Successful Goal Setting in 3 Steps
Successful Goal Setting in 3 Easy Steps
Successful goal setting doesn’t have to be hard! It’s something we often put off because we don’t want to take the time to goal set. It can be hard to reflect on what hasn’t worked, or what we haven’t accomplished or even to figure out an action plan for yourself. Use this as a jump start for yourself into the ultimate guide for goal setting!
Raise your hand if you’ve ever had HUGE dreams, got super excited about them, decided you’d start Monday and then… it’s months later and nothing has happened. Or maybe you have made a few steps towards your goals, things got tough or you got sidetracked and another year has gone by and you’ve missed those goals you set for yourself.
We’ve all been there. Not many people actually wake up each day and think ‘hmmm I think I want to achieve nothing and see what happens”. Most of us decide we want more out of life or we at least want to attempt to achieve things before our lives end.
But how do we actually create goals that make sense for our season of life, that are attainable but still push our limits, and that bring us joy?
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Making Mom Goals Happen when you’re Busy
The one thing that I want to remind you when you spend time goal setting is to embrace the season of life you are in. Currently, I am in a season of being a mom of 2 under 2, running a coaching business and blog, and doing my best to be the best mom, wife, friend, and sibling I possibly can be.
This means for me, I have to realize that this may not be the time for me to set a goal to be a missionary out of the country but perhaps, to volunteer a few times a month locally. While I have big goals of traveling the world for pleasure, right now a goal of getting a few date nights in is much more achievable and reasonable.
It’s important to not only realize your season but also to not become jealous of other people’s season. Sometimes we scroll on social media and see people we knew in high school or college and, when we come across their page and see incredible things they are doing, it can make us feel inadequate or that our goals are too small or not enough.
Embrace the season of life you are in, realize that you are meant to be in this season right now, and create goals that compliment them without feeling envious of other seasons of life.
What season of life are you in? Take the time to acknowledge it, embrace it, and be ready to make goals to be your BEST in this season.
How to Make a Goal Happen
When thinking about your goals I’m sure you’ve heard people say DREAM BIG but what does that really mean?
In my opinion, dreaming big is all about making sure your goals move you out of your comfort zone. I mean they SHOULD scare you a bit. When you think of a goal, you should say ‘hmmm i don’t know if I can do this but I’d really like to try”.
Do you have goals like this? Ones that scare the crap out of you but you don’t ever write down because you’re afraid of failing?
THESE are the goals I want you to write down today. The ones that you have always thought would be cool but have been too scared to go for. But make sure they are ones that make sense for your season as well.
If you make goals around spending more time with your family or doing leisure activities but are in a season where you are up for a big promotion at work which requires extra time away from your family, than maybe now isn’t the time for this goal.
What are things you’ve always wanted to do? What are ones that you put on your vision board and would love to accomplish?
Related Post: How to Create a Virtual Vision Board
Using the SMART formula for goal setting
When coming up with your goals and taking the time to set yourself up for successful goal setting, just writing down something you want to do isn’t going to help you much. You have to write them down super specifically so that you know what you want to accomplish. I’ll be doing an additional post on how to make an action plan for these goals so the more specific you can be now while you create, the better!
You should work to create goals in each of the important areas of your life instead of just a few general ones. Think about goals you might have for your health, relationships, spirituality, leisure, etc… You’ll want to make goals for each of those areas as your roadmap.
When you go to make those goals, you’ll want to make sure you follow the smart formula, meaning are your goals are
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time Bound
What does this actually mean to use the smart formula for goal setting?
Let’s use an example about healthy living:
Specific: Instead of writing things like “I want to be healthier” write down “I want to run a 5k” or “I want to lose 20 pounds”.
Measurable: Don’t use terms like ‘be better”, use terms that allow you to measure the goal. Ask yourself how you would know if you were better at something? Instead of ‘be in better shape’ you could say “I want to be able to do 15 pushups with correct form”.
Attainable: When I talk about attainable goals, I don’t want you to truncate your dreams, rather I want you to think about goals that actually could happen right now. If you want to make a goal around completing a triathlon, it wouldn’t be realistic to have that goal during the winter where you’d be swimming outside. This might be a better goal for the spring time.
Realistic: Realistic goals go back to what we talked about when we talked about seasons.If you’ve never ran a day in your life, a realistic goal would be to complete a 5k rather than an Iron Man
Time Bound: Time bound goals and the ones that really drive me. I make my goals for the year but then break them down for each quarter because it makes them time bound and more achievable for me. An example would be changing your goal from “I want to lose 20 pounds” to “I want to lose 20 pounds by March 30th” Putting a date on it will add that sense of urgency to your goal.
Get Started with the Goal Setting Formula
If you’re ready to use the smart goal setting formula and create goals that really matter, head over and get your free brainstorming sheet that will help you organize your goals for you! I’d love to know some you’ve come up with so leave your top goal in the comments and put it out in the universe!
More Goal Setting Tips for Moms
The Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting for Busy Moms
End of Year Reflection and Free Printable Workbook
5 Tips to Making a Virtual Vision Board
Creating an Action Plan that Works in 4 Easy Steps
The Best Way to Organize Your Goals
Successful Goal Setting in 3 Easy Steps
Podcast Episode 01: Goal Setting with the 15 Minute Formula
Goal Setting Resources for Moms
