Setting & Achieving Goals

What is Goal Setting?

Goal setting can look different depending on an individual’s lifestyle, values and definition of success. Your goals are unique to you and don’t need to look like anyone else’s.

The classic goal-setting definition boils down to the process of identifying something you want to accomplish and establishing measurable objectives and timeframes to help you achieve it. Goal setting can help you in any area of your life. When you learn how to set goals in one area of your life, it becomes easier to set them in other areas.

Setting progressive goals that allow small wins helps you move on to larger achievements. These small goals lead to progress, which gives you momentum, and gives you motivation to follow through.

Why is Goal Setting Important?

Goal setting is the fundamental key to success. Whether it’s losing 20 pounds, living pain-free, making more money, traveling more, having more financial freedom, looking good, learning a new skill or falling in love, setting goals lets us create our future. It also helps us grow and expand, pushing ourselves to transform in ways that we never imagined. In order to feel fulfilled, we need to know and feel like we’re working to achieve something. Progressing is key to living your best life and setting goals gets us there.

Effective goal setting lets you measure progress, overcome hurdles, push through procrastination, and visualize your dreams. If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, you can’t create a plan to get there.

Setting goals is the vehicle that will drive you to your desired destination.
Goal setting also keeps you accountable. Whether you’re learning how to set goals at work or in your personal life, telling others about your goals makes you more likely to establish the patterns that will accomplish them.

Here is my proven method of goal setting to ensure you achieve them. You’ll learn what makes a compelling goal as well as the steps you need to take to see them through.

How to Set Goals

What is goal setting to you? When you set goals, are you used to failing or not achieving them because you didn’t have a clear vision of that goal or was the goal too big. You’re much more likely to put time and energy into something that excites you, so your goals must be important to you. Think of a goal as a dream with a deadline. Now all we have to do is dream. Let’s go!

1. Perform A Brainstorming Session

Give yourself five minutes to brainstorm a list of anything you’d like to achieve, create, do, have, give and/or experience in the next 5 years. Write as many items down as fast as you can in this time. Use the Bench Method to do this. Picture yourself in retirement, thinking back on your life from a bench in the park, overlooking the ocean, or in your neighborhood. What accomplishments will you be most proud of? What will you most regret? These are your most important answers to the question, “Why is goal setting important?”

2. Refine Your Goals

Setting deadlines is crucial to goal setting. Go back through your list and write one, six, 1 year, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years next to each goal to indicate how long it will take to achieve them. Some goals take a lifetime to achieve, but make sure you are pushing yourself toward both professional and personal growth. If you don’t know how long a goal will take – like finding a the love of your life, losing 50 pounds, or getting off of your medication – write down how long you would like it to take. Goals are like magnets. They’ll attract the things that make them come true.

3. Connect Your Goals To Your Purpose

Go over what you’ve written. Choose your top four one-year goals. These are goals that excite you because they are most connected to your purpose in life Write a paragraph for each goal explaining why you will achieve this goal within the next 12 months. This isn’t a to-do list. This is creating a vision for your life.When you have a powerful reason “why,” you’ll more easily discover the “how.”

4. Create Smart Goals

Now it’s time to take those big goals and break them down into smaller SMART goals. Are your goals specific? Measurable? Achievable? Realistic? Do they have a specific timeframe? These are the components to SMART goals. Breaking down your goals in this way sets a strong purpose and intention, making them more concrete and easier to achieve. You’ll also be able to better track your progress and celebrate your successes that are two key ways most people don’t talk about to achieving goals.

How to Achieve Your Goals

Learning how to set goals is worthless if you don’t learn how to achieve goals. Set yourself up for success by following these tips.

1. Visualize Your Goals

Where focus goes, energy flows. Therefore it is critical to focus on your goals. Visualization is one of the most powerful ways to do this. When you visualize your goals on a daily basis as if you’ve already achieved them, you align your purpose and values with your actions. Everyone of my celebrity clients or professional athletes use this skill of visualization. I also recommend that people use vision boards which helps you to train your brain consciously and subconsciously to see what you want. You can even tape images of your goals on the mirror in your bathroom or pin them to the wall next to your computer. If your goals involve eating healthy and losing weight, put your goal on the front of your refrigerator and/or on the mirror in your bathroom.

2. Keep Yourself Accountable

Find a friend, co-worker, family member or another person you trust and share your list of goals with them. You can also share the list with a mentor, boss, or teacher. I would even go as far as to say share it on social media like Facebook or Instagram. Sharing your list will make you more accountable and/or give you a partner who will work with you through frustrations or roadblocks. The right people in your life who want to see you successful will help you transform obstacles into opportunities and stay on track.

3. Track Your Progress

Have a set schedule to review both short and long-term goal setting. This helps you track progress as well as determine what activities are helping you and which are hindering you. It’s important to know when you need to make alterations to your course. It is important to stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach. Don’t lose sight of your ultimate goal, but remember it is important to remember that life is happening for you, not to you.

4. Celebrate Your Successes

Goal setting doesn’t have to be a boring set of tasks to check off. When you’re planning your goals, include ways to celebrate your successes regardless of how small you think they are. If you’re working toward financial freedom, set aside a budget for a nice dinner when you reach a certain goal. If you are working toward a certain weight loss goal, buy yourself a new work or workout outfit. Celebrate relationship milestones with a card, flowers, bottle of expensive wine, or intimate dinner. Got that promotion? Share it with the your friends on social media and celebrate. It will help you stay focused while also being present in the moment.