LIFESTYLE

How To Set your Goals and Successfully Achieve Them

If you are like me, someone obsessed by the productivity and planning? Then, this post is for you. 

It’s evident that everyone has life goals and projects, whether they are planned for short or long term. I’m sure you all have projects for next week, month or even years!

Do you want to travel the world? Do you want to be financially  independent? Or go to live in Thailand? YOU can do it! Whatever it is, everything is achievable! 

If you are wondering how you can set and reach your goals, here are my 7 golden rules to follow. 

Disclaimer : This post may include affiliate links!

1. Define and set your SMART goals

If you want to really achieve your goals, you firstly need to set them correctly. This is the key! 

Whether you have multiple small dreams or ONE big, start by writing them down on a paper, this will help you to well define them and will like wring your brain and get a clear idea of what you really want to achieve. I usually write all my ideas on my journal before the beginning of a new year or month, this is super important for me! 

If you are more digital than me, you can use your phone or write on your computer/tablet, just keep them visible to remember them every day 😉  

Now, you have to articulate your ideas into achievable SMART goals, 

But what’s a S.M.A.R.T goal? 

Specific:

If you want to reach a specific results, then your goal must be specific, well defined, and much clear as possible. If you want to live from you blog, your goals might be like : 

  • Quit my 9-5 job by 31 December 
  • Generate a full time revenue from my blog before June

Measurable :

This one is very important because you always need to check if you are progressing or not, if you are close or not to your target. 

Ask yourself how can you measure the achievement: How much? How many? 

Some examples: 

  • Post every Monday morning on my blog 
  • Reach 1 000 followers on instagram by the end of June

Achievable :

Don’t set big goals that are not achievable in the laps of time and with the resources you have (or will have). This will demotivate you and you risk to easily give up. 

At the same time, your goal must be ambitious to stimulate your desire and motivate you to go after them. 

  • if you create you instagram page this month, you can’t expect to get 100 000 followers by the end the 1st week!! This is just not achievable and not smart! 

To be achievable, your goals must depend only on YOU, your capacity and resources, not on other people. 

Relevant :

For sure your goal must be relevant to your dream and aligned with what you want to win and what really matters to you. 

Time based :

To be smart, your goal must have a time target. Decide on a deadline to focus on by answering the question: When ? How long will it take me to reach this goal? 

In our previous example, we expect to reach 1 000 followers on Instagram by the end of June, so I have a deadline to achieve this target and then I can work and adapt my plan accordingly. 

Achieve your goals

2. Break down your goals into mini goals

As your goals are now Smart, it should be easier to break them down and create small goals. 

Achieving mini goals and celebrate them 😉 will be easier than focusing only on one big goal that seems hard and long to reach, it’s terrifying and this feeling can demotivate you. 

If your goal is to earn 1 000 $ online this month, then you can break it down like this : 

  • Make 250 $ every week 
  • Make 500 $ from my blog, 250$ from Twitter and 250$ from Pinterest 
  • Make 100$ from Ads, 400$ from my Ebook, 200$ from sponsorship and 300$ from my online course. 

You can then divide your mini goals into smaller ones if this’s easier for you, just make them smart again (achievable and ambitious). 

To be honest, that what I personally do! I prefer reach small goals every day, then by the end of the week/month my big goal will be achieved without big worries 😉 

3. Create your action plan for each mini goal :

“A goal without plan is just a dream!” 

Next step after breaking down your goals is to plan your actions to actually achieve them. 

Answer the question: How can I reach my target? What actions can help me to get closer to my goal everyday? 

Habits are powerful, create habits and stick to them, figure out when you are most productive in your day and then plan the actions that need concentration and energy. What do you like to do first in the morning when you start your work? And what do you prefer to do in the afternoon? 

I personally plan all my important stuff in the morning, as writing my blog posts, this task is key for my blog success so I do it first when my brain is fresh (It takes me more time than the average as I need to check my English grammar and vocabulary every time, here’s why). Otherwise, I plan the fun and creative tasks for the afternoon or evening, like creating graphics for Pinterest, promoting on Twitter and Facebook or planning my future content. 

Schedule your action plan in your agenda and take note of all the deadlines you have to meet. I plan my actions on a weekly bases, then I create my daily to do list – Yes! I’m obsessed with organisation and planning 😉 

Get your Daily Planner to stay organized everyday and much closer to your goals! 

My daily Planner

Check out my daily routines for more productivity

4. Track your progress and check your mini goals :

It’s important to track your actions and set metrics and KPI to measure the achievement, you can use a check list to evaluate your progress every week or month. 

Every Sunday or end of month, deep dive into your stats and your earnings, make sure to figure out what you could be doing better for next time and capitalise on what actually works and brings you satisfaction. Then adjust your plan for next week/month accordingly. 

Create small rewards to motivate yourself, if you reach your mini goal this week, then you can celebrate it with a dinner or a walk outside! Whatever makes you happy is good for keeping your motivation high. 

5. Visualise your life as if you have already achieved your goals :

Act as if you have already reached your goals, feel this good feeling and visualise this new life! 

  • My blog makes 10 000 $ every month
  • I have an engaged community on Instagram 
  • I successfully launched my new product 
  • I eat healthy meal every day

6. Be grateful :

In French we say : “Il y a des jours avec et des jours sans” which means “Not every day will be easy and glorious”, so you need stay motivated and remember what’s your ultimate purpose, what’s your “WHY”. That dream you desire to live! 

Learn to put things into perspectives, this will help you to stay focus on your final goal and be convinced that tomorrow will be better! You have a strong plan and you’ll make it happen! 

Look at around you and be grateful for what you have now and for the opportunities that you have and you are able to create. 

7. Make decisions NOW to achieve your goals :

If you want to live your dream life, you have to take serious actions NOW and not later.

Be patient and don’t hope to achieve all what you want overnight. Your dreams require hard work, consistency and motivation! Believe me it always worth it, because you’re building your best life and creating the best version of yourself by being disciplined.

Achieve your goals

You CAN win if you want !! Remember that everything is achievable, just follow the right steps to get there! 

How do you set your goals? Share your tips with us 😉 

Get your 9 pages For Weekly and Daily Planning and make sure you track easily your goals and stay organized all the week. 

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