How to Set Goals & Crush Them

Let’s talk about goals.

If you’ve paid any attention to what I’ve been telling you over the last few weeks, you know that one of the things I consistently encourage is goal setting. If you want to change something in your life, you need to set a goal to do it first.

Why?

Well, if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know how to get there? Setting a goal is like creating a road map to the destination in which you want to go.

Believe it or not, there’s a science to setting goals effectively and putting yourself in the best possible position to actually achieve those goals. (Hopefully, you’re not setting goals just for the sake of setting goals.)

I bet you can guess what’s going to happen next.

Yep, I’m going to tell you how to effectively set goals, then crush them.

First, a little history. In 1981, a guy named George Doran wrote a paper that appeared in Management Review called, There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives. In it, he used S.M.A.R.T. as an acronym for his method of setting objectives. Here’s what is required for a S.M.A.R.T. objective or goal:

Specific — Choose a specific thing you’d like to achieve.

Measurable — You must be able to measure your progress toward accomplishing it.

Achievable — You must specify who will do it.

Realistic — It must be something that pushes you but is within your real ability to achieve.

Time Related — You must give yourself a specific time frame in which to achieve it.

Here’s an example of a SMART goal:

I will start my online business teaching people how to knit doggy sweaters and enroll at least 5 students by May 15th.

Simple enough, right? Take a moment and write out your goal using the SMART criteria.

Now that you’ve got your goal, here are some tips on how to crush it:

1. Say your goal out loud. Meditate on it and envision yourself actually achieving it.
2. Write your goal down and put it in a place where you will see it often. Whenever your eye catches it, stop and read your goal out loud.
3. Tell a handful of close friends and family about your goal. If you have a person who usually holds you accountable for your actions (a significant other, a best friend, etc.), make sure you tell them.
4. Take action! If you never actually act on your goal, you’ll never achieve it. Break the larger goal up into smaller goals so that it’s easier to get done, and don’t stop until you accomplish it.

So now you’ve got a goal and a plan of action. Starting today, take the steps outlined above and make it happen!

Find me on Instagram or Facebook and keep me updated on your progress.