Goal Setting Done Right

Goal setting, if not done right, can oftentimes set you up to fail before you even get started.

So many of us have grandiose plans to improve our life thus creating goals that are sometimes unrealistic and place undue stress/pressure on ourselves. When we don’t accomplish those unrealistic goals, the negative self-talk and negative self-image kicks back in typically with full force. Thus, creating that vicious cycle of hope, goal setting, trying, failing, hating ourselves, and then finding our way back to hope, goal setting and it goes on and on and on.

As a life coach, I love to help people with goal planning and executing goals that set you up for success - not failure.

What I would encourage you to do, while you are coming up with a goal that you have for yourself, is to dive deeper into the why of wanting to accomplish that specific goal. Understanding the big picture impact on your life when you accomplish that goal is oftentimes missed. Then, build mini goals that consist of daily goals. Creating mini goals will help you have greater control over your own success. It helps you stay focused and motivated as you accomplish the mini goals you set.

Easiest analogy is goal setting around weight.

Most people, even when working with life coaches, create a goal that looks something like this:

“I’m going to lose 50 pounds in 3 months by working out and eating healthy.”

Most people will fail within the first few weeks because they give it their all the first several weeks, but do not see the progress as quickly as they want.

They also don’t consider that 50 pounds, while possible to lose, is not realistic to do in 3 months if the end goal is to also keep it off.

So, I encourage people to dive deeper into the impact of their lives when they accomplish their weight goals:

“With a 50 pound weight loss, I will have more energy, I will look better, feel better, I will have a greater sex drive, I will be more confident, etc.”

So, keeping the 50 pound weight loss in mind, we build daily goals to accomplish not just weight loss but accomplishing the areas of impact when losing weight at the same time.

We are taking control of what we can control, which is our own actions and thoughts on a daily basis and no longer hoping for goals to be met by the scale.

Example: Today, my goal is to work out for 5 minutes longer than I did yesterday. Once we accomplish that simple goal, we begin to positively reinforce our actions. We are more accountable to our choices, we feel better about ourselves for accomplishing that goal, and are looking forward to tomorrow’s goal.

It is ultimately up to us to accomplish those mini goals instead of basing it around a number on a scale that we are hoping to see.