Setting purposeful goals is a method of actively seeking out your aims and ambitions. Before chasing your dreams, you need to start by defining your precise goals. In case you do not have set goals yet, you must invest time and effort to make them up. Anything is better than having an aimless or goalless life. Despite if you don’t know what you are going to do with your life, you still have a goal: Discover what you need to do with your life.
Some people claim that they are not ambitious people. But aims and ambitions are conscious decisions in the pursuit of growth in life through achievements and experience.
This is your guide to set goals that help you succeed in taking full control of your destiny.
- Let go of the past
Your past is not set in stone, and thus you can change your future if you don’t live in your past. Your past experiences can be a source of internal strength and deep belief in yourself if you give a positive meaning to them.
- Track Your Habits
Habits play a vital role in achieving your goals. However, achieving success is not too easy, and you have to be disciplined to achieve your goals.
- Discover Your Driving Force
Your relationships and your passion can offer clues about your driving force—that determines the reason you do the things you do. We are driven by six human needs
- Variety
- Significance
- Certainty
- Love/connection
- Growth
- Contribution
- Define Your Goals
Goals are set, and if everybody else can make up their goals, so can you. Think of something you are passionate about and then decide to do it—yes, it is that simple. You don’t have to go out of the way to make manageable goals for your life.
It is very important to achieve something that you dream of or fascinate about as motivation is the key to achieve your goals. If the output is not attractive to you it will not give you enough determination and dedication to achieve that. It is advised to set goals that relate to high priorities in your life. Try to set one goal at a time as it requires commitment and too much pressure and failure leads to hopelessness.
- Be Precise
It is critical to know what you are working towards. Therefore, to make a plan, you need to know precisely what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to lose weight, be precise about your ideal weight and then make a diet and fitness plan.
- Think Big But Be Realistic
You don’t need to play safe as life played safe is lacking adventure. Avoid all limitations in your mind and challenge yourself to think big. Turn that voice off in your head that tells you your goals are too high and you are good to achieve anything.
But it is also necessary to be realistic with your goals. Most people start goal setting with too much gusto ignoring many aspects of their lives. Goals should be realistic according to your current situation as if it’s too big it will always give you pressure and scare you off ultimately lead to failure and disappointment. So, to avoid this it is suggested to first evaluate your situation honestly and set goals accordingly. Research suggests that keeping your goals specific and realistic makes it more convenient for you to achieve them as it removes all irrelevant distractions.
- Keep a journal
Write down your goals statement positively as writing makes it real and tangible instead of just a vague idea and a positive statement can make you excited to achieve them. It is recommended to keep your written goals somewhere that is visible to you most of the time as it will help in reminding you of priorities and keep you on track. It is observed that people who do not write goals are less likely to accomplish them.
- Create an Action plan and Set a Deadline
An action plan is mandatory so that you know how exactly you can achieve your goals. It includes all the steps you take and every aspect of these steps to achieve your goals. Be creative while making an action plan and use a timeline marker to help visualize the deadlines to achieve that particular goal. It is essential to determine when exactly you want to accomplish your goal.
- Decide What You’ll Sacrifice
You can’t accomplish anything without any sacrifices. Therefore, you need to make concessions. Think about things that you can give up and mentally prepare yourself for giving up your beloved thing in the pursuit of your goals.
- Work on your plan
After planning all the steps it’s time to take action and work hard accordingly. Take every step in a way that leads you to achieve your next goal.
- Tackle your negative thoughts
Almost every one of us doubts ourselves after setting the goal and planning. Be confident and realistic about what you want and how will you achieve that. Don’t let your negative thoughts distract you
- Be accountable for yourself and others
The action plan is easier to make but difficult to follow and stick to. Goal achievement is a journey full of obstacles so accountability is very important especially in the beginning it is recommended to have an accountability partner who has similar goals that will help you focus on performance and monitor progress. Reevaluate and access your progress time by time to ensure that you are on the right track.
- Be Mindful About Money
Setting an accountability system, we’ll stay in line with the goals we have set. According to stick.com statistics, almost 78% of people who put money aside achieve their goals, compared to 35% of people who don’t.
- Find joy in the process
It is very important to have a good feeling while thinking about your goal and steps to achieve them. Finding joy is necessary throughout the process not only at the end otherwise your mental stress will make that achievement unworthy. If there is a feeling of restriction then it’s probably not the right time or goal that’s why it is very important to choose goals according to your priorities or dreams.
- Celebrate
Acknowledge the completion of your goals and celebrate accordingly. Celebrations and rewards give you motivation and courage to achieve the next milestone.
Golden Rules for Setting Goals
There is a new approach known as the “SMARTER” goal approach that is followed by so many people and helps in accomplishing their dreams.
- Specific
Be specific about your goals and write specifically how you want to achieve them. It is very necessary to concentrate your efforts as there are a lot of distractions that can lead you astray.
- Measurable
To make the goal measurable we need to be able to see the progress over time. For example, I will open at least one new outlet in one year
- Actionable
A goal is actionable when it is clear what and when a specific action is to be taken to achieve that
- Relatable
It is important to determine either your goal relevant or relatable to your life or not. Always be honest and think about your current situation while setting a goal. It is not recommended to make a 10X goal i.e., to create a goal that is nearly impossible as that will force you to stretch yourself beyond the limit. So you need to create goals that you can accomplish at the current stage of your life.
- Time-bound
Every goal must have a deadline so there is an urgency to take action in a certain time frame. For this, map your path for success or otherwise, you will always have the goal but never have the motivation to accomplish that.
- Evaluate
It is very important to regularly evaluate progress to achieve your goal. It is recommended to evaluate and reconsider monthly. That is a reminder that what is the goal and ensures to take action accordingly.
- Reward
Every person needs a reward and a sense of pride in the achievement of a particular goal. This gives a sense of accomplishment and makes you ready for the next step. For example, if you achieve a yearly goal try to get something that you never have, and that makes it more exciting and challenging.
In conclusion, setting meaningful goals is critical to take full control of your destiny. Setting goals require motivation, determination, and discipline. Most importantly, you also need to be willing to give up something to achieve your goals. Thus, goal setting process fuels the ambition and helps you get tangible results. You may have struggled for the goals before or you might fail all of the goals you set for yourself but this should not stop you from dreaming
.