We're here to help you maximize your potential and achieve your definition of success.
How to Set Meaningful Goals
As a Goal Achievement Coach, I love this time of the year! December is full of excitement as we make the final push to achieve our goals, prepare to celebrate the holidays and set goals for the new year. Setting the right goals is critical for goal achievement, but sometimes it can be difficult to set specific goals, or the right goals, even if you know what you want or what you’re working towards. You know that you want to be a better version of yourself, or that you want to achieve success in your business, but what are the meaningful, doable, specific and measurable goals that you can set to ultimately get you to where you want to go?
That’s why I’m sharing my four steps to setting meaningful goals below so you can start the new year and first quarter of 2022 with clarity, focus and determination.
The Four Steps of Goal-Setting
Step One – Visioning
Do you have a long-term vision? If no, why not? I’ve heard and even experienced visioning roadblocks such as, “I can’t see that far into the future!” or “What happens if my vision doesn’t come true?” This year, don’t let these roadblocks stop you from this foundational goal setting step. It’s as simple as imagining and writing down what you want your life to look like 10 years from now.
If you have a long-term vision, when was the last time you reviewed it? Chances are you’ve grown personally and professionally since you drafted your vision, so it might be time for a vision refresh.
A long-term vision is a powerful tool for helping you gain clarity around what you want and why you want it. As you start to see where you want to go in the future, you can connect the goals you set for 2022 to that bigger picture. I highly recommend you start your yearly goal-setting with visioning.
Step Two – Reflecting
The second step of setting goals you want to achieve is reflecting. Reflecting on the past year gives you the chance to slow down and recognize what worked and what didn’t.
It’s tempting to skip the reflection process because it’s not always fun to take ownership and examine what you could have done differently or better when it comes to achieving your goals. Taking the time to reflect before you plan is significant because you will learn a lot about your beliefs, habits and processes by intentionally looking backwards before going forwards.
I recommend you kick off the reflection process by noting some of the lessons you’ve learned about yourself, your business and your goals this year. Understanding why and how you’ve achieved goals in the past can help you create an intentional plan to achieve your most meaningful 2022 goals.
Step Three – Brainstorming
Vague goals lead to vague results so the third step of setting goals is brainstorming.
THIS IS THE BEST PART! During brainstorming you get to think about all of the things you can achieve next year. To get started, simply start listing all of the goals that come to mind. You might want to start your list and keep brainstorming a couple of days before narrowing down your list of goals to the most meaningful.
To narrow down all of your potential goals, I recommend categorizing your goals into groups that are important to you such as personal, professional, financial, or you might even choose to include health or faith! Once you’ve categorized your potential goals, narrow them down to your most meaningful goal for the new year.
Knowing my most meaningful goal helps me prioritize, establish boundaries, make investment decisions for my business and execute on strategies.
Step Four – Planning
The fourth goal-setting step is planning.
One of the things I’ve noticed about goals is there are a lot of goals set but not a lot of plans established to achieve goals. Yes, setting goals is better than not having them but achievers create a plan to go after their goals.
Planning doesn’t have to be complicated. Honestly the simple plans tend to be the easiest to execute. Working from a plan allows you to be proactive in the direction of your goals, establish boundaries and priorities and identify where you need to spend your time.
If you are wondering where to start with your plan, go back to your reflection notes. In order to achieve your most meaningful goals you might need to evolve your limiting beliefs, establish new habits or improve processes.
Feeling inspired to start taking action in the direction of these goals you’ve set? Click here to download my breakout plan and if you subscribe to my email list, you’ll receive a detailed description that will walk you through exactly how to fill it out. Here’s to a year of achieving breakout performances together!
