Goals provide you with long-term vision and short-term motivation. Setting goals, working towards them, and ultimately achieving the goals you envisioned helps build self-confidence.
I like to break down goals into two initial categories:
1) Long-Term or Life Goals
2) Short-Term or Smaller Goals
Goals can be set in many different areas of your life and it is wise to set goals in a variety of areas of your life to maintain balance. Specific areas in life to focus are as follows:
Family and Home
Physical/Athletic and Health
Mental and Educational
Social and Cultural
Spiritual and Ethical
Career and Financial
For example, a long-term physical/athletic goal might be to run a marathon within one year. It isn’t very wise to just say you’re going to run a marathon tomorrow (especially if you’re a “couch potato”); however, it is wise to say that you will give yourself one year to start training, devise a training schedule in four three month phases including specific types of runs for every week with a target mileage, speed, recovery days, cross-training, etc. You might also join a running group or hire a trainer if you need more guidance, buy proper training shoes, learn proper hydration, and practice healthy nutritional habits.
Take a few minutes to brainstorm as many goals (big or small) in as many areas of life as you can imagine. From there you can begin to break each goal down into smaller steps (yearly, monthly, weekly, daily) that will help you achieve your goals. I also find it beneficial to make a list of possible roadblocks, obstacles, and setbacks you might encounter and how to avoid them, as well as a plan of action to bounce back and move forward if you do stumble or get off track.
Make sure that you continuously review your list of goals and smaller steps to help keep you on track and reassess as needed. “Checking in” with yourself will help keep you accountable and focused and is a great way to provide continued motivation as you see that your smaller steps and daily/weekly/actions are leading you toward achieving your larger goals.
The acronym “SMART” has been helpful in the goal setting process.
Specific-
Measurable-
Attainable
Realistic-
Timely-
Specific-
-Who? Who is involved?
-What? What do I want to accomplish?
-Where? Where will this take place? Establish a location.
-When? When is the achievement date? Set-up a time-frame or achievement date.
-Which? Which requirements and constraints do I need to consider? List all possible steps
toward achieving this goal as well as roadblocks and obstacles.
-Why? Why are you setting this goal? List specific reasons, purposes, or benefits
of accomplishing the goal.
Measurable-
-Establish a set of criteria for measuring your progress toward each goal. Measuring and evaluating your progress will help you stay on track. -Ask yourself -“How Much?” “How Many?” “How will I know when I’ve accomplished my goal?”
Attainable-
Identifying goals which are significant to you will better help you focus your time, energy, skills, abilities, attitudes, resources, and finances toward goal achievement. Attaining goals takes focused and consistent planning and the ability to see opportunities as they arise. As noted earlier, setting goals increases self-confidence; as you build your self-confidence, you increase your ability to see yourself as someone who is worthy of these goals and you begin to develop the traits, attitudes, and personality that allow you to achieve them.
Realistic-
In order to qualify as realistic, a goal must representing something that you are both will and able to work toward. You should set your goals high, but not so high that they might be unrealistically unattainable. If goals are set too low, you might have the tendency to exert less time and energy toward achieving them because they seem easier to reach. Contrary, sometimes the most difficult goals can seem seamlessly effortless because your love and enthusiasm.
Timely-
Goals should have predetermined and specific target dates of completion and time frames. If no time frames are established, there is no sense of urgency, no desire, no motivation to make progress and the goals most likely will never see successful completion.
10 Key points to remember when setting goals:
1. Make sure your goals are things you really want to achieve, things you feel passionate about, not just stuff that sounds good. Make sure you are setting your goals for yourself and not trying to live up to someone else’s idea of what/who they think you should be or do.
2. Make sure that your goals do not contradict any of your other goals.
3. Try to set goals in multiple areas of your life to help maintain balance a more balanced life, setting both long-term and short term goals in all possible areas.
4. Think positively and leave behind any and all negative thoughts and self-talk.
5. Write your goals down, in detail.
6. Set the bar high, but not unrealistically high.
7. Remember to make your goals “S.M.A.R.T.”!
8. Review your progress and make adjustments as necessary.
9. Take responsibility and hold yourself accountable.
10. Reward yourself for your achievements.
Stay tuned for a glimpse into my my life and some of my personal goals I have set for myself in the next blog post.
