How Can You Set and Achieve Attainable Goals?
By: Eunice Ahn
Setting reasonable goals for yourself can be a really powerful tool to achieve your dreams and aspirations. An important aspect, however, is keeping a good balance between ambition and practicability to stay motivated. Below are some steps that can help you make an attainable goal and achieve it when done with patience.
1. Self-Reflection and Clarity
Reflect on your values, aspirations, and priorities before you start. What do you truly want to achieve from this? Why is this goal important to you? How will achieving this goal impact your life? Feel free to write these responses down somewhere in a notebook or a place you can easily access and see often. This may help you stay motivated as well as help you keep a clear mind/standard about what it is you truly want. Make sure to really sit down and think about what it is you would like from this process.
2. Set SMART Goals
SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound and is a tool to help set and reach your goals.
Specific: Clearly define your goal. Instead of something like “lose weight,” be specific: “exercise for 30 minutes five days a week.”
Measurable: Establish metrics to measure your progress. Using the same example from earlier, if you are looking to lose weight, define the amount you want to lose in a week/bi-weekly/month.
Achievable: Make sure your goal is realistic and reasonable. Think deeply about your current resources, skills, and restrictions. For example, setting a goal to lose five pounds a week may not be realistic, but setting your goal to lose five pounds after three weeks may be more reasonable.
Relevant: Your goal should be meaningful or aligned with your life goals and values. By making it more personal and meaningful, you are more likely to be motivated to make a change and accomplish the goal.
Time-bound: Set a hard deadline for your goal. Having a set time frame helps with commitment and gives a sense of urgency. Sometimes it is really easy to say, “I’ll start tomorrow,” but if you give yourself a harsh deadline, you will be more likely to achieve the goal.
3. Break Down Goals into Milestones
Large goals are always super intimidating. In order to make them seem more manageable, breaking them down into smaller mini-goals might help. Smaller goals could also give you more milestones to celebrate and congratulate yourself on for making it so far. For example, if your goal is to save 10,000 dollars by the end of the year, some milestones may be when you have saved 100 dollars, then 1,000, then 5,000 dollars, and so on and so forth.
4. Create a Plan and Prioritize and Focus
Try not to spread yourself out too thin by setting too many goals at once. If you develop a concrete plan for your goals, prioritize your goals based on importance and relevance to your life. You will eventually get to every goal you have once you get used to the process of setting goals and achieving them. Not only that, but outline the steps you will have to take and obtain all necessary resources. A well-structured plan will provide a path to success. Keep in mind that everything may seem impossible or super hard at first. But, if you take things step by step, you will reach your goal before you know it. That being said, do not set unrealistic time expectations because you want to achieve your goal as soon as possible.
5. Stay Accountable
Share your goals with a friend, family member, or a mentor/role model who can hold you accountable. This would entitle you or them to regularly reach out with/for updates on progress and ensure you aren’t falling through. You could even put something on the line so that you feel more motivated as well. Make sure also to seek their support and encouragement whenever needed.
6. Monitor and Adjust; Celebrate All Achievements
Make sure to follow your progress very closely and know there may be a need to adjust/modify a certain step in your plan. Remain flexible because there is a chance that you may have set an unrealistic goal/standard for yourself as you are trying to go through the steps. This does NOT mean that you have “failed” to accomplish your goal; there was just a need for adjustment because not everything in this world is black and white. And make sure to celebrate any success you have along the way! It is easy to get carried away thinking that because this is a plan you have to accomplish, you are not "sacrificing" anything. You may have struggled all this time because the sacrifices were too hard to give up/resist, and as a result of your "failure," you may have beat yourself up over it instead of encouraging yourself. Know that we are human, so progress will never be a linear line. Hence, even if the victory seems small, celebrate it because those celebrations will motivate you and boost your confidence, maybe even without you knowing!
Setting and achieving goals is a SKILL that you must develop and work with in order for it to be a successful tool. Just remember that there will be many ups and downs on this journey, and you will probably feel like giving up many times. However, if you just remind yourself of why you want to achieve this goal, maybe you can rekindle the fire and motivation you had going into this process. If you feel as if no matter how hard you try, you always fail, or you feel like you don't have enough determination to achieve your goals even though you really want them to come true, try scheduling a free consultation by clicking the link below for additional support. Talking to a professional may help you find out more about yourself, have a mindset change, or even give you someone to talk to and keep you accountable if you are embarrassed to share your goal with someone in your personal life. Share this blog with someone else who you think can also benefit from these tips. We also encourage you to sign up for free weekly tips, tools, and strategies by clicking the other link below.
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