Personal goals are always the hardest to track. This is because in the real world you usually have so many other things to worry about. Your kids, your job, and many other factors can make it difficult to focus on yourself and set goals that will benefit you.
It can definitely be challenging to decide where to focus your energy and prioritize activities that will help you reach your goals. That’s why we went out of our way to get some expertise for this post.
Meet Dr. Saara – a beacon of positivity and an unparalleled source of motivational energy. With a professional aspiration to transform her clients’ lives using fun, engaging, and exciting approaches, Dr. Saara helps people make sustainable long-term changes without resorting to ineffective fitness fads, destructive diets, or other trendy nonsense. Her background in performance psychology and health promotion is rooted in her personal passions, and she strives to push individuals and companies to help humans live happier, healthier lives. Read on to learn about her tips for setting personal goals and taking actionable steps towards achieving them. Lets dive into the different methods.
Don’t Pick Too Many Goals
Let’s say George wants to lose weight, start a business, learn a new language, run a marathon, and read a book every single week. He feels like if he doesn’t get all of these things done, he won’t be successful.
So, George pushes himself to the brink, trying to achieve all of these goals at once but over time he becomes very overwhelmed. As a result he ends up forgetting all of his goals all at once due to feeling burnt out and unmotivated. Too many goals at once could cause:
- Stress
- Lack Of Direction
- Feeling Like You’re Spread Out Too Thin
- Greater Chance To Fail
- Lower Motivation Due To Not Getting Anything Done
- Sacrificing Quality With Increased Quantity
- Less Enjoyment Of The Personal Development Process
According to Dr. Saara, the key is to choose the most important goals first. She recommends writing down the goals you have and writing down which ones are most important and WHY.
So instead of doing five things at once, start with one (two goals max) and work towards them. Later on, you could add in the other ones if they are still important to you.
Pinpoint The Actions You Need To Do For Each Goal
Even if you choose one or two goals, you could still burn out at a micro level. Let’s say your goal is to start an online business, specifically you want to launch an online store selling handmade jewelry.
Although that is just one goal. Some micro-level activities you could do to reach your goal is signing up to every social media platform, experimenting with different marketing trends all at once, creating a blog, a newsletter, and many more things.
Dr. Saara insists that when setting goals, instead of coming up with a super long list of actions, focusing on 1-3 specific actions that are realistic and achievable is very important.
Create One “Baseline” & One “Stretch” Action Goal
Dr. Saara states that having baseline and stretch goals gives you the ability to stay focused on the goal while also pushing yourself to improve.
Baseline and stretch goals are important because they help people create a clear and management path towards reaching their goals. Life is all about balance, baseline and stretch goals provide that balance for you.
Example of a baseline goal:
Let’s say you want to start exercising regularly but you have a very busy schedule. Your baseline goal could be to exercise for 15 minutes, three times a week. This is something that you know you can accomplish even on your busiest week, but it will still move you forward towards your larger goal of exercising regularly.
Even if you’re feeling tired or overwhelmed, you know that you can commit to 15 minutes of exercise, whether it’s a quick walk around the block, a yoga session, or some light weightlifting. This baseline goal is achievable and will help you build momentum and confidence as you work towards your larger goal.
On the other hand, a stretch goal on the other hand would be to exercise for 30 minutes, three times per week instead.
Let’s give one more example. Let’s say you started a blog and your baseline goal is 1 1500 word blog post per week. Your stretch goal could be getting in one extra post in a week.
How To Balance Stretch and Baseline Goals
We’ll start with the blog post example. One blog post per week is something you know you could accomplish for sure. Even on your busiest of weeks, you know you’ll be able to get it done.
Your stretch goal on the other hand, should be something that you’re confident you can get done but maybe not all the time.
Let’s say on a Saturday your wife decided to take your kids out by herself, that may be an opportunity to achieve your stretch goal of getting in an extra blog post. While on the other hand, the next Saturday your kids are sick and you have to stay home, that may be the time where you just aim for your baseline goal.
That way, you can still progress at a steady pace while also pushing yourself to do more when it’s possible. You won’t feel the need to give up if you don’t hit the highest goal possible because of these two separate goals. Here are some things you could do in order to hit your stretch goal:
- Look for opportunities: Look for moments where you could fit in a stretch goal. Whether you have off of work one day or finished work early, use those moments to do a bit extra.
- Plan your baseline goals ahead: if you could plan your baseline goals ahead, being organized with your time will allow you to have a better chance of achieving your stretch goals.
Document All Of Your Goals On a Macro and Micro Level
Writing down your goals could help you with many things including clarity, motivation, accountability, and measurement. However, just writing down your goals in general is not they was to go. You want to write down your goal on a micro and macro level.
Macro Goals: Macro stands for big picture. These are the big goals that you want to achieve in the long term.
Micro Goals: Micro stands for small steps. These are smaller tasks and objectives that help you reach your main goal quickly and efficiently.
How To Document Goals On a Macro and Micro Level
It’s important to document your macro and micro goals because it constantly reminds you of the bigger picture and on the other hand, your daily tasks. Below we will go over how you could could document macro and micro goals.
Macro Level
Macro goals require less frequent review, however they should still be documented in order to remind you of your larger goal. Below are the two best techniques you could use in order to document goals at a macro level.
Vision Board
A vision board is a visual representation of your goals and when it comes to large goals, a vision board may be the very best way to go. This is especially if you hang it on the wall. You could look at it every day and be reminded of your goals.
Affirmations
Reading affirmations every single day repeating your goals to yourself is a great way to stay motivated and focused on the end result. It will get you primed for the smaller tasks that day that lay ahead.
Micro Level
Micro level goals on the other hand need to be reviewed more frequently. These are because they are specific actionable steps that contribute to the macro goal. Because of this, here are the best methods when it comes to documenting them:
Journaling
Journaling is a great way to write down your micro goals every single day. This could include the date, things you need to do and on the bottom, a review of the whole day after it’s over. This will help you readjust on a daily basis and stay on track.
Using A To Do List On Your Phone
If you prefer to use technology, using the to-do-list on your phone is a simple way to get this done as well.
Notion
Notion is a great platform that allows you to document your goals on both macro and micro levels. You can create tasks, set deadlines and even attach notes.
Although all of these options are viable, physically writing them down is still the best option. This is because when you physically write goals down, it’s proven that you’re more likely to achieve them.
In Summary
The excitement of setting personal goals is definitely a normal thing, however, keep the excitement alive by doing it the right way. If you follow the process above, you’ll be setting yourself up for a much greater chance at success.
