Well it is a new year, again. The time when we all start talking about making resolutions & setting goals. Unfortunately, not many of us stick to them & we continue to make the same ones year after year. Today, I am here to help so we may stop that cycle!
In today’s post, I hope to not only help you with goal setting, but inspire you to achieve your goals & be more intentional with setting them.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein
Whether it is a big promotion at work you want, your first house, a dream car, to quit a bad habit, personal development…anything, a goal is a goal.
Let’s define that- A Goal: the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.
To achieve any goal, big or small, one must create attainable & realistic steps to get there. You cannot simply tell yourself you want to achieve something & think it will just happen. You need to work hard for it & you need to have a clear, REALISTIC vision of how you are going to reach that goal.
I have some free planner printables (Featured ones in this post are no longer available. Check my freebies page for others.) I will link to help you write down your goals much clearer so you can set yourself a guideline. There are a few different sizes but if you do not have a planner and simply just want to use it as a work sheet, you can print off the largest size offered which is half letter.
I think it is very important to get goals down on paper so they are there to remind you and guide you to achieve them. So, print off your worksheets, grab a notebook or your computer & let’s get goal setting!
There are a few main parts of setting a goal in my option. There is the goal itself, the main thing you want to make happen as the end result. Next, there is the time frame of this goal. Then, and what is most important in my option, the steps to achieve this goal. You won’t reach your goal unless you know how! Last, something many people do not tell you or think of, ways to continue to keep / maintain this goal (depending of course what the goal is). You must be very intentional, honest & realistic with what you write.
So let’s get into some goal setting examples to show hoe you can map out these guidelines…
Let’s say your goal is to lose weight (which we know is a popular one people talk about around the new year). You want to first start by writing down how much weight you are wanting to lose and a time frame you are hoping to do this in. Again, I cannot stress this enough, be realistic with your goals. If you aren’t, and you create goals that are unattainable, you will just feel like you failed. So really think about realistic goals here! Next, you want to write down all the steps you need to do to work at this goal. So to lose weight, you need to eat better and exercise more. Start list out ways you are going to complete these steps. Are you going to commit to walking each night for 45 minutes, will you commit to eating within a caloric budget or perhaps just an overall healthier diet of more fresh foods, will you create a schedule for yourself to workout 3x a week? Whatever attainable steps you can do within your schedule to work at this goal, write them own. Now, for this example of a goal, the idea of steps to maintain this goal after you have reached it comes in to play. Working hard to lose weight is difficult, but keeping it off and staying in that healthier state can be very tough. So you want to list out guidelines to stick to so you can maintain what you just worked so very hard to achieve.
“Before you quit, remember why you started.”
Making sense? Let’s try another example…
Let’s say you might want to buy your first house. Obviously there is a lot that goes into that. Start by writing down your goal and your approximate timeline. Now we start those important steps that will even have sub-steps with them. To buy a house you need to have X amount of money saved up. Well, how do you save this money? List where you can make cuts in your budget to save more money to buy your house. You also need to get your credit score up. So list ays to do so, things you can work at paying off to build that score higher. There are so many steps and sub-steps that might come to mind and when they do, write them. Having this clear guideline you map out for yourself will only help you more.
Even if you work very hard but do not quite reach your targeted goals by your approximate goal date, at least you would have set up a guideline and you would have been working on those smaller steps to reach that goal so you will be much closer to it than ever before. You are working towards that goal now and are going to start seeing the results you have been working for.
Goals do not alway need to be these typical, large monumental things that we hear and talk about the most. Anything you want to work towards, anything at all, is a goal you have. So start jotting them down and creating a clear, concise guideline for yourself so you can achieve them.
Let’s make this year our best year yet! I will leave you with this quote:
“A goal without a plan is just a wish”. Let that sink in.
I hope this has helped jump start your goal planning for this year & I wish you all the very best! Remember, feel free to check out my pinned posts on my main page for all FREE planner printables as well as FREE downloadable digital wallpapers all to help aid in productivity & inspire!
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