4 simple tips to set goals in a meaningful way… and achieve them!
How many times have you set yourself a goal and not quite made it? How many times have you had something on your ‘to do’ list and it keeps rolling over from one week to the next? How many times have you felt frustrated by that?
I hear you. We’ve all been there. What can start out as the best of intentions can somehow get lost along the way. Life can take over and that THING is just too much, too difficult. And it simply doesn’t get done.
How can you break that vicious circle? Read on for my tips on setting (& achieving) goals in a meaningful way.
1: Be SMART
Read any management, leadership or HR book and you’ll hear reference to SMART objectives or goals. Here’s the theory, read on for an example to bring it to life.
SMART stands for:
Specific- Be precise about what it is that you want to achieve. The tighter this is, the easier it is to tick it off once its complete.
Measurable- Find a way to quantify what you want to achieve. What measurement is appropriate for the goal at hand? It could be number of times a week you go for a run, it could be the level you want to get to on a language course, it could be the number of burpees you want to achieve in 30s.
Ambitious- This is all about stretching yourself. I’m guessing that if you’re putting off this goal it’s likely to be out of your comfort zone in some way. Which is why it can feel overwhelming. But this is a good thing- we grow when we are out of our comfort zone. Plus, the sense of achievement will be so much sweeter!
Realistic- This is the antidote to ambitious. Whilst stretching ourselves is important for growth and personal development, it’s also important we don’t put ourselves into the panic zone with goals that are so far out of reach they are stress inducing. So, is your goal ambitious (slightly out of reach) but realistic (if you stretch you can get there?).
Time bound- Set yourself a deadline. Deadlines really focus the mind and they can be powerful in giving us the impetus we need to make progress.
How does SMART work in reality? Lets take a personal example:
Before I made my goal SMART: “I want to read more this year”
By making my goal SMART: “By the end of 2022, I’m going to have read at least 25 books. Of these, I’m going to make sure that at least 3 are part of my professional development plan. The other 22 can be my favourite rom com novels.”
Can you spot all elements of a SMART objective?
2: Set goals you REALLY want to achieve
This might sound glaringly obvious (& I almost didn’t include it for that reason), but you’ll only achieve things you truly want to achieve. {Mike drop, right?}
To set yourself a target that turns you off just by reading it really isn’t going to get done. Setting yourself some goals because you “should” or because someone else has told you to or expects it from you really won’t work. Sorry to be brutal, but it’s true.
To make lasting change, it takes willpower, commitment, energy and effort. Those things are going to be VERY low if you’re not all in on the goal you’ve set yourself. It’ll feel like a drag, like ANOTHER job and you’ll consistently procrastinate.
So, what is it you TRULY want to achieve? Honestly. By tapping into your deeper conscious, you’ll find the answer and it’ll build a fire within you that will propel you forwards to your goal, making it so much easier.
The time up front defining your goal will make it so much easier in the long run, I promise.
3: Check in on yourself
Often, we can make lofty goals at the start of a year and then they find their way to the bottom of a drawer or the back of a dusty bookshelf to be merrily forgotten until the end of the year when we’ve forgotten what we’ve written and what we set out to do!
Familiar? Yeah, thought so.
To overcome this, set yourself mini goals. Break down your goal into bitesize chunks and set yourself deadlines on these.
Smaller goals feel more manageable. Shorter deadlines seem more immediate and focus the mind even more sharply.
Take my reading example, I could say I’ll read 8 books by end of Q1, 1 of which is a professional development book. I know that Q1 is quieter for me socially, so while I’m hibernating I’ll have more chance to read. Plus if I get one of my professional books read in Q1, I’m a good way towards hitting my goal of 3 in the year.
Just think how it’ll feel to tick these mini goals off the ‘to do’ list! Heaven!
4: Acknowledge the progress you’ve made
In our fast paced lives, we’re always on to the next thing. We rarely acknowledge how far we’ve come and what we’ve achieved. We rarely take time to pause and reflect.
There’s a whole psychological theory behind this (more on Gestalt theory another day), but trust me, recognising your achievements embeds the positivity and happiness you’ll feel. I encourage you to take a moment to pause and acknowledge the achievements you’ve made towards your goals; it’ll spur you on to achieve more!
Here’s a list of useful questions you might take 5 mins to consider:
- What progress have you made?
- What have you learned?
- What would you do differently?
- How awesome does it feel?
- What’s your next step on your journey to achieving your goal?
So there you have it, my 4 tips for setting meaningful goals and achieving them. I hope that helps!
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