Whether you are setting life goals, health goals or career goals, it’s important to have a process in place so that you can be sure that you set yourself up for success. There’s nothing more frustrating than looking back at the end of the year and realizing that you didn’t achieve your goals. I’m sharing my goal setting strategy that works every time!
It’s time to start setting aggressive goals strategically so you can see success.
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Fail-Proof Goal Setting Strategy
Have you ever considered that you might have missed your goal because you didn’t approach the goal itself with success in mind? The process for goal setting is critical to your being able to look back and celebrate achieving your goals!
Vague goal setting = vague results, folks. My time as a Principal in a High School solidified my belief that solid goal setting will lead to solid results. Looking back, I realize that my success in Business came as a result of setting goals the right way too.
Now, I’m a little bit obsessive about setting goals and having a clear strategy on how to meet those goals. If you’re a type A, organized person you probably know what I’m talking about.
If you struggle to set goals that are achievable, can’t stick to your goals or just forget them, keep reading.
Everyone wants to get that feeling of wanting to jump and cheer like a little kid because you finally met that goal you’ve been trying to reach!
I’m sure you’ve seen the term SMART Goals just about everywhere. If you have ever worked in education it’s ingrained in your brain. I used to joke that I was going to have to provide a SMART goal for how I would eat lunch every day. (When I said the education world is obsessed with SMART goals I wasn’t kidding…) All kidding aside, the reality is, SMART goals work.
Here’s the thing though…
The real key to success with goal setting is what comes before and after the goal itself!
Start With A Brain Dump
If you’ve ever set goals for yourself and not even come close to meeting them you probably looked back and wondered what the heck went wrong?
How did your goals that you were so excited about when you set them turn into complete and utter failure?
I would propose that you may have set the wrong goal. Hear me out here. Whenever you sit down to set your goals for the year, month or week you probably have a bunch of ideas for what your goals might be.
Most people just jump into picking one with no process in place. What if the reason you didn’t meet your goal was because you skipped one simple step?
You need to allow yourself to actually write down all of the goals you may want to consider.
We are creatures of habit and let’s be honest, we have a tendency (even subconsciously) to pick the goal that seems most achievable. Sure, you may have reached a bit but did you truly explore the possibilities for your goals?
To start, do a brain dump of all of the possibilities for goals you might want to set.
TIP: Set a time limit! Sit down with an actual timer and give yourself 5 minutes to jot down all of the possibilities.
When your five minutes are up – stop.
Next, read over what you wrote down. Trust the process. Your mind is going to take you where you want to go.
Visualize Yourself Achieving Your Goals
After you’ve done your goal setting brain dump give yourself 10 minutes to visualize it. Close your eyes or go somewhere that doesn’t have distractions.
The goal here is to actually see yourself achieving the goal. What do you see? Allow yourself to see the details.
Whether you are setting career goals, personal goals, weight loss goals or health goals the process is the same.
Here are some things to consider when visualizing.
- What am I doing?
- How do I feel?
- What am I wearing?
- Who is with me?
- Do I seem confident in my visualization?
- What do you see?
- Are there specific sounds that you hear?
- Do you taste or smell anything specific?
These are just a few examples of questions you can ask yourself as you go into your visualization exercise.
Here’s an example of visualization as it relates to a health goal.
When I close my eyes I see myself in 20 years. My hair is naturally gray but I’ve colored it platinum blonde to match how I feel. I am hiking with my husband and I look great! The shorts I am wearing look good and the t-shirt shows that I am fit. I am smiling and confident. I can tell by my posture and how I move. It is easy to see that I am genuinely happy. The fresh air smells amazing and being in nature, hiking on the mountain with my husband is bringing a smile to my face. I am peaceful and full of life.
You see, as you visualize you want to see yourself as you’re living in that moment.
If you haven’t allowed yourself to visualize this way before you are in for a treat. It’s incredibly powerful and has a profound impact on your success.
Remember, you are capable of doing whatever you set out to do.
Allow yourself to truly see success and how you feel having achieved it.
Next, let’s focus on why you have this goal.
What’s Your Why? Critical Goal Setting Strategy Step
If you want to really stick to a new habit or achieve something important like a strategic goal, it’s important to have a really good reason for wanting to meet it.
Be sure you understand exactly why it is that you want to accomplish your goals.
The second thing you need to do is write it down. Now, digital is fine. I personally prefer to write it on paper.
There’s something about physically writing it that helps set it to memory, and seeing it daily, is important as well. So writing down your why allows you to put it where you will see it!
Writing everything down just takes it from your subconscious, puts it right in front of your consciousness, and helps draw those goals into the forefront of your mind.
Even if you have a good memory this is a great practice to implement.
It’s important to remember that as life gets busy, our goals will have a tendency to slowly slip into oblivion.
Set yourself up for success as you write your goals and the thought process behind them.
SMART Goals
If you haven’t heard of SMART goals before, it’s an acronym.
SMART stands for specific, actionable, measurable, relevant, and timely.
Now an example of this would be if you were trying to lose weight. Just saying, I want to lose weight this year. It’s not really specific. It doesn’t say exactly when you want to accomplish it and it doesn’t give you any concrete plan.
What you could say instead is, “I want to lose 10 pounds by August 1.”
You want it to be specific. Don’t be vague in what it is you want to accomplish.
Set goals that are actionable, or something you can do.
When goal setting it’s important that they are measurable. A goal should be something that you can measure the success of.
The goal itself should be relevant and timely. When you think about setting a timely goal just be sure to set a deadline for when you want it accomplished.
Plan Your Steps | Final Step in Your Goal Setting Strategy
Now, go ahead and set about making a plan for HOW you will meet your goal.
Very specifically break down how it is you will lose weight or reach 1,000 visits a day on your website, for example.
Using our earlier example, we said, lose 10 pounds by August, so you would want to map out the following steps for success:
- I want to make sure that I drink plenty of water.
- Exercise three times a week.
- Cut out fried food from my diet
- Give up the idea of cheat days (I’m only cheating myself)
- Approach food as sustainability for my body
- Learn to make one new healthy recipe every week
You can break this down as specifically as you want. Just remember, the more clearly you set up your plan to reach your goals, the more likely you are to meet them.
Whatever you do, write down your plan for how you want to accomplish your goals. The more detailed you are, the more likely you are to be celebrating achieving your goals.
Fail-Proof Goal Setting Strategy | Achieve Your Goals
These 4 simple steps will have you setting your goals strategically so you can finally see the success you have been looking for. It’s super simple if you just follow the plan and work through the process.
Start setting aggressive goals and celebrating your success!
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