Goal Setting: 4 Keys to achieve your goals & master how to set them

Goal Setting. It’s more than simply making a statement. If you want to achieve your goals, master how to set them.

By Roger Lockridge

We as a society are always looking to excel. It can be in fitness, sports, or in any other aspect of life. Improvement can be motivating and seeing ourselves succeed can bring new levels of happiness into our entire lives. So it makes sense that when we become passionate about something, we want to excel at it. How do you do that? The first step is to define what excelling is so we set goals to achieve. As crazy as this might read, you can’t simply just say you’re going to do something. Knowing what kind of goals to set can be key in helping you achieve that success you desire.]

Goal Setting: Make Sure They’re YOUR Goals

It can be natural to see how others succeed and want that success for ourselves. However, the goal should never be to be like someone else. The goal should be to do the best we can ourselves. Michael Jordan didn’t want to be the next Dr. J. He wanted his own name to be associated with greatness. You should also make sure that the goals you set meet up to your standards and not be defined by others. This is a certain way to be set up for disappointment.

Goal Setting: Make Them Measurable

You can make a general statement saying that you want to be in your best shape ever but there are so many ways to define fitness that this might be too vague. What does fitness mean to you? Do you want to be stronger, leaner, bigger, or faster? A key to success is defining what success means to you. Writing out a measurable goal helps you monitor progress and make adjustments to the program you’re following along the way.

Goal Setting: Make Them Challenging

This might be the most difficult part of setting a goal. You might want to set a goal that you know you can achieve so you can celebrate that success when it happens. The issue is that it can lead to a false sense of accomplishment followed by being upset because you realize that you didn’t give yourself enough credit. Part of goal setting is acknowledging that what you want to do is difficult so challenge yourself. Push yourself to go that extra mile.

Now on the other side of this issue, you don’t want to doom yourself to fail either. While you should be a little nervous about your goal, you shouldn’t set a goal that is impossible to achieve. If you start running, you can set a goal of finishing in the Top 10 of a 5K but don’t say you’re going to win a marathon within a few months. Set a goal that will make you work for it so that when you get there, you’ll have reason to celebrate.

Goal Setting: Set a Deadline

When projects are given by a boss or a group wants to create something special, they have a timeline that includes a deadline of when the project should be finished. You should take this same approach when it comes to goal setting. Simply saying you want to lose 20 pounds is one thing. It takes it to another level when you say that you’re going to lose 20 pounds of bodyfat in three months. Now you’re on the clock and the pressure is on. People who want to succeed need that pressure so they can make each day and each action count. That accountability could very well make the difference between reaching your goal and not.