Five Steps to Setting Goals and Implementing Them
Ready to get started setting goals and implementing them?
Tired of going into circles? Do you feel stuck and ready to move forward?
Do you feel there are things in your life that you would like to work but don’t know how?
Well, I know that feeling, and it is time for your to become unstuck and move forward.
Become unstuck and move forward by setting goals and implementing them.
As I said, I know what it is like to feel and be stuck in life. It was a struggle for me to move forward and have confidence in myself that I could work on my life and change my outcome.
Setting goals was easy for me. Implementing them was a challenge. For years, I made goals every January, just to have forgotten about them a month later. It was not something I did on purpose; life happened. And I know that life happens for you as well.
I am here to help you create goals and give you proven tools to implement them, no matter how big or small they are.
Get Your FREE Checklist of Goals and Start Moving Forward
Ready to grow in every area of your life?
No matter how long you have been stuck in life, if you follow my few simple proven steps, you will be able to move your life forward.
Setting Goals and Ready to Move Forward
Because you are here, you are ready to create goals that you can stick to and move forward. You have excitement building within you when you think about your future.
I will give you proven tools that will help you create goals and work on them consistently.
So first, let’s develop an action plan. Here are five concepts that I will explore. I will keep it simple and easy to follow.
Here is what I will discuss:
- What is goal setting?
- Why is goal setting essential?
- How to create goals that align with your life.
- Use the SMART goals acronym to develop attainable goals.
- Break each goal into small, simple steps.
What is Goal Setting
When you think about goal setting, it may seem overwhelming, daunting, and too much work.
I know at first it did for me.
But it is the first step into moving your life forward to create the life you desire.
So what is goal setting? It is where you begin to look at different areas of your life and decide where you are at and where you want to be in each of those areas.
There are eight main areas of life to take a look at:
Emotional Wellness
Relational Wellness
Physical Health
Financial Wellness
Career Wellness
Lifelong Learning
Spiritual Wellness
Recreation Wellness
Begin
Begin by just picking one or no more than two of those areas of focus. If you decide more than two, you may become overwhelmed and then resort to not working on them at all.
So let start by keeping it simple; pick one or just two of those areas to assess for now.
Where you are in those areas.
Let’s take physical health, for example. According to the doctor, you need to lose 40 lb. and begin exercising daily.
[I was told this back in 2019. Yes, I am still working on it. It took a while for me to begin working on it regularly.
When I went for a medical checkup, I was told that I was overweight in July 2019 and did not start working on it until November 2019.]
Take a look at your current weight and record it, and record your recent daily physical activity. What you record is your starting point.
Now there are two goals to work on here: losing 40 lbs. and exercising daily.
This is what goal setting is all about: figuring out where you are and deciding where you would like to be.
Later on, we would go more in-depth to discuss what you need to do between where you are and where you need to be.
Why is Setting Goals Important?
If you do not create goals, you will only have wishes and dreams.
Goals are our guidelines for working on ourselves and moving our life forward. Our goals give us a vision of what we currently need to work. Without them, we just haphazardly go through this life, and we do not know where this life is taking us or where we’re going to end up.
The roadmap to getting from point A to point B starts with goal setting. Without that map, we will become lost unfocused and end up going around in circles. To move forward in life, we need to know where we are going, and our goals show us where we’re going. Our goals don’t just give us a vision; they give us steps to accomplish that vision.
Creating goals is essential to move forward; without them, we will maintain a cycle where we are stuck.
Setting Goals that Aligns with Your Life
Now that we know what goal setting is and why it is essential let’s create goals that align with your life.
Hear me clearly; yes, others may decide your goals. Others think that they know what you need to do or should become. You will have responsibilities at work, home, with family and friends but let us not mix responsibilities with life-changing goals.
Think about what you desire out of this life. Remember, no one else is living your life, no one else is walking in your shoes, no one else is experiencing life as you are experiencing this life. So your goals must ultimately be your desires.
Take some time to figure out what is your heart’s desire. Get to know what your longings are, your dreams, your hopes, and your ambitions. So spend time sitting in quietness and write down what’s in your heart.
As you look over the things you’ve written down, go back to those main areas of life you start thinking about; what areas do your desires for change derive? And that will be your focal point for creating goals.
SMART Goal Setting
Now let's use Smart goal setting. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals.
Specific
You want to be specific as possible when writing your goals. It should tell you what you’re going to do and when you are going to do it.
This is an instruction to yourself.
For example, the goal is to exercise daily. You start by saying, “I will and run on the treadmill for 1 hour right after work Monday through Friday.”
That is a more specific goal than “I am going to exercise daily.”
Measurable
Your goal should also be measurable. You should be able to keep track of your progress right. One of the things that I teach people is to log their progress.
You will be able to see which days you were able to work out for an hour.
Now you may say what happens if I do not progress in the area. Then take a look at your setbacks and figure out how you can overcome your setbacks and challenges to obtaining your goals.
Attainable
Your goals should be attainable. For example, working out five days a week after work may be possible, or some but not all. They must be achievable in your life. You may even start off exercising only three days a week. In addition, they need to be congruent to your life.
Make sure that your goal is realistic to your life, your time, as well as your ability.
Relevant
Your goals should make sense to you. That is why we started off making sure that you and no one else created your goals.
Make sure it is also something that you care about and desire. Making it relevant will motivate you to keep going despite the challenges or setbacks you may endure.
So make it relevant to you and not someone else.
Time-bound
There should be an end date to completing your goals or to maintaining your goals. Make them specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and also time-bound.
For example: “I will and run on the treadmill for 1 hour right after work Monday through Friday, consistently by eight weeks.” So making it time-bound will be another way of measuring your progress.
That is the Smart acronym and how to create goals using those acronyms.
Breaking Goals into Small Baby Steps
After you create your attainable goals, choose a couple of them and break them into six mini-steps. These are the steps for where you are at and where you would like to be.
For example:
Main Goal: Exercise five days a week.
Sub-Goal: Run for one hour a day.
Lift weights two days a week.
Steps for Goals: 1. Decide which days to exercise.
2. Choose times to exercise.
3. Choose which exercise to do on specific days.
4. Schedule the exercise and times in your planner.
5. Implement exercise.
6. Recognize and overcome challenges.
Another Example: Click Here
Before working on exercising goals, it is important to get a physical and speak to your doctor about your plans.
Let's Recap
You start setting goals by looking at the eight main areas of your life and picking a couple of them to assess. You will figure out where you are in those areas and decide where you would like to be.
It is essential to recognize that creating goals is your road map to get from point A to B. Without them; you will go in circles.
Decided what goals will align with your life purpose. Take time with yourself, by yourself, and write down your heart’s desire.
Once you have figured out what you would like to start working on and have an idea about your goals, write them down and make them specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Finally, break them up into small baby steps and begin working on them.
Those are steps to creating goals and implementing them.
Become an unstoppable goal-getter and move your life forward.
Get Your Checklist of Goals and Start Moving Forward
Ready to grow in every area of your life?
No matter how long you have been stuck in life, if you follow my few simple proven steps, you will be able to move your life forward.