4 Ways To Set Realistic Goals That You Can Actually Achieve
It doesn’t matter what you do in life, you have likely been told at least once or twice that you should be setting some goals for yourself. It doesn’t usually matter what those goals are, as long as you are setting them for yourself. Some people like to build castles in the sky, talking about the extremes that they daydream about but may not necessarily be in a position to achieve. Others like to set goals that are simple but realistic and achievable. A lot of the time, people pull a goal out of thin air and don’t set out any kind of rules to achieve said goals; with no direction, these goals are going to be missed massively.
When you choose something to aim for that isn’t realistic, and without something realistic it’s very easy to give up and get discouraged. If you can’t make a goal achievable, you could at least make it well-defined and attempt to keep your goal on track. So, how can you get that done? How can you set realistic goals for yourself?
Write It Down. It’s easy to articulate the fact that one day, you’d like to charter a private jet but unless you check out the cost of the jet and how far you can go in one, what’s the end goal? You need to write down the goals that you have and write down how you expect to get there, too. Once you’ve taken your time and written it down, you can make your goal real to you.
Bitesize Milestones. Anyone can talk about having a house one day that they own outright, but unless you give yourself smaller milestones, you’re going to fail from day one. Instead of looking ahead to the house that you want to buy, why not concentrate instead on the deposit that you need to save? Focus first on the deposit, then focus on tidying your credit rating up and then focus on house-hunting. Smaller goals that are easier to achieve give you the bigger goal as your bigger picture.
Be Very Specific. When your goal is to travel the world, be specific about it. Where do you plan to go? How do you plan to get the finances together to go? The more specific you are about how you want to achieve your goals, the easier it will be to achieve them.
Actions, Not Progress. It can feel like you aren’t achieving anything if you can’t see the goal you set being met, but instead of measuring how far you’ve come, measure what you are doing to achieve goals. So, start ticking off the things that you’ve been doing to action your goals and your dreams, and you’ll always be another step closer to them.
Goals aren’t just daydreams to most people. We all go through life with things we want to achieve, the key is to actually achieve them and stop them from being wishes. Once you make it real, you can grab it with both hands.