A small percentage of people have the habit of setting life, yearly, monthly, or daily goals. Certain studies have shown that the main difference between successful people and those who are not is that successful people think about where they want to be in life up to 10 years in advance.
Furthermore, those who think 10 years ahead can be divided into those who only think about it, and those who have clearly written down their goals and visions on paper. This second group is considered even more successful because they knew exactly what they were striving for, thus significantly increasing their chances of success.
If you’ve decided to be in that group, it’s time to focus on how to set your goals smartly—so you can achieve your small and big life plans more easily and effectively.
Write Them Down – It Helps
Many authors and studies emphasize the importance of writing down goals. A goal, once written, becomes much clearer and more visible than it was when it “lived” only in your thoughts. Writing it down will one day serve as a reminder and affirmation of your aspirations, and it will be interesting and useful to look back and see how close or far you are from the goal you once set.
Aim Slightly Above Realistic
Every goal should be achievable but also ambitious. If you set a goal that’s too easily attainable, and you’re almost certain it will happen, chances are it won’t motivate you enough. That’s why it’s recommended to aim for a goal that is achievable, yet at first glance may seem a bit too big or overly ambitious.
You don’t always need to know exactly how you’ll achieve the goal—some paths will open up as you move toward it. Everything is fine as long as you have your goal as your guiding star in front of you.
Break Them Down by Time Frames
We don’t treat a 10-year vision the same way we treat a goal we want to achieve within a month. That’s why you can organize your goals starting from the largest. Chronologically, it might look like this:
- 10-year plan – where you want to see yourself in 10 years
- Yearly plan – what you want to achieve in the next year
- Monthly plan – what needs to happen in the coming month
- Weekly plan – what needs to happen in the next 7 days
- Daily plan – a plan of operational tasks for that day
The most thought will go into creating your yearly and long-term plans. But don’t forget: achieving long-term goals starts with small, everyday victories.
Set Easier, Quicker Wins Too
Big and long-term goals are there to guide and inspire us into daily action. However, by their nature, they take more time and effort to achieve, which can sometimes demotivate us or leave us emotionally drained—especially if we’re constantly chasing goals that we know won’t be realized any time soon.
To avoid discouragement, it’s helpful to also set smaller, more easily attainable goals—ones you’re confident you can achieve and that will bring you satisfaction.
The benefit of these short-term wins is that they’ll boost your confidence and release a bit of dopamine into your bloodstream—encouraging and motivating you to keep going.
Create an Action Plan
Dreaming and wishing is nice—but for goals to come true, you have to turn them into a list of concrete actions.
When it comes to a 10- or 5-year plan, it can be challenging to create an exact list of activities you’ll need to undertake—so it’s perfectly okay to stick to a general direction toward the goal.
But once you get down to monthly, weekly, and daily goals, it’s important to get more specific and define clear tasks to achieve what you’ve planned.
Let’s take the example of a yearly goal, where someone wants to find a better job.
Yearly goal: I want to find a better job where I’ll feel more fulfilled and have a higher income.
Action plan to support this goal:
- Within the next 6 months, I’ll enroll in and complete a course to learn at least one new skill that interests me.
- In the next month, I’ll update my CV and cover letter to follow best practices.
- Every week, I’ll check for new job postings.
- During the year, I’ll apply to at least 3 open job positions.
Quantify Goals to Make Them Clearer
The goals we set are often descriptive and open to interpretation. Also, when a goal isn’t quantified, it’s harder to objectively assess whether we’ve achieved it and to what extent. That’s why business practice often recommends that we quantify goals whenever possible, to make them clearer and thus better.
Let’s say someone wants to earn more money. An example of a non-quantified goal might be:
“I want to have a higher income in the future than I do now.”
This goal sounds nice, but it’s vague. It doesn’t say how much more income is desired or in what time frame. Would an extra 2,000 dinars over 5 years satisfy your expectations? Probably not.
So, here’s the same goal, but quantified:
“I want to increase my income by 20,000 dinars within the next year.”
With a goal stated this way, we know exactly what we mean and what will make us feel satisfied when we look back a year from now and evaluate whether we achieved it.
Keep in mind—not all goals can be quantified, nor should we rigidly follow this rule. Still, when a goal can’t be quantified, it should at least be described as clearly and precisely as possible.
Evaluate and Analyze
To track your progress in achieving weekly, monthly, and yearly goals, it’s essential to occasionally pause for retrospectives—to assess what’s been done. Periodic goal evaluation will help you see where you were overly ambitious, where you underestimated yourself, and which factors influenced your success or failure.
By doing this, you’ll get better at setting goals—and of course, at achieving them!
Sometimes—Don’t Persist
The title of this section is not a grammar mistake. It intentionally says “sometimes don’t” instead of the more commonly heard “never give up.” Of course, we shouldn’t give up easily, and we should give our best to achieve what’s important to us.
However, stubbornly clinging to a goal “like a drunk to a lamppost” can also be harmful. Maybe the long-term goal we once set no longer fits our current needs. Maybe circumstances have changed. Or maybe that goal simply no longer holds real value for us.
If, during a review of your goals, you realize that’s the case—it’s completely okay to abandon the goal or adjust it to new conditions. That’s certainly better than blindly chasing a goal that no longer serves you.
And finally, we have just one question for you:
Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
If you don’t have an answer—grab a pen and paper. No one can take your wishes and goals away from you. Or, as Brian Tracy, the famous Canadian motivational author and speaker says:
“If you don’t set your own goals, you are doomed to achieve someone else’s.”
Author: Nenad Lukić
Source: Infostud
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