Making Your Goals Reachable
I *love* a planner. A fresh planner, a smooth-writing pen, and a starry-eyed view of the future and all the things I’m going to do. I love to write everything in and plan my days just so. And when it all goes to plan!! I mean, I’m not sure if there’s a better feeling!
So that’s about 5% of the time.
What about the other 95%?
I don’t know about you, but between life and work and friends and hobbies and my dog and my own emotions and whether or not I had enough coffee, I can definitely get derailed. More than that, sometimes I have a hard time even figuring out what to put in the planner! We’re supposed to put our goals and our schedules, but what are my goals? Can I put “start a business” in my planner for Saturday and just go for it?
It’s so easy to get overwhelmed!!
The best way to tackle something that is overwhelming? Cut it down to size. Let’s break it down together.
Figure out your goals. Maybe you have really clear goals; you know exactly what you want. Maybe you’re like me and you have a difficult time visualizing your future. Either way, you have to take some time to figure out what you want. If goal-setting is new to you, start small.
To practice, let’s set a goal of cooking a four course meal at home. (If that’s easy for you to do without breaking it down, please invite me over.)
Now let’s take your goal and break it down into tasks. What’s the difference between a task and a goal? I think of it this way - the goal is the whole project put together; the tasks are the individual steps you have to take to make the whole. Tasks should be probably in the range of 5 - 45 minutes. If you think about a task and think it’s going to take longer than 45 minutes, re-examine and see if you need to break it down further.
Some tasks that we need to complete in order to reach our goal of making a four course meal at home:
Search for meal ideas on Pinterest or cooking sites
Decide on what four courses you want to make (salad, appetizer, main course, dessert?)
Decide what food item to make for each course
Find recipes for each course
Create a shopping list for the recipes
Shop
Prep all the ingredients
Cook the meal
Do you see how the one goal that seems quite large can be broken down into much more manageable steps?
Now, we plan! Look at your tasks and figure out the order in which you need to do them. Obviously, you can’t go shopping before you’ve made your grocery list, and you can’t make your grocery list until you have your recipe. So take a look at your upcoming days and see when you will have time for each task. Can you look for meal ideas on your lunch break? Can you look at recipes when you’re watching TV in the evening?
The key to making your goals reachable is not to make your goals smaller, but to focus on the smaller steps that get you to the goal.
The key to making your goals reachable is not to make your goals smaller, but to focus on the smaller steps that get you to the goal.
Now that we have our goal and know what tasks we have to accomplish to reach that goal, and we’ve set aside time for each task - we execute! And this can be tricky!
Next week I’ll dive into executing - and what to do when things go sideways.
Share with me what your goals are! Let’s be accountable and help each other.
If you’re unsure of how to take your goals from conception to reality, I am developing a 5-day email course, Your Life, Planned. I will show you in practical, bite-sized pieces how to use a planning method to reach your goals. It’s free, with no commitment! I hope to join you in your inbox to make your journey just a bit easier! Keep an eye out here or sign up here to be the first to hear when it opens!
For more information on my other services, please visit my website or my Instagram page. I look forward to connecting with you!
