Without goals, there would be no passion, purpose, or drive in life. If your goals are too vague, you’ll find much more difficulty on your journey than if you’d properly prepared in the first place.
Planning Your Goals
The planning phase is the most important stage when it comes to achieving your goals. Planning might come easy or hard for you, but one thing’s for sure, without planning the end goal may not even exist at all.
While it’s important to set up your own system that works for you, there are some simple goal setting strategies you can use to make your planning easier.
Consider the following tips for finding clarity in your goals:
1. Decide what you want. Whether your goal is lofty or little, decide exactly what it is that you want. If you want money, how much? If you want to lose weight, how many pounds? If you want success, how do you describe your vision of success?
- Don’t be afraid to take your time to figure out what you want. At some point you’ll need to eventually sift through your thoughts and take action, but make sure you’re acting on what’s most important to you!
2. Be specific. Be very detailed as you develop every part of your goal. Instead of a goal like “I want to be better at sports,” consider a goal like “I want to perform exceptionally well during spring tryouts so I can become the all-star point guard for my high school basketball team.” Just being “better” at sports is too vague. There are too many options and avenues to take that your mind can’t focus on any one route to your goal.
3. Write it down. Write down your ideas and decisions. It doesn’t matter if you use pencil and paper, a computer, or even a cell phone. What’s important is the fact that you can keep track of a large amount of specific information instead of trying to remember everything. After all, goals only seem real when you see them clearly before you.
4. Break down your goal into increments. If you have a lofty goal, it’ll become manageable if you break it down into smaller pieces. Smaller pieces will make your goal seem less complex. Plus, it’ll be easier for you to achieve your goal if everything is set out for you as mini-goals, instead of just one huge feat.
5. Repeat the process. Once you’ve found a good system, it’s time to repeat the process. Clarify your other goals that you’d like to achieve.
For example, if you’d like to “spend more time with the family,” which is too vague, make a list of specific family activities you’d like to do together, and then make more lists that detail how you can make those goals a reality.
Don’t Wait For “Someday”
Some of the reasons why people tend to keep their goals vague is that they’re actually afraid of achieving them. It’s true!
After all, it’s a whole lot easier to put off your goals and do nothing, than to take action to achieve it. But what good is a goal that merely resides on paper?
Once you’ve decided on a clear goal, it’s time to take swift action to make it a reality. Don’t wait for someday to achieve your goals. There’s no time like the present… so get moving!