Setting goals is an important part of life. You may not realise how often you do it, but we have to have goals in order to move forwards. Without them, we aren’t really heading in any particular direction. As life goes on, we sometimes forget to check in with ourselves and we lose that ability to set clear goals.
Why do we set goals?
I’m sure you remember as a child, you would picture a dream life. The dream house, the dream job, the dream partner… Perhaps that perfect idea has somewhat changed as time has moved forward but that’s why we set goals. If you have regular goals, you can achieve your life ambitions.
Review Your Current Lifestyle - Firstly, you need to understand where you are at in life. What are you happy with and what do you want to change? Very often, we don’t realise all of the good things that we have and can take them for granted. Taking a look at our current situation gives us a full overview. Perhaps you have a house, but it feels a little cramped. Maybe you are working in the dream place, but you don’t have the dream job role.
What does your dream look like - Secondly, we look at the dream lifestyle. This means not only the materialistic stuff, but the other things that will make you feel fulfilled. So as well as the picture perfect house, what hobbies do you want to have time for? What skill do you want to master? The more specific you are, the easier the next step is. It’s also worth asking yourself why you want these things. Sometimes our judgement gets clouded by external influences. Say for example, you really want to only wear a particular designer like Chanel. Why is that? Is that because you resonate with the brand and their ethos, or is it because your favourite celebrity wears that brand? The reason this is important is because you don’t want to spend your time working on a goal that isn’t actually going to improve your life. Often, when we do things because of external influences, we don’t feel truly satisfied. It’s worth taking the time to understand the reasons for your desire and be sure before you focus your energy on it. There is no right or wrong answer. It’s just about being honest with yourself.
What steps would you need to take to achieve those goals - We all need an action plan which is effectively a roadmap. Your current situation is the starting point and the dream lifestyle is the destination. The steps you take are the directions. If you want to learn a new skill, would you set up an account with an online course provider or would you go to a college open day? If you want a different job role, would you speak to your manager? Would you wait for a vacancy? Would you need any additional experience to be qualified for the job role?
Once you are clear on the steps you would take, then you can form the goal into something measurable. This means that you can actively tell if you have achieved it or not. A goal like being happy would be something that you can’t really measure. How happy is happy? What does it mean to be healthy? These are both viable goals, but they aren’t measurable.
In order to have a sense of accomplishment, you need measurable goals, whether it be in business or in your personal life. To have measurable goals, you ideally need a numerical value such as you want to save up £2000 in four months in order to go on your dream vacation. Or you want to have sold 100 books in the next month. Having those specifics helps you break down the steps even further. You will be able to monitor whether or not you are on track to achieve the goal or if you should change something in your roadmap. Often it can be trial and error and even if you don’t achieve a goal in a certain time period, you can just reset it. The reason for having a time scale is to keep you motivated to actually implement the steps, not just keeping putting them off until a better time.
Measurable goals are there to enable you to achieve your dreams and stay focused. By being focused, you can stay motivated to pursue your dream rather than conceding to the thought that it’s just wishful thinking. Our dreams exist within us for a reason and we should find a way to make those dreams into a reality. Anything is possible, you just have to believe you can get there.