You might have come across many people who feel that they are nothing but adrift in this world. They think so because they do not achieve worth and desired outcomes even if they work hard. Thus, the question is why they always come across such bitter experiences in their life?
The key reason behind the above question is that these people have never spent quality time thinking about their actual desires that they want from their lives, and have not successfully set their goals. After all, is it possible for anyone to set out on a journey without any idea of destination? Probably not!
The stepping stones towards a happier life are setting goals and achieving them. Whether our goals are big or small, it does not matter because they give us a clear direction and purpose of life to achieve overall happiness.
Why should one set goals?
Achieving lofty expectations or accomplishing tiny desires both needs a set goal. If we do not set our goals to reach our dreams, we would lack direction and focus. Goal setting helps us take control of our life directions and provides us with a benchmark for determining the actual success.
However, goal achievement is dependent on the way we set our goals. It is not at all possible that you dream of something, and it happens. To achieve your dream, you have to work hard in a specific direction. Setting goals would always give you a sense of self-worth and a gratified feeling of accomplishment.
Although the journey starts with goal setting and ends up with achieving success, in between, few well-defined steps could transcend the specifics of your individual goals. If you know these steps, you would efficiently formulate your goals and certainly come up with flying colors.
With no further delay, let’s have a look at the golden rules to set your goals.
Brainstorm your desires
Deeply think about what you want to achieve in your life irrespective of the time constrain and how difficult it would be for you to achieve it. The only thing that you should keep in mind is that the fulfillment of your desire would immensely gratify you and no one else. Desires that drive us most are always found motivating.
Make a list of your goals
Carefully drafting your goals enhances the chance of constant motivation for their accomplishment. For making your bucket list first, ask yourself how you feel when you achieve your goals?
Try to connect your goals with the persons and the things around you to which your goal accomplishment would add value. Write your goals, specifically focusing on what you desire and not by thinking about what you do not want.
For example: “I want to regain my shape again,” rather than “I don’t want to consider myself obese in future. Effectively and efficiently writing your goals would help you to crystallize them and drive more force for accomplishment.
Set Achievable and realistic goals
Our goal should always be achievable and operational. Do not set the goals that others expect for you as most others (parents, relatives, society, media, employer, etc.) would set unrealistic goals that would not be possible for you to accomplish.
They do this because they do not put themselves in your shoe and hence being ignorant about your ambitions and desires they just superimpose their desires on you and force you to accomplish the goals that they have set for you.
Before setting your goals, thorough self- assessment and analyzing your abilities are very important.
It is very much important to know about your existing potentials and the weaknesses that need to be developed into strength for goal accomplishment.
Set SMART Goals
A SMART Mnemonic is a useful way to make effective and realistic goals.
In the present context, “SMART” stands for:
S – Specific
M – Meaningful and measurable
A – Action-oriented
R – Realistic and rewarding
T – Traceable
However, this needs lots of hard work and preparation but gives a direction and focus to achieve the goal in the desired time constraints.
Set your goals that are confined to personal performance
It becomes quite dispiriting when you continuously fail to achieve your goal due to the unfavorable reasons that are beyond your control. Therefore, it is advisable to set goals that are specifically controlled, with-in your boundaries.
If your goals are set on your performance, then the chances of achievement enhance as all the parameters that are responsible for your success could be controlled within your set boundaries. These achievements would fill you with immense gratification and motivation.
Cut short your goals
This is especially applicable when you set big goals. Split your long-term goals into several short-term goals because our long-term goals may gradually become vague and non-specific. The low-level goals are likely to be more achievable.
Breaking the long-term goals into several short-term goals would constantly become motivating as accomplishing the short-term goals require less time to achieve success.
Achieving these goals is always easier than achieving long-term goals, and constantly achieving the short-term goals would help us stay on track with enhanced motivation towards our long-term goal.
Hence, we can say that those short-term goals are always incremental as it provides much more opportunities for achieving success.
Learn to prioritize your goals
One should always express their goals in a positive statement. While setting your goal, you should be very précised by putting specific timescales, terms, and investments to measure your achievement.
When you have listed several goals, it is very important to prioritize your goals as it would help you direct your focus to the ones which cater to higher preference in your list.
Plan your journey to accomplish your goal
You might be familiar with a very old proverb stating, “thousand miles begin with a single step.” To start your journey towards achieving your goal, planning your first step plays a pivotal role as if you start well, you inevitably end well.
Your first goal could be your self-assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, planning your journey, analyzing the challenges that you need to face in your path, deep research on how you would reach your goal, and so on.
Keep yourself motivated and don’t give up
We may feel frustrated and demotivated during the journey to achieve our goal, but to gain success, we should always become diligent. If things do not go well as planned by you, keep on trying with alternatives and keep moving forward even if it is tiny.
Ask genuine suggestions from reliable sources. Share your difficulties with trust-worthy and positive people around you. They may show you the perspective that you might have overlooked. Changing your thought process would enhance your spirit and improve the chances of your goal accomplishment.
It is advisable to take a break if you find yourself exhausted, and a break would fill you with positive energy to rethink and analyze your flaws. If any adjustment is needed with your goals, please take it sportingly and move forward with better options.
Share your success story
Whenever you reach your desired goal, whether it is big or small, always celebrate it. Share your success with your dear ones. Write down your success story as it would help you in constant motivation and may change other’s lives too.
Feel privileged to share your experience with others. Thank all those who helped you in achieving your goals. Think deeply about your learning outcomes and cherishable moments that you have experienced during your journey. Finally, with immense positivity, start working for your next goal.
