How to Achieve Your Goals
I always have lots of ideas. Things I want to get done around the house. Things I should do to help me be more organized. Things to work on to improve my health and well-being—but I don’t always go through the steps necessary to see any results from those ideas. So, it wasn’t surprising to me when I told my husband I was working on a post about achieving goals and he laughed.
What? I know a thing or two about goals! I worked for a time-management company for seven years and was required to go through the training there. I’ve listened to podcasts, gone to seminars, I am very well versed in what it takes to reach goals…I just may not always take my goals that seriously I guess.
But what really prompted this post is when we were hanging out with some friends. My husband recently decided to leave his comfortable, salaried position for something that will be entirely comission-based. As scary as it sounds, I feel totally fine with it. As he talked about the goals he had set to make sure he is able to provide for his family, our friend asked a good question: How do you achieve your goals? It made me think, not everyone knows how to achieve a goal. Many of us have tried. Some are successful and some fail. We all do different things to help us achieve what we want most. So, here is a list I have complied of tips to that have helped me succeed at achieving my goals in hopes that it will help you.
Write Down Your Goals
It’s been said that goals are just wishes until they are written down. Study after study has shown that people remember more facts after writing them down. It’s true! I can’t tell you how many times I have written a list of groceries items to buy at the store only to leave that list at home. It’s crazy how I can remember almost everything I had written down.
That’s why the practice of note-taking is so important. I was reading a study that determined that students who actively took notes in class, remembered far more than those that didn’t and even remembered more than those who took notes on their laptops. Something happens in the brain when people write something down.
Writing goals will help you remember what it is you want to achieve. It’s no longer just a wish, and guess what—people are more likely to achieve a goal they have penned to paper.
Set a Deadline
I can’t tell you how long I have told myself “someday.” Someday I’ll get the kids’ closets cleaned out. Someday I’ll create a meal plan. Someday I’ll run a half marathon in less than two hours. Funny how “someday” never comes. There are so many other things to do. Who really wants to spend time cleaning closets, thinking of dinners, or getting all sweaty from a run?
But this is exactly why setting a date is crucial for you to accomplish your goal. It’s much easier with something like a race, because the deadline is set for you. But even then, if you aren’t fully committed to reaching that goal, you may continue to sign up for race after race hoping you’ll finally get two-hour time.
If you don’t reach your goal by that date, set a new date, make a new plan. Keep repeating that process until you reach your goal.
Make an Action Plan
Life is filled with distractions—texts, Facebook, Instagram, emails, calls—and that’s just on your phone! It’s easy to be sidetracked these days especially, so be sure to make an action plan to help you achieve your goal.
Just like with running a half marathon, think of an action plan is if it were a training plan. Most of us can’t get off the couch and run 13.1 miles. We have to prepare our bodies and gradually increase are ability to run up to that mileage. An action plan for your goal can look something like a training plan. Each week you need to run so many miles and so many days.
When you have made an action plan, make it a priority. Don’t let the day pass without getting your training done or your tasks completed. If you need to, block out time in your day to work specifically on the tasks listed on your action plan.
Hold Yourself Accountable
It’s easy to let things get in the way of achieving your goals—believe me, I have found out that I can come pretty much come up with plenty of excuses as to why I never get things done.
Sometimes it helps having an accountability partner. I most likely would have walked a lot more during my half marathon if it wouldn’t have been for my friend that ran it with me. She was determined to get me across that finish line before 1:59. She encouraged me to keep running when I wanted to stop. She stayed by my side even when I told her to go on without me. She helped me finish the race at 1:54.
While accountability partners are nice, they can’t finish the race for you. You are the one ultimately responsible for putting one foot in front of the other. You are the one that will know when you fall short of your goal. And, disappointing yourself is often tough to come back from as many of us are our own worst critics. Make sure you stop making excuses and take action for the goals you want to achieve.
Believe in Your Success
Picture yourself achieving your goal. Imagine how it feels crossing that finish line. Have the belief that you can achieve what you have set your mind out to do! Without that belief, it will be too easy for you to give up. You need to have faith in yourself, because achieving goals are hard.
Your mind is telling you your body is tired. It wants to stop and just walk. You need to remember all the hard work and training you did. You prepared to finish the race. You need to fight off the voices in your head and trust in your action plan. Trust that you did what you needed to do to finish that race!
Achieving goals isn’t mean to be an easy thing. Goals are meant to push you out of your comfort zone— stretch your abilities—helping you to better yourself or your situation. Because goals aren’t easy, try to write them down. Create a deadline and a plan to get there. Hold yourself accountable but have the belief that you can achieve your goal. And remember what Henry David Thoreau once said, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”