How Can I Set And Achieve My Goals?
Goals are commitments we make and keep in order to achieve the future we want for ourselves.
Some of us might find it difficult to answer when someone asks, “What do you do?” or “What do you want to do when you ‘grow up’?” It is easy to get caught up in our day-to-day lives and lose track of who we want to be, what we want to have, or what we wish to achieve in the future. Building a practice of goal-setting can help clarify, focus and motivate us. Let’s try it together!
The 7 steps to setting and completing your goals are:
Know the difference between aspirations, ambitions and goals;
Write strong goal statements that are easy to understand and act on;
Clearly define your actions and put dates, times, duration, and amounts for each;
Commit to an accountability plan for your goals, and ask for help;
Check in with yourself, and your goals. Revise them, as needed, to ensure success;
Celebrate and reward your accomplishments; and
Set your next goals soon after you complete one.
We will walk you through each of these 7 steps and help you with the process of understanding, setting and achieving your goals.
GOAL-SETTING 101
Step 1: Know the Difference Between Aspirations, Ambitions and Goals
It is really common to confuse aspirations or ambitions for goals. Every goal you achieve also has aspirations and ambitions attached to it. And while goal, aspiration and ambition are often used interchangeably, there are some important distinctions to make about their individual roles in the goal-setting process:
Aspirations are intangible and unmeasurable beliefs about how life could be. These describe your hopes, dreams, or philosophies about how you want the world or yourself to be in the future. We set goals to achieve aspirations.
Ambitions are the driver or motivations that help you reach your goals. Some goals require high ambition– lots of dedication, effort and motivation– while other goals can be achieved with lower ambition.
Goals are a tangible and measurable object of effort or ambition. They are specific commitments with due dates and clearly measurable outcomes.
Think of goals as WHAT you’re going to achieve, aspirations as WHY you want to achieve it and ambition as HOW MUCH EFFORT you’re willing to put toward achieving any particular goal.
Put another way, if a goal is a specific destination on a map then your aspiration is the reason you want to set out on the journey toward your goal and your ambition describes the intensity of the path that is going to get you there. For example:
Example 1 of the difference between an Aspiration, an Ambition and a Goal
Aspiration: I hope to make the world a better place by providing healthcare in my own neighborhood.
Ambition: I want to enter a career in dentistry and be a business owner someday.
Goal: By (insert your due date), I will apply to three dentistry programs at three different schools.
Note that the aspiration in this example could be filled in a number of ways and that it is the ambition that directs the goal. If the ambition was “I’d like to become an EMT and start a volunteer ambulance service in my area” the aspiration could stay the same but the goal would change.
Example 2 of the difference between an Aspiration, an Ambition and a Goal
Aspiration: I want my siblings and I to be good friends and close companions as we get older.
Ambition: I will be a better sibling and feel better about how I treat my family members.
Goal: By x date of y year, I will increase the quality time spent with my siblings and family from 3 hours per week to 6 hours per week.
Step 2: Clearly Define Your Actions And Put Dates, Times, Amounts, And Durations To Each Action
Actions are the steps you’ll take toward reaching your goal. They are the events that will propel you closer to your final destination. To decide which actions you need to take to reach your goal, it’s helpful to determine if your goal is a long-term goal or a short-term goal.
Short-term goals can range from a few days to a few months or even two to three years.
Long-term goals can range from three to five years or even longer. Long-term goals are typically made up of many short-term goals, which is an effective way to break large goals into more do-able, less overwhelming steps.
Once you’re clear on whether your goal is a long-term or short-term project (or a long-term with many short-term goals within it), you can begin to reverse-engineer your action steps and the dates/amount of time it will take you to complete each action. Reverse-engineering means to work backward from your goal to where you are now to help you determine which steps you need to take to reach your goal. To go back to our first example, it could look something like this:
The Reverse-Engineering Process:
To reach my goal of becoming a dentist and opening a clinic, I need to receive an education in dentistry. To do that, I need to be admitted into a dentistry school. To do that, I need to have a compelling admissions packet to submit. To do that, having a decent GPA, especially in the sciences, would help. So would writing a well-thought out and meaningful college admissions essay.
Long-term goal:
I will complete a dentistry program within 4 years of today
Aspiration: I hope to make the world a better place by providing healthcare in my own neighborhood;
Ambition: I want to enter a career in dentistry and be a business owner someday.
Short-term goals that support my long-term goal:
Raise my GPA from 2.0 to 2.5 by the end of this semester;
Finalize my first college essay within 30 days.
Actions that will support my short-term goals:
Prepare the best college admissions submission I am capable of producing (by x date). Get the application reviewed by a counselor (by y date);
Complete one extra credit assignment in Science class (by x date).
Research and write down the specific admissions process at each of my three college choices (by x date);
Visit each college and/or have a virtual appointment with an admissions representative (by x date).
Step 3: Write Strong Goal Statements That Are Easy To Understand And Act On
A goal statement is your basic starting point for planning how and when you’re going to achieve your goal. It defines the result you hope to produce as well as the purpose, outcome or activities that must be accomplished.
Use this simple goal-setting template to help you write effective and strong goals: My Two Goals.
Writing SMART goals can also help you achieve your goals effectively, realistically and on-time. SMART is an acronym for goals that are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-bound.
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Example of a SMART goal:
I will ask my science teacher for extra credit assignments to help raise my GPA from 2.0 to 2.5 by the end of this semester (8 weeks from now).
Step 4: Commit To An Accountability Plan For Your Goals
Accountability is a great way to make sure you stay on track to achieve your goals. Depending on the type of goal you have (some are absolutely okay to keep private), you can invite a friend or mentor to hold you accountable to the goal. This might look like them checking in with you once a week on your progress or pointing out to you when you are doing something that is counter-productive to achieving your goal.
If the goal is private, you can check-in with yourself on a weekly basis on how your progress is going.
Sometimes our goals change or we encounter obstacles we didn’t anticipate when we originally set the goal. That’s okay! You can use these check-ins with your goal buddy or with yourself to reevaluate your plan.
Rewards and Consequences
It may be helpful to build some rewards and consequences into your goal-setting process. The rewards you choose can vary depending on what motivates you and what resources you have available. For example: If you’ve just crossed everything off your goal to-do list for the day or week, you could reward yourself by taking a 45-minute break to watch the newest episode of your favorite show. If you just reached a goal you’ve spent months or years working toward, maybe amp up the reward a bit by going out with friends to celebrate, taking a few days off from working toward other goals, or buying yourself the new pair of shoes you’ve had your eye on.
Consequences can equally vary depending on what motivates you and/or can be the direct contrast of your rewards. Didn’t do your goal work this week? The consequence could be that your favorite show will have to wait until next week.
Share your rewards and consequences with your accountability partner. The system won’t work unless you enforce it!
WATCH
Interested in the idea of accountability partners but not sure who to approach or how to initiate the conversation? Michael Tabirade shares his process in this 10-minute video.
Step 5: Revise Your Goals To Ensure Success And Check In With Yourself
Goals change based on the feedback you receive on the journey toward reaching them. Sometimes life throws us a curveball and something else becomes more important than the goal– like taking care of a loved one. Sometimes we change and the goal is no longer important or relevant to who we are and what we want out of life. And sometimes we realize we need to adjust our timeframe for completing the goal based on the obstacles and wins we’ve already achieved along the journey.
Give yourself permission to edit, revise, change or set a new goal based on periodic check-ins with yourself and your supporters on how the goal is going. Remember, your goal is your own– you may change it to fit your own needs, aspirations and dreams at any time.
READ: Switching Goals: When, Why And How To Do It
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Step 6: Celebrate Your Accomplishments
It’s all too easy for us to achieve a goal only to start right in on the next goal. Be sure to take some time to acknowledge your accomplishments! You just dedicated days, weeks, months or even years to achieving something and you did it! Celebrate by telling someone who will be happy for you. Get pizza with your friends. Take a break. Treat yourself to something you’ve been wanting. Celebrate the large and the small wins.
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Embracing and celebrating near wins can actually help motivate and propel us forward.
READ: How To Celebrate Small Wins To Achieve Big Goals, https://bit.ly/celebratesmall.
Step 7: Set The Next Goal
Keep up the momentum and repeat the steps to work toward your next goal! For more detailed information on goal setting and activities to help you write and achieve your goals, read the Goal Setting chapter of the Student Success textbook (link pending).
STAY MOTIVATED, GET CONFIDENT, WITH THESE EXTRA RESOURCES
WATCH
Don’t Be Afraid to Fail Big, To Dream Big– watch Denzel Washington’s 2015 commencement address to Dillard University.
Our body language informs how people think about us but it can also affect how we think about ourselves and our goals. Watch to learn how your posture can increase your confidence.
How Can I Set And Achieve My Goals? by Iman Moore and Dyana Valentine is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Thumbnail Image by Markus Winkler via Unsplash