You’re an ambitious chick, you know that. But how do you turn your dreams for the future into reality? By setting goals for life.
We all dream. Yet, only a select few ever fulfil their potential. So, what’s the secret for turning a dream into reality? It’s simple – setting goals for life.
If you’re somewhat serious about getting to a certain level in your life, you’ll have heard all about goals. Maybe you look past their power or keep putting it off – either way, goal setting has the potential to transform your life.
From short-term goals to long-term goals, setting an intention for what you want to achieve can help to make it happen. And to do that, you need to understand your lifetime goals.
As you start to see the bigger picture, you begin to break down your dreams into smaller, more actionable goals. In just five steps, you can work out what you want, feel inspired, and build motivation for what you want.
And it all starts with passion. Feeling excited about what you’re working towards and staying conscious is always the key. Now let’s look at exactly how you’re going to do it.
The Secret To Goal Setting
Goal setting at its most stripped back level seems somewhat basic. Yet, there’s an art to getting it right.
When you’re working on your goals for life, it’s important to approach it from the best possible place.
That means being incredibly honest and open with yourself, staying true to your desires and dreams, and being realistic too. If you want this to work, you have to be positive and get excited about the future. But you have to believe it can happen.
After you’ve formulated your master plan, you’ll find that your exact wording of your goals matters (as we’ll discover later) and always keep them present.
In fact, there’s a LOT of work that goes into getting the goals after they’ve been set. There’s no wave of a magic wand and *poof* you’ve made it happen. Goal-getting requires work.
But, you’re good with that, right?
Let’s get down to the good stuff.
1. Decide What You Want
When your brain is bursting with dreamy ambition and a million ideas, you think you’re raring to go, right? Wrong.
If this is going to work, you need to take a step back and be real with yourself. Goals are actually a lot harder to decide upon than you might think. There’s a lot that goes into getting them right.
So to make sure you start off on the right foot, begin with the best intentions. Maybe you’d like to write your mind-ramblings down into a journal. Getting it all out and down on paper can help you make sense of it all.
Meditation can help too. When there’s a lot of noise, you need to clear the clutter and let the most important goals come through.
As you’re deciding what you want, visualisation can help. Sitting for five to ten minutes and visualising your dream life works wonders. Think about how you spend your time and what you’d love to be doing with your life. Also consider who you’d like to spend more time with and the things you’d love to learn.
Feel free to write the answers down as well as dream them up.
And it’s okay to consider all kinds of areas in your life too. We’re talking careers, love and relationships, family and friends, personal development, health and wellness, finances and money, travel, leisure activities, social life, spiritual growth, happiness and enjoyment, charity and helping others too.
Then, as your goals start to take shape, drill down a little deeper. Ideally, your goals will be slightly out of reach, yet still achievable. Challenging but realistic too. Attached a time frame to each idea too. Will it be five years? Ten? An entire lifetime?
2. Write It Down
Now, this is where many people stop. They dream up their goals for life and assume that’s all there is to it. Rookie. Error.
The key to actually achieving your goals is to write them down. And you have to be honest with yourself. It’s important to focus on what sets your soul on fire. The things you can’t live without. Everything you envision your dream life to be and more. These are the goals you need to highlight and write down.
Be it in your journal, in your phone, in a spreadsheet – wherever, write them down. Not everything will make the cut, but that’s okay. You have to weed out what isn’t right for you and hone in on what fits.
And choose your wording carefully. If you’re going to make this happen, you need to be clear about your goals as you’re writing them down. The language you use needs to be actionable and direct – nothing fluffy can cut it.
If you really want it to stick, write them down every single day. That’s right, every day. It brings your goals to the forefront of your mind and keeps you focused.
3. Make A Vision Board
If there’s anything more powerful than writing your goals for life down, it’s seeing them.
Seeing a visual representation of your goals on a daily basis keeps them alive. So, this is where a vision board comes in. Creating one can help you strengthen the intention you’re trying to create by setting your goals.
Pull together a selection of images that signify your goals. Your dream home, travel, love, your dream work scenario, how you want to look and feel – include it all. For every single goal you’ve written down, make sure it has a representation on your vision board.
Use words or imagery or both – just make sure you’re creating a picture that represents the future you want.
Then, keep it where you will see it. Every single day! On your desk, next to your bed, even on your computer home screen. The more you see it, the more present your goals will become.
4. Create An Action Plan
It’s fun to focus on your goals for life, isn’t it? Writing them down daily or seeing a pretty picture of your future life can feel incredibly inspiring. But if you want them to come to fruition, you have to do more.
And that means taking action.
Don’t just set your goals, break them down. You want to get them, don’t you? That means going after them with a foolproof plan.
Identify how you’re going to make it happen. From getting a promotion or your dream job to buying that house or traveling the world. How is it going to work?
There are always multiple ways of achieving anything in life, so it’s okay to list several. Come up with ideas and options to help you get to where you want to be. Work out what you need to make it happen too. The resources you need to in place, the knowledge you need to acquire, the steps you need to take.
When you know what it will take, you'll be in the best possible place to make it happen.
5. Hold Yourself Accountable
You’ve visualised your ideal life, you’ve worked out what you want, and you’ve got your plan of action. So now, you act.
For some people, that’s enough. Having a strategic plan and a path to follow is enough to get their goals. But not for others.
Sometimes, you’re going to need to hold yourself accountable for making this happen. So tell others. Others that will support your goals and dreams and help you accomplish them. And keep an eye on them too.
Then make sure you track your goals and check in with them on a regular basis – however frequently you want. Weekly, monthly, you choose. And set a certain way of checking in too. Will you assess your actions? Analyse what’s working, what’s not?
Reassess where you’re at and re-set your goals if need be. It’s okay if things aren’t working or you change your mind. It happens. Whenever your dreams divert a little, reset your goals to follow suit.
START!
And then comes the most important part of all, you have to get started. So, just start!
Setting the goals is not enough. Planning for your dreams is not enough. You have to do the work!
You have to work on the action plan. Take the steps. Make the changes. Get to work. You have to start working towards your goals for life.
This part cannot be stressed enough. Because if you don’t take that first step and start the ball rolling, you’ll never get there.
Then, Celebrate In Style
And when you do get there (because you will), treat yourself.
Incentives are HUGE in getting closer to your goals. Because it’s hard. A long, hard journey dotted with failures and lessons and fallbacks – but you have to keep going.
Set yourself checkpoints if rewards will work for you. Let yourself celebrate along the way. It’ll keep you going.
And it’s okay to celebrate those failures and fallbacks too, because they have shown you the light of way.
When you get to the end and you achieve your goals for life – or some of them, there’s no other feeling like it.
Would you love to set goals for your future? How do you usually approach them? Share your goal setting tips with the SOCIÉTÉ community in the comments below.
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