How To Set Goals For The New Year

How To Set Goals For The New Year

December 11, 2018

The new year is almost here, and if you haven’t already begun, now is the perfect time to start planning out your goals.

I’m a big believer in setting goals, but I’m an even bigger believer in accomplishing them.

And although we are preparing for the new year, I don’t want to get resolutions and goals mixed up. I don’t set resolutions. I can’t tell you the last time I did, but I can tell you none of my resolutions stuck. That is why it is important to keep resolutions and goals separate. Most people I know will agree that they don’t usually fulfill their resolutions, but many will say they have achieved their goals.

How to Set Goals and Actually Achieve Them?

As I said earlier, now is the perfect time to start planning out your goals. Get it? The key word is planning. Planning your goals is the most important step in achieving your goals. Many people leave this step out and wonder why they can’t seem to come close to achieving their goals.

A goal without a plan is just a dream!

This takes me back to my 40 Before 40 Bucket List. I listed 40 different things I would like to do before my 40th birthday and stopped there. When you think about a bucket list, it is a list of dreams. Things you would like to do, but know you may never get to actually do all of them. So, in order to turn some of those dreams into actual goals, I had to re-visit my list and create a plan of attack. Now granted, some of my goals are dependant on other people or mother nature, but I have planned out the steps I need to take to achieve my portion of the goal.

This leads to another thought. Sometimes are goals are not just based on us. I think it’s important to know and understand that. So many people are crushed when they don’t achieve their goals, not factoring in that their goal also had to wait on someone else’s efforts to happen. Keep that in mind, and as long as you put in all that you were supposed to put in to make that goal a reality, you are still achieving in my book.

Step #1. Set a Few Big Goals

Each year create a list of a few (1-5) major goals that you would like to achieve by the end of the year. Your goals should be a combination of personal and professional. Think about the things you really want to achieve, things that are life-altering. When you start to break them down into smaller goals, having too many can become overwhelming (see step #3.) I like to keep my major goals to three or less. If I feel that I am on a good track, I will look to adding another later on in the year.  I have created this worksheet to help get you started.

 

Step #2. Evaluate Your Goals

Were you one of those students who never checked over their work? I was! That’s why we are evaluating our goals before we even get started with the planning.

Are your goals SMART? SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. When you set SMART goals, you are more than likely to be successful accomplishing them.

Evaluating your goals is a great way to eliminate your list down to just a few from step #1.  This step also helps you to prioritize your goals from most attainable to least, which will help you with the next step.

Step 3. Turn Your Goal Into Smaller Goals

Now is the time to take each of your goals and break them down into smaller goals. Since you know how attainable and how timely your goals are, this should help you when determining how to break each goal down.

This is also the first step to actually planning out your goals. Once, you’ve determined the steps it will take to accomplish each goal, turn each of those steps into smaller goals. Assign each smaller goal a timeframe to be completed. A month is usually a good amount of time to assign each goal. Each month you accomplish your smaller goal is one step closer to accomplishing your big goal.

 

Step #4. Create Weekly Tasks

Now that you have your monthly goals in place, think about what tasks you need to complete to accomplish each of those monthly goals. Turn those tasks into weekly assignments to make sure you are on track and on tasks to accomplishing your monthly goal and ultimately, your big goal.

 

Step #5. Track Your Progress Regularly

It is super important to track your progress on a regular basis. Having weekly tasks and monthly goals will certainly help you with tracking your progress. With these smaller goals and tasks, you are constantly working on the steps it takes to accomplish your big goal, and therefore you should be able to see your measure of progress.

You may notice several things along this step. You will be able to see what is working or what is not working. You may realize that your timeframe is not realistic and adjustments need to be made to better fit what it takes to accomplish your goal. You may realize that the reason you wanted to accomplish the goal has changed leading you to change goals. Or, you may realize that you are so on track, you are definitely going to accomplish your goals, and may decide to add 1 or 2 more goals to your plans.

 

Always keep in mind your reason for wanting to accomplish your goals, and use that reason as motivation to push you towards the end goal.

 

Free Printable – Setting Goals Worksheet

 

xoxo Tish

P.S. Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. – Tony Robbins

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