7 Steps To Effective Goal Setting
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Do you have a really big goal you want to achieve, but feeling overwhelmed and not sure where to start? Follow these quick and easy 7 steps to effectively setting and achieving your goal!
1. What are the little things that make up the big thing?
In my blog,' 5 Steps To Developing Your Mindset For Success', I talked extensively about how in order to achieve your ultimate goal, you need to focus on consistently doing the small daily processes that are crucial to success. These must be done to the best of your ability too.
I’ve also covered in another blog, 'How To Achieve Your Dream Goal', on how you need to focus on mastering the top 5 things that will have the biggest impact on your success. Any more than that and you will feel overwhelmed, any less is fine!
So before moving on to the next step, make sure you have written out your ultimate goal and the top 5 things you need to focus on. Once you’ve done that move onto Step 2.
2. How will you know when you’ve achieved it?
Your goals must be specific, measurable, objective and be able to be verified by someone else.
If you are a solo entrepreneur and one of your goals is to have a routine, that isn’t clear enough - how will you know if you have created a routine that enables you to perform to the best of your availability?
Really hone in on what you want to achieve, for example, instead of your goal being a great routine, it would be:
I will consistently stick to my outlined daily routine everyday - I accept life will throw me curve balls, but I will get back to my routine as soon as possible
I will wake up at 5.30am every morning and do my outlined morning routine
I will start work at 8.30am
Lunch will be 1-2pm
I will finish work at 5pm
Between 5pm and 5.30pm I will get ready for the next day
5.30-9pm is chill out/play time
9pm I will do my outlines nourish night ritual
10pm in bed and asleep
A great way to measure your progress objectively and honestly is by using a rating system out of 10.
You could do this by rating each of your goals out of 10 - with 10 being you’ve 100% achieved your goal and 0 being you haven’t 100% achieved it.
For example, at the start of achieving your goal of following your new routine with consistency and discipline, you might be a 2/10, but by the end of a 30 day challenge, you might be a 9/10.
3. What would that be like when you have that?
For each of your goals, write down a detailed paragraph of what you would feel, see, smell, taste and hear inside and outside your body and mind when you attain a 10/10.
Paint yourself a really incredible picture.
Try playing some motivating and inspirational music in the background to get you in the mood!
These are the kind of questions you want to be asking yourself:
What do I really want?
What are the top 3 feelings I’d love to have?
How would I love to be?
What would be great to notice about myself?
What encouraging and supportive words would I say to myself?
4. What’s your first step?
If you talk to any high performing person, from athlete to entrepreneur, CEO and TV Presenter, they will all tell you that they had their big goal in mind and then worked out all of the mini steps they had to take to get there.
Think about the very first step you need to take to achieve each of your goals? What’s the smallest step you can take that will take you forward from 5/10 to 6/10 or 1/10 to 2/10?
Really break your journey down and remember, the key to success is consistently performing the daily processes to a high standard. Don’t overload your plate and lose focus on these things.
Make sure your first step is small and realistic. Instead of writing a book, you could write just the first page.
5. Are you prepared to do what’s necessary to achieve your goals?
By answering the following 2 questions for each of your goals, it will help you become really clear about your goal and the positive change(s) it will create in your life.
For each goal ask yourself this:
Will the changes I need to make fit in with my life, job, team, family etc.. or will it cause problems?
Am I prepared to do what’s necessary to make this happen?
If there are any issues here, you’ll need to deal with them now in order for you to achieve your goal.
E.g. For example if you want a really clear routine that you stick to all of the time, you may want to ask yourself;
Will I want to stick to that routine at the weekends?
If something work or fun related comes up and means I won’t be in by 10pm, will I still want to go?
Will it be appropriate when I’m on holiday?
Does it fit in with my family’s/partner’s/work’s routine?
6. How could you sabotage your goal in the future?
Being aware of things that might make you wobble on your goal-achieving journey is really important, as it allows you to prepare yourself for them, be ready to overcome them and get yourself out of them, by arming yourself with different methods, such as mantras, music or incantations.
Answer this question for each of your goals: Based on anything in the past, is there anything that would make me wobble?
7. Is it reasonable?
Are your goals (big, medium and small) reasonable for you to achieve? On one hand, you don’t want to set yourself an impossible target and on the other hand, you don’t want to set one that’s too low either.
