The start of the year is here. This is the time everybody talks about what their goals are, what they want to achieve, and how they plan on how they are achieving it.
Why are goals important?
Why do you want to even think of goals? It seems that nobody actually completes their goals. Especially when it comes to New Years Resolutions People start with good intentions and then around March that fire and determination you had all the way back at January first is up and gone.
Then before you know it, it’s November, and your goals come creeping back and you are realizing you didn’t do anything you set out to do. You failed and the frustration of knowing you are no better of than you were the year before is sitting on your conscious. So why even try?
Well, there is a reason to try. that reason is if you don’t try you will actually be worse off. If you don’t try you will just float through life. The problem that you are having with resolutions is that yeah you fail at them but why are you failing at them? You are not addressing the skill you failed to learn so you are destined to repeat that test till you achieve it.
So, why do we need goals? because we need a challenge in our life. This is how we become better at what we do. We have to have the discomfort of failing and trying again before we get good at it.
If you don’t have goals you don’t go anywhere. goals are the road maps for your life. Do you want to improve at your communication skills? then you have to practice speaking. DO you want to have a dream of traveling? Then you need to figure out the logistics of it all. How are you going to pay for the trips and the other expenses? These are all part of the goals you need to figure out. Are you wanting to start a business? Then you have to set goals for that business. If you don’t then you will not get very far.
Look at anybody who is equal to your definition of success. If you look at what they do as compared to what you are doing. You will see that they have a vision and they plan and then execute. You may be surprised but when you find out how many times those plans don’t work out. Yeah, the successful people fail early and they fail often. The failures don’t define them. it is the wins.
So, you want to lose weight? Do you want to start your own business? Then firstly don’t wait for the first of the year. Start now. Start planning, and there are several ways you can do this, and here are some ways that I can think of off the start
12 week goals
What would be able to accomplish with baby steps? If you said not much I would say guess again. because baby steps are easier to make than big huge giant steps. So you are able to accomplish more by taking small deliberate steps. That is where the 12-week goal setting comes into play.
3 months is a smaller bite than a full year. and you can break the larger goals up into 4 easier to manage sections. Then those sections can be further broken up into weekly goals. That is the glory of the 12-week goal system. You can make small detailed plans that will allow you to make those important massive action steps towards your big goal at the end of the year.
If this sounds like something you want to try, you can go to Develop Good Habits You can download templates that will help you on your way.
Long term goals
Look to the horizon. What do you see yourself doing? Where are you in your life? Long-term plans are good. They give you a place to head. These plans aren’t set in concrete because you can adjust your direction. You may find out that your ideas aren’t as aligned as you first thought. That way you can change your path because you are not married to your path.
Setting long-term goals are those dreams you want. You want to be rich and travel all the time. Those types of dreams are good as long as you are making strides to actually achieve them.
SMART Goals
I am sure you have heard of these before. I know I have talked about them many times before this podcast was ever started.
And several more along the same line. Goals are important if you want to find success in anything you do. You can’t just head out in a direction without knowing some of the key waypoints you need to measure how close you are to getting where you are wanting to be. This is where SMART goals come into play. If you haven’t ever heard of SMART goals then here is a brief overview.
Specific
Instead of saying you want to make more money lay down a specific amount you want to make. I want to make $100,000 at the end of the year. I want to make $10,000 in a month. That is specific. You want to lose weight! great say you want to lose how much weight? If you weigh 260 and you would like to get down to 200 then you want to lose 60 pounds of weight. That is specific.
Don’t say you want to be in better shape that’s not specific. say you want a specific goal. Make your goal specific
Measurable
This ties in with the specific. Use a means of measuring. numbers work great for this. This is so that you are able to see how far you have gone.
Attainable
If you are wanting to make $1,000,000 by the end of the year and it is December 1 then your goal isn’t very attainable. You need to have an attainable goal. And still, make that goal scary. So if you have never made that type of money before then why not say you want to make $100,000 in a month and see if you can make that. If you can, then keep pushing and change the goal to a new number like $500,000. If you made the $100,000 then the next set could be $250,000 or $500,000 the choice is yours.
Again make your goal attainable.
Relevant
you need to make sure your goals are relevant to what you are wanting to accomplish. If you are trying to grow your business then making sure you get to ride in the tour de France probably isn’t going to align itself with your goals. Don’t have a goal that is going to fight your overall goals.
Timely
Put a time limit on it. a goal is a dream with a deadline. You have a finishing line to strive for.
The smart goal is a great way for new goal setters to actually find where they are needing help and what your strong points are.
Visualization
Now many people will have some problems with this but it is a powerful tool to have in your goal-setting arsenal. This uses the goals of smart goal setting and long term goals but use your imagination and feel, think, smell and imagine what it would be like if you achieved your goal. What if you could make a million dollars a year? what would that look like? What if you had your dream car? what would it feel like? what would it sound like? what your it look like? is there a specific color you want? How would you feel if you were able to attain that goal? You can with visualizations. making a vision board is one tool you can use. But the key to it all isn’t just sitting down dreaming and then waiting. No, you have to get off your ass and get to work trying to get that dream to become real.
Small bite-sized goals
There is a book called Atomic Habits and you can work your habits into goal setting. Make small changes to increase your results. Make it a habit to exercise each day by doing pushups before you walk into your bedroom or chain together with other habits you want. The possibilities are amazing when you apply small steps to your overall plans.
Tools to help build habits and complete goals
Atomic Habits by James Clear
