How To Achieve Your Goals in 2020
- Active with Ash
- Aug 14, 2020
- 3 min read
Ah... goal setting. It is honestly one of my favourite things to do to help me stay productive and motivated all year round. Setting goals is like sculpting a plan to help you achieve your dreams. Most people set goals in their everyday lives, especially during the New Year. Everyone is so motivated and sets a new beginning for themselves, writing a long list of things that they will achieve this year. We stare at the list with hope and determination swirling in our eyes.Then after January, the list becomes a lifeless echo of guilt; forgotten and stowed in the bottom of our drawers. But, achieving your goals isn't actually that hard if it's done correctly. It's the mistakes during the planning phase that lead us down the road for failure.
How to Achieve Your Goals in 2020
Make your goals specific
Create a system
Focus your energy and prioritise
Make your goals realistic and maintainable
1. Make Your Goals Specific
How will you know when you have achieved your goal if your goal doesn't have an end? This is such a common mistake that I see when people try to set their goals. They often write something like "eat healthy". That's great, but what is "healthy"? Is it eating 7 fruits and vegetables a day or not eating processed food? If you are not specific with your goals then it will seem like there is no end in sight and you will lose your motivation. Think about: What is it? When will you achieve it by? Why do you want to achieve it?
2. Create a System
This is one of the most important steps of goal setting because it is essentially your 'game plan'. A system will look different for each goal but it should outline the basic habits that you want to create in order to achieve your goal. For example, if your goal was to run a marathon, your system would be your training schedule for the month. Remember to make this system maintainable and realistic. For example, it is not realistic to day you will train everyday because your muscles will not be able to rest and get stronger, therefore you will set yourself up for failure. If you don't consider this, then you will end up burning yourself out and feeling unmotivated thereby being counterproductive to your goals. What time of day will you implement these habits? In the morning, just after breakfast, before bed?
3. Focus your energy and prioritise
Create focus in your goals by working on one at a time. You can not achieve everything at once and will end up feeling overwhelmed and neglect the goals that are more important. Only set a couple of goals that you want to achieve and prioritise working on the most important one first. If you try to do everything at once, you will end up burning yourself out and will not achieve your goal to a high standard. So, take a look at your goals that you have set and order them from most to least important. Start from the top of the list and work your way down. Make sure that your list is no longer than 5 goals otherwise you will feel overwhelmed.
4. Make your goals realistic and maintainable
This is the most crucial part in goal setting. Are your goals realistic in the time frame that you have set? If not, you might have to break it down into smaller goals in order to achieve one big goal. For example if my goal was to do 40 pushups in the gym by the end of the month but I had never done a pushup before, that is unrealistic. Instead, I would break it down like this:
This month: I want to learn how to do a pushup correctly and be able to do 15 on my knees.
Next month: I want to do 15 pushups on my toes.
In 2 months: I want to do 25 pushups on my toes.
In 3 months: I want to do 35 pushups on my toes.
In 4 months: I want to do 40 pushups on my toes.
In addition to making your goals realistic, they should also be maintainable. For example, working out 4 days a week is maintainable but working out everyday is not maintainable. Making your goals maintainable will make sure that you do not get burnt out or unmotivated because you are tired. It also ensures that you are not getting overwhelmed but are instead are able to maintain balance within your life as you complete your goals.
Everyone is capable of achieving their goals no matter how impossible they may seem. If you aren't completing your goals it is most likely not a lack of motivation, but a lack of planning. Happy goal setting! Remember to make it fun by writing them down and uses some fun, colourful pens! If you still feel stuck and need some extra help, download my Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting:
Comments