Achieving Your Goals

Whether you’ve heard it, thought it, or said it, we’re all familiar with the “new year, new me!” catchphrase. Regardless if you hate it or love it, the new year is a perfect time to reflect on the past 365 days and set yourself up for future success (whatever that means for you). The sure-fire way to create new habits, kick old ones, or get where you would like to be is through setting goals.

Following last week’s blog on vision boards, (link last article) it’s time to look over your vision board and set goals that motivate you. They can be as big or as little as you like but be sure to consider all aspects of your life; mental health, relationships, spirituality, physical fitness, career, etc. Remember, you are creating these goals to improve your life. It is all about what you would like to get out of it.

The #1 rule with achieving goals is to make them SMART.

Specific - make sure it is clear and easy to understand. This will help create a direct path on how to make this goal a success. Keep in mind who is involved, what would you like to accomplish, where is it located, and why this goal is important to you. 

Measurable - giving yourself a timeline and deciding on how you will determine success is vital in tracking your progress and staying motivated. Remember to consider how many, how much, and how you will know when you’ve reached your goal.  

Attainable - let’s focus on making this a realistic goal. You want to be sure that this is something you can accomplish given your resources and abilities. Although it is important to push yourself, it is important to know your boundaries. Consider how you can accomplish this and how realistically it can be achieved given your constraints.

Relevant - this entails how important this goal is to you and if it relates or works well with other goals in your life. Do you see this goal as worthwhile? Is the timing right? Does this compliment your other current goals? Will it work with everything else in your life?  

Timely - consider a date you would like to see your goal achieved. Creating a timeline assists you in staying on track and will allow your goal to stay as a top priority. Think about when you would like to see this goal achieved and set times to check in with yourself to measure your progress. 

After creating your SMART goals be sure to write them down. This part is easily forgotten but is vital according to neuroscientists, which is further explained in this Forbes article. Through writing goals down we gain a deeper understanding, are more likely to remember, and create a more tangible objective.  

Lastly, create an action plan and stick with it! It seems the most difficult part in achieving one’s goal is seeing it through to the end. Having a, you guessed it, written plan will give you a framework to follow. Give yourself checkpoints and remember to celebrate the little victories along the way. 

So, get to goal setting and have some fun with it. We won’t lie and say it’s easy but we promise it will be so worth it. You’ve got this!!

Written by Sarah Abuja