Fail-Proof Guide to Goal Setting - 8 Steps to Achieve Your Goals

I am such an idea person. I love being able to create something and continue to improve on things created in the past year, but even the best ideas are worthless if you follow through. That’s why having a fail-proof plan to goal setting is critical.

Whether you are an idea-person like me or just need some way to focus in on your life, these 8 tips are going to get you on track for all of your goals.

Did you know most people generally spend more time planning a trip than they do planning out their life? Isn’t that crazy?

Not you though!! You’re about to set some amazing goals and hit them!

Our Fail-Proof Guide to Goal Setting

1. Know your priorities

In order to know what you want to achieve, you need to identify and know your priorities. A lot of people skip this step and just start setting goals, but often times this leads to feeling unfulfilled and stressed out. If you are honoring your priorities when you are setting your goals, you are more likely to feel a sense of accomplishment and calm in your life.

A lot of people skip this step and just start setting goals, but often times this leads to feeling unfulfilled and stressed out. If you are honoring your priorities when you are setting your goals, you are more likely to feel a sense of accomplishment and calm in your life.

Throughout the life of your goal, your priorities will act as the “why” behind them. There will be challenges you will face when you’re working towards your dream. Knowing your “why” will help you stay motivated to keep going.

A general list of priorities are:

Faith
Family and friends
Health
Financial security
Organization and having a good environment in which to live and work
Leisure time
Personal growth (like following your dream, or just some good ol’ me time)

On a sheet of paper or below, we suggest writing your Top 3 priorities:

Priority #1:
Priority #2:
Priority #3:

Also, write down what you need to do less or more of to honor your Top 3 priorities. This will help when you start goal setting!

2 Create a LIFE vision

The next step is identifying how you want your entire life to look like.

So often when we are goal setting we only focus on one area like “getting healthy and losing 50 lbs by December” or “making $100,000 a year” without looking to see how that 1 goal will affect our overall life.

Your priorities will give you a foundation for your vision. The next step is to really think about what you like and dislike about your life right now.

Ask yourself:

What is the favorite thing I do each day or week?
What is the least favorite thing I do each day or week?
What makes me the happiest and what stresses me out most right now?
What does my ideal schedule look like?
When do I feel like I’m not working?
If I won a million dollars, what would my day look like? What would my goals look like?

These questions will offer a guide to creating your dream vision for your life. Some people choose to make a vision board. You can do this by cutting out images from magazines or using Pinterest.

Others will choose to write out their day as if their life vision was already happening instead of the vision board.

For example, “I wake up at 6:30 am to read my Bible and get the kids ready for school by 8 am. I come home and work online with my ideal client of 20-30-year-old moms…..by 2 I am off work and ready to pick up the kids from school. I’m actively present with them in the afternoon, and we eat dinner as a family. We then watch TV for an hour and have X amount of time alone as a couple.”

3. Goal Setting

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork and know what you are working towards (your life vision), you can start goal setting.

Many people will say to set up to 10 goals, but if you’re like me …you know the last 3 or 4 goals get lost in the shuffle.

For this reason, we suggest setting 3 to 5 goals. If you accomplish one goal, you can always add in another. Keeping your mind focused on something small, specific and achievable will help you achieve your goals.

Don’t forget the key to goal setting is to make your goals SMART.

SMART stands for specific, measurable, action-oriented, results-focused, and timely.

An example:

By July 1, 2016, I will implement a new training system for new top reps in my team using clearly defined processes and guidelines so new reps throughout our downline can hit their first income goal and evaluate performance quantitatively.

As you set each one of your goals, ask yourself why is this goal is worth achieving. How does this goal does fit into your life vision? Who will be affected by you going after this goal? How will they be affected?

And the final question: Does one goal make the others easier? If so, start with that goal.

4. Work Backwards on Each Goal

Ask yourself these questions for each goal:

Who can help me with this goal?
What will you need? Physically? Skills? Money? Time?
What will you do yearly, monthly, weekly and daily for this goal?

5. Track Your Progress and Reflect

We’ve all heard that insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. However, it’s not glamorous or exciting to track progress.

Reflecting on what is working, what isn’t, and measuring your progress is key to your achieving your goals. Set 5 minutes a day to outline what the most important things you need to do that day for each goal. Then each week set aside 30 minutes to review your goals and progress. This is the only way to see what is working the most to help you to your goals.

3 Tips to Goal Setting

Now that you have our step-by-step guide, we wanted to share 3 tips to make sure you stick with it.

Hold Yourself Accountable – Each one of us can hold ourselves accountable for a goal. We have to get into the right mindset to remind ourselves that this goal is non-negotiable. We all face down days, struggles, and unknown challenges. Find a way to remind yourself of your vision and hold yourself accountable. Sometimes it takes finding someone like-minded to connect with each week.
Have a Reminder – Some of your goals will take months and even years to accomplish. Set a trigger to remind you what living will be life when you achieve your goal. Maybe it’s looking at your vision board, noticing that dream car going down the road, or telling someone supportive about what you will do when you hit your goal.
Don’t Compare – Don’t compare yourself to someone else’s success or Facebook posts. We have no idea what it took for them to hit their goals. Most people are talking about their setbacks publicly, and we are all different. Comparing yourself to others doesn’t help you hit any goal.