10 Ways to Achieve Your Goals

Between trying to get my 2013 business finances in order and then also trying (with a great deal of help from Eric) to move all of my important computer files and programs from my Dell laptop to a MacBook Pro, I hadn’t put a whole lot of thought into a post for this week’s List it Tuesday.  In fact, I haven’t given blogging a whole lot of thought, in general, this week, though every thing I was working on had to do with my online life.  Go figure.

As I sat to write this week’s List it Tuesday post, I didn’t even know what I wanted to write.  So, I did as I once did when I was stuck, and I just let an auto complete of a Google search pick it for me.  I wrote “10 Ways to A…” and then I didn’t like my choices.  So, I did “ab” and didn’t like it.  But, “ac” gave me today’s post – 10 Ways to Achieve Your Goals.

10 Ways to Achieve Your Goals

1. Narrow down your goals to one or just a few.  It’s not a bad thing to have lots of goals, but if you really want to work with purpose toward a goal, work on just one or another small number at once.

2. Record your goals.  It’s not enough to just think them or even mention them to someone else.  Write them down and post them somewhere that you’ll see often.

3. Write down your motivation for your goals.  If you’re working on a tough goal to reach, it can be encouraging to see in written or picture form what your motivation is for meeting your goal.

4. Make your goals measurable.  While it’s a great idea to make a goal of “exercise more,” that’s hard to measure.  More?  How much more?  It’s better to write something like, “Exercise 30 minutes per day, five days per week.”

5. Plan for how you will achieve your goals.  Okay, so let’s use the example in item #4.  You’re going to exercise for 30 minutes, five days a week.  What’s the plan?  Which kinds of exercises will you do?  Are you going to have a schedule of different activities or will you always walk?  Are you mostly exercising on particular days of the week or will you just leave it open to whatever works best each week?  A plan, even if it needs to be changed later, will help you focus on your goal and how to achieve it.

6. Have someone to keep you accountable.  If you’re the only one who knows that you’re working on a goal (or goals), it’s easy to let yourself slide.  If you have some accountability though, it can help.  It needs to be a friend or family member who really will keep you accountable though.  It’s nice to have someone who will understand when things get crazy, but not as helpful if that person always says, “Oh, that’s okay” when you backslide.

7. Break large goals into smaller goals.  If your goal is to pay off a $30,000 loan, it can be easy to to be discouraged.  So, instead, break it down into smaller goals so you have a chance to feel like you’re really making progress on your goal.

8. Reward yourself when you meet those small goals.  Again, if it’s a huge, long term goal, give yourself some kind of reward when you meet those small goals.  It doesn’t have to be any extravagant.  Just something that will feel like a real reward to you.

9. Adjust goals when needed.  I’m not saying to just give up when they’re not happening, even if that’s what I am apt to do.  Instead, I’m just suggesting that it’s a good thing to be flexible and recognize when something needs to be adjusted.  However, it’s also a good idea to figure out when your goal needs to be adjusted and when it is actually just that your methods need to be adjusted.

10. Have a positive outlook.  This is one area where I definitely do not excel.  I say things like, “I’ll never learn to do that.”  Eric always agrees then, “You’re right.  If you think that way, you’ll never learn.”  Believing that you can achieve your goals makes all the difference in your success.

So, what about you?  What’s one goal that you have for 2014?

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