Setting achievable goals can be the only thing you need to live the life of your dreams. Clearly, it is excellent and sounds exciting writing your goals, but are they achievable and realistic?
Do you have what it takes to achieve them in terms of resources and mental and physical strength?
A crucial reason your goal is not achievable is that they are not realistic enough. Setting achievable goals is a process. For some it could take years, while for others, it can be shorter.
In this article.
What do goals really mean?
The importance of setting goals that are realistic.
How do you set achievable goals?
What do goals mean?
A goal is an intention or result that you are aiming to work towards or achieve. People often set goals based on where they are in life and where they want to be. Without a doubt, these goals can encompass different areas in your life like.
Family
Career
Relationship
Health
Finance
Importance of setting Achievable Goals.
In most cases, setting goals has several importance and benefits. It helps you develop new habits and behavior.
It gives you a direction.
You can track your journey.
It gives you a long-term vision and short-term motivation.
You are more focused and less distracted.
It keeps you accountable.
You get to envision the bigger picture.
Tips on setting Achievable goals.
Ask these questions.
Why? Why do you want this as a goal?
Do you have what it takes in terms of resources, finance, and mental and physical capacity?
Is the environment favorable enough for your goal?
How do you set achievable goals?
Be realistic enough
You can relate to a period when you set an unrealistic goal, and for some weird reason, you knew it wasn’t realistic and laughed about it. For example, you weigh 150kg and want to lose some weight, but your goals are unrealistic. You want to lose 50kg within three months, and your diet isn’t showing the same.
When setting achievable goals, your goal should be realistic enough . Clearly I would lose 10kg within four months. Now, this is realistic enough.
Have a strategy in place.
It’s always exciting, and your adrenalin is at its peak when setting goals at the beginning of a new year or goals for the next quarter but do you have any strategy to help you achieve your goals?
Without a strategy, it’s you driving a car without a direction.
For instance, what strategies should you have to lose 10kg?
It means you work on your diet.
You go to the gym three times a week.
You don’t eat after 7 pm daily.
Stay away from people who won’t help you on this new journey.
Sadly, it might get boring along the way, and you want to give up, days when things get boring, do something different. You should note that listening to a podcast or having a little karaoke session distracts you from the surrounding.
Setting up a strategy makes the journey easier. You get to envision the result right from the beginning.
Make your goals SMART.
Looking to set achievable goals goes through this process called SMART an acronym that means
S- SPECIFIC.
M- MEASURABLE.
A- ATTAINABLE.
R- RELEVANT/ REALISTIC.
T- TIMELY.
Let’s go through the process of what a smart goal is.
Specific
You want to save $10,000 within twelve months. This goal is definite, but when you say you want to spend more time with your kids, this here isn’t specific enough. A more specific goal is, you want to spend four hours with your kids every weekend.
Measurable
How will you measure your progress? You have a chart you can shade whenever you save $1000. How you want to measure your goal depends on you.
Attainable
Is it possible because if you are earning $3000 in a month, and you have to pay rent, pay electricity bills, and in addition, you still have to pay off student loans, then I’m sorry to break your bubble and say that goal isn’t attainable.
Realistic / Relevant
Setting attainable goals should be in the long-term, albeit there are strategies in place for the short run, so when setting your goal in the short term, ask yourself, does it mirror your long-term goal?
Timely
There is the opinion that when you set goals, it shouldn’t have a time limit. Besides, when you don’t work within a timeframe, you feel you have all the time you want.
Likewise, your goals should be time bound, meaning in 12 months starting from today, you want to save $10,000.
Prioritize your top 3 goals.
If you were an economics student in school, you should be familiar with the word SCALE OF PREFERENCE. In economics, it means prioritizing what is crucial and completing it first.
All your goals are crucial, but some are more important than others. Clearly you can start with your top 3 most desired goals and give that your best shot.
Your top 3 goals may be goals when you attain them, will make the other goals easier, or perhaps provide the resources needed for the other goals.
Break your goals into bits.
Here is my secret to how I achieve my goals. There are goals you’ve set in the past that scare you because you found them hard to achieve.
When you break your goals into digestible bits, it becomes simple, and the path becomes distinct. See what a goal template looks like.
Let’s sight an authentic example here.
Your goal; You want to finish an online course that requires 50 hours of your time, but you have other important things to do.
Let’s say you are looking to complete it in 30 days. It would look like this, 50 hours into 30 days, 50 divided by 30 = 1 hour 30 minutes, which means you need to dedicate 1 hour 30 minutes every day to complete that course in 30 days.
On this journey, you would get weary. That is why it’s more like a journey, so when you get tired, take a break and come back stronger.
Delay isn’t denial.
Don’t beat yourself up when your goal takes longer than it should. Instead, take a step back to see why your goal may take longer to achieve.
Are you disciplined enough? Is your environment favorable for your goals? Or likely you aren’t in the best frame of mind?
Remember, you’re always allowed to refrain because your goals are flexible and you can alter them to suit or fit into where you are currently.
Create a vision board.
Visualizing your goals helps in seeing the bigger picture. It’s easier to have your goals at the top of your head. Writing it down brings the bigger picture to life.
You may be familiar with the word vision board. It’s a way of visualizing your goal in a pictural way. It’s as simple as it sounds; for it to become a reality, you need to be intentional about them.
Finally,
See what a goal template is here.
Remember, your goals should be SMART and
It takes a shorter period for some, while for others, it might be longer. So on this journey, be patient and flexible.
Now that you know how to set achievable goals, now it is time to set a goal and work towards it.