How and why you should set goals

As the New Year rolls around once again (I swear it comes round faster each year!) it’s the season a lot of us decide to set ourselves some goals. These could be physical – more exercise and a better diet maybe to help lose a few pounds. They could be work related – be more productive and get that promotion or bringing a packed lunch into work, to save pounds and lose pounds. More often than not, by the time February rears its chilly head most of us haven’t used that new gym membership for weeks or have been to Pret every day this week for lunch.

The fact is it’s difficult to keep goals without  a deadline or a target firmly in place. We might think other people are just predisposed to be better at certain things than others, and sadly for us we’re just not one of those people who are good at getting up at 6am each morning to go for a run. But thats simply not the case.  We all the the ability and all the raw materials required to put a plan in motion.   By setting achievable goals in the right way, you can accomplish things you wouldn’t have thought possible.

Here are a few tips I’ve put together not only from personal experience but also from immersing myself in the advice of other successful people on how they set goals, and how to achieve them:

• Be specific
  It’s easy to say ‘I want to lose weight’ but without having a target in mind it’s difficult to visualise how you are going to get there, how near or how far you are from achieving it. Would losing one pound mean you could stop trying? By setting yourself a goal such as ‘I want to lose 10 pounds’ you have something specific to aim for, but you still have to go a step further.  You need a date and a reason.  If you said ‘I want to lose 10 pounds by April 30th and to fit in ‘x’ for Jane and Robert’s wedding then it add a new level of intensity.   You have to have a clear picture of what success will look like, and appreciating the small successes and sense of achievement whilst you are on your way there.

• Be realistic – NO SCRATCH THAT!!!  Dream big, Set goals you hope or dream of achieving and plan your way there! If you miss the stars you may hit the moon!
  I believe the power of our minds is incredible and with a strong will power you can achieve the unachievable. Saying this, it does depend your own mental attitude and structure.  For me my innate believe is that with enough effort I can achieve anything I put my mind to. But if you are someone whom to dreaming big does not come naturally, then you should outline 3 big goals the nice to have’s which would be amazing but in your mind quite a way off from reality but you would really like it. And then 12 smaller goals which are stepping stops (4 per big goal) to the bigger goals.

• Write things down and make them public
  Studies have shown that you are much more likely to reach your goals if you have them written down. Whether this is done with a pen and paper, in a journal, on a word document or even an online blog having those goals outside of your own mind makes them more real and means you’re more likely to treat them seriously – and ultimately achieve them.  The act to writing goals down has proven in a study by Harvard Business School MBA, that setting and writing down clear goals led those that did, to earn 10 times more than those that didn’t.  I have personally witnessed the benefit of goal setting first hand and would encourage everyone to use this method.

• Choose the right time
  If you are particularly busy at work or are going through a stressful time in your personal life it can make achieving those goals that much more difficult. So a good tip is to set out on your goals when you have the time to do so. Choosing a difficult time and then failing to achieve what you hoped can make you feel a lot worse. Planning when you’re going to work on your goals will take you one step closer to reaching them. Another good tip is to actually schedule in when you’re going to work on your goals, whether that means keeping a diary with the times you’re going to hit the gym or setting your alarm half an hour earlier to prepare a healthy breakfast, it means you can’t say you didn’t have enough time to do what you aimed to do.

• Build up your self control
  Just like every other muscle in the body, our willpower needs exercise. Set yourself smaller targets to achieve. This could be to stop buying takeaways or walking to work every day for a week. Making yourself complete these tasks will strengthen your willpower muscle and make achieving your bigger goals that much easier.

Following these top five tips will help you set and achieve attainable goals. After you’ve reached each goal you can start setting yourself even bigger targets to achieve things you didn’t think would be possible!

I’d love to hear your personal stories of goal setting and successes or failures so please comment below.

 

With love

 

Helene