The Ultimate Goal Setting Guide to Getting (Almost) Anything

Why should you set goals?

Organizational psychologists Gary Latham and Edwin Locke's studies showed that setting goals could improve your performance and productivity by as much as 25%.

That’s because setting goals provide you with long-term vision and short-term motivation. The goals you have set focuses your acquisition of knowledge and helps you to narrow down your attention and focus, organize your time and your resources so that you can make the most out of your life. Setting goals also help you decide which actions you need to take and which ones to avoid.

Here are the 10 goal setting tips to help you not only set the right kind of goals but, more importantly, break them and achieve whatever your heart desires.

10 Goal Setting Tips

Do a brain dump.

Step #1: Write everything down.

Set the timer for 10 minutes. During that 10-minute time, write down everything that comes to your mind when you think of the word “accomplish”. Don’t think too much yet. Don’t analyze. The goal here is to get everything out of your head and onto the paper.

After the time is up, you should have quite a long list of things that you want to do.

Step #2: Remove those that are beyond your control.

Next, set the timer for 5 minutes. During this time, go through the list and cross out those that are beyond your control. 

For example, perhaps you wrote in there that you want everyone to like and be supportive of your every decision. I hate to break it to you, but this is something you have no control over because you can’t control how a person feels, even if those who are close to you.

Step #3: Remove those you find boring or give you a negative feeling.

In the book “The Desire Map Experience: A Guide to Creating Goals with Soul” written by Danielle LaPorte, she said that it’s not all about the goals that you set but instead, it’s the feeling that it made you feel when you achieve it.

Therefore, your next step is to set the timer again for additional 5 minutes and scan your list again. Only this time, focus on those that you haven’t crossed out yet and be attentive of how each of these made you feel. Cross out those that don’t excite, inspire or interest you. Also, scratch-off those that are giving you some negative feelings like guilt and regret.

This way, the ones left in your list are those that inspire and motivate you. All these positive vibes will make you feel competent and confident.

Choose one goal for each area in your life.

The saying ‘less is more’ applies when it comes to goal-setting. It’s because studies show that having more than 7 goals at any given time causes us to lose focus.

The most common mistake we make is focusing on hitting goals just in one area of our lives. This results in having no work-life balance.

With that being said, to achieve a healthy and successful work-life balance, we should choose one goal (to accomplish) per aspect of our lives such as our business or career, family, health, finances, and personal development. That gives us five goals to hit.

When it comes to choosing which goals to pick from our list, there’s always the possibility that one goal may come into conflict with another. If this happens, take a moment to evaluate which of these is more important and prioritize it. You can always add it again into your list once you’ve achieved the first.

Write down your goals.

The reason for writing your goals by scribbling it down instead of typing it into your computer is because it takes longer. The time difference may be minimal but taking that extra time to write it down is one way of imprinting it in your mind and telling yourself that you’re fully committed to making it happen.

Follow the SMART method.

This describes the characteristics of a well-defined goal. It makes the goal achievable and possible.

When setting a goal, make sure that it is:

Specific

Your goal must be bluntly telling you what you want to achieve. 

Measurable

You must have some sort of benchmark that let you know if you have reached your goal. It also acts up as a guide to tell you how far you still are to achieving your desired result. 

Actionable

It is recommended to start your goal with an action verb. This will prompt you to take action so that you can achieve your desired result.

Realistic

Set a goal that you can achieve regardless of the circumstances but also creative and big at the same time to make you step out of your comfort zone.

First, you need to determine what you need to make this goal into reality. With that, ask yourself if you have the means or skill to make it happen. 

Another is to keep in mind that struggles and challenges will come in between you and your goals. These can come in any form, it can be your time, money, family members, and even your own fears and doubts.

A realistic goal will make you feel nervous but not enough to make you doubt yourself.

Time-bound

Every goal must have a deadline or else you’d find yourself either procrastinating or aimlessly wandering through the journey.

Break down big goals into chunks.

The majority of the goals we usually set are big goals, which take a lot of time. Some examples are wanting to lose weight, putting up a business, learning a new language and such. 

Since these are impossible to achieve overnight, it’s easy for us to feel impatient and to lose hope in the middle of the process.

Breaking these big goals into a set of smaller goals makes them more doable. Achieving the smaller ones can make you feel accomplishment compared to just waiting for the end result.

Hit one goal at a time.

Now that you have a goal for the different aspects of your life, it makes your goal not only one. However, you cannot accomplish all of it at once. You have to tackle one goal at a time so you can stay focused and concentrated on the steps you need to take.

7. Create a vision board.

Our brain can process images 600,000 times faster than words. The same reason why.

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