Making goals is always a hard one. Especially since we let our goals hang around in our minds, vaguely, mentioning them to a friend once. But let’s change that and achieve our goals.
Setting a goal can be tricky, but it actually helps you be clear on what you want to achieve. And next also to achieve it.
I won’t write an entire article about SMART goals or anything. There’s enough written about goals in that way.
I’m going to clearly write down how I do it. If that happens to be with SMART goals or any other technique, then that’s that.
I start by defining in a sentence what I want to achieve.
For example, I recently have the goal to “Be able to run 5 kilometers in 30 minutes consistently”.
That’s a pretty straightforward goal.
What? It’s running
How much? 5 kilometers non-stop.
How long? Within 30 minutes.
How often? Consistently, meaning I want to build up to it and achieve it every week in a couple of months.
Try to make it as concrete as possible. Vague isn’t really helpful.
I could say I want to run more. But before, I was running zero kilometers, zero times. I would have achieved my goal if I had just gone for one run.
It’s also best to set a deadline. In this case, the 5km is part of a bigger sporting plan, which in turn is part of a set of goals I want to achieve before my 36th birthday. (because it’s over five years).
Make the deadline clear, though. For me, it’s being able to run the 5k before the end of this year.
When you know the deadline and what you want to achieve, you can start reverse engineering how to achieve it.
To run, I need a place to do so, so I need to research and try one. I also need good running shoes, so I need to research and buy them (I already have them). Since 5k is a measurable goal, I need some way to track it. Good, I already used Runkeeper.
Then I split up the goal into smaller goals. Like running 4k within 30 minutes. Running 2k without needing to stop and catch my breath.
When brainstorming all the steps to achieve your goal, you don’t have to worry if you think of them in order. Just write down everything you feel has to be done before reaching it. Only after you have done some thinking yourself you can allow yourself to research more steps online.
Next, you can start putting all the steps in the chronological order you need to execute them. Give them all a deadline. And in some cases, break down the steps into more steps.
Put all the steps with their deadlines in your calendar or task app. I use Todoist for it.
Now you’re done. Well, with planning, now it’s time for you to achieve your goals. But it’ll be a lot easier now.
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