How to Set Goals

Whether you have small dreams or big expectations, setting goals will allow you to plan the path you will take in life. Some achievements can take a lifetime to achieve, while others can be accomplished within a day. Whether you’re setting far-reaching goals or specific achievable goals, you’ll feel content and self-worth. The beginning can be tough, but you can build even the biggest dream.

Table of Contents

Set achievable goals

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Define goals in your life. You need to ask yourself some important questions about what you want out of life. What do you want to achieve: in today, in a year, in a lifetime? The answers to these questions can be as general as “I want to be happy”, or “I want to help people”. ^{[1] X Research Sources} Consider what you hope to achieve in the next 10, 15, or 20 years.

A lifelong goal might be to open your own business. A cosmetic goal might be to be slim. A personal goal might be to get married one day. These goals are often extremely broad.

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Break down the big picture into smaller and more specific goals. Consider the areas of your life you want to change or you feel like lasting growth. These areas include: career, finance, family, education, or health. Start asking yourself questions about what you want to achieve in each area within five years. ^{[2] X Research Source}

With a life goal of “I want to slim down,” you can break it down into smaller goals like “I want to eat healthier” and “I want to run long distances.”
With a life goal “I want to open my own business”, smaller goals could be “I want to learn effective business management” and “I want to open an independent bookstore”.

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Write short-term goals. Now that you have a rough idea of what you want to achieve in the next few years, write down definite goals to start working on now. Set deadlines for yourself within a reasonable timeframe (no longer than a year with short-term goals). ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Writing down goals will make it hard to ignore, and thereby hold you accountable for them. ^{[4] X Research Sources}
To get slim, your first goals might be to eat more vegetables and run 5km.
To open your own business, your first goals might be to take a class on bookkeeping and find the perfect location for your bookstore.

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Turn your goals into smaller steps that lead you to life’s bigger goals. Basically, you need to decide why you set this goal for yourself and what it will accomplish. Some helpful questions to ask yourself during your research are: is this goal worth it? Is now the right time? Is it in harmony with my needs? ^{[5] X Research Sources}

For example, although a short-term slimming goal might be to take up a new sport within six months, ask yourself if it will help you reach your higher goal of running a marathon. If not, you might want to consider changing your short-term goals to something else that can move you closer to your life goals.

Implement effective targeting strategies

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Set very specific goals. When you set goals, they should answer extremely specific who, what, where, when, and why questions. For each specific goal you set, you should ask yourself why this is a goal and how it helps with your life goals. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

To get slim (a very general phrase), you already have a specific goal of “running track”, and start with a short-term goal of “running 5km”. As you set each short-term goal—like running 5km, you can answer these questions: Who? I. What? Run a distance of 5km. Where? The park where I live. When? In 6 weeks. Why? To move forward my goal is to run a marathon.
To open your own business, you have a short-term goal of “taking a bookkeeping class.” This objective can answer the questions: Who? I. What? Take a book management class. Where? At the library. When? Every Saturday for 5 weeks. Why? To learn how to budget for my business.

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Set measurable goals. In order for us to be able to track progress, goals must be definable. “I’m going to walk more” is harder to track and measure than “I’ll walk around this road 16 times a day”. Essentially, you’ll need some way to determine if you’re reaching your goal. ^{[8] X Research Sources}

“Running 5km” is a measurable goal. You know for sure when you’re done. You may need to set an even shorter-term goal of “run at least 4.8km, 3 times per week” to work towards your first 5km. After the first 5km, another measurable goal would be “run another 5km in a month, but take 4 minutes less.”
Likewise, “taking a bookkeeping class” is a measurable goal as it is a specific class you will sign up for and attend weekly. A less measurable goal would be “learn about bookkeeping,” which is an ambiguous goal because it is difficult to know when you are “finished” learning about bookkeeping.

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Be realistic with your goals. It’s important to honestly evaluate your situation and recognize which goals are realistic and which are more than a few miles away. Ask yourself if you already have everything you need to accomplish your goal (skills, resources, time, knowledge). ^{[9] X Research Source}

To get slim and run a marathon, you’ll need to spend a lot of time running. If you don’t have the time or interest to devote many hours each week to running, this goal may not work for you. If you find yourself in this situation, you can adjust your goals; There are other ways to get slim without spending hours running.
If you want to open your own independent bookstore but don’t have the experience of running a business, don’t have the capital (money) to invest in starting a business, and have no knowledge of how it works. bookstore, or don’t really enjoy reading, you may not be successful in achieving your goals.

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Set priorities. At any given time, you have many goals that are in different stages of completion. Deciding which goals are more important and urgent than others is extremely important. If you have too many goals, you will feel overwhelmed and less able to accomplish them. ^{[10] X Research Source}

Most helpful is picking out a few top priorities. From there, you will be able to focus when your goals are in conflict. If it’s a choice between accomplishing one or two small goals versus completing a top priority goal, you need to know you must choose the top priority. ^{[11] X Research Source}
If you’re working hard to reach your slimming goal and you’ve set smaller goals of “eating healthier”, “running 5km”, and “swimming 1.6km, 3 times a week”, you You will find yourself not having enough time or energy to do all those goals in one go. You can set the order of preference; If you want to run a marathon, running 5km first may be more important than your weekly goal of swimming. You may want to continue to eat healthier, as it’s good for your overall health, plus it helps with running.
If you are trying to open a bookstore of your own, you may need to obtain a business license and qualify for a business loan (if you need it) before you begin to select specific types of books to sell in your library. its store.

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Monitor progress. Journaling is an effective way to track both personal and professional progress. Reviewing yourself and noting the progress you’ve made towards a certain goal is the key to staying motivated. It can encourage you to work harder.

You can focus more if you ask a friend to help you stay on track. For example, if you are training for a big race, you should have a friend to meet and share regularly, thereby helping you stay on track.
If you’re trying to slim down by achieving your marathon goal, it’s a good idea to keep a running journal that records how far you ran, how long it took, and how you feel. As you improve more, it will be a great source of confidence so you can look back on how far you’ve come since you started.
It can be a little difficult to track progress in opening your own business, but writing down all of your goals and sub-goals, and then crossing them out once a goal has been accomplished can be. helps you keep track of the work you’ve done.

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Target assessment. Acknowledge when you have achieved some goal and allow yourself to celebrate accordingly. Take this time to evaluate your goal’s progress—from start to finish. Review whether you are satisfied with your time frame and skills, or if the goal is reasonable.

For example, when you’ve run the first 5km, celebrate that you’ve accomplished a goal, even if it’s small compared to the higher goal of running a marathon. ^{[12] X Research Source}
Of course, when you open your own independent bookstore and make your first sale to a customer, you celebrate the event, and you know that you’ve worked toward your goal consistently. success!

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Continue to set goals. Once you’ve achieved your goals—even the big ones in life—you’ll want to continue to grow and set new goals for yourself.

When running a marathon, you should evaluate what you want to do next. Do you want to run one more time but improve the time? Do you want to diversify and try triathlon? Or do you want to go back to running a shorter distance—5km or 10km?
If you’ve opened your own bookstore, would you like to try organizing community events, like book clubs, or literacy lessons? Do you want to earn more money? Do you want to open another establishment or grow by opening a coffee shop inside your bookstore or next to your store?

Advice

Use the SMART method to set achievable goals. SMART is a mnemonic used by life managers, motivators, Human Resources departments, and educators for the goal setting, setting, and achieving system. Each letter in the word SMART represents an adjective that effectively describes how to set goals.

Steps

Set achievable goals

Implement effective targeting strategies

Advice

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