I hear from clients all the time that they either set goals and don’t stick to them, or have decided since they don’t stick to them not to bother setting goals. Yet everyone has dreams and desires both personally and professionally and statistics show that those who set goals and write them down are more likely to achieve them.
What’s the secret to setting goals and sticking to them then?
First things first. Before you set a goal, consider what is your motivation behind it? Let’s say your goal is to develop a healthy lifestyle ask yourself ‘why am I doing this”. If you can’t answer this question you aren’t likely to stick to the goal.
Step one in goal setting is defining why you are creating the goal. And the motivation needs to be specific, just like the goal.
Sometimes the goal is too big and we can’t see a way to achieve it. While I might like to have my business generate $5M in revenue next year, it is too big a jump from my current revenues to be achievable. Impossible no but realistic, no. If we set a goal that is too big, too far from the current reality we will get discouraged and be unable to continue focusing on achieving it.
The goal can’t be vague. When a goal is too vague they aren’t likely to happen. A goal of ‘get healthy’ is too vague. What does that mean? Is it to lose weight, eat more fruits and vegetables, exercise, schedule routine medical appointments…something else? When the goal is vague we have nothing to work towards. You can set a goal of ‘get healthy’ as long as you define what that means in the goal itself. Alternatively, you can set a number of small goals that drive action and are achievable such as ‘lose 15 pounds’.
If the goal isn’t yours it won’t happen. When I was in sales each year my manager wanted me to increase my sales goal. I understand the importance of salespeople not becoming complacent and satisfied, and just because he wanted it doesn’t mean it was mine. Goals need to be yours, and/or need to be one you can get on board with. If it’s someone else’s, and it’s important, determine a way to adjust the goal so it can become yours.
Goals too far in the future will cause you to lose energy around them. We all have goals for the future…buy a house, send our children to college, take a dream vacation, fulfill our bucket list…but they need to have something short term that keeps you motivated or you’ll soon lose focus. If you set goals that are long-term goals make sure to have smaller short-term goals that will keep you on path, and energized to stick to them.
Setting goals requires defining action steps. A goal without defined action steps isn’t a goal, it’s simply a wish and a prayer. If you want to get promoted, lose weight, increase revenues for your business, save money to buy a house…whatever the goal, you have to define realistic and specific action steps to achieve it, or else it ain’t going to happen.
Life doesn’t go as planned, and you throw in the towel. Things happen that we can’t anticipate or plan for. It’s one of the key reasons people stop focusing on the goal and give up. Sure things happen that will divert the goal you had planned but more often we use this as an excuse. When things don’t go as planned step back and ask yourself how you can continue to step forward towards the goal.
Setting goals is easy, sticking to them is more difficult but it doesn’t have to be. If you want something to happen it takes thought and focus, and resilience when life throws you a curveball.
If you create goals that aren’t yours, don’t motivate you, or aren’t something you can achieve, you are wasting your time. To help you create goals that are meaningful to you, download Guide to Creating Goals and Milestones.
