You are reading 3 Easy Steps to Actually Achieve Your Goals.
Everyone is writing about goals these days. It’s a bit overwhelming and, honestly, confusing.
Without getting too technical and lengthy, I want to share how to easily reach your goals this year.
Everyone has their own way of reaching goals, so why should you listen to me?
I learned that when you get excited, you get things done.
A few years back, my husband and I decided to plan a trip to Israel. It was gutsy because we recently took a big pay cut for me to be home with the kids but we felt like God was sending us on a pilgrimage. This was also a big adventure for our 15th anniversary.
The perfect opportunity came up and we sent our down payment to reserve our seats. We were excited. We put this goal ahead of anything else. This is key by the way!!
We knew how much we had left to finish paying for this trip so we divided the amount to pay by the months left to pay. The trip was paid for and we enjoyed our adventures in the Holy Land together. We also were joined by great teachers of the Bible and made many new friends from our group. It was truly the adventure of a lifetime.
It all started with a goal that we were excited about.
We were excited!!
Goals are an important tool that helps us achieve things in life. We all know this. Goals = success or freedom or achievement or new habits. However you say it, goals are important but goals without emotion are dead.
Here is my basic 3 step process to help you claim your goals for good.
1. Make a wish list of things you’d like to see in your life.
Sit down and write out your wish list. Your wish list should be all the things on your heart. It could be several things or just a few but getting everything on paper will allow you the opportunity to narrow down shortly. At this point, don’t worry about money, time or any other limiting factor. You will make your prioritized list shortly and deal with resources then.
Simply, make your wishes on paper.
I like to break my goals into the following categories. These categories will cover most areas of anyone’s life.
Spiritual –
Wherever you are in your walk, there is always room for improvement. If you read, prayer, meditate daily, maybe God will allow you to mentor someone or teach a class. If you don’t have the basic spiritual disciplines solid, start there.
Financial –
Do you have debt that needs to be paid off? Perhaps you need to build your savings or retirement? If you have a solid retirement and savings, this would be a good time to think about being generous. How can you get your financial situation under control or give more or in different ways.
Vocational –
Ok, be honest, do you love your job? What do you really want to do? Do you need to go back to school? Do you want to stay home with the kids? Maybe you are home with the kids and need a part time job or a work from home job. If you are not looking for a career change, how can you improve your situation? There may be a training program or certification that will allow you get a promotion or raise.
Hobbies –
Have you always wanted to play piano? Or sew? Or whatever? Perhaps you need more time to get better at your craft? Or you simply want to get outside?
Home/Homeschool –
Depends on your situation. I always have home goals whether I’m planning homeschool stuff or no. For my home goals, I like to think about areas that need purged, or furniture that needs replaced. For homeschool, I think about curriculum choices for the following year, projects, field trips, conferences, and other things to enrich our time together.
Health –
This is a great time to think about your health situation overall. This would be a good time to get your blood levels checked, start taking your supplements, and/or begin eating from the earth. Whatever your needs are, write them down. Personally, I want to continue eating very healthy, drinking plenty of water, taking healing baths, and seeing excellent doctors. What do want to see from your health?
2. Narrow down your list.
Pick your top 12 things you want to accomplish this year. Start at the top of your list and think about what excited you the most when you wrote them down. Don’t think about what would be challenging to accomplish. We’ll worry about that later. Simply read your list, if you feel excited about going back to school, clearing your master bedroom, or picking out homeschool material put a star by it. Put stars by the items that excite you.
The things I get most excited about, I make a way to accomplish.
What is exciting to you?
3. Pick 3 for each quarter.
Rewrite your 12 items and think about how to schedule them this year. If you have items on your list that will take longer than a quarter to complete like going back to school or getting out of debt, you will need to break down this goal into bite-sized chunks. Beginning a class, or paying off one credit is a reasonable goal to have for one quarter.
I personally can’t accomplish 3 big things in one quarter, so I stagger my goals accordingly.
Some items on your list may require saving some money. It could take all quarter long to get enough money for some items or trips.
This is the most important step, scheduling your goals for your year by quarters is crucial. 90 days is a great amount of time to accomplish some great goals. Three is a great number of goals to work toward in any given quarter.
Habit goals and achievement goals need to be tracked a little differently but have the same principles.
Get some type of planner.
Think about how you will reach your achievement goals. Do you need to save money for a purchase? Break down the total amount into weekly goals (simply divide the total by 13). For habit goals, a simple check mark each day to show you completed your goal is sufficient.
Here’s what my goals look like for quarter 1 –
- Setup email system and automation for blog.
- Pay off one credit card.
- Spend 90 working on my spiritual disciplines. This is a daily habit goal of at least 10 minutes a day.
If you don’t meet your goal in a given quarter, assess don’t stress. Look at your situation. Maybe you bit off more than you chew. Maybe this wasn’t the right goal. Before the next quarter think about if you want to try to the goal again or move on.
Make sure you review your progress often.
I hope you have a blessed year getting excited about your goals!!!
Leave a Reply