How to Actually Accomplish the Goals You Set

How to Actually Accomplish the Goals You Set

Do you want more out of your life? Do you want to level up your health and well-being, so you can live the life you have always dreamed of?

Leveling up your life is going to require some change; a change in mindset and habits.

If you are wanting more out of your life, you have to embrace change or remain the same.

Embrace Change

When you are looking to level up your life, setting a goal is a great way to wrap your mind around making a habit change that will help you get what you want. Change is hard. No way around it. You are going to feel uncomfortable when you make a change because you are stepping outside the comfort zone of your regular habits. The discomfort is temporary, however. Ask yourself if the brief period of discomfort is worth what awaits you on the other side.

Is your dream life worth the temporary discomfort?

I’m sure you have set many goals for yourself throughout your lifetime. How many of those goals have you accomplished?

Many times our goals are left unachieved because change is hard. Think about New Year’s Resolutions, for example. How many New Year’s Resolutions have gone to the wayside by mid-February? We start out with a bang because of the excitement at the prospect of bettering our life experience, but often times the excitement soon fades and we fall short because we are not adequately prepared to make such a dramatic lifestyle shift.

The road to successfully achieving your goal starts at the moment you envision a goal for yourself. After you have a goal in mind, the next very important step is to formulate the road map to success. Lay down the right road map, and your path to success will be much easier to travel.

What is the road map to success?

The road map to goal success starts with being very specific and detailed with the goal you have in mind. How can you get to where you are going if you haven’t clearly defined the destination yet?

Be SMART

Setting a SMART goal is a good way to successfully define your destination. SMART stands for:

Specific—Define the Who, What, When, Where, How, and With Whom of your goal. It’s also important to consider the Why of your goal. Knowing why you want to achieve a certain goal will help to boost your motivation in getting there. To do this, simply add a “because _______” statement to your goal to incorporate the why.
Measurable— How much? How well? How often? At the end of the day, be able to definitively say, “Yes I did it,” or “No I didn’t.”
Attainable—Is this goal realistically doable? It is important to dream big and challenge yourself, but you don’t want to set yourself up for failure before you even begin. Consider whether you have the resources and skills necessary to reach your desired goal at this current point in time. If the answer is no, it doesn’t mean that your goal will never be accomplished. It simply means that you need to refine your goal so that you can acquire the time, money, or skill necessary to accomplish your bigger goal. You want to feel motivated, not discouraged. Take a step back and start a little smaller first.
Relevant—Your goal should align with your overall values. Will accomplishing this goal help you become the person you want to be? Are you doing this for yourself or for someone else? Why is the result important to you?
Time-bound—Give yourself a target date for accomplishment. We often work better when there is a deadline attached to our work. Work that can be done at any time is often done at no time. The same idea goes for accomplishing your goal. How many times have you said, “I’ll start tomorrow?”

Think big

Allow yourself to dream big. Envision your best life. What does it look it? Who are you? Where are you? What are you doing?

Now, write down a specific long term goal (one year out or more) that will allow you to be this person living your best life.

Think small

Ok, now that you have envisioned your long term best life goal, let’s break it down into smaller pieces. Think monthly, weekly, and daily. What are the specific action steps you can start today that will put you on the path to accomplishing your long term dream?

Plan for failure

Failure is inevitable. Life is not perfect, no matter how much we plan for it to be. The truth is that you are going to struggle, and there are going to be problems (because change is hard, remember?) But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have the life you dream of. Preparing yourself for failure is a big and important step in helping you to successfully process and overcome failure when you experience it. Failure is not final, it is simply a setback.

There is no point in life where you can be completely free of problems. Even when we are growing and improving upon ourselves, we trade in our current problems for new and different problems. Better problems maybe, but problems nonetheless. When we learn to plan for and process the setbacks, and come up with an action plan, we will be able to move through the roadblocks more efficiently.

What are the potential setbacks that could come up for you? What are some setbacks you have experienced in previous attempts at your goal?

Plan to break through the wall

The good news is that when you prepare yourself to experience problems, you take back control of your life and the problems will not have a detrimental effect on you. Once you have identified the roadblocks you might experience along the way, set up a plan to overcome those roadblocks. Think of this as a contingency plan. You are creating an action plan for what could go wrong ahead of time.

What can you do to overcome this setback and keep pushing yourself forward?

Put in the work

Visualizing your goal is one thing, accomplishing it is another. In order to accomplish a goal, you are going to have to put in the work. No one is going to hand you your dream life on a silver platter. If you want it, go get it!

Putting in the work is where a lot of people are stopped short on the road to success. Your human brain is going to resist anything that is challenging and different. Your brain’s job is to keep you safe. New and different is potentially dangerous in the eyes of your primitive brain. That’s where the fear and anxiety come on full force. Your brain is telling you, “Hey it’s safe over here in our comfort zone, so let’s not step into something different.”

The good news is, it’s possible to rewire your brain. You just have to show it that new and different can be great and beneficial. You are becoming a new person, with a bigger and better life. Give your brain evidence that the change you are making is a good transition, and you will see that your new routines will get easier over time.

How do you give your brain evidence? Small victories. Achieving your small actions steps builds up to big victories in accomplishing your ultimate goal.

Celebrate your success

Accomplishing small action steps on the path to your big dream is a big deal! Celebrate those accomplishments along the way.

Did you organize your bathroom closet today? Awesome! You are one step closer to a clutter free home.

Did you choose an apple for a side instead of french fries? Yay! You are supporting your body with a good source of nutrition.

Acknowledging and celebrating your small successes gives your brain evidence that you can do what you are setting out to do. You are releasing endorphins (happy chemicals) into your body that give you a jolt of motivation to keep you pushing forward.

Small victories help you build a solid habit foundation to support your continued healthy lifestyle.

Review your destination

Regular review of your big goal is an important step for keeping you on track to success. You don’t want this life changing goal to become out of sight, out of mind. Make your dream life a priority. Dedicate time to review your end goal at least monthly. Go through this goal setting process every month to make sure the goal you have set still fits with your journey. Remind yourself of where you are going and why you are going there. Make adjustments if you need to. This is your journey to your dream life, and it’s okay to be flexible in how you are getting there.