Goal Setting: 5 Tips to Set Goals You Will Achieve

Goal setting may seem like a daunting task, but setting goals can help keep you moving forward and on the path to success. Setting goal and achieving goals are different things and sometimes achieving goals can be very difficult. Many people spend time setting goals, only to realize months or even years down the road that they never actually achieved them. So how do we ensure that we are achieving the goals we set out for ourselves…well it’s important to remember that setting the goals is only a small part of the process. It’s also important to check in on your goals and adjust where needed. Today I’m sharing with you my 5 tips to set goals that you will actually achieve instead of setting them, then forgetting about them!

Before we jump into the 5 tips I do want to say that setting and achieving goals is not a simple or short process. It is a process that needs to be consistently monitored and adjusted. Setting and achieving goals is hard work and takes some time to set up for success, so if you are looking for a quick fix, this process may not be exactly what you are looking for. However, using these tips to set clear goals and achieve them as well!

Tip 1: Prioritize Your Goals

When setting goals on a health and fitness journey the initial thought is to overhaul a ton of habits and behaviours and change everything all at once. And at first it might make sense to change everything all at once, however it is often easier to make smaller changes over longer periods of time. Generally, it’s easier to stick to something for the long haul when you start with small changes. Start by writing all your goals down on a piece of paper. Begin by writing down all the areas of your life that you want to see improvements in and then consider the following questions

• Why do you want to see improvements in these areas?
• How important is achieving goals in each of these areas to you?
• How would you feel if you didn’t see improvements in each of these areas of your life?
• Consider the resources required to achieve each particular goal
• What barriers may stand in your way as you strive towards these goals?
• How would you overcome these barriers?

After considering these factors you will be able to rank your goals based on what is higher priority and what is lesser priority. Goals that you feel more strongly about and goals that you have the resources to achieve will likely fall higher on the list than those who aren’t as vital for you or those that you don’t have resources to achieve. By the time you have completed this first step you will have a list of goals ranked by priority and then you can move through the remaining tips.

Tip 2: Start With A Strong Why

Now that you’ve established which goals are highest priority for you you have a starting point, but you still need to connect these goals to a strong why. Connecting these goals to a strong why will make them more meaningful to you. This “why” is essentially the reason that your goal is important to you. It helps give you purpose while pursing the goal and clarifies that the goal is truly something that you want to achieve. When you are considering why you want to achieve a goal think deeper than that you want to improve your health or lose weight. The deeper and more emotional you can make this why, the more likely you are to stick to it. If you are looking for more information on finding a strong why you can check out this post here.

Tip 3: Create an Action Plan

Now you know what goals are your top priority and you know why they are important to you, you want to start to create an action plan. This is generally one of the steps that is forgotten about or neglected during the goal setting process. A goal is only as good as the plan to get there and this plan is vital to your long-term success. Start by writing down all the tasks that you will need to accomplish in order to get to your long-term goal. This will allow you to identify the actions that you need to consistently complete in order to get to your goal and you will be able to work them into each and every day. Once you’ve listed all the tasks work backwards from the end date of your goal and slot them into a schedule. When slotting these into a calendar you can create smaller “milestone” goals over the weeks to keep you motivated and on track as you work towards the overarching goal.

Tip 4: Evaluate Your Progress

When setting goals it’s important to create an evaluation process. This will look different for each goal and may even differ from one person to the next. It’s important that this evaluation process works for you but even more important that it happens. I would recommend that you evaluate your progress weekly. Checking in on where you are in your action plan each week will help you stay on track as you move towards your goals. This is the part of the goal setting process that is often neglected. It is one thing to set goals, but it is another to hold yourself accountable to them by evaluating your progress each week. When you are considering ways to evaluate progress try and make them concrete and number based so they are straight forward and easy to keep track of. Record your progress each week and take a few minutes to look back on where you were in the weeks previous as well as where you are going in the coming weeks.

Tip 5: Re-evalute Your Goal Often

It’s important to revisit and re-evaluate your goals. This is another part of goal setting that is often completely neglected. Over time goals may need to be changed, or thrown out completely. When life changes or situations change our goals may need to change to match those situations. A goal that was once important may become less important over time. This is why it’s important to revisit our goals and re-evaluate their importance to us. You can do this each week with your evaluation process to keep on top of it and allow you to adjust your goals in real time. There is no shame at all in re-evaluating and adjusting goals. Plenty of unexpected things come up in life and cause our paths to change and being able to recognize these moments and adjust is a key on the road to success.

There you have it…my 5 tips for setting goals that you will actually follow through with, goals that you will achieve. You can use these tips to create a prioritized goal list with an action plan and an evaluation process that will allow you to stay on track and work through your goals successfully. When working through a health and fitness journey goal setting is an important part of the process and when done properly can be extremely effective. Have questions about goal setting…reach out to me and I would love to help you get started today!