New year new you. The saying has almost become to be seen as an obligation, in January of a new year we must be seen to set new resolutions on how we are going to drastically change our lives, only to have given up by the middle of the month. This is usually due to the goals set being unrealistic and although not unachievable the weight being put on achieving everything now as opposed to over a period of time is simply too great to succeed.
Below we will discuss tips on simple ways to create realistic and achievable goals all while considering the SMART method.
S – SPECIFIC
M – MEASURABLE
A – ACHIEVEABLE
R – RELEVANT
T – TIMEBOUND
The first and most important step is beginning to think about specific goals and what they will look like once completed.
Once you have done this you can start to create goals for different areas of your life, such as:
- Relationship
- Work
- Spiritual
- Health and Fitness
- Finance
Breaking your goals down into realistic chunks or sections can help you gain clarity, create specific milestones, set good time frames and think about where you currently are now.
Remember to make goals that are measurable, its great to say that you would like to be a better person, but in which way, more loving? More forgiving? More generous? Although you can quantify aspects of generosity, loving and forgiving, feelings, thoughts and ideas often fall in the not easily measurable goal category. Goals such as finance could have measurable goals such as to save a certain amount each month or spiritual goals can be to get outside more often.
Write down your goals and review them periodically.
It can be easy to keep track on what you are doing if it is clearly set out in front of you, therefore ensuring that your tasks are achievable. You could:
- Tape your goals to your bathroom mirror where you’ll see them first and last thing every day
- Take a photo of your resolutions and post them as your wallpaper
- For goals that require some accountability for success, place them on your fridge
Design relevant career goals that can be accomplished with a partner.
There are lots of important reasons to help other people with their career. Certainly, it’s a nice thing to do and your friends and colleagues will appreciate your support. But it’s also good for your career. Sharing your own experiences and insights can help you better understand your own strengths and helping others identify their own talents and make important connections can help establish you as a leader and mentor. In short, nobody loses when friends and colleagues work together to help support one another. Ways you can support your friends or colleagues in their career are:
- Attend networking + professional events
- Ask how you can be helpful
- Hold them accountable to their goals
- Provide feedback
- Help each other out with work or projects
- Help your friends and colleagues feel confident in their work and in their candidacy by offering to serve as a personal reference
Reward yourself for achieving your goals.
Now this doesn’t mean that if you save what you wanted each month, to go and splash all of your saved cash on an expensive purchase, it simply means to reward yourself in small ways. Set timebound goals and plan out your rewards when you achieve a certain task, therefore giving you something to look forward to, these can include such things as:
- Marathon your favorite show on Netflix
- Plan a night out with your friends
- Take a class that interests you
- Eat at your favorite restaurant
- Order Takeaway
So overall its most important to set realistic and measurable goals and timelines, write them down and reward yourself when you reach them.
So what goals will you be setting in 2022?
