How to set Goals Effectively

Michael Joseph Kingsley
January 1, 2024
12:00 am

“Create a defined plan for a S.M.A.R.T. goal, and then it’s up to you to stay motivated, take action, review and adjust, and stay committed. By following these steps, you can unleash your potential.”

If you want to take things forward, that’s a really good idea. Now let me see your list of goals and compare it with our advice here. That’s the best way we can help you achieve your goals faster, better and effectively.

Or maybe you don’t have a plan or even a list of realistic goals?

1. Why having a Plan makes a Man.

If you don’t have a plan, you don’t have much money to spend. It’s a bold statement but I’m sure it’s true for 99% of people. It’s wonderful if you don’t have a plan for your goals now. That means we have so much potential to awaken in you. Your bank balance, fitness, spirit, and mind will change drastically if you start to set goals.

But why is it?

Let’s think of a ship leaving the harbor. We have a good captain with a defined plan and a defined destination. The captain and the crew know exactly where they going, how long it takes them, and when they will surely arrive. Now I will guarantee you, 999 out of 1000 times it will arrive at the destination.

Now let us take a ship without a plan, not even a destination. Just start the engine and let it go. I don’t need to prove to you, that this will not go out well. It surely will sink or arrive at an irrelevant place somewhere.

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” — Fitzhugh Dodson

“People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.” — Earl Nightingale

2. Define your Goals

You don’t need a plan if you don’t set Goals. But you need a defined plan to achieve a smart goal. So let us define your desires, aiming points, wishes… your goals.

When defining your goal, it’s important to make it specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, also known as a S.M.A.R.T. goal. I will break it down for you.

Specific: Be clear and specific about what you want to achieve. Avoid vague goals and identify the precise outcome you’re working towards.
Measurable: Determine how you’ll measure progress and success. Identify metrics or indicators that will help you track your progress. You can use fancy apps or the classy pencil-and-paper method.
Achievable: Ensure that your goal is realistic and achievable given the resources, time, and skills available to you. You can work on your dream but never dream on your work.
Relevant: Make sure your goal is relevant to your values, priorities, and overall vision for your life. You don’t need irrelevant goals.
Time-bound: Set a specific deadline or timeline for achieving your goal. This will help you stay focused and accountable.

By creating a S.M.A.R.T. goal, you’ll have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and a roadmap for how to get there. This first step is important to setting yourself up for long-term success and aiming in the right direction.

3. How to set your Goals Effectively with a Plan

The next step in how to set goals effectively is to create a plan to achieve them. This involves breaking down your goal into more manageable steps and identifying specific actions you can take to move towards your goal.

You need those tips for an effective plan:

Start with the end goal in mind: We already did a good job with our smart goals. Now visualize what achieving your goal will look like and work backwards to identify the steps needed to get there.
Break your goal into smaller steps: Identify smaller milestones or goals that you can achieve along the way. This will help you stay motivated and track your progress, even and especially for a long period.
Prioritize your actions: Determine which actions are most critical to achieving your goal and focus on those first.
Set deadlines: Give yourself specific deadlines for each step of your plan. This will help you stay on track and accountable.
Be flexible: Be prepared to adjust your plan as needed based on new information or unexpected challenges. Don’t get mad if things don’t come out how you want. It’s a necessary step to adjust.

Creating a plan will help you stay organized and focused on achieving your goal. It will also give you a clear roadmap to follow, making it easier to take action and track your progress along the way.

4. Stay Motivated

Look, I can give you nice tips about motivation, but it doesn’t help you really. At least this was my experience. It’s much better to build discipline. Anyways ill show you the most common tips and give you my advice at the end.

Visualize success: Imagine what achieving your goal will feel like and visualize yourself succeeding. Visualizing is an important skill overall, not exclusive to staying motivated only.
Stay positive: Focus on the progress you’ve made so far and celebrate small wins along the way. Surround yourself with positive people who support and encourage you. It’s important to stay away from people who don’t believe in you. Just cut them out of your life, they are a waste of time. They don’t need to support you but they need to respect you at least.
Set reminders: Set reminders for yourself to stay on track and motivated. This could be a daily affirmation, a motivational quote, or a note to yourself reminding you why this goal is important. It’s surprising how effective this method is. With all of those reminders, your subconscious starts to care more about your goals.
Track your progress: Keep track of your progress toward your goal. This will help you stay motivated by showing you how far you’ve come and what you’ve accomplished so far, also if you don’t get motivated, at least you need to track your progress for adjusting your plan and being accountable for your goal. Take it or leave it!
Reward yourself: Give yourself small rewards along the way for reaching milestones or making progress towards your goal. Maybe I’m a special one here, but this doesn’t work for me. I will just think more about the reward than the actual work and in the end, I’m not happy with my work or with my reward. You can give it a try, maybe it’s working for you.

It’s better to build habits than motivation.

I don’t have the motivation for training and working every day. Some days it gets easier than other days, but holding up this motivation is impossible. So I started to build a discipline. If you can stick for 30 days, to doing a thing every day, you will do it and enjoy it a lot more after the 30 days. It’s because this type of activity is now a part of you.

Read the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. It focuses on the power of small, incremental changes in building better habits. The book provides practical strategies and tips for creating and maintaining good habits while breaking bad ones. Clear emphasizes the importance of identifying and changing the underlying systems and processes that lead to habits, rather than simply relying on willpower or motivation.

This book helped me a lot, not only with discipline but also with understanding myself. If you want to repair something, it’s a good point to understand it before you try to fix it.

5. Take Action

“Act as though it were impossible to fail,” as Dorothea Brande said.

No matter what your goal — if you’ve kept your goal before you every day — you’ll wonder and marvel at this new life you’ve found – Earl Nightingale

It doesn’t matter how good your goal, plan, and motivation are if you don’t act.

Here are some tips that will help you:

Start small: Break your plan into small, manageable steps that you can take action on immediately. This will help you build momentum and avoid feeling overwhelmed. It’s an important point on how to set realistic goals.
Stay focused: Eliminate distractions and focus on the task at hand. Don’t forget about a good night’s sleep. This means disconnecting from social media, finding a quiet workspace, or using time-blocking techniques to stay focused. Time blocking is a scheduling format that helps boost productivity by dividing your day into specific blocks of time. I didn’t try it out till now, but maybe I can write about it soon.
Use positive self-talk: Use positive self-talk to stay motivated and focused. Remind yourself of your strengths and capabilities, and focus on the progress you’ve made rather than the obstacles you’ve faced.

Be consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to achieving goals. Commit to taking action every day, even if it’s just a small step. This will help you build momentum and stay on track. Without being consistent, everything is just smoke and mirrors – a very important point here.

6. Review and Adjust

The last step in achieving your goal is to regularly review and adjust your plan. This is important because even the best-laid plans can sometimes encounter unexpected obstacles or require course corrections over time. Even on this blog, you will see changes over time.

Here are some tips for reviewing and adjusting your plan:

Set regular check-ins: Schedule regular check-ins with yourself to review your progress and assess whether your plan is still on track.
Identify obstacles: Identify any obstacles or challenges that have come up since you started your plan. This could be anything from unexpected expenses to a change in your schedule.
Brainstorm solutions: Once you’ve identified obstacles, brainstorm possible solutions to overcome them. This might involve revising your plan, seeking out additional resources or support, or adjusting your timeline.
Celebrate progress: Celebrate your progress along the way, even if you haven’t yet achieved your ultimate goal. This will help you stay motivated and committed to the process.
Stay flexible: Remember again to stay flexible and adaptable as you review and adjust your plan. Sometimes, unexpected challenges can lead to new opportunities or insights that ultimately make your plan stronger. That would be nice, right?

Regularly reviewing and adjusting your plan will help you stay on track and avoid getting stuck in a rut. By identifying obstacles, brainstorming solutions, celebrating progress, and staying flexible, you can ensure that your plan remains relevant and effective as you work towards achieving your goal.

Recommended Products:

If you wanna dive deeper through the topic, here are some excellent books:

You can Work on your Dream but never Dream on your Work.

So that’s it. I hope it was helpful for you guys. Everyone is struggling to keep up with the work and expectations others have of us. Most of the time, we are judging ourselves harshly enough but that’s better than not judging at all. You will need to be consistent. If you stay on track and keep executing goals over goals then success will follow along the way. You know now, how to set goals effectively. Stay based.

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