not keep their resolutions.  

I have found and research supports this, that the most successful people in life set goals. If we don’t know where we are going, we won’t know when we get there, right? Goal setting is one of the best ways to make a road map of where you want to go and gives you an action plan for how you are going to get there.

We only get one life and I love to set professional and personal goals so I can live my life with purpose and attention. At the beginning of every year and then again every month, I sit down and reflect on last year. What went well? What didn’t go well? Where do I want to go in the next year? What things would I like to improve? Then, I brainstorm specific goals in those areas. 

Simple Steps for How To Set Goals and Achieve Them

How Do You Choose A Goal?

One of the most common questions I get when I share my goals is “how do you determine what goals to pick?” So, the first step when you set goals is to ask yourself the following questions.

Brainstorm Goals

Based on where you want to go in the next few years or maybe that’s too much to think about, maybe think about where you want to go in the next year. If you are new to goal setting, maybe think about where would you like to go in the next month. Do you want to write a book? Ok, what’s a smaller goal that could help lead you to that bigger goal? Writing a blog? Do you want to get more healthy? Great, brainstorm some goals that would lead to that bigger goal.

From there, once you have brainstormed some goals, hold those goals up to these questions.

Questions to Ask When Choosing Goals

Can I measure my success with this goal? 

For example, this year I want to make sure I am going to the gym consistently. I got out of the habit over the last few years and going to the gym helps me physically and mentally handle the challenges of life. A goal related to the gym that’s measurable could be “Go to the gym 3 times a week or X amount of times per month.” If you simply say this year I want to go to the gym more, how will you know if you did that?

Quantifying your goals helps you to measure progress so you can measure your success.

Is This Goal Realistic?

Can you realistically, with the time and energy you have, meet that goal in this season of life? If it means working around the clock or sacrificing your priorities, is it worth it? Do you have too many goals? Is the goal simply too big? It’s better to have 1 or 2 really good goals you can attain than 10 and only attain 1 or 2 of them. Even though, we accomplished the same amount, in our human nature we don’t see it that way.

We are setting ourselves up for failure if our goals are not realistic.

Does my goal have a set time frame?

Can you achieve your goals in the time you set? If I say I have always wanted to run a 5K (I have said that SO many times) but don’t sign up for a race or have a deadline I am unlikely to complete the goal. I never ran a 5k until my cousin signed us up for a turkey trot race. I had a target date and it kept me accountable for meeting my goal.  Accountability helps us do the hard work of achieving our big goals.

If you struggle with yearly or monthly goals, start with daily or weekly goals. Once you find success on a daily basis with daily or weekly goals, you will be more motivated to take the next steps to make long-term goals.

Can I take a big goal and break it down?

I have found that if you have a big goal, you can break it down into bite-size pieces. For example, last year my goal was to write a cookbook. Let me tell you that was a BIG goal. So, I sat down and mapped it out. What would that big goal look like broken down into bite-size pieces? I set the goal to write, photograph, and test 5 recipes a month, that’s 1 per week.

January is a popular month for decluttering. The idea of decluttering your entire house can seem daunting, how can you break that big goal down into bite-size pieces? List out all the rooms in your home and make it a goal to get a few of those spaces done in a week or a month’s time. Even a little bit of smaller goals goes a long way in helping you get to the finish line.

Why am I setting this Goal?

This is probably the most important question you need to ask yourself. Goals are meant to get you where you want to go long-term so it’s important that you are not just setting goals for the sake of it. When striving to meet your goal gets hard and it will because growth can be hard and uncomfortable, you are going to give up quickly on meaningless goals.

Given careful consideration, knowing why your goals matter will help you push forward even in the face of adversity because it matters. A great example of this would be running a 5k. The first few days of that goal aren’t too bad but when you have to go from running a minute to 5, to 10, to 20 minutes it can’t get pretty uncomfortable in a jiffy. You will be tempted to quit if you don’t have a “why” behind your goal. Why are you doing this? Let that be the motivation to carry you through.

Write Down Your Goal

So, now that you have thought about your goals and you have held them up to the questions listed above you should have pared down your goals and be ready to write down some realistic goals. Grab your goal sticky notepad.

When it comes to effective goal setting, remember less is more. If you set 100 goals and only achieve 2 of them you are going to be disappointed but what if you set 3 goals and you achieve the same amount, 2 of them? You will be so much more proud of yourself. There’s a reason our goal sticky notepad only has 10 spots. Make clear goals that you can achieve and it will motivate you to keep setting goals.

Place Your Goals In a Spot You Can See Them

After you write down your goals, put them somewhere where you can see them. This will help you not to forget what you have set out to do. This is why I created the goal-setting notepad. As they say “out of sight it out of mind,” I keep my goals in my weekly planner so I can refer to them often.

Review Your Goals Regularly

Have a set time in your week that you check in on your goals. For me, one of the first things I do when I start work is on Monday morning. I check in to see if I am headed in the right direction with my goals. I also create to-do lists of tasks that will be my guide and give me an action plan for what I work on for that week.

For our goal-setting notepad, adjacent to each goal is 10 boxes for you to color in. Each week when I evaluate my progress toward my achievable goals I color in my progress. Since my goals are measurable, I ask myself “what percentage of this goal have I achieved?”

One of the most common goals people set is related to finances. Your goal for next year might be to get out of debt. In January, maybe you set the goal of saving $1000. You set the goal to review your finances weekly and input numbers into a budget. You might have 2 goals on your goal sticky notepad related to that. The first is the act of doing the budget weekly. Shade it in each week you do it and shade in how much you are saving each week.

Another example would be that I have a set goal to work out 2 times per month. Every week when you evaluate the progress toward your goal, you shade in the progress. Last week, maybe you worked out 4 times. So you’d shade in 2 squares since you hit 20% of your goal.

Then, when I come back to check my goals next week I will shade in more as I have made progress. A new habit I have instilled when shading in my goal progress is to use a different color each week so I can see that the smaller steps I am taking daily and weekly are really the stepping stones to that bigger goal. Seeing the different colors each week add up is one of the best ways to keep me motivated. I can visually see the progress I am making with each of those small steps.

Just Remember When It Comes to Setting Goals and Achieving Them…

Remember when it comes to the goal-setting process, to keep it simple and give yourself grace.  Why are you setting goals? You want to live your life well and on purpose. You have a direction or goal you want to go and goals will help you get there. I have set many a goal I did not achieve and it’s easy for me to focus on all I did not accomplish instead of celebrating what I did achieve. When you look at your goal-setting notepad, I want you to keep your eyes on the bigger picture. Progress over perfection. Did you make progress on your goals? Celebrating that success will take you further in the long run than berating yourself for falling short.

Goal-setting takes practice like any other learned skill. It might feel uncomfortable at first but with practice, it does get easier.   What one goal are you hoping to achieve this year, this month, or this week? How are you going to achieve it? 

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