Whether its for your business, your career or in your own personal life, we all have dreams or big ideas we’d love to achieve but how can we accomplish them when they sometimes seem so far away?
Settling up some goals may sound like a simple idea but how you go about doing this and the process of moving towards them is just as important as the goal itself, sometimes there are key changes that need to be made and they can also seem to be just as impossible as the goal itself.
We’ve put together some handy hints we think can help!
Begin but sitting down and making a list of those things you want to achieve and really think about them. Why do you want this? How important is it to you? What would the outcome look like to you? And don’t be afraid to mix them up a bit. Competing in the London Marathon may be a goal but how does it impact your other goals? Would that time and energy in training be best spent on a goal for your business or would this achievement help motivate you in other areas – only you will know the answers to these questions.
Having that honest conversation with yourself will help these goals take shape, enable you to prioritise them, really help you to visualise them and make them more real so don’t underestimate this part.
You might even try using the SMART goals method
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timebound
We love Mindtools for their resources this method; there’s a great video and accompanying article which is brilliant for guidance on how to implement it.
Small measurable increments are the way forward! You have your end goal in mind now put in place some smaller goals to help you achieve this, really consider these as too easy may not keep you motivated to carry on but too hard and you may give up too quickly – just slightly out of reach will add to the excitement. Make sure you celebrate each achievement, the dopamine snack reward you get and sense of accomplishment will certainly help motivate you towards the next goal but it’s important to recognise that achievement on its own merit. You’ve worked for it now claim that victory!
Habit stacking is a tool that you can use if you need to make a regular change or even multiple changes, there’s a great book by Steve Scott called ‘Habit Stacking: 127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Most are Five Minutes or Less)’ that talks about this in detail.
The peace that stuck out was attaching a new task to an already well established habit, for example if you forget to check your bank account first thing in the morning but always switch on your computer and go into your emails, attach one to the other. Switch on your computer, check your account and then move on to your emails. Sneaking this new habit into your existing routine will ensure that its easy to remember and will, in time, become part of your daily routine.
Lastly don’t forget that it’s not all or nothing, it’s easy to procrastinate about getting started but as long as you’re moving forward you are moving towards your goals even if its just a tiny bit at a time!
There’s a great quote by Martin Luther King Jr
“If you can’t fly then run.
If you can’t run then walk.
If you can’t walk then crawl,
but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
So keep moving towards those goals and let us know how you get on!
If you found this useful we’d love to hear from you on our Linkedin or Twitter and our new Facebook page.
