I’m so excited to be continuing with my motivational series here on my blog. If you haven’t check out my other posts- I talked about how to Kickstart Your Motivation, Top Resources When it Comes to Motivation and Goal Setting, and now today, I’m going to dive more into goal setting, but more specifically, How to Set Goals and How to Achieve Those Goals. Setting goals is a very popular thing to do, especially around the New Year. However, whether you’re setting a New Year’s Resolution or just a goal you want to achieve, very few people actually successfully achieve their goals.
The Importance of Long-Term and Short-Term Goals
I have found that there’s importance in setting both long-term and short-term goals. Short-term goals are something that you can achieve in the near future, while long-term goals are something that will take a lot longer to achieve. For example, a short-term goal would be something you can achieve within the next few weeks or month and a long-term goal would be anything that you would like to achieve in three months, six months, a year, or more. Having both short-term and long-term goals are important because this allows you to stay motivated for the long-run with long-term goals, but also gives you the satisfaction of completing and accomplishing something with short-term goals. When we accomplish something, we feel better about ourselves and in result, more motivated to keep going.
Now that you know the difference of both long-term and short-term goal, it’s time to really keep yourself accountable. I’m someone that doesn’t like to be too hard on myself or put too much pressure on myself- because quite frankly, I don’t think it’s really healthy to do that. That being said, holding myself accountable is still essential to accomplishing my goals.
When you’re constantly thinking about your goals and specifically looking at the steps to how to achieve them- you’re more likely to complete your goals. How should you hold yourself accountable when it comes to your goals? That’s totally up to you and what you know works for you! However, I recommend the following…
Keep Track of Your Goals and Tasks
Whether you like to keep your goals on the notes app on your phone or you like to write them down in a notebook or planner, you need to have a designated space to physically put your goals down. The act of physically writing down your goals and laying it all out will really put things into perspective of what you hope to accomplish in the future.
I would write down my goals for years.
If you find any of my old notebooks, you’ll probably find a few lists of weekend goals, yearly goals, and even goals for the next five years.
Even though I was visibly writing down my goals and laying them out, I still had a difficult time following through and accomplishing those goals until I started using Asana.
Asana: How to Use it For Goal Setting
I mentioned in my Top Resources for Motivation and Goal Setting that Asana is one of my favorite resources that I use for motivation. I started using Asana when I started freelancing as it’s a great online co-working space. However, what I didn’t really dive into was how amazing it is for personal use as well.
Asana has a lot of really cool features and setting, but what I personally use it for is tasks and goals. It’s also completely free so regardless if you want to use it for professional, personal use or even both- I highly recommend you check it out!
There’s probably a ton of things you want to accomplish by the end of the year, but it may be a bit overwhelming thinking of how you’re going to accomplish those goals, the steps you need to take etc. The nice thing about Asana is that you’re able to lay out all the steps, assign a due date to them, and keep yourself accountable to achieve your goals.
Organize a Goals Board
First, when setting up Asana, I recommend making a goals board and set it up with the sections: 1 Month, 3 Months, 6 Months, 1 Year, and Celebrations. I originally got this idea from Bucketlist Bombshells, if you haven’t checked them out you really should! They’re a pair of entrepreneur women who travel the world full-time and have some awesome courses on how you can quit your 9-5 job and travel the world!
Under each month section, write a list of goals you want to accomplish in that time frame. It can be anything from health goals, travel goals, a certain skill you want to learn by then etc. I included health and fitness goals, personal goals, travel goals, financial goals, and random life goals on my board. This really puts things into perspective on what I’m working towards and really makes me stay motivated.
Plan Execution
The next step after making your goals board is to plan out how you’re going to achieve each of those goals. I recommend doing these steps on a monthly basis otherwise you might get a little overwhelmed. For example, if one of your goals is to lose 3 lbs
how are you going to make that happen?
Adding the tasks such as drinking 2.5-3 litres of water a day, attend 2 workout classes a week, and eat clean, will show you how you’re going to actually accomplish that goal. You need to really write these steps out and don’t be too vague. Instead of putting “drink more water” try putting down “drink 3 litres of water a day.”
This will give you no excuses of you feeling like you don’t know where to start- because you do, it’s all right in front of you on Asana.
Another example that’s probably relevant in the blogging community is getting more views on your blog.
However, with your goals be specific, write out a specific number of how many views you want to achieve in a month, for example, 5,000 views a month. Create a blogging category and write out all the things you need to do to reach 5,000 views a month.
This may include certain blog posts that you’re going to write for the month, signing up for platforms to boost your blog like MailChimp or Boardbooster to up your Pinterest game, etc. Having a specific strategy will really put things into perspective and show you step-by-step what you need to do to achieve that goal.
When you sit down and take the time to reflect on what you want to accomplish, but also the actual steps you will need to take to accomplish those goals, you’re definitely more likely to accomplish your goals.
Especially when it comes to long-term goals, they can seem unrealistic, unachievable, and a bit ridiculous sometimes. However, my advice to you is: write it down.
I’ve always been a firm believer if it’s important to you, you’ll make it happen- if not, you’ll make an excuse. That’s one of my favorite quotes and something I truly live by.
So regardless of what your goals might be, write them down, write down the steps to achieve them, and then get going!
I hope you found this post helpful and found some motivation to start your goal setting. What are some of your goals your working towards? Let me know in the comments down below! Also, if you have any questions on Asana and goal setting, leave those in the comments down below as well!
Check out my other motivations posts below!
How to Kickstart Your Motivation
