Lou Holtz once said, ‘ If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.’
Goal setting can help us to aim higher, achieve more, and push our creativity to the limit. Deciding you’re ready for self-improvement is just the beginning; the next step is to set goals that work for you and your lifestyle. To help you on the path to goal-setting success, try these seven goal-setting tips that really work.
1. Set Goals That Inspire You
Many of us aspire to self-improvement, whether it’s progressing within our careers, personal lives, or both. Without clear goals to aim for, it’s difficult to move in the right direction. When you’re figuring out your goals, ensure that your goals truly inspire you.
2. Collect Sources Of Inspiration
Perhaps you’re lacking inspiration at this time in your life? If so, there’s nothing wrong with searching for sources of inspiration. It might be a powerful TED talk given by a role model of yours; instead, it could be a book written by a thought leader in your industry. Whether it’s motivational quotes, articles in magazines, or industry events, collect as much inspiration as you can. Unless you feel inspired, it’s difficult to set meaningful goals that motivate you.
3. Use The Smart Framework
The Smart Framework is a tried and tested framework for goal setting, if you’re not already using it, ensure that you consider these pointers when you next set a goal.
- Specific: First up, it’s important that a goal is properly defined and detailed. If a goal is too vague, you’re left with no clear direction to work towards.
- Measurable: Goals should be measurable so that you can conclude how successful you’ve been, and how much work you have left to do. Include dates and amounts, or anything else that helps you to measure your progress.
- Attainable: While it’s important to be ambitious, the goals which you set should be realistic. Setting attainable goals will only serve to demotivate you and hinder your progress.
- Relevant: Remember to keep your goals relevant to your long-term plan, whether career-wise or for your personal life. Setting goals that are inconsistent (or goals which do not complement one another) becomes complicated.
- Time-Bound: Most importantly, all goals need some kind of deadline; a sense of urgency can serve to motivate you.
4. Try Support Applications
Looking for further support to set goals? Why not try a goal setting app to support your progress, a few examples include:
- Strides Goal & Habit Tracker: With this application, you can track your goals using the SMART framework. Strides is an app that’ll provide reminders and charts to motivate you and allow you to track both good habits and bad.
- Habitica: Habitica is a light-hearted and fun goal setting app. If you’re looking to set goals (but not take yourself too seriously), you’ll love these customizable avatars and self-improvement games!
- Way Of Life: Way of Life is a habit-tracking application that supports you in creating an improved version of yourself! The Way Of Life tracker includes a wide range of features such as bar graphs and pie charts, note-taking, custom messages, reminders, challenges, and scoreboards.
- Goals On Track: Here, you’ll find a goal management app aimed at ‘high achievers.’ Using the application, you can get organized, break down long term goals, and track progress made. As well as a goal-setting app, Goals On Track is a general productivity tracker. There is a handy vision board tool and a goal journal to make notes. Journaling is not just helpful to set goals, but also to release stressful emotions and brainstorm solutions to your problems.
5. Consider & Remove Obstacles
Of course, achieving goals isn’t always easy; likely, there are at least a few obstacles in your way. The important thing is to consider these obstacles and work on removing them (or reducing them). Perhaps your obstacles are associated with financial debt? Maybe your obstacles are societal constraints imposed by government systems? Programs such as the ‘Debt To Success’ system can help you remove such obstacles and access freedom. For more info, Visit DTSS.
6. Try Support Services
When you’re setting goals, it can be helpful to get a little support; you might like to invest in the services of a life coach or a business mentor.
Life Coach: A life coach can help you figure out your goals and create a plan to achieve them. A life coach can help you assess your situation and discuss any beliefs you have, which may be holding you back. With a life coach, you can work on a strategy that best fits your lifestyle, and get the motivation you need to stay on track.
Business Mentor: A business mentor is a professional who can offer advice, wisdom, and expertise to help you progress in your career. You may be able to find a business mentor at your current role; if not, these services are also accessible within the local community or online.
7. Break Down Your Goals
One of the most important ideas behind goal setting is to break down your goals into short-term steps. For instance, say your goal is to turn a hobby into a business; this is a longer-term goal, which isn’t going to happen overnight. To work towards the long-term goals, you need to devise small actions that you take every single day. Your short-term actions might involve attending networking events, perfecting your business model, or carrying out market research.
8. Ask For Feedback
Where appropriate, getting feedback on your progress can be helpful to evaluate your performance. Consider the successes you’ve experienced so far, and consider the failures. Think about what you can do better to get that little bit closer to smashing your goals.
Lastly, all goals are best approached with a positive mindset. Though it’s not always easy to achieve amazing things, but a self-critical approach will only hold you back.
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