If you ever wished to get good grades, more sales or even more happiness, setting the right goals, building momentum and achieving your goals is a must!
Goal setting is the thing everyone does. We set our goals for studies, for our career, for our relationships and even for retirement but when it comes to thinking about the way to achieve it, we practically don’t put much effort!
We think everything will come to us if we are worthy.
Only if it were that easy!
In today’s life, to get even a small bite of success, we need to set right goals, develop a practical system to achieve it and actually put our efforts to get the ball rolling. And the most important - to stand up when the life knocks down.
I know, telling you these things plainly won’t work.
So in this article, I am going to give you actionable steps that will help you set the right goals, create a working system and start acting on your plans (+ Bonus – I will also help you to Create the suitable environment and analyze your success)
- What is a Goal Setting?
- Creating achievable goals.
- Set Upper limit
- Creating the system.
- The first step.
- Stacking your Habits and goals
- Celebrate each victory
- BONUS-
- Create the environment
- Analyze your success
What is goal setting?
I know, this is what you’re doing until now.
But There is something more to it!
Knowing what you want, your desires is an easy part. Who doesn't want to earn more money or get a better grade?
The real challenge is accepting the lifestyle that comes with your Quest.
Do you really want to complete those ugly processes that come before the sexy outcomes?
- If you want to Get more money, are you willing to put more effort, work with a tight schedule?
- Or, if you want a better body, are you willing to work out, do the reps even when your body is saying no?
Everyone wants a good grade, but few show up at the desk.(Click To Tweet)
It is quite easy to sit and think what you want but the real deal is really accepting the real tradeoff that comes with your goals.
So this all thing boils down to the fact that goal setting is not just wishing but also accepting the lifestyle that comes with your goal.
You can call your goal the reward that you want when you choose to go through the process.
Understanding the relationship between our goals and the system-
Setting the right goal is crucial because if you set a wrong goal and pour all your time and hard work into it, you’ll be ruining your time.
It will get even worse if you set hundreds of it.
In the same way, if you set hundreds of goals, but you don’t use the right system (or strategy) you will find yourself nowhere after the time has passed!
This discussion about system and goals is a matter of everyday life!
To bring more clarity in the picture, let’s see few example.
- Students- If you’re a student, and if you want good grades, good grades are your goal and studying every day in an efficient manner is your system
- Weight loss- your goal is to get in better shape and the system is slashing your diet, working out daily!
And there are 100s of other system-goal examples.
Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving toward your goals.(Click To Tweet)
Now let’s start the stuff for which you’re here!
1. Create achievable goal
What I am saying to you is always set small achievable goals, something very broad is too vague to take under consideration.
Example- We all want to get rich, but it is a big road with no destination in sight, you can start with smaller goals like earn 2000$ and invest 20% of it in stocks (or whatever suits you).
People with goals succeed because they know where they're going- Earl Nightingale (Click To Tweet)
Now once you decide your goal it’s time to do a thing very few people do-
Set an upper limit
- I want to lose 4 pounds
- I want to run 5 miles’ today
- I want to send 10 emails to the prospects.
- I want to study for 3 hours a day
All these goals have only the lower limit!
The problem with these goals is that in the beginning, we’re full of energy and we have the power to run past the finishing mark and we mostly try to do it, but this can cause serious burnout or exhaustion that will degrade you.
If you work more than this burnout limit, you will have trouble showing up the next day.
And the most important part of the first few days after setting a goal is actually showing up, even if you don’t succeed, this will help you build momentum that will drive you through the harder times
So let’s add upper limit to this goals
- I want to lose 4 pounds but not more than Pounds
- I want to run 5 miles’ today but not more than miles
- I want to send 10 emails to the prospects but not more than 15
- I want to study for 3 hours a day but not more than 5 hours.
Creating a system
Plus, I will love if you take a piece of paper (or napkin) and start creating a map with its final position as your goal.
Example: I wanted to write this article, so at the top end of the paper was the goal and starting from the bottom I started listing stuff that needs to be done.Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them. (Click To Tweet)
First I wrote Research, making the template and so on.
This actually helped me to complete this work in a better way.
Take the first step.
You can go slow. Allow your dreams and goals to change, but live an intentional life.(Click To Tweet)
Stack Your Habits-
Researchers have shown that you are 2X or 3X more likely to stick with your goals if you specifically decide where and at what time you’ll work for your goal.What researchers did was, they asked participants to fill out This line-
“I will do vigorous exercise for 30 minutes on [DAY] at [TIME OF DAY] at [PLACE].”
Researchers found that people who filled this line were 2X or 3X more likely to do the exercise compared to the control group who were not made to write this statement.
Hence writing like this will increase your odds of completing a task!
Plus, the better way to do it is with habit stacking. Here you stack your new habit (required to attain your goal) after a previously made habit.
Example-
- I’ll floss my teeth after I Finish brushing.
- I’ll call my clients after I complete sending all the emails.
- I’ll do 10 pushups after brewing my coffee.
And the example goes on…. But the idea is same.
Just stack your new habit after the old one, and once you complete the first one, you’ll be prompted to carry on with the new one.
Celebrate each Victory
Because after every level, we get something that we consider to be our reward. Even few points can make us happy and ignite an urge to play more.
In the same way, if you give yourself reward after completing every small task, you’ll be more likely to keep conquering newer tasks.
These small gifts are like getting your car gasoline because, in the long run, you don’t want to get your motivation level drop like a stone.
And just to further clarify, I am not asking to watch TV after you do ten reps, but what I am saying is to do or gift yourself something constructing! A walk down the street can be more precious than a chocolate lava cake in this case.
Like after completing this post, I am going to go out, and play Dandia, (Coz its Navaratri here).
Now the Bonus!
Creating the suitable Environment.
Like now If I wanted to eat a burger and write this guide, I could have done so. But sitting on my table, I have only a Vada Paw kept at the corner with no burger in sight.
Of course, I could have gone to the store and bought a Burger but right now I am with a much easier alternative – the vada paw.
These easier decisions are all ruling us.
1 If you enter a room within its couch facing towards the Tv, you’re more likely to watch Tv.
2 If you keep your phone next to your bed, you’re more likely to start checking social media in the morning.
3.If you keep alcohol or junk food in the kitchen, you are more likely to eat or drink the bad stuff.
But when we construct this stuff in a positive way,
1. If you keep a dumble next to your table, you’re more likely to do a few curls
2. If you keep floss next to the toothbrush, you’re more likely to floss after brushing
This behaviour has an outstanding impact when it comes to goal achieving. Just, surround yourself with all the thing that blends well with the goal you want to achieve and you’ll be surprised by the result!
Similarly, I also tested this method by eliminating all the negative things that were interfering with my goals and this worked well too!
So, never forget to surround yourself with the essentials and eliminate the non-essential elements.
Measuring your success.
The most motivating thing when you’re working on your goals is your progress. When you see the evidence that you are actually going forward, completing tasks, you get an instant boost of motivation.
At times it is also very important to see if you’re showing up or not. Here are few examples were analyzed and improved my stats-
1. When I measured how many pushups I was doing, I got stronger.
2. When I tracked how many pages I was reading, I started reading more.
3. When I analyzed my codes, I coded more efficiently.
This is how you improve when you analyze your growth. Even if you don’t see any big heap of progress, don’t get disheartened. In the beginning, it is more important to show up every day, spend time on things that are actually important to you.
What to do next?
If you liked this article, please share it on any social media you might use, it will help me as well as your friends!
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