5 Quick and Easy Steps for Goal Setting Success

An incredibly important part of maintaining motivation througout your life is to be able to learn to set and meet goals on a regular basis. However, despite this truth, misinformation and misconception about the process of goal setting has meant a lot of people haven't been able to achieve their goals consistently or have not been able to set out a routine/process for long term goal setting success. 

Proper processes and methods of goal setting can help you achieve success

Common knowledge of goal setting and planning for success is something like this:

"One of the greatest contributing factors for people not being able to reach their goals is the fact that they set unrealistic goals. Most of the time, goals for many people are too ambitious at the beginning, which can hinder your ability to reach them. Either that, or their goals are too small."

I know I used to believe this - word for word.

Yet despite this advice that was given and taken by many people, including myself, this did not work in my favour. Instead I would end up in the exact same situation as before, procrastinating and worse, there was a lack of desire and drive to reach my goals. In fact, on top of this, what I saw was that some people who had set what would have been considered unrealistic goals ended up achieving more and at a higher percentage than those who opted for the traditional method of smaller and step-by-step goals.

Much of the advice surrounding goal setting has been about setting easy and attainable goals, and moving step by step to the greater goal. However, I have found that this incremental approach to goal setting is great at the start and has the potential to be a great motivator, but over time has the tendency to to be both boring and repetitive.

Rather, my preferred methods and strategies are what have helped me not only consistently stay on task but have also increased my desire to achieve my goals. 

1)  Brain Dump 

What do you want to achieve? 

The first step in this process is to write out everything that you can think of wanting to achieve. Not only are you able to self-evaluate your passions, ambitions and beliefs but are also able to take a quick snapshot of the direction that your life is moving in right now. Make sure you include everything in this list or mind map, even if it's not related to your career or personal development - this is an important part of this as well as you can clearly see what areas of your life require this goal setting process. 

I recommend doing this on a computer or a phone as there will be some editing later onwards.

2) Organise 

Your goals should be organised 

Convert each of your goals into the phrase "I will have reached my goal of _____ when I _____ ". The reasoning behind this is the necessity to set goals that can be measured and properly implemented. If you can't measure your goal or pinpoint it/specify where you want to get to, it becomes increasingly difficult to motivate yourself to keep going.

Here's an example of how to go about this:
If your goal was to be successful, convert it into a phrase such as "I will have reached my goal of being successful in life when I have become financially stable".

If you aren't able to convert your goals into this formula or a similar wording, remove these from your list or mind map and continue. 

3) Prioritise 

Prioritise what you want to achieve

Once you have completed this, group all these goals into three categories of 'now', 'next' and 'later' based upon your willingness to currently complete each goal. The stronger your need or want to complete the goal the faster your likely to achieve it and on top of this, the more motivation and energy you will have in achieving it. 

4) Initiate

Put your plan into play

This is what many people find incredibly difficult in the goal-setting process - taking action on your plan. Now that you have your goals written out, organised and prioritised, it's important to start taking the first steps to achieving them. The first point of executing the plan is to make sure you complete all the goals in the 'now' section before moving onto 'next' and subsequently 'later'. If you jump around as many people often do with their current goal setting processes, you're more than likely to abandon the goal or lose motivation along the way. 

5) Evaluate 

Stop and think about your progress

One of the most important parts of any sort of process or action that you take is to make an evaluation of what you've just done. This can be at any time during the process, whatever makes you most comfortable or when you know you have the time to evaluate. My recommendation is to either complete an evaluation after each category has been completed (i.e. 'now', 'next', 'later') or when you have finished this list and are repeating the process as more goals come your way.

You can evaluate your effectiveness in reaching these goals by asking yourself some simple questions about the process and the goal itself:

• Was I happier when I achieved this goal? 
• How long did it take me to achieve my goals? 
• Did I put a goal in the wrong category? 
• Did I stick to a process or did I jump around? 
• What other goals can I achieve now that I have completed this one? 

This process is only a guide but is a great start to anyone thinking about setting regular processes for long-term goal setting success.