How To Set Goals That Are Achievable- you can do this…post updated 4-28-23
If you are tired, discouraged, and want to quit whatever it is you are doing, don’t give up. Keep trying to find what will work, what might work better, and find out what will not work. Keep saying to yourself, this is attainable, and I can accomplish my dreams, desires, and goals.
Here is how you tell if you seek, need, or want something that you should not:
- Will your desire hurt another soul?
- Are you depriving your family?
- Will this feat keep you from giving adequate attention to your soul?
- If you obtain your goal, will it make you into a selfish, unkind, arrogant, or devious individual?
- Is there anything that is evil, unlawful, or immoral?
If not any of the above exist; continue the process of your goals- but be realistic to succeed
Pushing to achieve your goals, does not mean that you try to reach all of your goals in a hurry. Very often, you can only see a light that is under your feet, not over your head, or ahead of you. Reach for what you can see, and push for what is attainable at that very moment.
What To Remember In The Process
Are You Setting the Right Goals for Yourself?
There is a lot more to goal setting than just picking a goal and moving forward. While that is important, it is also important to ensure that you are setting the right goals at the right time so that you can truly be successful. In order to ensure that you are setting the right goals for yourself, answer the following questions:
1. In Your Quest To Reach Your Goals – Are You Setting Specific and Realistic Goals?
It takes a little research to ensure that a goal is realistic. If you are not sure if something is actually achievable then you have not done enough research. Once you have set a goal that is indeed realistic, then you need to be specific enough in your description of it so that it is also easy to take the goal and work backward to create a schedule of actions needed to succeed.
2. Is Your Scheduling Representative of Real Need?
Once you create the schedule for yourself to reach each goal that you’ve set, you need to truly consider how representative it is of reality. Say your goal is to be healthy and reduce your cholesterol by 10 percent in six months. However, you have not set aside the time needed to exercise and eat right. If you do not schedule in the time needed, you will not succeed because something will always be in your way taking time away from you. It will be very frustrating to practice your schedule because it does not represent reality.
3. Are You Learning from Failure?
Many times when setting goals and schedules, instead of learning from failure, people give up. Using the example above, once you implement your schedule to reach the goals that you have set when you notice there are things you’ve forgotten to take into account, don’t give up. Learn from the failure and change the schedule to be more realistic.
4. Do Your Goals Represent Your Needs Or What Someone Else Things?
Some people set goals that represent what someone else wants instead of what they want. This can really cause a lot of bad feelings and resentment, which can derail the best-laid plans. As you set your goals for your life, ask yourself if they are really what you want for yourself or what someone else wants for you. Ask yourself if you are okay with any goal you make being for someone else before you embark on your journey.
It is okay to do things because of someone else, but it is important that you are honest about that and make some goals for yourself too that do not involve anyone else’s needs or wants.
5. Are You Checking in Often to Stay on Track?
Schedules are very important to the success of reaching any goal in life. To-do lists pale in comparison to a well-laid-out calendar of tasks and activities that get you from point “A” to point “B”. Ensure that you look at your schedule every morning and night and note when you succeed in sticking to your schedule and where you do not. Noticing a pattern of activity can be helpful in fixing a poorly written schedule as well as staying realistic about whether or not you are sticking to the plan.
6. Are Your Goals Focus Positively?
When writing a goal it is important to write them in a positive way, or at least a way that feels positive to you. In the quest to improve your life, try writing down a goal and then changing the words to sound more positive to see if it is not more motivating. For instance, “losing weight” seems like a good goal, but for some people, it might signify deprivation. So instead, the person might frame the goal as “improving my BMI by 10 points” or “improving my cholesterol by 10 percent.”
7. Do You Have Too Many Goals Set at One Time?
Just as setting too few goals can be a problem, so can setting too many. Everyone has a personal life and a career life and points in between. If you have set goals in too many areas of life at once, you might tire yourself out and get overwhelmed. Instead, pick one personal goal, and one other type of goal to focus on until you reach them, and then you can add more goals as time goes on. You do not need to do everything today. Slow and steady wins the race is a good motto to hang on to.
Setting the right goals for you takes some thought and consideration. Do not try to set all your goals in one day, do not try to accomplish all of them in one day. You cannot accomplish all things in one day, week, or month. It usually takes a lot of thought, time, and patience.
Instead, set some goals, or just one goal at a time, in different stages and in different areas of your life, and give a lot of thought to why you’re making the goal in the first place.
Keep going…keep focused…but know your limitations, and keep them realistic so that your goals are achievable.
Additional Reading- Forbes-Setting The Right Goals in The Right Ways
