If you are a high achiever, you know that setting 1-5 years goals is important because a) without goals, you don’t know what to focus on, and b) you will feel like you have achieved nothing.
There is no worst feeling than realising that you haven’t achieved your goals at the end of the year.
Goal setting and planning sounds easy but believe me. Unfortunately, for the love of red wine, it’s not.
If you struggle with setting goals and achieving them, you are far from being alone. I was working too. For years! And have drunk a lot of red wine to ease frustration.
Ups!
Let’s dive into the nitty-gritty planning strategy for 2022.
How to set goals for yourself and crush them
Step 1: What type of goals should I set?
It can be whatever you want.
Career goals (career change, career development, getting a promotion)
Financial goals (get out of debt, save $3,000 for an emergency fund)
Personal goals (create a habit of a morning routine, create a do less life for yourself, uncommit from the soul-sucking commitments)
Health goals (lose 10 kg, run a half-marathon, become sugar-free)
Business goals (get first paying client, scale your business, become a social media pro)
Pick one, maximum of two goals. This is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!
Why?
Because if you run after two or more horses, you’ll catch none.
It does make sense.
The book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown can help you get laser-focused on essential things.
With this part, you probably won’t have any problems.
The next part is much more tricky.
Step 2: Set a specific goal (Do’s and Don’ts)
I’ve struggled with setting a specific goal for years. But if you don’t put a specific goal, everything gets messy. And …
… it’s hard to determine the exact steps you need to take to achieve your goal.
Here’s what I mean.
Non-specific goal #1: “I want to create an emergency fund.” is not the specific goal. (Don’t)
The specific goal is: “I’ll have $3,000 by the 31/12/2022 in my emergency fund.” (Do)
Non-specific goal #2: “I want to get in shape.” is not the specific goal. (Don’t)
The specific goal is: “I’ll be able to run 5 kilometres by the 01/11/2022.” (Do)
2Non-specific goal #3: “I wanted to earn more money in 2022.” is not the specific goal. (Don’t)
The specific goal is: “I’ll increase my monthly income by $500 by 03/11/2022.” (Do)
When your goal is laser-focused, you know how to close the gap between where you are right now and where you want to be.
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller can help you nail down specific goals.
Congratulations! You did the most challenging step!
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Step 3: Find YOUR WHY behind your goal.
Ask yourself, “Why is this goal essential to me”?
Sigh!
I used to hate this part of the goal-setting process. It gave me a headache.
Here’s why this step is crucial for your goal setting success…
So…when you fail or face a setback, your WHY will help you keep going.
Your WHY needs to be something that you genuinely want. It should not be – my mom/husband/sister/community wants me to do, I should …, I must …, I have to….
Ditch all shoulds, musts, have to’s and what other people want you to do.
Ask yourself, “Why is this goal essential to ME?’
This exercise will decrease your possibility of failure and increase your success rate.
Do not skip this step. It’s crucial for your success.
Step 4: Crush your goals
You must create an action plan. You might not know all the steps yet. That’s okay because you need to know only the first step.
Now, this is important!
Let’s take the goal: “I’ll have $3,000 by 31/12/2022 in my emergency fund.”
How do you achieve this goal?
- Start tracking where your money goes every month.
- Have an honest talk with yourself about which expenses are necessary and which are not
- Create a plan for how much money you’ll put into an emergency fund each month.
- Maybe you realise that you need to consult with a financial planner.
- Perhaps you realise that you are not particularly good at finances and would like to take a course on being smart with money.
Conclusion
Phew! You’ve made it! Woohoo!
Setting goals is powerful.
To crush your goals in 2022, you must set concrete goals with all the action steps. Conversely, vague goals mean a lack of planning and ultimately failure to achieve goals.
Slaying your goals is more doable than it looks like.
The best way to set firm and concrete goals is to follow this blog’s easy 4 steps process. That way, you increase the chance of achieving your goals for 2021 by at least 50%.
What is the hardest part of setting goals for you? Leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
Want to achieve EPIC goals in 2022? Click here and get YOUR EPIC PLANNER so that you can achieve goals with ease and skyrocket your productivity.
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