How to set good goals that are actually attainable

Goal setting is a tool that many business owners and bloggers daily use to grow and create. While some people achieve new goals daily, some of us (like me) are great with coming up with goals. But actually achieving them is not my forte.

Example a. ; At the end of last year, I made an editor calendar for this blog that was well balanced and thought out. We are nine days into the new year and I already lost it. And that while it was actually one of my goals to be more organized.

Luckily one of my other goals was learning the skills I need to set good goals. So let’s delve into goal setting.

Setting SMART goals 

The first time I heard about SMART goals was actually at university (and back then I was actually good at planning and goal setting).

S.M.A.R.T. stands for;

– Specific; Make sure you make your goals as specific as possible. Not vague or generalized.

– Measurable; Give you something measurable. Instead of saying; I want to be more productive, say I want to work at least 8 hours a day, productively. (Not sure if that example works, but you know, make sure you include amounts, time, dates etc.)

– Attainable; Make sure you can actually attain your goals. No matter how much you want to, you will probably never be a master of space and time. Working towards something that you might never reach, is very bad for your motivation.

– Relevant; Make sure your goals are relevant to your life and values. If I never wanted to knit but I suddenly decided that I should but had no further interest or plans with it, I would give up on that goal quite quickly.

– Time; Give you self a date like a deadline. (If you want to know more about deadlines > I wrote more on that) 

Setting SMART goals is said to be a good way to make it easier on yourself to get them done. If you already have a goal in mind why not try to turn it into a SMART goal by checking all the points above.

Here is another example from HootSuite on using SMART goals for creating a social media marketing plan. 

Make sure you remember yourself 

Next, you need to have a system in place that helps you remember your goals. Personally, I stick mine to my mirror, but you can put them anywhere. Add them to you planner, set a regular reminder on your phone, anything you need to remind you of them regularly.

Out of eye means out of mind. And we want to actually focus on our goals if we want to make them.

So find a creative way to keep your goals in you focus.

Make a good action plan 

This is where I go wrong most of the time. In my goals for 2017 post, for example, I said I wanted to be more productive.

1. That is not an S.M.A.R.T goal

2. That has no action plan attached to it at all.

So what is a good action plan? An action plan is a step-by-step formula which should lead to the desired result.

Let say like me, you want to be more productive. Now you need the step you need to take to achieve that. So for me, that would be -Have a time tracking system, a good schedule, a task managing system and an overview of the thing I need to do daily, weekly etc.

For everything that I need I need to set a task/step so let say I want to work more efficient, my first task would be “track your time” so I know where I am spending all my time on.

An action plan can be a detailed as you want it to be. 

Some things to keep in mind; 

1. Prioritise; Make sure you are not doing small insignificant tasks that take away time from the bigger picture.
2. Don’t over complicate things; it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to work. There are many different ways that give the same results, but you just need one.

Make sure you set the right goals

If your goal is not helping you in any way but just stressing you out, it might just not be the right goal for you. Goals should help you in life. 

And secondly; don’t set too many goals at once. There more goals you try to achieve at the same time, the more overwhelming it gets, the bigger the chance you’ll give up.

There probably isn’t a perfect number for goals. Everyone has their own view on this. Some people focus on just one goal. Some say that between 3-5 goals are good and achievable.

Just make sure it is a reasonable number for you!

So these were my insights on how I am going to set better goals and actually achieve them.

Re-writing my goals was the easy part. Making an action plan can be hard. But no matter how many smart tricks and tips you use in the end you need to put in the work.

So make sure you don’t just spend all your time on goal setting and planning. But actually get through your plan.

Let me know, do ou have ay creative way you remember yourself of you goals?