Goal setting is one of the most challenging tasks for many of us. No matter if it is setting goals for your personal or professional life. Goal setting plays a very crucial role while we are starting something for the first time or after a long time.
It happens many a time that we do make goals for ourselves but we are not able to achieve or accomplish all of them. I don’t know about you but it has happened to me many many times until I came across this strategy to set goals and achieve them which I am going to share in this today.
So, if you are planning to set goals than you are in the right place at the right time.
Before goal setting, first, we have to understand what exactly goal setting means and what is the importance of goal setting in our life.
Importance of Goal Setting (Phase 1)
See, while performing any task or before starting a business plan or a sales meeting or any event – the first thing we need to know is the end result of doing that thing.
For example – If I ask you to drink then your first question will be; Okay Rohit, I’ll drink but What? Now you are cautious as to what I’m asking you to drink, right?
Another example – If I ask you to go then now your first question will be; Okay Rohit, I’ll go but where? Because I didn’t tell you the exact location where you have to go, right?
But, If I would have given you the exact location that you have to go “15 M-street, New venture colony, Dream Park, New Delhi, India” (Which doesn’t exist btw – Just for a reference), then you would easily got to that place no matter by bike, car, bus, train or even airplane because now you have an address or location to reach to.
Be Specific
Similarly, If you won’t be having a goal in your life then you won’t reach anywhere.
You need to be specific to your goals. if you have more micro-focused goals than there is a high probability that you’ll achieve your that particular goal.
Specific in terms you have to define it very clearly. If your goal is to improve your fitness this year or within 3 months or within 6 months than first define what does fitness meant for you? Is it losing or gaining a few Kilos/Pounds or is it having six-pack abs? Define fitness for yourself first then move to the next step.
If you are still not able to specify it then don’t worry. I’ll help you with this while we move forward in this article.
Type of Goal – Goal Setting (Phase 2)
Okay, as now you have understood the importance of goals as to why goals are important or why goal setting is important. Now, we’ll understand the types of goals we should make for ourselves to actually achieve them.
- Short term Goals
- Long term Goals
Short term Goals
Short term goals are the goals that you need to achieve in a short span of time with a step by step process as a part of the long process. The duration of a short term goal can be 3 months, 6 months or max 1 year and not more than that.
Example – If your goal is to lose 24Kg of weight in one year i.e, 12 months it may seem big. But, if we actually simplify that goal into small steps then it won’t be.
Let’s understand and simplify this goal.
As the goal is to lose 20Kgs in a year. If we simply divide that goal in months than 24 divides by 12 months – It is 2 Kgs a month.
Let’s further simplify it in weeks – 2 Kgs a month divided by 4 weeks a month. It is 500gms a week.
By more simplifying it to days – 500gms in a week divides by 7 days a week. It is 70-80gms a day.
Now, as we have simplified us not in the year but in days. We are now clear as to what we have to focus on. We have to focus on 70-80gms a day, not 20Kg. Next, your task is to focus on only these goals. Take actions every single day. Do yoga, walking, running, long-running, gyming or anything that seems more appropriate to you. But, just do it. Don’t think too much.
Long term Goal
The long term goals are the goals that are the ultimate goals you wanna achieve through the short term goals. LTG (Long term goals) should be in alignment with your short term goals. They are more of future based as in somewhere 2 years down the line or even 5 years down the line.
Example – Your short term goal was to lose 24Kg in a year which was in alignment with your goal of having a much more muscular body with six-packs abs or so. It’s all up to you, right. Your ultimate goal whatever it may be.
Type “2” – Goal Setting (Phase 3)
Now, as we have understood the importance and types of goals. Let’s now understand that for which areas of life should we make our goals. Which areas should we focus on? For whom we should do this goal setting?
So, the answer to this question is:-
- Health
- Wealth
- Relationship
We should always make our goals in this format. This format really helps in having clarity in all areas of our life. Every successful person has the ability to maintain all these three aspects of his life.
Health
No matter how much wealth you have and how happy your relationship is If you are not healthy and you are suffering from any illness/disease than that wealth and happiness are of no use, right?
Wealth
Similarly, it doesn’t matter how good healthy and how good a relationship you have; If you don’t have wealth (money) to feed your family than that healthy and happy relationship is of no use, right?
Relationship
The same applies to the third one i.e, Relationship. No matter how healthy you are or how much wealth you have, if you don’t have a happy relationship with your loved once – your family, friends, co-workers, etc.
This is why we should always make goals in all these three aspects of life. All of these three health, wealth and relationship are the key pillars for everything that you are doing in your life or that you will be doing in your life in the future.
Road Blocks – Why don’t people achieve Goals (Phase 4)
Awesome!! You are really amazing. So, let’s now discuss a few things as to why people don’t achieve their goals.
So, one of the biggest reasons for not achieving our goals is that we “Procrastinate”. We are habitual to do procrastination for no reason. We always complain about things such as like I didn’t have money, I didn’t have time and I didn’t have resources to achieve goals. Like really?
The truth is that we all want to be successful, we all want to live a happy, healthy and prosperous lifestyle but the problem is that don’t want to make sacrifices. We are not willing to pay the price to live that lifestyle that we all dream to live off.
Most of the people who make goals at any point in his life don’t achieve their goals. According to a report from the University of Scranton. 92 percent of people who make New Year’s goals don’t achieve their goals. 92 percent, it’s not a small number, it’s a very huge number. I was one of them until I start applying the strategies which I am going to share with you now onwards.
Action Steps – Goal Setting (Phase 5)
Okay, so now we have reached the end of this and now you’ll know what things can you do to actually achieve all your goals. You can even note them down if you need to.
Be willing to sacrifice
Always be willing to do anything and everything when it comes to working toward your goals. Your goals are only your goals, not anyone else’s. So, only you have to work for all the goals that you want to accomplish. It’s just like when you are hungry – you eat food not anyone else does. So is this, only you need to work on your goals.
Write your goals
Whenever you do planning for something from now onwards, do write them in a notepad. This will help you to stay focused on your goals as to what are the things that you want to work for.
Paste your goals
Take a goal that you want to achieve in the next one month or so and write it down on a sticky note or a paper and paste it in your bedroom, office and keep it as the wallpaper of your laptop or mobile device. This will keep reminding you whenever you’ll be feeling down or feels like quitting.
Read your goals
Reading your goals every single day will also help you to embrace all your goals in your subconscious mind and your subconscious mind will do all the work. Your subconscious mind attracts all the things that are embraced in it. If you put negative thoughts on it, you’ll attract negative things. If put positive thoughts, it’ll attract positive things. And if you feed it by your goals than it’ll attract all the opportunities that’ll help you to achieve all your goals.
Write your goals “2”
Make a separate notebook or diary in which you can write your short term goals and your long term goals every single day. This is also one of the most powerful tricks to feed the goals into your subconscious mind. Don’t neglect this thing. Once you do this, you’ll see the changes in your mindset as it’ll start attracting all that is required to achieve your goals.
Be Disciplined
Maintaining the discipline throughout the journey of achieving your goals is a very crucial part for anyone. And you can only be disciplined once you start valuing the time you have, the money you have and the people you have in your life. Once you realize the importance of these three things you’ll automatically be aligned with your goals.
Make Investments
Investment, when people listen to this word; the first thing that comes n their mind is “expense/money” and they back out. See, the investments that you make on yourself, on your self-education are more worth than the investments that you make on your formal education.
And the reason you came across such opportunities is that because the investment is going to play a crucial role in your journey to achieve your goals. Your subconscious mind has attracted that opportunity for you. So, grab all those opportunities and don’t back out.
Believe in yourself
Believing in yourself is the most important key to succeed in any area of your life. If you believe that you can you will. And If you believe that you can’t then you won’t. So, self-belief in yourself and in your goals will definitely take you and your inspiration to a whole new level. So, have faith in yourself and always believe in yourself.
Conclusion
Goal setting is one of the most important tasks in one’s life and in all areas of life. Without goals or targets, we can’t achieve the desired results as we want. You might encounter so many problems and challenges during the course of achieving your goals, I highly recommend to be patient and just focus on your goals, not on the problems.
And yes, Until and unless you take actions nothing would happen. So take massive action in your life. Be an action taker.
What do you think about the ways I shared and mentioned above to achieve all your goals. Let me know in the comment section below.
SMART goals are more specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and most importantly time-oriented goals. One should always make goals in this way. Any goal that doesn’t include these terms isn’t worth making.
A goal is more of a true purpose of an individual that pushes him/her to work more, to hustle more and to achieve more. If one doesn’t have a goal or purpose than that life isn’t worth living.
1. Know what you want in life.
2. Stop thinking about all the reasons why you can’t achieve them and instead think about why you can.
3. Be courageous to face all the challenges.
4. Be willing to pay the price to achieve whatever you want to achieve.
5. Take action. Until and unless you take action, nothing would happen.
A realistic goal is a goal that is real and is more likely to be achieved. Realistic goals are based on your current life patterns and which are more significant.
A good goal should follow these things.
1. It should be well defined and should be specific.
2. It should be measurable.
3. It should realistic and achievable.
4. It should be relevant to the purpose as to why you want to achieve that goal.
5. It should be time-oriented or time-based.